Day 5 of my Keys adventure was a long day on Friday. What started out as a leisurely sail from Key Largo to Key Biscayne ended up as a race to get home. I was planning to spend the night at Key Biscayne and then have an easy downhill half day run to Fort Lauderdale on Saturday. Halfway to Key Biscayne, a possibility of a gig on Saturday morning and money compelled me to make for home. This would involve sailing solo at night, something I wouldn’t do anywhere else but a Miami to Fort Lauderdale run at this point. I am new at sailing. I have made this run lots of times in power boats both day and night and a few times sailing in the daytime. So the decision was made to head for home. When in the ocean I like to let folks know of my progress for safety. Updates on the hour typically via text.
Sending updates to my guardian angels, wife April and brother Dave, I made my way from the relative safety of Biscayne Bay through Stiltsville to the Atlantic. With the sun setting over Miami in the ocean, the wind was wonky, nearly directly behind me so it was slow going (it’s difficult to sail directly with the wind), about 3 knots. It was already about 6pm and Fort Lauderdale isn’t that far – 20 something miles plus making my way home to the dock at 3 knots would have put me in my slip about 3am with a possible 10am charter. I don’t like to run the engine if I don’t have to but I did motor-sail and make about 5-6 knots and made it to Port Everglades about 10:30pm. Part of my progression can be seen in a series of screenshots at Google Photos. I spent the night anchored in Fort Lauderdale a mile from my slip and tied up Saturday about 9am.
BTW the charter never did happen! LOL oh well getting homesick I wanted to get home anyway.
