Heading Home

Friday, February 17 dawned bright and hot. We left the City Marina dock 7:30; had to stop for fuel at Marathon Marina. A lot of fishermen were also fueling so it took quite a while. Finally got under way at 8:30.

Caught this one resting and in flight as we were leaving the harbor.

The Gulf was mostly flat with no winds but we made very good time...arrived at Ligumvitae Key at 2:30 and tied to a mooring ball. There were a couple of other boats anchored nearby. The sun set was nice but not nearly as spectacular as we've seen on the Albemarle Sound. However, the evening sky was amazing, crystal clear with thousands of stars mirrored in the flat, calm water.

Saturday morning was clear with light SE breeze, hot and humid. We left Ligumvitae at 7:45 and arrived at Gilbert's Marina in Key Largo at 1:00. Forgetting this is a holiday week-end we had planned to anchor near the marina and spend a couple of nights. But the anchorage as well as the dock was full.

Since there was no place to stay we continued on toward Dinner Key thinking we'd find suitable anchorage somewhere along the way. The wind picked up so we hoisted the jib and continued on to Dinner Key (another 30 miles). With the increased speed from the wind we thought we'd make it by 7:30. But the wind dropped to nothing. We had a track on the GPS from when we were here in December so we figured we'd be able to follow it right into the mooring field. Thirteen and one-half hours after we started out we finally got here. In the dark with choppy water we had to find and tie up to a mooring ball. Let's just say this was not one of our better days. Both of us have a word to describe it; Phil thought it was an adventure, I thought it was insanity. But tomorrow is another day.