Surely as predicted the winds shifted during the night and were blowing from the West/ North West at about 10 knots. We were up before light getting the boat ready to go and some coffee made. Scott pulled up the anchor and I gave the helm a good dose of boost as soon as she was up to keep us off the lee shore of Rodriquez Key. All went smoothly and I pointed Light Reach's bow back toward Hawk Channel. The new chart plotter has been working beautifully and combined with our previous tracks from the Ipad as confirmation, the navigation has been fabulous.
With the wind today we pulled out the jib and motor sailed exceeding 6 knots much of the way. For us that is like highway speed. Just as we found on past trips the pots started to increase in density the closer we got to Marathon. They were the primary reason we didn't raise the main and kill the engine. It's easier to maneuver around the pots without having to mess with the main. As you come down the Keys the channel bends around to a point when you are mostly heading West and not south. What started the day as a beam reach turned into a close haul. There were two other sailboats behind us and several power boats out and about. The new chartplotter gives us an estimated time of arrival on the screen. That is kind of a curse and blessing as it makes me feel like we will never arrive. LOL Marathon is a long key and Boot Key Harbor is at the west end of it. Marathon comes into sight long before you can make the turn up toward 7 mile bridge. And once the turn is made there is still another 4 nm to traverse before you can turn into the harbor channel. One of the boats behind us had ducked off somewhere along the way and the second one caught up to us after we pulled in the jib. They said Hello as they passed us leaving us in their wake. Sue and Roger had turned on their AIS unit and could see us heading in and how fast we were going. Very cool.
The tide was low as we came in the harbor so we carefully picked our way through. I hailed the City Marina in hopes that there might be a mooring available but no all were taken. We would have to anchor, the question now was where. The anchorage was crowded and choice spots were pretty much taken. We decided to drop the hook between a couple of catamarans closer than we or I am sure they would like. It took us 4 drops of the hook before we were satisfied with the way the boat was swinging in relation to the other vessels. We wanted to get in a registered and on the wait list before the Marina closed. Once we were satisfied we were not drifting we dropped the dingy, loaded on the motor and the hound and headed in. It will be a long ride to the dingy dock from the point where we are anchored. We did get there in time to sign up on the waitlist for a ball and pay our fees to use the facilities while we wait. We had both been hoping to take a shower but in our rush to get there before closing time we didn't want to waste time packing a shower bag. Stinky for another day.
We ran into Karen from Otter II on our way up the ramp and said some quick hello's and then it was off to registered and walk India. They were having Taco Thursday at the Tiki Hut and Karen insisted we get a taco. We'll have to get back into the routine of the BKH community! I did get a taco which I shared with Scott and while quite salty it served as our evening meal.
After getting back to the boat and settling her in a bit we were exhausted. It was an early night for us with plenty left to do in the morning. We ran out of water on the way down so that will have to be a priority in the morning, along with showers. No one should stand downwind of LR tonight!
The picture was taken as we made our approach to No Name Harbor the other day, you can see the Miami skyline in the background.