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Sunday morning. It's windy and rainy. I'm checking on the Hobie Cat after having left it tied up all night. It faired well, but I was paranoid all night long, wishing the boat was on the trailer instead of in the water.
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Waiting out the storm, reading The Reality Disfunction.
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The boat's just waiting to go exploring Florida Bay, tied up in front of the Seafarer Beach and Dive Resort.
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We set sail, looking back toward our hotel.
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Little did we know when we got started, but right behind us there were two large funnel clouds. One of them even briefly touched down, but on the other side of Key Largo. Somehow we didn't think to take any photos until it was too late.
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Amie's enjoying the ride.
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Sunday turned out to not be a day of Sun. But it was nice and breezy.
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It's amazing how quickly one looses site of land.
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There are many, many keys in Florida Bay. Our goal was to visit half a dozen of them.
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Amie's happily at the helm.
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Resting on the dock after a hard day's sailing.
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Our hobie on the beach in front of our cabin on the beach. A nice comfortable place. Okay, so the pink is hideous, but it's quite helpful for spotting the place from way offshore.
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Our frontyard. (I didn't pick the colors)
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Looking up the beach from our cabin.
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View from the dock. Nice wood.
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Damn it's comfortable sitting on a dock on Key Largo.
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A whole different world under the water, clinging to the dock pole.
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This jelly fish kept turning upside down just sitting on the bottom of the ocean. Amie tried to turn it rightside up numerous times, but it was quite convinced that the view was better upside down. Ultimately, the jelly fish won the battle, and Amie gave up.
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There were a lot of these red ant-like things living near a cabin.
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Sunset sail off the coast of Key Largo. November in South Florida means perfect weather. It's about 78 with a nice comfortable breeze.
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We picked up some good speed. Enough so that I had to lean back and grit my teeth. But I'm not scared. No, really.
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The breeze has really picked up as the sun is setting. The ribbon sticking out straight is a sure sign of fun sailing.
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End of our first day, watching the sun set. Supposedly there's a green flash when the sun drops below the horizon, but we never saw it. I don't believe it, personally.
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We recommend this place highly. Especially in the off season, as Amie was able to talk them down to about 25% of their normal nightly cost.
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Driving into the Seafarer. Lots of good overgrowth.
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We moved the boat to the dock for the second night, feeling safer having it securely tied there. A wise choice, as another bigger storm came through Sunday night.
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Amie is trying to make friends with a squirrel. The squirrel is getting annoyed, because she won't let go of the cracker, trying to get him to take a bite while she holds it. He finally gave up on trying to get the cracked from her.
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We kept hearing odd noises outside our door. We finally tracked the odd noises down to this young hawk sitting in a palm tree outside our window.
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I left Amie standing on a sunken key off in Florida Bay and went for a little solo pleasure sail.
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Coming back from my solo pleasure sail.
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Steering the boat right up onto a sandbar so we can eat some lunch.
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Trying my best to look innocent, and failing.
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Our first attempt at finding a sandy beach. It was sandy, but it was under water.
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The Hobie tied to a mangrove, sitting on a sandbar.
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Amie wandered off looking for real sand. No luck, though she appears to have found a large nest.
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A Sarong drying in the breeze.
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Life is tough.
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Cruising by a mangrove key.
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Aha! That looks like sand in the distance...
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Amie enjoying her Rogue honey-cream ale as we approach our first sandy beach.
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Sure, we find our first sandy beach and Amie decides to go off wading. Off in the distance beyond her, notice a boat...
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Okay, so it's not a large sandy beach. But it's ours. Somewhere in Florida Bay.
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Amie coming back from her wading.
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Looking out from our beach.
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Amie's out wading around again. If you notice, the boat in the distance has come a lot closer. Amazingly enough, fifteen minutes after we located our first sandy beach somewhere in Florida Bay, a boat with eight people on it came right up to the sandbar and started wading ashore. We were disgusted and pushed off immediately. That's Florida for you.
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We located another sandy beach on the other side of our key.
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Exploring the island.
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The view from our beach.
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The boat through the mangroves.
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Island-making.
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As good a place for a cartwheel as any.
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Leaving our key behind, headed home. A very long sail home, I'll add, as the wind had died away to almost nothing. Fortunately, the Hobie doesn't need much wind to move.
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Time for a nap after all this hard work.
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We discovered why we were moving slower than normal when coming back. The plug on one of the floats had been bumped loose evidently sliding it up on the sandby beach, so we had some water in our float. Yikes.
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Getting ready for the 2 hour drive home.
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Packing up just before the sunset.
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Another sunset.
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Waiting on the beach chair for the sun to set.
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Hair on fire.
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Ssssssssssss. (The sound the sun makes when it sinks into the ocean, of course...)