spent motoring into 2-3 foot shallow seas. Not the best way to start, but we made it to Boot Key and had a good
anchorage next to the seven mile bridge. The next day called for too much wind from the wrong direction, so we stayed put and watched fishing
boats come and go, jet skis, played Scrabble, etc.
The next day we put up the mainsail and headed for Key Largo. The wind had shifted to the south and we had a
brisk sail that eventually died out and we motored into Rock Harbor at Rodriguez Island which the chart showed to
be about 10 feet deep. However, our depth guage read 4.7 when we dropped the hook. There was another, larger
sailboat anchored nearby and others headed in so we felt like they must know something. Anyway, it turned out we were at low tide and I dove down to see two feet of water under the boat and a soft, silty bottom. We were OK. By sunset, eight other cruising boats had anchored.
The next day called for a cold front to pass through and the sky was hazy. We headed out for Miami, ate lunch, it
started sprinking. In the distance we saw thunder and lightning, The Coast Guard issued a warning for severe
weather in the Dry Tortugas area, far away from us. The rain got harder. The water turned to blue from green. We pulled in the headsail. The wind increased and with it the waves. I got out the life jackets and stayed below to stay out of the rain. By this time, we were in a storm and being tossed about. Elizabeth was in the cockpit with Steve who was at the top of his game handling the rough seas and checking the radar for ships and the chartplotter for course and wind gage for direction. Elizabeth signaled that she was OK and I was strangely calm below deck. I didn't want to know the wind speed or see approaching waves. In the face of terror, you handle the matter at hand. The squall stayed with us, seeming to follow us, for an hour or more. This was no fun. The song in my head switched from "Cocomo" to the theme from "Gilligan's Island."
I later learned that the wind speed hit and surpassed 50k and the boat speed hit 9and 10k. The sky lightened, the rain stopped, and the sea calmed. Elizabeth is quite a trooper. Litha had no problem.
We were way off course and so it took several hours to reach Miami. We entered the main ship channel and anchored between Fisher Island and Virginia Key (after getting stuck in the mud), all alone, in between million dollar condos and a park with the Miami city backdrop behind us. Here's to safe harbors.
