Key West on the Horizon

Well we decided to skip a lot of the SW Florida I know we probably missed lots of beautiful places. Well maybe next time.  (We were plagued with the “get to Key West fast” syndrome and the perfect winds to do it).  On our way here we started out from our anchorage at Charlotte Harbor, near Punta Gorda. We weighed anchor at 9am sailed out of the pass with an East wind, which by the way is apparently the Best fishing hole in the world. There were hundreds of boats fishing the exact same spot. We were told by a FWC cop that they were Tarpon Fishing, and that there was a 18 foot Hammer Head that everyone wanted to catch because it would be record breaker. Good Luck to them all I don’t know how they can catch anything but each other in that madness.

Once out on the Gulf we sailed toward Key West at around 3 knots until about noon at which point the wind quit all together. While we were waiting on the wind to find us, we were instead swarmed by a mob of little black bugs, we were told they are called love bugs. ( A name which I believe to be accurate because I caught one humping my pinkie finger when he couldn’t find his girlfriend)  There were literally millions of them all over the boat, along with a dozen flies, one wasp and two bees. I find it funny that there were so many bugs 5 miles off shore. Where do they come from?  Anyway once the wind decided to blow it really blew, we had wind the rest of the afternoon and all night. And for a change it was some what in the right direction. We traveled with 18-20 knots of wind and then towards the end the 6’ seas that go with it. The wind was out of SE not perfect for going to Key West, but we made it work and the waves were hitting us broadside which made it a little uncomfortable. But we did good and the boat did good.

Nothing broke and only a few items fell, I guess we are finally learning to put things up better. Either that or everything is already broke and nobody cares. I’m sure we made all the hard core sailors proud and the novice sailors jealous with every stitch of canvas our boat could carry we averaged around 7.8 knots and a couple of times hitting 9.3 knots.

We arrived in Key West around noon Sunday May 23, 2010 and got to our first slip once the boat was secured I went and took a nap, all that speed wore me out.

 

A lady working in the marina told my mom that a lady had tripped over a dog at the Schooner Warf Bar and was suing. So Key West is on doggie lockdown, I’m a little bummed about that, I was hoping Sis could go everywhere with us here. Well we’ll have to see if the rumors are true.

We will keep you updated. We are planning to stay a month if anyone cares to visit. (Except Tyson, You have disappointed us for the last time so your not invited.)