Life Aboard: Leaving Marathon

Well, if you waited to visit us in Marathon, you waited too long. We left Boot Key Harbor on 3-23-2012 and moved to the outside just below the 7 Mile Bridge. We had a beautiful night with lots of other boats from the harbor. It had been very windy for about 3 weeks and when it finally died down everyone wanted to leave. Some were going up the west coast of Florida, some were heading to the Bahamas, and some like us are headed up the east coast of Florida.

A last look at Boot Key Harbor. Lots of boats.

Leaving Boot Key

Looking toward Sombero Lighthouse

Sunset at 7 Mile Bridge

On 3-24-2012 we left the anchorage and headed to No Name Harbor. We left as soon as we could see the crabpots since we knew it would be a long day. We had great weather and the seas were a little bumpy, but not bad. We picked up a little from the Gulf Stream so made better time than we expected. We got to No Name Harbor near Miami at 7 pm. The trip was uneventful except we found an abandoned sailboat floating in the water. We called USCG but they already knew about it. Shay said if we'd been smart, we would have taken a gun and shot a hole in it so it would sink and not cause problems for others. Miami must have been glad for us to get back, there were fireworks in 2 different places that we could see from the boat.

Sunrise

Pictures can't capture the colors of the water.

Partially submerged sailboat.

Miami skyline

On 3-25-2012 we left No Name for Lake Worth near Palm Beach. We went out to the Gulf Stream and we were flying. The fastest we went was 10.9 kts. We were amazed. We were in water that was over 1000 feet deep. Well, we didn't have to worry about hitting bottom. We had great weather until we were almost at Lake Worth. Then it started getting very windy and bumpy. We had lots of wind and rain so instead of going into the anchorage, we drove up and down the beach to wait it out. We got anchored about 4 pm after moving once to get away from a boat that was already anchored. We settled in and had burgers on the grill. We are tired and ready for bed and its not even dark yet. We have had 2 long days and we had forgotten how tiring traveling is.