Boot Key/Marathon to Key West

The anchor held through the night.  However, as we started to recover our anchor, we discovered the motor yacht anchored next to us was sitting immediately above the last 20 foot of our chain and our anchor.  Fortunately, they were awake and it was decided the motor yacht would use her windlass to shorten the scope on their anchor which moved the boat forward enough to allow us to recover ours. This worked out well. As we began to make our way out of the harbor, we saw BoatUS attempting to pull another sailboat off a bar and heard the skipper yelling at us to stop before we too ran aground. Dwayne took the wheel from Carla and threw Foreign Affair into reverse.  We backed out into about 8 foot of water and requested the BoatUS skipper to provide us with guidance on how to get out of the harbor.  His advice was go slow and touch the Greens as you leave.  We followed his advice and finally left Boot Key behind with a sigh of relief.  This place is a real "honey pot" for the tow service.

Bob on watch for lobster pots

Our trip to Key West started out much as the previous day ended.  Winds were from the north in the high teens and low 20s.  We set the genoa and motored south.  We caught some spray but not as bad as the previous day.  However, we encounter more lobster pots and often had to keep careful watch so as not to run one over and get our propeller fouled.  The lobster pots were not as thick as crab pots on the Chesapeake; however, they were still a nuisance.

We began our turn west following the shipping channel into Key West.  One cruise ship was docked and another which left port a few hours earlier could still be seen on the horizon.  We followed the channel around Fleming Key to take a mooring ball in the Key West Garrison Bight Mooring Field. With a little help from some other sailors already moored, we found a ball at the western-most edge of the mooring field and farthest distance from the harbor dinghy dock.  As soon as we were secure on the ball, we gathered our shower gear and launched the dinghy to have some fun ashore.

After our showers, we headed to Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville for dinner and drinks to celebrate our arrival at Key West.  The band played mostly tunes from the 60s and 70s.  The place was crowded with people in their 50s and 60s.  Duval Street was full of people as it was a weekend and there was a cruise ship in town.  After dinner we strolled down Duval Street and got some ice cream for desert.

Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville

Celebrating our arrival in Key West

Our dinghy ride back to the boat was another adventure.  The wind was still blowing in our face on the way back and the waves frequently sprayed us despite efforts to avoid being sprayed.  Finding our boat in the dark also proved to be more challenging than anticipated.  We probably spent an additional 30 minutes zig zagging back and forth before finding Foreign Affair.  In the future, we will use the charting app on our cell phone to create a track to follow back to the boat.  We all took showers again on-board to wash off the salt spray from our wet dinghy ride.  Thank goodness the shower still had hot water.