After our 5-mile hikes and busy sightseeing in Islamorada, it was nice to chill out and spend a relaxing morning on the mooring at Shell Key. We could see one sailboat anchored off Ligumvitae Key and other than a few fishing skiffs, we were by ourselves. It was windy but we headed back north past Plantation Key Yacht Marina to Tarpon Basin where we had anchored on our last trip here. This is a protected anchorage in anticipation of two fronts coming through with winds clocking and backing through the north and west. We anchored on the shore near a tugboat and two other sailing catamarans anchored on the other side of us. This is a beautiful spot but a shame that the city closed their dinghy dock so there is nowhere to go ashore making it cruiser unfriendly. It will be a nice spot not to worry about the weather.
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| Water colors |
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| Lots of crab pots and one of the few fishing boats |
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| Narrow cuts between the keys where we spotted manatees |
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| Plenty of small islands surrounded by shallow water |
The winds picked up to over 20 knots and the front came through with rain about 5 am. It's amazing that 68 degrees felt cold and we had our jackets on. The day was windy and overcast and then the winds died down for us to grill out. We expect the winds to pick up again tonight and tomorrow. It was a lazy day reading our books. We ended up with 4 sailing catamarans in the anchorage. It was nice we have not had much boat traffic causing wakes through the anchorage.
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| Sunset over Tarpon Basin |
We had another windy but sunny day. It was quiet until two powerboats rafted and drifted down on us at sunset with their loud music. However, the bugs ran them off and we were thankful we have put noseeum screens in our hatches so that they can not get below. The wind should change to more favorable directions and die down tomorrow so we'll be off.
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| The waterfront at Tarpon Basin and no place to go ashore |
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| Beautiful mangrove shore and City Hall tower |
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| Sun going down |
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