Key Biscayne, FL
25.41.693N
80.10.770W

OK, so I'm a wimp. Last evening after writing my last entry, we watched some local Lake Worth TV and weather. It appeared as if there was a change in the weather. Dale confirmed this with the marine broadcast weather and sure enough, if we stayed close to the coastline, we could transit down the coast instead of the ICW. We hurriedly secured the boat, brought the dink up on the bow, brought out our jacklines, tethers, harnesses and lifejackets, plugged in a couple of waypoints and went to bed early thinking that we would leave at 2-2:30am to allow time to transit to Miami.

Unfortunately, at about 11pm, the wind picked up and lines were slapping loud enough to get us out of bed, find the offensive noise, and silence them. About midnight it was howling enough for us to check the wind gages; 15 knots; just as it was predicted but dreadfully noisy. One-thirty am it started raining; again, up and close all of the windows. Now I'm beginning to wonder whether this was a good idea or not, considering it was a new channel to us and it was really "blowin' a hooley". About this time Dale (tired of me getting up every half hour or so) said to forget it, we'd wait until the sun came out then take a look at the sea state. So back to bed we go. This time I slept.

I woke up about 6am; not from the noise but from the silence. OK let's go! We were underway by 6:20am, along with 2 other sailboats. What a great sail. Two to four foot seas with a fairly steady 15 kts on the beam. We motorsailed at between 6 and 7.5 kts all day. Unfortunately, my hastily chosen waypoints proved to be more conservative than needed and we probably wasted an hour or more going out to the 3 mile offshore line. The other two sailboats left exactly at the same time as we did but arrived an hour or more earlier in Miami because they stayed in closer than we did. They had light to anchor by. Due to the time change and my lack of adventure, we didn't.

We were able to come into Government Cut and weave our way through the bridges and the very narrow channel into Biscayne Bay before we ran out of light. After that, we picked a likely area to anchor from the chart and slowly worked our way to it. There is another boat in closer to shore here, but I'm a little nervous as to what the morning light will show. I remember that there was a lot of controversy awhile back about where boaters could and could not anchor in South Florida. I also remember that there were fines and penalties for anchoring in sea grass. Hopefully the chart is correct and tomorrow's light will show that we are anchored in mud. At any rate, I rather half expect to be wakened during the night by the local justice merchants telling us we're in the wrong area.

This evening's weather broadcast suggested the break we're looking for to cross the Gulf Stream will come this weekend. Friday is OK but Saturday and Sunday look better. We're aiming for Saturday at the moment. Tomorrow and Friday, we'll fuel up, run by the grocery once more and maybe a quick trip to the laundry, if I can find one. Let's hope tonight will be quiet . . . and without visitors.