Good morning from Key Largo. Since the last post we spent a great final day in Marathon and even got a long bike ride in before prepping the boat for travel. We traveled outside the Gulf for the first time in the Straits of Florida and arrived safely in Key Largo.

Amy and I got to enjoy our last morning in Marathon with one last stop at the Stuffed Pig for breakfast with Phil and Mary.

Just had to have our picture with our breakfast buddies!

After a big breakfast we decided to take a bike ride to the opening in the old seven mile bridge. You can’t ride all the way to the second opening, but can ride to Pigeon Island.

I believe this is one of the openings where they did the filming for Spies Like Us.

After the ride it was time to prep the boat for travel. This means putting the bikes away, storing everything in the boat for big waves in case we hit some, and doing the final engine room check on all fluids and making sure there are no leaks of any kind.

We were not able to pull of the dock until 8:40am, as I had a Vet appointment for Memphis to get her Health Certificate and checkup so we can take her to the Bahamas. They are hard on pets coming into the country.

As we took our last run in the Gulf for this trip, the winds were calm and the seas were 1′ or less. Just the way we like them. We ran west for about 5 miles to the opening in 7-mile bridge for deep water and for height clearance.

Doesn’t look like it, but the water to the left is only 3′ deep.

Current was not bad going through today, but it can be tricky depending on tide and waves. We were lucky.

The bridge marks the start of The Straits Of Florida, the start of the Atlantic Ocean for us. This also marks the beginning of our direction changing. We will now start heading back north. At least until we head south again in the Bahamas to Staniel Cay.

The run to Key Largo was easy, and only 65 miles. The winds and seas were as predicted so all was good. But we did spend a lot of time dodging crab pots again. I can’t wait to get out of crab pot areas for a while.

Buddy boat got this picture of us in the Straits! Thanks Island Rain.

As we arrived in Key Largo, we entered the Key Largo channel. This area is famous for the narrow and shallow jetty you have to enter before the famous Crash Corner in the channel. You need to announce yourself on the VHF radio so others will stay clear. Well that is the concept, but in practice it did not happen. We announced ourselves and as we started into the jetty, a outbound dive boat started into the narrow channel while we were in it. He apologized on the radio and backed up to allow us to finish!

No problems arriving at Marina Del Mar for the next week. This marina is a large complex containing 3 hotels with pools for us to use and enjoy. Key Largo does not seem to have all the restaurants and supporting stores that we experienced in Marathon, but we will see. We have a couple days of heavy winds and rain, before the weather settles down a little. Amy and I hope to explore Key Largo as well as snorkel around John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. The water is finally getting clear!

Our slip is once again built for a 25′ boat, so creative tying once again.

As you can see, the posts to tie to stop about 1/3 the length of the boat. Boy we are getting good at this! We are still storing all the fenders off the side of the boat after we arrive, so they are not in our dinghy or in our way outback for the week.

I will try to do another post before we move on to the Bahamas. Please cross your fingers that the weather window opens and stays open for us to get over to the Bahamas this weekend. Our plan is to do the 85-mile crossing from Key Largo to North Bimini and Alice Town to check in at customs.

Until the next post, hope you have a great week. (Sorry for any mistakes, as my proof reader is still in bed today.)