Day 129, Year 10: Crab Pots and Lumpy Seas
Date: Monday, February 16, 2015
Weather: Sunny, Winds SE to ESE 10-20
Latitude: 24 44.921 N
Longitude: 080 52.880 W
Location: Hawk Channel, 9 Miles South of Long Key Bight
I feel a bit crabby because all of the crab pot buoys have gotten to me. Avoiding those crab pot buoys and dealing with the lumpy seas that we have had since mid-day is enough to make anyone a bit crabby. At least last night’s anchorage in the Everglades was gloriously calm and the early morning was the same. But then the wind turned to the SE as expected. We were prepared for 10-15 headwinds, but what we got was much stronger. For quite a while we had 20-22 knot winds on the nose and that was not pleasant. It is now early evening and the winds are finally down to 10-15, still on the nose, but not nearly as wild as earlier today. We are bucking the winds to get back to Key Biscayne, just south of Miami, before even stronger winds come from the North. So onward we go overnight. Since the wind is on the nose, we are motor sailing. There are still a few crab pots here and there which makes us nervous about motoring, but we really have no choice. So hopefully we’ll be lucky and not catch a crab pot in the middle of the night.
As we motor sail on the south side of Long Key we are passing Sea Turtle anchored on the north side. Lee and Lynda emailed to let us know they arrived and that they are the proud owners of a new condo back in Little River. They have an agent back in Little River who has been on the lookout for a condo with a two car garage and it came up while we were in Fort Myers Beach. They learned this afternoon that their offer has been accepted. So congratulations to Lee and Lynda. We had a nice dinner aboard Sea Turtle last night and then parted ways this morning. They are taking the ‘high’ road back to Key Biscayne while we take the ‘low’ road. But we’ll meet again in the Dinner Key Marina anchoring field early next week. Safe travels to Sea Turtle. We will miss you.
