Back in the Keys

I left Morgan's Bluff early Thursday morning and headed North to the channel across the shallow bank, I could see a squall building above Lowe's Sound and hoped I could outrun it. The wind was from the East at about 10kts and the thunderhead was to the West, as the top of the clouds came over the sea and shaded Waltzing Matilda I thought about reefing my mainsail, just in case. the "rule for reefing" states "If you think you might need to reef soon, do it now". Never being too good with rules I decided I could outrun the squall since it seemed to be hovering over the island and not able to push out to sea, as I sat pondering this decision the clouds opened up for just a second to reveal the biggest water spout I have ever seen about 5 miles behind my lee side, but I still didn't reef. My gamble paid off and I was able to get a good deal North of the thunder head, as I turned West the winds picked up to about 15kts and I launched my spinnaker at about 13:00. I didn't drop the spinnaker until 22:00 when I turned to the South-West. I got my tiller lashed in a good position and laid down to sleep. I wasn't too worried about anyone being out where I was sailing and there wasn't anything to hit for many miles in every direction, before the moon rose the stars reached all the way to the horizon, there was no light pollution to diminish the view.

I sailed all night and day Friday and most of the day Saturday, around 15:00 Saturday afternoon I reached a place named "Castle Rock" and decided it was a good place to take Mattie for a walk as well and sleep on the anchor before I ventured out into the gulf stream. Castle Rock is a series of coral rocks that poke up out of the water marking the edge of the gulf stream, the one I landed was so small that I could stroll around it in about 10 minuets. The charts listed the terrain as bushes, there wasn't anything grown taller than 4 feet but the bushes were very thick and there were thousands of brooding seagulls nested there. Never one to miss an opportunity for an easy meal I set about collecting gull eggs from the bushes. The seagulls weren't too fond of my intrusion and would either run from the nest dragging a wing or stubbornly sit there and bite me when I picked them up, turns out that seagulls can break the skin when they bite. I collected 18 eggs and got 3 minor cuts on the backs of my hands, when I got back to Waltzing Matilda I heated up the skilled and made some scramble gulls eggs with pancakes. Seagull eggs taste a bit fishy and don't need to be salted, several of the eggs contained embryos so the fish around my boat got a nice treat too.

I slept from sunset till 02:00 and after a cup of coffee hoisted sail and continued on bearing 240° in 10kts of wind, I reached the Eastern edge of the gulf stream at 10:00 and turned to 330° as the wind picked up to 15kts gusting occasionally, I had a nice beam reach and a fast current under me, I flew North at 7kts, at one point my GPS showed 9kts! About 13:00 the winds died completely and the sea flattened out, I dropped to 4kts (the same speed as the current) and decided that I'd rather fire the motor than try to make an unknown entrance in the dark. I motor sailed the last few miles, at 15:00 the skyline of Miami came into view, by 18:00 I was in Biscayne bay headed south under sail in the ICW.

I made it back to Islamroada on Monday afternoon and took Mattie to a much needed shore walk, with beaches and fresh water, and cars, and traffic noise, and T shirt shops, and rude people.... after the silence and solitude of the last few days I felt a bit overwhelmed. Eating the biggest juiciest burger that the Lorelei restaurant can provide helped me feel a bit better about being back in civilization, but it ain't Red Bays, and I can't find any seagull eggs, and I'm not allowed to fish these waters.

pictures will be posted soon, I didn't have an underwater camera, but next time I go to the Bahama's I will, the reefs were amazing.