SAILS 1990 45 Florida Bay Coaster
Home Home
Quick Tour Quick Tour
Specifications Specs
Equipment Equipment
Stability Stability
Photos Photos
Cruising Logs Blogs
Contact Us Contact Us
 
SAILS....Cruising Blogs
Viewing category: Jay
«-Previous Page    1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   204   205   206   207   208   209   210   211   212   213   214   215   216   217   218   219   220   221   222   223   224   225   226   227   228   229   230   231   232   233   234   235   236   237   238   239   240   241   242   243   244   245   246   247   248   249   250   251     Next Page
Friday, 25 March 2022
FL to CT Day 6
Little Shark River, FL to Lignumvitae Key, FL
We left Little Shark River at approximately 0730… Wind direction had changed and was now from the Northwest and the temperature also dropped… was a bit chilly pulling the anchor this morning. I had anticipated a muddy anchor and chain, but it came up quite clean… which is nice….

We again were following FULL MOON out of the anchorage… this morning they were only 10 minutes ahead of us… After leaving the river he headed quite far offshore for some reason… We hugged the shore to get as much wind protection as we could from it… winds were NW at 15-20 knots and seas 2 to 3 feet with a few bigger rogue waves but it was a following seas and produces an entirely different ride… much more comfortable than the last couple of days pounding into the waves.

At Cabe Sable we took a 40 degree turn to follow the shoreline and the get even more wind protection from land… heading for the Florida Yacht Channel that would take us to the keys entering about Long Key area. FULL MOON left us at Cap Sable area continuing their SW path… they evidently were heading to Marathon.

I had forgotten how shallow Florida Bay is… we never saw anything over 10 feet all day… in fact most of the time we were running in 6-7 feet of water or less a few times the depth alarm sounded… it’s set to 5.5 feet.

We had not really decided where we were going to stop for the day… marina dockage is virtually nonexistent in the keys this time of year or if available so expensive we are not stopping… the max we like to pay for dockage is $2.50 per foot.. prefer the $1.00 to $1.50 per foot range… these marinas are hard to find anymore… and not it the Florida Keys for sure… cheapest I saw was $3.20 per foot and we have stayed there in the past… it’s not a fancy place and sort of run down…. SAD.

After an hour or two of browsing the available anchorage areas we came upon a state park… Lignumvitae Key. They had 5 mooring balls available and were FREE… can’t beat that. We figured when we arrived, they would be full.

We arrived at approximately 1415 and found the mooring balls… all 5 were open surprisingly… We were secure on the mooring ball for the night at approximately 1430. Our Position for the night is N24°54.619', W080°42.064'. We traveled today for 7.0 hours covering 45.81 nautical miles averaging 6.5 knots.

Posted at 3:30 PM
Thursday, 24 March 2022
FL to CT Day 5
Marco Island, FL to Little Shark River, FL
We departed from Marco Island at 0800… forecast today winds SE 10-15 knots seas 2 foot… and of course this was accurate… NOT!

The forecast did eventually become accurate about 6 hours after we left Marco… be this seas were 3 to 4 feet… SE winds 20 knots… Was not the best day.

Destination for the day Little Shark River in the Everglades National Park… The boat that we had anchored beside in Marco… FULL MOON and 49 Ft Defever from Punta Gorda… It appears they had the same destination planned as we did were anchored in Little Shark River when we arrived.

We were securely anchored for the night at approximately 1700. Our Position for the night is N25°19.653', W081°08.547'. We traveled today for 9.0 hours covering 57.14 nautical miles averaging 6.35 knots.
Posted at 6:04 PM
Wednesday, 23 March 2022
FL to CT Day 4
Fort Myers Beach, FL to Marco Island, FL
Weather today was forecast was not the best… morning would be our only window to move a bit farther south… by afternoon winds would be up to 25 kts with higher gusts… we decided to go to Marco Island approximately 30 nautical miles south of us… approximately 5 hours.

Alarm went off at 0630 about an hour before sunrise… we had pulled anchor and were underway at 0730.

Once out of Big Carlos Inlet and into the Gulf of Mexico we found it a bit rougher than what we had anticipated… seeing solid 2-3 foot waves. Winds were less than 10 knots out of the SE but the waves were coming from the SSW. As the morning progressed the winds picked up to a steady 20 knots plus with higher gusts… waves increased to 3 to 4 feet… NASTY! Thank goodness we were only going to Marco Island.

We arrived at our destination Marco Island and were secure at anchor in Factory Bay at approximately 1230. Our position tonight is N25°57.838', W081°43.445'. We traveled today for 5.0 hours covering 30.64 nautical miles averaging 6.13 knots.

Nice photo of Factory Bay at night...


Posted at 1:40 PM
«-Previous Page    1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   204   205   206   207   208   209   210   211   212   213   214   215   216   217   218   219   220   221   222   223   224   225   226   227   228   229   230   231   232   233   234   235   236   237   238   239   240   241   242   243   244   245   246   247   248   249   250   251     Next Page
Cruising Blogs
S M T W T F S
      1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Keyword Search

Archives
Posted By
Home Quick Tour Specs Equipment Stability Photos Blogs Contact Us