1/30/2017
As typical with anchoring overnight, Clark was up multiple times during the night to check on things. The anchor alarm sounded twice meaning we changed position sufficiently to drift out of the pre-defined comfort zone. Movement is expected anywhere with tidal change as the boat shifts position when the current changes direction. He verified we were still good and returned to bed.
Whether due to his night prowling or the cool temperatures outside the bed covers, Clark seemed in no hurry to get up and get going this morning. He finally got up around 0900. Then he tinkered with this and with that until I thought we would never get underway!
Part of Clark's tinkering included studying our amp hour usage. We had used somewhere over 220 hours out of the 400 or so available to consume. Clark decided to run the generator for a while to charge the house battery bank before starting our trip for the day to ensure a full charge for tonight's anchorage.
We finally departed our anchorage at Factory Bay near Marco Island at 1100 headed for the Everglades about 40 nm away. With our first time at anchor in this boat proving to be a success, we gained confidence in our plan to anchor two more times before arriving at Marathon.
With a small- craft advisory in place today, we did not have any company on the water as we headed out to the open waters of the Gulf. We had a little "rock and roll" as we left the anchorage, but OMG, the swells when we got to the Gulf waters! They appeared to be 6 footers at least!
Sunset Delight has stabilizers to control side- to- side movement but nothing to control bow- to- stern rocking. I am not as comfortable with the stairs to the flybridge on this boat as I was with Sea Moss. Consequently, I tried to avoid going down below as much as possible. When lunchtime arrived, I decided we should have snacks and wait for calmer waters before trying to make sandwiches.
On route, we traveled west then south then east. We had to go out, and then later come back in, to travel south in deep enough waters. Sometimes we had waves on our beam (hitting the side of the boat), and sometimes we had "following seas", i.e. seas pushing us from behind. Sunset Delight travels at 1600 RPM around 9 knots. With the following seas, while surfing on the waves, we saw as much as 10.5 kts.
Once again, our travels today included nothing to look at but water, sky, and a few clouds until we would enter a mine field of crab traps. The trip fluctuated between total boredom one minute and near panic the next. When not in panic mode, we had the boat on autopilot, so when the traps showed up, we, or truly I should say Clark, jumped into action to take over the helm.
Because of the heavy seas, the crab traps remained well- hidden behind the swells and only popped out rarely to make their presence known before we got up close to them. The good thing I can say about crab traps is that they did indeed relieve the boredom. I felt like I played some sort of game where I won a prize for every trap spotted!
We did get tricked a few times during our "spot the trap" exercise. Lots of dark seaweed floated by as well as some coconuts. The coconuts really fooled us being the same size as the trap floats and even bobbing in a similar fashion.
After passing beyond Romano Shoals, the seas calmed considerably. Later, we passed the area called Ten Thousand Islands. Looking at the chart, it is easy to see how it came by its name! The waters here became very calm and a number of dolphins romped in the waters. I was not fast enough with the camera to get a video or picture of the one who followed along beside our boat for a short distance.
I noticed that a tour boat had a number of paying customers onboard looking for dolphins. The captain of that boat wandered up and down and all around looking for dolphins. I wonder if they saw any. I think we saw more than our fair share.
We entered the Everglades via the Indian Key Pass and headed for Russell Pass to look for our anchorage. The Active Captain app shows five anchorages in Russell Pass. We chose #3. Since the ratings were all over the place in terms of holding, I hope we chose a good one.
We took a delightful sunset picture tonight from the stern of Sunset Delight, but with no WiFi and poor cell service, I decided not to post pictures tonight. I hope to have decent WiFi in Marathon in two-days' time, but the quality there will depend on the slip assignment as we have no WiFi booster onboard, so I won't know until I get there. Since where we are anchoring tomorrow is also in the Everglades and even more remote than tonight, I expect not to have any services whatsoever for my blog.
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