MIDORI ADVENTURES

SAILING ANYONE? COLIN? CONNOR?

We woke up this morning at anchor in Tarpon Basin, on the West side of Key Largo in Florida Bay. It was dead calm and MIDORI had swung around and was facing in the opposite direction from the night before. This is caused by the tidal current. Also explains why the anchor alarm went off in the wee hours of the morning. Captain Brian was concerned that it might be difficult to bring in the anchor because the chain rode was now underneath the boat. However, no problems with that - it was the miles of fishing line that he found tangled on the chain that was an issue!

We depart at 0820 and very shortly are in Blackwater Sound, then pass underneath the U.S. highway #1 bridge and into Jewfish Creek where the tidal current slows us down to 4.6 knots.

From Jewfish Creek we enter Barnes Sound where the water is like glass. We watch dolphins playing in the wake of a trawler coming towards us. We have many sightings of dolphins this morning and at one point, when Brian looked down beside our boat, he could see four or five dolphins swimming by underneath the water! We never get tired of seeing them. Captain Brian also took this opportunity to calibrate the wind instrument by turning the boat 360 degrees - slowly - several times. It worked! We find it difficult to "read" the wind direction and speed when we are in an enclosed cockpit.

We continue on through Little Card Sound, Card Sound, Cutter Bank and then we are in Biscayne Bay and I can see the faint Miami skyline a distance of about 25 miles away. It is noon and we are doing about 6.1 knots, so we still have four more hours to go! The wind once again is directly on our nose, so no sailing today! It's a beautiful sunny day, the water is calm and clear, there is very little boat traffic and the auto helm is working beautifully, which means we can read.

I try to phone the Coconut Grove Yacht Club to see if we can get a mooring ball, but it seems that there is no cell phone signal out in Biscayne Bay. I finally get through when we are about two hours away and they confirm availability of a mooring ball for a boat our size. This is a new place for us. We usually stay at the Dinner Key City mooring field next door, but want to try something different. Although we were hoping to use our Pelican Yacht Club membership for reciprocal purposes, they do not honour Canadian Yacht Club memberships ……meaning we won't have access to the private club bar!

When we are on the well marked channel leading into the mooring field, we receive a VHF call from Steve on LIVING WELL who has been watching for us. They returned from Bimini on Monday and are enjoying Coconut Grove and the amenities of being back on U.S. soil. They are waiting for a weather window to head down to Marathon and then carry on back up the west coast to Charlotte Harbour Boat Yard and put the boat away for the season. Because the Yacht Club does not have a dinghy dock, a shuttle service is provided 24/7. After getting hooked up to our mooring ball, catching the shuttle, checking in and having a shower, we meet up with Steve and Mary Ann and start walking and talking, walking and talking, as we make our way downtown and try to choose from many good local restaurants to have dinner. There is much to catch up on - as we parted company in Marathon almost eight weeks ago. It is so good to see them again!

Next destination Bimini.
Stay tuned,

First Mate Lynn