Islamorada

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We arrived at Lorelie's in Islamorada this past Saturday on an overcast day. No shortage of seadoos racing around having fun in the waves.

We set the anchor and hurried to shore for Happy Hour. This restaurant bar has live entertainment every day and offers a dinghy dock or beach landing. They are very boater friendly with a 24 hour market for reprovisioning a short walk from here. We had some wings and beer and watched the enthusiastic crowd dance to a fine band. It is a great place to watch the sunset but not very spectacular on this night.

Our plan was to stay here until Wednesday to take advantage of the free mobile pump out on Tuesday. The weather has altered our plan however. It is supposed to be very windy until Sunday so we will be staying put until then. The pump out boat was not able to make it due to these high winds.

We moved to Little Basin on Sunday to get away from the wind. It is just through a passage in the mangroves and still close enough to hear the music from Lorelei's. We dinghied to a beach by the library and were able to reprovision from there. It was nice and sunny and calm at the beach but the minute you leave this area the winds assault you. A resident boater stopped to let us know that Little Basin has a quick sand bottom and unless we have a big anchor and lots of chain, it is not a good place to be in high winds. We stayed put and hoped for the best. We had a nice restful night but Monday morning a big gust of wind caught the boat and spun her around breaking our anchor free. Luckily it happened while we were up. We picked up our ground tackle and moved back to the big windy bay. We found a less windy spot north of Lorelei's and are there still. The winds are supposed to increase tomorrow and the next day but they are coming off the land so not much chop.

We walked around Islamorada yesterday to have a look at the Ocean side and the big sand bar. Lots of surf kites having a great time with this wind. The island is dotted by motels, resorts, restaurants, bars and touristy shops. Very colourful. It is a very bicycle friendly place but getting our bicycles off the boat and into a dinghy in this wind is too challenging, we are walking.

We are at the public library today updating our IPads and such. We spent most of the day in the boat doing chores, reading and waiting for the pump out boat. We will now go and enjoy Happy Hour.

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