Destination Achieved

Today about 1600 we pulled into Harbour Cay Club on Marathon which completes our first destination. We left Oxford, MD about 7 weeks ago and despite some setbacks along the way we made it more than 1300 miles on this our first adventure in our new boat. We have lots of work to accomplish here before we head off in about a month.

This is looking across from our slip to one of the Fanny Keys with it's owners home.

We had a great sail today after a wonderful evening last night anchored off Key Largo. Getting into our anchorage was challenging because the water was shallow and so we were limited in how close to shore we could anchor. Of course having 30 kt winds blowing us off in the dark made it more exciting. But, after wishing we were back in Miami we got the anchor hooked and it was all uphill from there. Linda made a great dinner that we enjoyed in the cockpit. Despite the cold front that came through it was still in the low 70's at dinner time headed down to the 50's. Then just as we finished we got a phone call from the HHSA Banquet. Thanks for all the well wishes from everyone and you can follow us on this blog.

The night turned out very peaceful. The wind continued blowing in the high teens with gusts over 20 but the boat floated and gently rocked as the anchor held us in place. We thought we might need to sit up to keep an anchor watch, but I watched Saturday Night Live and checked everything and all was well so I joined Linda who was already committed to deep sleep. The cabin stayed comfortably warm so we didn't even need any heat.

This morning had a cool but beautiful sunrise. So to get an early start (since we didn't get up early) we just hauled anchor and left doing our morning routines and breakfast underway. Wind was blowing nicely out of the north so we went to sail very quickly and shut off the engine doing a very nice 8 kts with a gentle sea. This had to be one the best sails we had in a long time. Kept it up until we had to pull in the sails to go under the Channel 5 bridge to cross into the Florida Bay.  The Marina we are in is on the north side of Marathon. Here is a view of Islamorada in the distance.

After we got back into the inside channel we pulled out the sails and sailed until the wind fell off. Here we were passing the Long Key Viaduct on the Bay side.

We motored for the last hour or so with little wind and as luck would have it the wind came up when we were a few miles from the marina and stayed up while were trying to dock.

Fortunately, all the HCC folks who were home came out to help us dock as we had wind and current to contend with as we backed into a bulkhead with boats in front of and behind and across the channel. Very interesting trying to parallel park a 45' boat with wind and current and conveniently placed pilings to avoid.

Well, we're here. Tucked away for a few weeks as we begin to get work done and visit with old and new friends with the HCC shuffleboard contest this week leading up to the Super Bowl.

Oh well,back to island life until we leave for a visit up Florida's west coast.