3/14/16         Monday            Fiesta Key, FL


Phew! Tired. We left Marathon and Boot Key Harbor at 0900 this morning. Wendy and Dan left slightly earlier (but then they were closer to the harbor entrance), we gathered Judy and Karl Stewart on Sea Lark as we passed through the "bridge to nowhere" at the entrance to the harbor. It used to go to Boot Key but was removed. Maybe it was a railroad bridge, actually. Short on details but the opening into the harbor is not comfortably wide for two boats to pass, wide enough just not comfortable. Anyway, rounding the channel markers and into the open Atlantic. Yikes! The wind had settle....a bit...and the waves were only 2' - 4', not the 6'-10' of yesterday, but still a rolling and hobby horsing kind of sea. And this is the Atlantic. Much more intimidating than the Gulf of Mexico. Thousands of miles of fetch.

Our journey was only about 28 miles today, about 4 hours of boating. But with the confused seas it was exhausting. AND, our automatic steering wasn't working so one or the other of us was actively steering through those confused waves the entire time. Amelia was not happy. Lots of guttural  meowowowrrrrr(s) from her, especially when we rounded that first channel marker. We all had to get our sea legs back. We've not been on the high seas in 6 weeks and those particular seas were pretty low. And, we'd forgot which things and how many different things have to be put away (put away? where???). Four, one gallon water jugs slid across the floor, coffee cups were caught in mid-air. but upside down. All in all, though, we did a pretty good job  and didn't loose anything or anybody overboard.

We spoke of taking a short nap after our arduous four hours on the seas (roll my eyes!) but ended up tackling a project of the automatic steering projects.

Falling asleep here. Sad to leave Marathon, new friends and the comfort of place. More tomorrow or later tonight after a nap.

Continuing....We wrestled with our autopilot which wasn't, for an hour or so after we anchored. Final results are, we think, that the old girl (about 27 yrs old!!!) has given up her starboard ghost. And, an autopilot that only turns one way is NOT a good autopilot. We'll make one more attempt when we're in a secure harbor and not traveling for a couple days but it might mean another b.o.a.t. expense...not quite "a thousand".  David dove/dived (?) on the barnacles on the prop and cleaned them off. Water was bathtub warm. Then our friends Dan & Wendy came in their dinghy for a trip to the beach

Wendy relaxing in our (their) chariot. Is it a chariot if its a dinghy?

but the beach was too far as close to sunset as we were. So, a sunset dinghy ride. They and our other buddy-boat partners, Judy and Karl, came over to Grace for a visit and planning for tomorrow. Easy. Dinner, full dinner, on board then out like a light.