Sunday 5/3/09 & Monday 5/4/09 Sunday arrived under bright sunny skies at our anchorage in Biscayne Bay. After morning coffee we got ready to pull anchor when I spotted a rope right beside the boat. Not wanting to wrap it around a prop I got the boat hook out and fished it out of the water. Hmmm. There's something on the other end. I started getting excited thinking maybe it was an anchor or something I could use. Wrong! A crab pot without the usual marker float. Not wanting to leave all that rope floating for someone else to get tangled in and unable to get the pot onto our boat we did the next best thing. Pam got me the trusty hunting knife located just inside the back door for special occasions like this and we sent the pot to the bottom and stuffed the rope in a garbage can for later disposal. After this excitement we backtracked a couple miles to Crandon Park Marina and took on fuel before heading into the Keys. Sunday is a busy day anywhere on the water and it was no exception here. Every idiot that had a boat was out. Not bad on Biscayne Bay but once into the narrow ICW channel in the Keys stupidity reigns supreme. We think the bass boats cruise too close at home. Try a squadron of cruisers ranging in size from 30' on up weaving and cutting in and out of the slower boats. Apparently they only slow down when they run out of fuel. All of this in 5' of water or less. I miss the Bahamas already! One of the pics shows the sand being churned up by Tourist in the shallow areas.

We ended the day anchored off Upper Matecumbe Key. The same place where we drug anchor on the way to the Bahamas. Since we didn't get into the Lorelei restaurant on the way over we thought we'd give it another try. All I can say is fantastic! Jerk pork & chicken and cool soothing rumrunners followed by a beautiful sunset. The boat even stayed put making it a great ending to a hectic day.

Monday we got under way at 7:30 am and travelled at trawler speed till noon due to the shallowness of the water in the yacht channel which leads from the Keys to deeper water off the SW coast of Florida. Shortly after leaving we passed a flock of birds sitting on sticks just outside the channel in the shallows. Once in deeper water we inched the throttles forward and headed to Ft. Myers and Legacy Harbor. Gone was the Gin clear water of the Bahamas and the deep blue of the Atlantic. We are now in the murky waters of Florida Bay. We arrived at Legacy just as the staff was closing for the day. They saw us coming and stayed around to help with lines etc. It felt like home as we were greeted by some of the folks who we had gotten to know during the winter.

437 miles in three days. Not bad. Sometimes it's nice to have speed available although trawler speed is much more relaxing. Next up......boat chores to get ready to head home.