We Have Left the Harbor!

Weather: We had a mixed bag of weather today. The overnight temperature was in the low 70’s and it reached the high 70’s by the late afternoon. Although wind and showers were in the forecast, we stuck to our planned departure. Since we have been In the Keys, 15+ knots of wind has been a constant. Scattered showers have been widely scattered; usually somewhere other than Marathon.

The day started with an overcast sky. Sun made an appearance before noon when it became partly sunny. By mid afternoon, we enjoyed mostly sunny skies.

The wind was out of the east northeast, generally blowing between 12 and 15 knots. At times there was considerable chop on the waterway and, although there were periods with no whitecaps, generally speaking, they were the order of the day.

Comment: The captain was not looking forward to departing Marathon. It still seems early to leave and, were we doing the Bahamas, we’d be looking forward to many more new experiences. The day was made even more melancholy when we met our south bound tracks, made on January 9, 2008, and started retracing our southerly course. We’ll be covering no new ground for the rest of this trip!

The captain was up before 0700, but let the Admiral sleep. She awoke at 0730. We had our last bowl of cereal in Boot Key Harbor, and at 0805, fired up both engines. After letting them warm up for a few minutes we slipped our lines from mooring ball L-10 at 0815. We passed through the Boot Key Harbor Bascule Bridge at 0830 and by 0840, we were outside the harbor. At exactly 0913, we passed under the Seven Mile Bridge and turned to the northeast to begin our trip home.

The motors ran well all day and the boat took the moderate chop in the Gulf in stride. At 1600 hours, we affixed our lines to a mooring ball at Lignumvitae Key and settled in for the night. Now that it’s daylight savings time, we have several more hours of sunlight. We used the time for reading, showering and watching a nifty sunset.

We have provisioned the boat with six weeks worth of food, some fresh and some canned. Were we doing the Bahamas, we’d be eating three meals aboard every day, with only occasional meals out. Since provisioning is so expensive in the Bahamas, most cruisers load up here in the States before crossing. We are not crossing (this year), but we are attempting to gain experience with what kinds of foods to take when we do go.

Tonight’s meal was La Choy Sweet and Sour Chicken with Chow Mein Noodles. It passed muster, even though neither of us are huge fans of Chinese. It is quick and easy to prepare, low in calories and tasty. We expect that these kinds of canned Chinese meals can be enjoyed once a week in the Bahamas.