This morning we spent a couple hours checking all the weather forecasts for crossing to the Bahamas. Windfinder.com and PredictWind.com looked pretty good for tonight (Sunday), Monday and Tuesday. But... One of the most revered forcasters, Chris Parker, gave the next couple days poor marks because of "inclement weather" including thunderstorms and seas in the 4-7' range. He mentioned a few short windows but nothing that would let us get to protected anchorages or marinas in Chub Key or Nassau.
If we were going this afternoon or tonight, we should stay at our Rodriquez anchorage and leave from there. If not, we should sail up to Anglefish Creek and cross into Card Sound for a more protected anchorage. After 2 hours, we couldn't decide. One of the problems was Chris Parker doesn't work on Sundays so the latest forecast from him was Saturday afternoon.
We finally decided to not go (we were in no hurry and didn't want to get caught in a big squall) and head up to Anglefish Creek. Turns out we left a little late to make it there before low tide at 3:30pm so, after a nice motor-sail for 21 miles, we dropped anchor in the Hawk Channel just south of the Anglefish Creek entrance. In hindsight, I probably anchored a little close to the entrance because we were rocked all afternoon by the powerboats coming in and out of the creek. We only need about 1/2 foot of tide to make it though the ocean side channel without hitting bottom so have to wait until almost 5:30pm to enter.
Since we had 3 hours to kill, I broke out my guitar and played for awhile to try and build back up my finger calluses which had gone away in the past few weeks from not playing enough. It was fun playing in the cockpit with the beautiful scenery of the ocean-side of Key Largo.
By 5:15pm the tide was up enough for us to make it through the creek with no problems. In fact, if I could follow this same track next time, we could have made it at low tide with about 1/2 foot to spare.
We motored to the SE corner of Card Sound and anchored just before dark. It was a beautiful sunset that we watched motoring the last couple miles. Laura had been baking ribs in the oven for the past couple hours and, after we anchored and put the boat to bed, I threw them on the BBQ grill for a couple minutes. They were yummy.
Day 2 - 27nm, 72nm since Marathon
Monday, January 27th
We were up this morning early to listen to Chris Parker's forecast. It seems that there are several small weather systems (impulses) ridding a front across Florida and the western Bahamas which makes the next few days a little unpredictable but there will be storms and squalls with winds into the 30s. The long range forecast shows better weather early next week so we might need to hang here for another 6-7 days before crossing. No problem as we are pretty well stocked. Only issue might be fresh veggies that we can maybe get at Key Biscayne in a couple days. It would only take us 6-7 hours to sail there with good winds.
We had blown out a zipper on our canvas the past few days so we took it down and I helped Laura replace it. Here she is working in the cockpit taking off the old zipper.
The weather has been very comfortable for us with warm days and cool nights. Saturday night surprised us with temps down in the 50s. When I woke up at 5am I closed all the windows and pulled a second blanked on the bed. Today is a little cloudy and we see storms going north and south of us on the Internet. But, it's mid-70s and comfortable with open windows on the boat.
We'll be moving the boat around a few anchorages here for protection from the winds coming from different directions. Next decision is when to move from this little corner which is protected from the east to south. This afternoon winds are supposed to clock to west and north so we'll probably move to Little Card Sound and anchor near the north side.
Subdued but retty sunset tonight. Very calm here.
Day 3 - Didn't move the boat today.
Tuesday, January 28th
We both slept well last night with the boat rock-solid at this anchorage. No wind to speak of and it was cool, but not cold, in the boat.
After I got up, I checked the weather forecasts and it looked very nice for the next few days. There were still two "impulses" that Chris Parker had described heading our way - one tomorrow (Wednesday) and one Saturday. After that, everything is supposed to calm down to more normal weather patterns.
I had been reading the ActiveCaptain reviews on our charts about Hurricane Harbor in Key Biscayne and it seemed pretty nice. Back in 1994 I had anchored my trawler there and remembered it being very nice. We decided to haul up our anchor and move the 25 (or so) miles to Key Biscayne and check it out.
We arrived around 1pm and crossed the shallow entrance into the harbor. It is almost fully enclosed with huge mansions all around. After slowly motoring around the harbor we anchored in the middle of the biggest part and set our anchor alarm. Here is our view off the bow. I thought this would be a popular anchorage but we were all alone. How nice! But, a few hours later, there were 4 other boats anchored but nobody too close so I was happy.
Our main purpose for anchoring here is so we have (somewhat limited) access to a grocery store and maybe walk around the state park on the island. If we finally get a window to the Bahamas next Monday, that will be 10 days since our last fresh veggies. But, after anchoring here, neither Laura nor I wanted to drop the dinghy and put the motor on. Instead we decided to leave that for tomorrow and just relaxed on the boat (for our 4th day).
Laura got this picture of the sunset behind this tiny house.
Day 4 - Another 27 miles, 99 miles total
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