Cruising Florida

May 3, 2007 Wednesday
When the weather got favorable, we had to tear ourselves away from Key West. We had a 42 mile run up to Marathon that was easy enough. We anchored outside the harbor rather than try to fit our 6' keel into a 5' harbor. Actually, it is probably deep enough, but we are California kids where harbors are at least 18' deep and then there is a little bit of 200' and then it drops off to 2000' deep. We don't think much about how deep it is. Not so in Florida. As we ran along the keys in Hawk Channel, a deep spot would be 20' and much of the time it was more like 12'
The next day, we left Marathon early to do the long 92 mile day up to Miami. To get there before dark, we used the sails and motor. We don't like entering strange and shallow harbors in the dark. So we were roaring along at 7.75 knots in 11' deep water. We could see the grass and sand in the crystal clear water. After a while, we got used to it. Just before sunset, we arrived at Key Biscayne, felt our way through the shoals, and anchored in a cute little harbor called "no name harbor". It is maintained by the Park Department and had a nice little restaurant with a lot of Cuban things on the menu. Given the staff (Cuban) it was no surprise. We spent an extra rest day there.
And now, we are out in the Gulf Stream heading North with 3 knots of current boosting us along. The wind is light, so the waves are mellow. I like mellow. I also like to see more than 9 knots of speed on the GPS! We are going to take a slip at the Port Canaveral Yacht Club for a few days to hang out with some flamenco friends there. We were sorry that our good friend Miguel Ochoa is having a medical crisis with his kidneys and was hospitalized when we got to Miami, so we talked to his wife, Carla, on the phone. It wasn't the visit that any of us had hoped for. Now that we are pretty convinced that we will stay on the East Coast for the next year, we are going to be looking for flamenco performance opportunities. It should be pretty easy.
Don't forget to write.