Little Shark River, Florida Everglades to Long Key

Date: Tuesday,  Dec 31, 2019                      

Arrival Time: 1615 ET                      

Location:  Long Key, Fl.

Weather:  80, mostly clear          

Sea State:  Calm

Destination Tomorrow: Sit tight!

Engine Hours:  1407                                                                        

Crew:  Ruth and Greg    

Mileage Log:  1008

View from tonight's anchorage

Comments:  During the night, the light winds made a clockwise rotation from S to N.  We were slightly exposed with the winds at 9 knots but it was more of a comforting cradle movement. By 0645, we could see but the fog was still dense enough for us to sit tight.  We cranked up the little Honda, made some coffee and oatmeal and eventually pulled up anchor at 0745.  Our heading was SW until we found deeper water, then eventually south.  By 1025, we cleared Cape Sable and were inside the Bay of Florida.  We hoisted the mainsail but that only added an insignificant .1 knots with the light winds.  We spotted Sandy Key by 1100, then the main island chain around 0130.  We made our way through many shallows and mine fields (crab/lobster traps) and through the Channel 5 bridge near 1600.  We anchored at 1615, SW of the bridge in 7 ft of water, at low tide. The entire 60 feet of chain deployed and anchor was visible below.  Funny, but we were awed by that.

Many Bahamas bound boats tend to gather around Marathon Key then move east.  We really struggled last night with what today's destination would be and chose the Channel 5 Bridge/Pass at Long Key because of the location.  This puts us 23 miles to the east of Marathon, which is a half day by boat closer to our jumping off point to the Bahamas and since we decided to bypass Key West for now, it made sense.  From here we’ll eventually move a little more east to our final launch for the Bahamas. 

Ruth saw a small shark and a small turtle today.  Tomorrow, we plan to sleep in a little, if possible, regroup, re-provision, jump in the dinghy to explore some and start looking at the weather for a possible crossing.

P.S.  It’s been very warm.  No shirt, no shoes….. no (cell) service…. Isn’t bad.  I should write those lyrics into a song.