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Published: March 26th 2010
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March 24 Day 17 Marathon to Little Shark River Traveled 46 miles
It’s time to head north. The winds are out of the east so it looks like we have a window to cross Florida Bay and go up the west coast of Florida. We had the sails up and pushing us at 6 mph towards our destination by 8:30 AM. Within 2 hours we were out of sight of land. I hope our navigation skills with the gps gets us to where we want to go. We were able to hoist the genniker in the afternoon and keep it up for about 3 hours. It got a little breezy as we passed Cape Sable on the SW corner of Florida. We were at our anchorage at Little Shark River in Everglades National Park by 4:30 PM . A couple of Red Stripes (Jamaican beer) and hamburgers on the grill and 2 happy sailors were ready for the sack. The only problem was the blood thirsty mosquitoes. Out came the screens and after swatting those in the boat we hit the hay. Another great day ont the water behind us.
March 25 Day 18 Little Shark River to
Twin Headsails
This is the sail combination we used to sail downwind for 5 hours. Goodland, FL 58 miles traveled
Wayne actually was awake before Rick this morning. It must be the anticipation of the longest leg of the trip today. It’s about 60 miles to Goodland, our next destination. The trip had a hitch in it before we lifted the anchor. Our anchor line was stuck on something that wouldn’t move. Probably a big old log. Fortunately we had attached a retrieval line to the anchor before we dropped it. We were able to us this line to pull up the anchor and detach it from the chain and anchor line. We were able to use the boat engine to pull the line off what ever was holding it. So we got all our ground tackle back on the boat.
Winds were 5-10 mph out of the SE so we sailed all the way to Goodland channel. Most of the trip was made under twin head sails, gennicker and jib. Lena, the auto pilot did most of the steering so Rick and Wayne could relax and enjoy the sights. Water, water everywhere, no land in sight. We finally made it to the Goodland Channel, or at least we thought we did. We
Wayne's Star Fish
Caught with the anchor. took the right channel and should have taken the left. We went a mile before we realized the error so turned around. We were guided into our anchorage by a pod of dolphins. A beautiful sunset, a couple of Red Stripes, grilled pork chops for dinner and life is great.
March 26 Day 19 Goodland to Naples, FL 20 miles traveled
Our plan was to travel an inside passage for 10 miles, then go out and sail in the Gulf of Mexico to Ft. Myers Beach, About a 45 mile trip. The weather changed our plans. It started out very foggy so we pulled into a dock at a restaurant in Goodland and had breakfast. An hour later we were on our way again. At Marco Island, where we were to go out into the Gulf, it started raining and the weather became blustery. We decided to stay on the inside passage to the next outlet to the Gulf at Naples. By the time we got to Naples we figured there wasn’t enough time to sail to Ft. Myers Beach so took a slip at the City Dock. We will see what Naples, another wealthy community in
Florida, is like.
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