Little Shark River to Key West Florida

Tuesday 1/9/2018
Depart: Little Shark River anchorage 7:45
Arrive: Key West Bight Marina 3:10
Distance: 86 NM

We planned for a long day on the water today, so to get an early start, we set the alarm for 7:00. The first thing I did upon waking was check my thermometer which read 70 degrees. Yay! We could switch our mode of dress from long pants and coats to t-shirts and shorts!

Getting up this early meant we earned another sunrise!

Sunrise at Little Shark River,
Everglades, Florida

With no breeze, the air felt muggy as we pulled up anchor. Those conditions are prime for mosquitoes to make a feast of any living thing in the neighborhood. I could not wait to get underway.

As we entered the Gulf of Mexico, I could not believe my eyes. I have never seen any body of water as flat as the Gulf today. We truly had no breeze and consequently no waves.

Calm waters on the Gulf of Mexico

I turned to Clark and said, "I can't believe how flat the water is! I've never seen anything like it."
Clark: "That's why I chose today for the trip."
Me: "Honestly!? You're taking credit for the calm waters?"
Clark with a smirk: "Why not? Trump would!"
I could only laugh.

You know it is a boring day on the water when the crab traps make the trip interesting. Today we saw tons of singleton traps as well as twins and even triplets! One cluster of black trap markers made the site look like a mine field. How very exciting!

Crab trap marker "Twins" on flat water of the
Gulf of Mexico. Clark called them "Molly and Grace"
in honor of our twin grandnieces.
(The churned up water is from our wake! Otherwise, not a ripple.)

Crab Trap Triplets

As we made our way through the never-ending crab traps, Clark noticed on the chart that a particular section of water we traveled through was marked as a Danger Zone due to potential un-exploded mines in the area. He looked at me and said, "If there are mines here, why do they put down traps?" I had no answer except to say, "Kaboom!" as I pictured exploding crab traps in my mind.

After more than seven hours of dodging traps, we were more than ready to see Key West come into view.

Ah! Civilization!

Entering Key West area!

We originally planned to stay in Key West for two nights and thought of taking a side trip on Sunset Delight to Dry Tortuga; however, after he checked the marine weather report, Clark put a nix to that plan and decided we should stay in Key West for three nights instead. Because we booked our stay for two nights, we were assigned a slip, but when he changed our stay to three nights, they had us move to a side-tie dock.

We had already secured our lines and settled in for our stay before Clark checked in and found we would need to move the boat to stay longer than two nights. The dock master said we could move tonight or in the morning. We decided to get the "pain" over with immediately.

Before moving we walked over to the newly-assigned space to check it out. On our way we walked past an historic sailboat.

Schooner named Hindu
Designed in 1925, Sailed under name Hindu starting in 1938

We checked out the new space, and after talking to the dock master for clarification on the desired placement for our vessel, we walked back to our boat to drop the lines and start our engines. I had noticed the damaged condition of a few poles when we tied up, but Clark had not seen them until we went to pull in our lines to move.

Guessing this is Irma damage since each of three pilings
at this slip had half the piling missing and a damaged cap.

After a full day on the water plus the little jaunt to move the boat, the last thing I wanted to think about was cooking dinner. We strolled the boardwalk by the marina, checked the menu of three different restaurants, and decided to eat at the Waterfront Brewery.

I wish I had taken a picture of my plate when my meal was delivered. I ordered "Joe's Ribs" from the menu. My meal came with fries, onion rings, and coleslaw. The plate held enough food for at least two people. When the waitress put the plate down, my eyes bugged out and I said, "Wow! That's a lot of food!" "Yes", she replied, "They never leave enough room for anyone to have dessert."

Other than the pork ribs that Clark cannot eat due to allergies, he polished off my onion rings, coleslaw and half the fries. Of course, that was in addition to eating his own meal. I managed to eat all but two of the ribs and the other half of the fries.

The in-training waiter came to take away our dishes and saw Clark eating the fries (I had moved them to a separate plate). Although my two uneaten ribs lay underneath a stack of gnawed bones, I practically had to force the waiter to take the plate away. He was convinced that Clark would want to finish them too. It took me  telling him three times to remove the plate before I convinced him to make it go away.

With all the docking, re-docking, and dining, I have no idea how Clark managed to find time to grab today's sunset picture, but he did it.

Sunset in Key West, Florida