Friday afternoon, 6 March about 1330 we began untying dock lines to begin the process of sailing back to the Keys. Our slip at Burnt Store was in the very back of the marina so there was little wind or current but the location of the pilings and the finger pier made it cumbersome to get all the lines off easily but we did and we moved cautiously from the slip to avoid hitting any of the manatees who called our slip their home. We moved at barely over 2 kts through the marina as we saw manatees by other piers.
Eventually we got out of the marina and tentatively sorted our way through the shoals encumbering the entrance to the marina. So almost 30 mins after untying our lines we were in open water heading right into the wind with about 12 miles to Boca Grande Pass. As we got into the channel out we got the sails open for our trip to the Keys. We quickly accelerated and shut down the engine as we moved smartly at 7-8kts. I didn't raise the staysail since I knew we would be falling off the wind as we headed south. So I took some pix and videos that hopefully will portray the rush from getting under sail.
As we sailed out of Boca Grande we were close reaching and as we cleared the shallows and began to fall off the wind got more behind us until we got on our heading of 175 to Key West where the apparent wind angle was about 140 which is pretty far behind. Initially the wind was only blowing in the low teens but on an upwind sail we could do 7-8 kts easily but as we turned our speed dropped to 5-6. But not for long as the wind began to build over 20 which it stayed up for the rest of the trip.
Our heading took us offshore and as we got further out the waves built. As night fell so did a fog shroud the hastened darkness. For the rest of the evening and overnight the level of visibility was mostly low but at times we got to see the moon and stars. The wind stayed up and I saw some gusts over 30 with the waves to match. But this made for a quick trip to the Keys.
Daylight came through cloudy skies and we were still rocking and rolling. We made it to the Key West sea buoy at 1130 which was about the best projection on our GPS in spite of a short jibe to get a better wind angle.
At one point we had a pod of dolphins playing in our wake for about 10 mins going back and forth under the boat and jumping over the bow wave.
We turned into the channel and caught the current changing so with just 2 sails up we were reaching at 8+ kts. Since the channel turned I hesitated pulling out the staysail. Had I done that we could have probably been doing 9 kts the whole way in.
In the above photo you can see Key West as we came in the channel close to 9 kts. We sailed through the channel and then came up into the Hawk Channel where we had lunch before going over to the Boca Chica Channel and into NAS Key West and our slip.
The course from where we were to the channel was dead into the wind so we pulled in the sails and motored to be sure we ran the engine enough before docking. The channel was a long but deep entrance and we found out slip quickly and backed in or our stay.
As we came up the channel several F/A 18's were warming up to take off and the sounds of freedom are definitely here. Gotta love it!
Water is very clear. Tonight I saw a shark surface as I was working out on the deck.
We got several boat chores done today before we went over to the Club for a happy hour birthday party and met some of the other cruisers here.
So after a very good 25 hour passage we're ensconced in our new accommodations for a few days or maybe more than a week. Weather doesn't look good for a passage to the Bahamas any time soon. So it will giv eus itme to get stuff done and have some more fun in Key Wasted before going out to lay low in Abaco.
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