Almost Time
28 December 2018
We are getting the boat ready for departure and if all goes well we should be leaving sometime around the second week of January. Current plans are to anchor in the Manatee River, off Emerson Point, overnight the 1st night. Yes, it is a really far trip, but we think we can make it in at least 10 minutes to the anchorage. The idea behind that is we are currently experiencing the negative winter tides and every morning we are thinking of leaving it is something like a -0.6 to -0.8, which means WS will be on the bottom for a short period of time. Thoughts are to leave from the Manatee anchorage at daybreak and head for the Little Shark River, which is an overnight-er for us. Last year we left from Egmont Key and made it to Port Charlotte just before dark. So far the forecast shows winds that are not good for anchoring off Egmont during the time we are thinking of leaving. Leaving from the Manatee adds on an hour or two, depending on wind and current, which most likely would get us into Port Charlotte long after dark. While the channel is wide and easily doable in the dark, it's long and just not worth the stop at that point, esp. if the current is against you going in (or out for that matter). From the Little Shark (hopefully it is not buggy!) we will head to Marathon and hopefully get a weather window to cross to the Bahamas soon after. Right now forecasts are showing N winds for quite a while after we leave, great for pushing us South into the Keys, not good for crossing into the Bahamas. We will just have to wait and see - could be worse things than sitting in the Florida Keys for a bit in January! Oh, no pictures yet - that's just the little bird that hitched a ride with us for a little bit on last year's trip, just testing this blog stuff out...