Only 30 miles to Marathon

Weathermen lie all over the world.

We determined that Thursday was going to be a good weather day to head out for Marathon, some 80 miles from Marco Island. While we knew we probably wouldn't make it all of the way in one day, we thought we would have done better than we did. We only travel about 6 knots at best on the motor and with the sail we were up to 7 knots. We had 12 hours of daylight to work with. So off we set.

Waves were to be 3 ' diminishing to around 2', winds were to be 15 ish, also diminishing to about 10. Sunny day. They got that right. Temperature mid 60's, they got that right.

Sailing in Florida with winter hat.

Well the waves were 3 to 4's with the odd 5 footer thrown in. The winds held at 15 and above. But it was sunny. It was cold enough that my brave captain had to resort to a Canadian winter hat with ear lugs. And he even had gloves on for the first part of the day.

The day wore on and we adjusted our course for Marathon, now 40 miles away and we still had 4 hours of daylight. By 7:30 pm the sun was setting and it was time to set the anchor. We were 30 miles out of Marathon, in the middle of nowhere, but the good thing was we were only in 12' of water. The anchor caught and held on the first try. But the boat did not swing around into the wind, it stayed broadside to the waves. Waves hitting the side of the boat. My skipper was perplexed. He checked the anchor chain to see if it had somehow got around behind the keel. No that didn't seem to be the problem.

While talking to Linda and Steve Franko, Linda said it was probably because the current was going under the Seven mile bridge. That girl knows what she was talking about. The waves were hitting the side and transom (back) of the boat until about 3 a.m. Whew nice when that stopped. The peace was short lived. The boat swung around into the wind and waves. Again the weatherman said 10 knots of wind with 1' waves. NOT! Winds held at about 15 knots and I have no idea of the wave height. The boat now wanted to dance around for the rest of the night. It would bounce on some nice smaller waves, and then when the larger waves came it would pitch and roll. And there was no rhythm to it so we couldn't anticipate.

Needless to say we had a bad nights sleep. I was somewhat concerned that we may drag the anchor overnight, but my realistic captain assured me it was no problem, that we were in the middle of nowhere and we would have to drag anchor 20 miles before it became a problem. Don't you just hate wise people. Always calm, always relaxed, and oh so right.

Approaching Seven Mile Bridge

We got up around 7 a.m. and pulled up anchor and had an uneventful trip into Marathon where Steve and Linda were standing on the dock waiting to catch our lines. They had rode their bikes about 1 mile to welcome us to Marathon.

Will we fit under the bridge???? 

We briefly got caught up quickly as Peter and I needed some sleep and a shower. They invited us for dinner on their boat. We will be better company after some sleep.

I did find some pictures of Martin and Kathy.

Martin sitting on his new car.