Tuesday April 2: No Name Harbor - South of Miami

It was the perfect travel days since we left Banana Bay yesterday. The weather forecast was for 2 good days to be on the ocean side - which is where we needed to be.

Traveling with a sailboat with a 5 1/2 foot draft makes trawler people do things they normally wouldn't - like HAVE to travel the ocean side!

But it worked great - we traveled part way north on the bay side and then crossed over to the ocean side to meet Peter and Cheryl at an anchorage behind Rodriguez Key off of Key Largo - the northernmost of the Florida Keys. Steve loved it as he had a chance to fish while we traveled.

Half an hour before we were at our anchorage, Steve hooked a big barracuda. Not good to eat but lots of fun to catch! It was HUGE and would hardly fit in the net.

Steve was VERY careful about removing the hook and throwing the fish back in because of the teeth on this thing - wow!

Aren't they something? And Steve with no shoes on ...

It jumped out of the water (totally out) 3 times. Quite a sight to see for sure!




Surona was at the anchorage as we entered so we quickly dropped our anchor - and a fender - and tied together.

Steve rescued the fender with his kayak - good job :-) The sunset was again a great one.

It was a nice evening with a celebration with Peter and Cheryl for their completion of the Great Loop. We tried to do this after our Key West trip but it just got too late.

Better late than never :-) By the way, they used 3 boats to complete the loop: sailboat Surona, trawler Deja Vu and small cruiser (no name???). It was a great journey and I'm glad we were able to share a part of this journey with then and celebrate with them! (Oops with the timed picture :-))

Today was another wonderful day on the water. Surona left just before us and headed for No Name Harbor just south of Miami - our planned anchorage for the night.

Being so close to the reefs off of Key Largo we had to for sure head out so Steve could snorkel.

What a perfect day! First French Reef which was nice but somewhat murky - especially by the time we left.

Next stop (with trolling on the way of course) was the reef at Elbow. It was the best ever with very clear water and lots of fish. We have dived this site many times in the past and always found it to be one of the best in Pennekamp.

The water here on the ocean side as we neared the entrance to Biscayne Bay was so clear and the colors just outstanding. It's the bottom that determines the color of blue we see: the very lite blue means a sand bottom and the darker blue means some kind of vegetation - usually sea grass.

It unnerving until I realized it was the bottom and not the depth that determined the color :-)

By the time we arrived (about 4:30), Peter and Cheryl were already anchored so we quickly dropped our anchor as well and tied up for the night.

Steve caught a small cero mackerel (really good to eat!) on the the way in so there was fish for an appetizer before dinner tonight. It was just the right size!

We're anchored tonight at Bill Baggs State Park on Key Biscayne. It's a relatively small area but a great place to spend the night. Tomorrow we'll tie to the wall for a while to explore the park by bike/walk. There's some nice trails and a lighthouse. For some reason, there is no overnight docking on the park wall but that works ok with us :-) Then it's off to Miami!