Wednesday - Friday: Dec 16-18  Key Largo!

     We made short work of our trip through the last four bridges, and were surprised to see that we were also in and through Miami before lunchtime.  That went fast.  We entered Key Biscayne for the thirty or so mile run inside the beginning of the Florida Key chain to Key Largo.

One of the last bridges.

Miami skyline

      Our plan is to depart from somewhere in Key Largo for the Bahamas, when the weather window opens up.  The guides all say watch the wind clock around through the easterlies and southeasterlies, and and just as it comes to the Southwest, that's the time to go, before it comes out of the North again. Such a window was opening up within the next forty-eight hours, but we aren't ready to depart yet.  We need to top off the fuel and water and hope to lay in a last minute supply of fresh produce and meats, but more importantly than that we need the animal importation permit from the Bahamian government.  We applied the day we hit Melbourne - one of our first errands - and paid the extra fee for it to arrive by fax, which will be forwarded to my email.  We don't want to arrive in the Bahamas and be unable to leave the boat because we don't have the required permit.  Tommie isn't going to leave the boat anyway (we hope!) but it would be bad form to ignore the animal importation regulations.
      So now we are in the wait for the fax and wait for the next weather window mode.  It's a good feeling!
     Wednesday evening we dropped the anchor in Angelfish Creek, on the very North end of Key Largo.  We had the place all to ourselves, save the great white heron stalking in the mangroves, and the occasional fisherman speeding by in the bigger channel.

     Thursday Dan wanted to go outside into the Atlantic to see what it was like.  We did a recon tour of the inlet (outlet?) leading East toward the Gulf stream and the Bahamas.  The water was various shades of green and blue and quite shallow in spots.  It was also a bit rougher than what we've been experiencing in the ICW and Dan remarked how soon we forget what the real ocean is like.  We turned back into Angelfish Creek and came out the other end, on the inside of the Keys, and made our way down Key Largo another twenty miles to Tarpon Basin, a very protected body of water with shore access and a short walk from shops and John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park.  The guide says this anchorage can be quite crowded in foul weather, as the locals use it for a hurricane hole, but we were one of three in our anchorage when we dropped the hook.  For the first time since hitting warm water we felt it was ok to go swimming, and we spent a nice hour in the 82-degree water getting some exercise and much needed relief from the muggy heat.  A coolish breeze came up in the evening and we sat on the cabin top and watched the stars come out.  This is what we've been waiting for!

Key Largo!

     Friday we moved the boat closer to the shore access area.  The dinghy dock leads to Key Largo's municipal center where the community area offers free wifi and air conditioning.  It's hotter today - high eighties - but the wind is supposed to switch to the North tonight and bring 'cold' weather.  So we've been told.  (The weather forecast predicts we might have a low of 67 tonight.)  Dan and I took our backpack and shopping list (how can we still have a list of things we need??) and walked the half mile or so to K-Mart.  Our list is dwindling, though, all we really need now are extra oil filters.  Turns out the Napa store is too far to walk to, so we may raise anchor tomorrow and head to the next bay, hoping for such easy shore access.
     Or we may not.  We're getting into this island time, now.