We started out fresh and dry from Naples after sleeping in the air conditioned comfort afforded by our swanky dock choice and its comforting 110 volt shore power station. I was up early so I washed the boat off with fresh water between mosquito slaps… I’ve seen worse mosquito infestations but not lately.
We left the dock promptly at 7AM. At this moment we are clearing Big Marco Pass after 12.7 miles of travel. Winds were a bit higher than forecast as we left Naples, but they have now dropped off to the forecasted 7 knots true. The overcast is heavy so it’s still muggy and damp.
Jono and I have been finding little refinements on SYL this morning as we motor along. We adjusted the lazy jacks, changes positions of the starboard jib line in the line organizers and thru a different rope clutch so it would lead out better forward. We are just tinkering with busy work as we putt along at 5.4 knots.
We have a slight 2 point adverse current.. but what else is new. My engines must love travelling with Mike because he keeps his motors at a very comfortable fuel sipping RPM. I have learned to be patient, and give my engines some love too…. I tend to use engines up and replace them when their tongue starts hanging out. Mike is a good influence on me.
The parasail boats are out this morning giving Marco visitors a 100’ elevated view of the semi foggy beach front. Marco, like many other Florida coastal towns are lined with high rise condos and tall gantry cranes building new ones.
The dynamic duo of Seawinds boats Jumanji and SYL are flying close formation down Florida’s West coast. Our next waypoint stands us just off Romano Shoals 14 miles away. Given the sleepy weather forecast we feel comfortable stopping anywhere along the way once we get into Florida Bay. That probably means we will continue straight through to the keys.. knowing we have options.
SYL is an hour and a half past Marco now, about to round the Romano Shoals. That will bring us from travelling due South to SE. Winds are light as expected, but with the turn we will have an angle on the wind so we will probably set the mainsail for the first time with the replacement halyard. I called and ordered a new line to replace it, but probably won’t have it until mid-April. Mike and I are both tired of dodging crab traps. He caught one with his engine this morning.
I was right! 11:30 and we have sails up. Our speed went from 5.3 to 7 knots with reduced engine power. I take the engines off at 7.2 so if we get a few more kts of wind we might just get to sail to the keys but it’s not expected. Wouldn’t that be a kick in the pants….. actually sailing on a sailboat.
WooHoooo… 25 miles South of Marco the current changed from 2 points on our nose to 6 points of push behind us! Thank you world. Almost a knot of free progress over ground is useful when you’re going 6 knots, that’s about 17% (too lazy to do the exact math). Thirty minutes ago I called out to a boat heading South in front of us, turns out it is a Leopard 38 from Mike’s home port in Aransas Pass Texas. He said he was stopping about 6 this evening to spend the night on the hook. That just might convince our little travelling band to stop and visit as well. We are doing great right now. If we continue this progress as comfortable as we are, it seems wrong to stop. I sighted another sailboat off our starboard stern, but haven’t contacted him.
40 miles are behind us today, about 60 yet to sail to officially enter the Keys. We are still making wonderful progress in very comfortable conditions, if we saw a little sun it would be perfect. My new/old halyard is taking a new stretch. It hasn’t been used in a long time so I have to keep tightening it to hold the main straight. I got up before 5 this morning and Jono is down for a nap, I’m getting a little sleepy too. When Jono gets up I’ll get me a nice nap as we sail along softly… with the boat gently lifting over the swells…. listening to the rustle of the wakes behind our sterns (and the motors).
Our anchorage for the night was 23 miles from the keys in the open water, 71 miles made today. We could have driven all the way to the keys but there are so many crab pots night travel would have been tedious. The line on those pesky floating balls cause havoc when they wrap around the props.
Speaking of motors, today’s challenge was the port side engine. Recently when I stopped and idled the suspect engine flooded and died, often at the most inopportune times, like when we were hovering in place waiting for a draw bridge. This evening I took the time to clean the carburetor. Unfortunately my standard cleaning job didn’t help. Mike had some new gaskets so we replaced those and the spark plugs but still no joy. On Mikes suggestion I tried a different method of cleaning the smallest ports on the carb, he has a set of tip cleaners so instead of just spraying the very small ports we rodded them out with his tip cleaners. She cranked and idled like a dream! We finished the motor work about 11PM and ended up star gazing for another hour before hitting the sack.
Today was nice, easy sea state and very few problems, an overall win. One day closer to paradise!
SYL and Jumanji