Florida's Beaches

After Spending a few days in Sarasota while we visited the Ringling Brothers circus museum and their private home we set sails to Mayer’s beach and entered into the long channel to Naples. We spend the first night at a very nice anchorage in the middle of gorgeous houses. For two nights after that we stayed at the City Dock Marina which was the first Marina since we left Yankeetown 16 days ago. We are rather proud of ourselves to have managed without the help of running water, electricity, Laundromats and “real” showers. We have tested all our equipment and are really happy that we can produce everything we need to have the boat running AND feel very comfortable with a hot shower and fresh water every day. Naples is a very nice place and we enjoyed to see all the nice shops again. Missing the “real” world a little since we left Chicago.
We made up for it the next day when we stayed at another national park at Panther Pass in the Ten Thousand Islands in the Everglades. We have seen lots of Manatees and Dolphins all along the way, some sea turtles, alligators and lots of bird life. Nature here in Florida is truly remarkable.
With some not so favorable winds we set off to Key West in an overnight sail. Chris took the fist shift till midnight and I was on from midnight till four in the morning. In my first hour of watch I ran over a crab trap which did not pop up after I ran over it. Great stuff, having a two inch nylon robe wrapped around the propeller while we are under engine power (no winds at all to sail). Slightly confused, after being rudely woken up; Chris got up and tried to “see” the crab trap under water in the night – right?! In the water he goes – quite dark and spooky – and I can see already the sharks trying to have a little midnight snack… But he got the trap off – he went back to bed and on our way we were again. The next three hours I had my eyes glued to the water (which was VERY dark) and Chris did not have to go for another swim. I am sure he was very glad about that.

We arrived in Key West after about 18 hours a little tired and the Jackie Dog was very happy to have land under her four legs. We changed our anchorage in the Keys a second time because the weather is quite windy here and we are bouncing like crazy. Well, at least we grow stomach mussels that help to stay upright on the boat.
We have walked around Key West every day did a little shopping and went out for dinner a few times. The two mile dinghy ride to town is quite interesting in those high winds and waves. There is normally not a single layer of dry cloth on us when we are back on Lucky Star.
Key West is a very dog friendly town, we can bring Jackie to all the stores and restaurants and she even gets her own chair and water dish where ever we go. She likes it and we feel better about being able to take her with us. It is getting quite hot here and leaving the dog during the day on the boat is not an option anymore.
The weather is supposed to be better after the 14th so we can continue our sail west to the Dry Tortugas. This will be another overnight sail of about 70 miles. The entire Dry Tortugas are National Park, there is no store, water or anything else but nature. We are looking forward to blue water and pristine beaches. Regulations have it that we can only stay there for two weeks at a time.