The 10,000 adventures continue......

On Monday night, after an entire day of beating into the 33 knots of wind and 4 to 6 foot seas, we pointed NuTrix toward the Everglades and Indian Key island. The trip that should have taken 10 hours, stretched into 13!! Darkness is SOOOO different when civilization is far away and the only light are the star and the waning moon. Ray had his eyes glued to the GPS and I was on the bow trying to see anything through the veil of  salty darkness that was all around us! I could just barely make out the islands in the distance by the moon light. All of the sudden, I saw what looked like an enormous tree just off of our port bow. I screamed, "Ray turn, turn, turn!!" He was so calm and asked why.... "We're going to run aground. Oh God theres a tree!" Ray told me to hit it with the spotlight so I grabbed it and shone the light to show him as I braced for the sudden stop!! My tree turned out to be an unlit green "flashing" marker. It obviously had not been maintained in some time!! I had saved us from hitting the marker though so laugh if you will but...... well......
We dropped the hook and had a calm night and even grilled our steaks!! Our friends aboard The Hannah B were not so lucky. Their engine quit working and they had to anchor out in the rolly waves. We all were so anxious to be in the Keys, but that was NOT gonna happen anytime soon!!! The bunks were calling our name, so after a yummy dinner, we all passed out and slept like the dead!

The next morning we had a head wind and could not sail, so we motored down the coast toward Little Shark River. It was an easy day after the 12 plus hour days that we had been getting!! We actually dropped the hook in time to shower. put on music and have a cockpit happy hour! Bob Marley gave the perfect backdrop for the sunset and the great company. I looked up and spotted a sailboat coming in from the south. It couldnt be Wes and Terri because they were coming from the north. I got on the VHF and hailed them. We chatted about where they were coming from and what kind of boat they had. They thought that Angie and I were on the sailboat by ourselves..... HAHA... When we explained that we were with our husbands, they still agreed to come for dinner!! The sailing life is quite fun! Bob and David came over just as Wes and Terri were dropping anchor. We all assembled in the cockpit of NuTrix. Andy and I whipped up a dinner of pork chops, yellow rice and black beans. There were NO left overs...... :)  Turns out Bob and David were from Pine Island and returning from the Bahamas. We all had a interesting night visiting with strangers who quickly turned into friends. After cleaning up and waving good-by, we all crashed for the night with thoughts of the Keys sailing in our dreams.

No such luck..... The weather the next morning was just as bad as it had been all week!!! Strong winds, big seas.....thunderstorms! Sooooo we decided to go down to the Middle Cape of Cape Sable and anchor for the night before going on to the Keys. We hugged the shores which gave us some relief from the roll and the wind. We made it by 1:30 and spent the day reading to the sound of pouring rain all around us. I finished two of my 15 books, we made snacks, played "shut the box" an addictive dice game, and napped on and off. We made piccadilla for dinner and tried to watch "Captain Ron" but we all fell asleep before it was finished. The next day would be our jump to the Keys! Our Bahamas adventure had been a crazy time of wind, waves and wonderful memories...... what would the next chapter bring??? We could only imagine as the waves and the rocking of the boat took our conscience into oblivion.....