The Journey Home has Started! Feb. 15, 2011

Today we set out at 7:40AM for North Carolina. We will take a month with planned stops at Vero Beach and Merritt Island, Fl. to visit friends and family and also St. Augustine, one of our favorite cities. We left Boot Key Harbor with some regrets that we were leaving some new found friends with whom we would have liked to have spent more good times. The morning was rather cool and the winds were from the NE and building in velocity as we left the harbor. The Keys run east to west this far down and to go east we first had to detour west for 4 miles to the high span of the new 7-mile bridge. On the west leg the winds were at our stern. But as we turned north to go under the bridge, we met 15 mph headwinds that combined with our 9 mph ground speed to give us the equivalent of a 24 mph headwind to fight. After clearing the 7-mile bridge, we turned east and faced stronger winds but also sea spray that was coming onto the bow and up to our cabin windshield. It was to be like this for the next three hours. Finally we got inside of a sound that had exposed sandbars to our north. This afforded us protection by not allowing the wind to have open water with which to build the wave height. Thankfully, we kept this protection from sound to sound for the next five hours of travel.

Along the way we encountered some playful dolphins that came within 15 feet of our bow and then swam along beside us for awhile. What a wonderful sight. As we traversed behind the Matecumbe Keys the water became very shallow due to low tide. We hit bottom twice and we were stirring a lot of sand in our wake for many miles during which we slowed some to get the stern up and the bow down.

We arrived here at 3:40 PM after traveling 55 miles today. As I write this blog edition, dark has descended on us at our anchorage in Tarpon Basin and a beautiful, almost full moon has risen. Tarpon Basin is a lagoon that is about a mile in diameter and surrounded on three sides with mangroves. The south side of the basin is part of the Key Largo shoreline of homes, RV and mobile home parks, a hotel, and several bars / restaurants. US 1 runs just the other side of the homes and restaurants. Pennekamp Coral Reef Park is across US1 here also. This is a great anchorage for weather protection but the locals don't want dinghies to come ashore anywhere. But, we are here for dinner, sleep, breakfast and plan to get back at the helm early tomorrow so this is a perfect spot for us for a night.