Day 168
For the first time in almost a month, Steve rousted me out of bed early for our travel day from Marlin Bay Resort & Marina to our next anchorage at Tavernier Key, which was located just southeast of the city of Tavernier, FL, right where my family and I had lived more than 58 years earlier.
Right off the bat, even though we’d just had it repaired the day before, our port generator started, but would not provide power! Fortunately, the starboard generator seemed to be operating fine, so we knew we’d at least have it when we anchored out that night, and would call yet another mechanic when we got to the next marina. The weather that beautiful Thursday could not have been nicer. Warm temps, plenty of sunshine, and only very slight breezes accompanied us for the entire day. PERFECT cruising weather! I decided to rethink my disdain for boating in the Atlantic Ocean, as conditions on this day were absolutely stellar.
As we cruised along, we – surprisingly – saw no dolphins, but did glimpse several different sea turtles paddling along. On into the morning, we were passed by the 141’ long charter yacht built in the Netherlands (gotta love Google!), named Prediction, traveling much faster than Legacy could go. In addition to multiple sailing and cruising vessels nearby us, we were also passed by a beautiful 112’ Westport charter yacht named Double Eagle, as it headed westward in Hawks Channel.
The deep, teal waters south of the Keys were breathtaking. I was disappointed that my iPhone camera just could not do them the justice they deserved. We cruised smoothly and steadily northeast, past Duck Key, Layton, Islamorada, and Plantation Keys before finally arriving at our haven for the night, just off Tavernier Key, late afternoon. We noticed that the amount of boat traffic was gradually increasing, the closer we got to the Miami area. We passed parasailing boats, jet-skis, sport-fishing boats, sailboats and cruisers enjoying this wonderful late February day off the coast of south Florida. We cruised into the shallower waters between Tavernier Key and Plantation Key, where we dropped anchor for the night. Not far from our anchorage was a large sand bar, particularly visible that time of day because it was low-tide. (It completely disappeared the next morning at high tide.) Several small boats were anchored right beside the sandbar and their crew were out walking on that sand, which made me really want to drop the dinghy and motor over to the sandbar to do the same thing. But Steve talked me out of it, since we don’t have an electric retractable motor on our dinghy like those other boats did, so we decided to enjoy adult beverages up in the flybridge, instead, to watch the beautiful sunset. Other boats were anchored nearby in our anchorage, but not too close, which is just how we like it.
Position tonight: N 25° 00.145, W 80° 30.127
Distance traveled: 60 SM
Total distance traveled: 2504 SM
Total marina nights: 146
Total nights at anchor: 21
Locks today: 0
Locks Total: 27