Happy Easter. We woke to a light wind from the northeast, although the NOAA weather calls for 15 to 20 on Biscayne Bay and small craft advisory offshore. I pull up the anchor and required a little help as the anchor was dug into the sand / clay like mixture. I had Beth put the boat in gear to break the anchor free. (I guess we weren’t going anywhere.) I washed the chain as it came up before stowing it in the anchor locker.
After making the turn south through the Rickenbacker Causeway, we put up the sails. Instead of the 15 to 20, it is more like 8 to 12 with some 15 knot gusts. We are cruising along at around 5 to 5.5 knots, but do hit 6.2 in some of the gusts. The winds are on our stern at about 150 degrees. Our boat works well on a beam reach, but we are sailing and not motoring. We cruise through the turquoise waters of Biscayne Bay, and head for Key Largo. Only when we are in Buttonwood Sound do the winds start to increase to 12 to 15 knots. We had doused the sails after going through Card Sound, but I put up the jib and motor sailed through Buttonwood Sound. We hit Jewfish Creek, a narrow cut between Buttonwood and Blackwater Sound, and there are several boats fishing and traversing the cut. We see a large motor yacht speeding through the cut slowing down to avoid us and another boat that had just passed. They threw a 4 foot wake, and I hate to think of the several boats that were fishing with their families that they would encounter as they recklessly sped through this cut.
We pass Gilbert’s, where we got gas when we here 3 years ago. There is a huge Tiki Bar, and the place is crowded. We locate the same anchorage where we dropped the hook 3 years ago, although the shoreline has changed. There is a campground and some newer homes. There is another sailboat, and a bigger motor yacht joins us in the anchorage. We have pasta and spinach for dinner, and watch the sun disappear into the clouds in the west, barely peeking out before finally setting.
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