Underway to Key West

We left Marathon yesterday about 2pm. The engine is running well and the cushions look great in the cockpit.

Wind is about E 15. We rolled out the genny and motorsailed (charging batteries) and were making about 7 knots. We had enough time to stop at Looe Key for a short snorkel. We arrived at about the same time as some of the Boy Scout boats, including the dive schooner Conch Pearl (http://www.schoonerconchpearl.com), and Siesta, both close friends of Dave's. The visibility has finally cleared up some from all the winds last week. It was a little rough for snorkeling on the reef, but it was REALLY
good to go swimming in water you could see in.

We dropped the Looe Key mooring at about 5:30 and sailed to one of Dave's old Boy Scout anchorages, Key Louis. It is a typical Keys anchorage... behind a mangrove island in about 6' of water. All the other Boy Scout boats went to the Palm Island anchorage (more scenic and a little more protected), so we had the anchorage to ourselves. Miles from nowhere...

Our plan is to get up early and get underway by 0730, and get into Key West by about 10:30, so I can get off in the car by about noon. Dave wants to get me on the road to Melbourne as soon as possible, as I have several stops to make for him on the way up. :)

The weather forecast continues to show decent East winds for the next 5-10 days. So we are thinking to get underway towards Belize on Monday. We are still discussing whether to stop at Dry Tortugas or not. We can probably afford a day or two stop time-wise but it would be foolish to gamble that the weather will stay benign forever. We'll assess the weather situation when I get back from Melbourne on Sunday afternoon...

We are literally a couple of miles from the nearest habitation, so I haven't even tried the wifi. This is going out via HF. (yay Winlink!)