Key West Again

We are anchored in Key West again. We arrived yesterday afternoon, having sailed from Newfound Harbor. I made my previous log entry from Rodriguez Key, and we motor-sailed from there to Marathon on Saturday, and then from Marathon to Newfound Harbor on Sunday. We haven't left the boat since leaving the dock at Key Largo last Friday. We had very pleasant sailing each day and the anchorages were nice and pleasant each night. Nancy helmed the boat all the way from Marathon to Newfound Harbor. She usually manages the helm and I manage the anchor while we get anchored and leave the anchorage, but this is the first time she has stayed at the helm both entering and leaving through the channels. She did a great job and is justifiably proud of herself. Newfound Harbor gave me some concerns entering and leaving, though. It seems to have shoaled up a little and we would probably not be able to get in and anchor, or get back out, at low tide. We left on the falling tide and bumped bottom a few times going from where we anchored to the channel. It is very pretty there, though, and if we are ever there again for more than just an overnight stop, it would be interesting to explore by dinghy. Key West is much as it was the last time we were here, even many of the boats in the anchorage are the same.

We ran the new engine pretty hard Saturday and Sunday. The wind was light and we wanted to give the engine a good workout anyway, so we just motor-sailed those days and the engine is working perfectly. Monday the wind picked up into the 10-15 knot range, so we shut the engine down and sailed down to Key West. The new mainsail worked fine, but it is a little different from the old main and I'll have to get used to it. It does let us sail probably 10 degrees closer to the wind than our old sail would. The wind generator is working like a champ. The wind today is about 15 knots, with gusts up to maybe 20, and the wind generator seems to be putting more amps into the batteries than we are using. I expect that in less than 15 knots we'll use more than the generator can produce, but on average, we should only have to run the engine every few days to let the alternator charge the batteries, and we'll probably run it more often because it also heats our hot water for showers.

Based on the current weather forecast, we will leave here Thursday and sail to Dry Tortugas. We will probably spend a couple of days in Dry Tortugas, snorkeling and exploring, and then head for Isla Mujeres. It should take about 3 days to get from Dry Tortugas to Isla Mujeres. If we can pick a good weather window, it should be a very pleasant sail and I'm looking forward to some more blue water sailing. I may not make another log entry until after we get to Isla Mujeres, so stay tuned.