Sailing to the Florida Keys XII

Monday, December 12, 2011

Leaving Marco Island
Destination:  Cape Sabel
Left at 4 pm – Night Sail
65 Nautical Miles
Estimated time of arrival: 8:00 am
Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Well, we left Marco Island in the best of spirits after having been there since Friday, December 9^th.  We stayed there for almost three days because there were some bad thunder storms we were waiting to pass. 

Sailing to the Florida Keys XI

December 11, 2011
Still at Marco Island

Our next sail is going to be a night sail.  We’ve never really sailed during the night, yet, so this will be a totally new experience for us.  Before we make our next sail we need to be sure that the weather is good, since we do not want to sail during any storms.  We’ve been watching the weather forecast and there are a couple of storms coming through, beginning this afternoon.  The storms will be rain and wind soooooooo, we are going to be staying put till these are over. 

Sailing to the Florida Keys X

December 9, 2011

Leaving Ft. Myers Beach
6:30 am
Destination:  Marco Island
Sailing time:  8 hours

Well, we got out in time…hurray!!  The day began just like all the others.  In the morning when we begin to sail the winds are great…the waves aren’t bad and sailing is easy!  When we leave, I am always at the helm while Keith is putting up the sails and trimming them as we go so that we are able to get the best speed without heeling the boat too much one way or the other.  So when we begin it’s not so bad.  Once the sails are set and Keith is satisfied with our speed he takes over at the helm and I can relax the death grip I usually keep on the wheel….LOL!  No wonder I’ve got “tennis elbow”…I am sure it’s from gripping the wheel so hard.  I do try to relax my grip but, for now I am not able to.  Especially when the seas get rough and the wind is blowing hard.  I hold on for dear life and also because I need to keep the boat from swinging around when the winds want to take it! 

Sailing to the Florida Keys XI

December 8, 2011

Still at Moss Marina
Ft. Myers Beach

Since we had had such a terrible night last night and the weather predicted for today was for more rain, we decided to go ahead and stay put here another day.  Staying another day would be good for more rest and for more sight seeing, which is exactly what we did.  We took it easy and enjoyed Ft. Myers.    Tomorrow is another day we will be going to bed early today so that we can get up by 5:30 am and leave by 6:30 am. 

Hopefully tomorrow will be a nice sailing day with the wind on our backs and the sun shining on our face.

Good night!  But do stay with us…as we seek New Horizons!!

El

Sailing to the Florida Keys VIII

December 7, 2011

Leaving Matanza Inn Mooring Field
Destination:  Moss Marina

Today we got up early, well, not that early..! LOL!  But, it was before 10 am so that was early for us!  J We got up early because we wanted to get into Moss Marina, docked and plugged into their electrical tower to get these batteries charged up!! 

Sailing to the Florida Keys VII

December 6, 2011

Leaving St. James City
Destination:  Ft. Myers Beach

This morning we took our time getting ready to head out to Ft. Myers Beach.  We weren’t in too much of a hurry because it wasn’t going to be a long sail.  We had estimated that it would take us roughly 3-4 hours to travel the 10 nautical miles to Ft. Myers Beach.

Sailing to the Florida Keys VI

December 5, 2011

Leaving Punta Blanca Island, Cayo Costa
Boca Grande
Destination:  St. James City

Yay!  We were able to sleep in this morning before beginning our sail to St. James City.  Today’s estimated nautical mileage was 16 miles.  We left at 11 am instead of 10 am like we’d planned but that didn’t affect us since we were not able to sail most of the way.  We had to motor sail because the winds were not favoring us! L Plus we had to go through some pretty tight channels.