Assuming all goes well over the next 1.5 hours, we should be anchoring somewhere along the northern half of Elliott Key on the east side of Biscayne Bay just in time to sling our hammocks and enjoy a drink before dinner, followed not long after by collapsing in exhaustion.
This our 4th consecutive day working our way down to Key Largo from Fort Pierce. Making miles is tiring, especially in the southern Florida stretch of the ICW which is quite busy with power boats going fast and waking us. I’m guessing it’s probably less busy than normal due to the pandemic, but less busy is still busy for our slow boat. It got quieter once we put Miami behind us a couple of hours ago and got further into Biscayne Bay. This push to make miles is intentional. We know the weather is clear of tropical storms up to and likely through next weekend at least, and we want to enjoy diving/snorkeling in John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, off Key Largo, during that period. If the weather looks clear further than next weekend, we may linger around Key Largo a bit longer and then start back but stop to dive some wrecks in Biscayne Bay. There are several remnants of old wrecks in less than 35’ of water that sound cool and I’ve never dived on a wreck before. If any plausible tropical LO leaves South Africa, we’ll keep an eye on it and head back to Fort Pierce with a little more zest. It’s four days from Biscayne Bay to Fort Pierce and we already know several good places to anchor along the way.
Wednesday, was a slow slog to the Peck Lake Anchorage. The current was against us the entire way and we averaged only about 3 kts. Dave decided to scrape one of the hulls after dinner Wednesday night and do the rest Thursday morning after breakfast and before heading off again. After 90 minutes of scraping the starboard hull as far down as he could reach Wednesday night, he reported that it looked like we had “2-inches of shag carpet glued to our hulls.” Plus the lobster cages and props were covered in barnacles and plant life as well (I believe the phrase “basketball sized gob” was used). So Thursday after breakfast we both donned our swimsuits, grabbed scrapers and went at the port hull, props and cages. Two hours later, around 10am, we were underway and making much better speed! We dropped anchor in West Palm Beach around 4:30pm. We were beat! Thank goodness we had leftover stew, which I had set up in the instant while underway on Wednesday. It was nice to have dinner ready two nights in a row.
Yesterday we were underway by 7am and ate breakfast en route. We had the current at least not against us the entire way, slightly in our favor part of it, and we averaged 4.5 kts. We had some system issues prior to noon (maybe I’ll describe those in another post), but the afternoon saw us cruising comfortably on solar and battery alone. We anchored in Lake Sylvia in Fort Lauderdale by 4:30pm with enough sun left to bring our battery banks back up to over 90% charge. Guess what we did after we anchored? Yup, slung the hammocks and had drinks. We like to be anchored by around 4:30pm so we can indulge in this little ritual, plus have some sun left to recharge batteries- without generators. Last night was so hot and humid that we went for a swim before dinner and ended up eating cheese, crackers, hummus and dried salamis because we were too tired and hot to heat up and eat leftovers.
We were underway again this morning by 7am. We’ve been averaging around 4.5 kts again, with generators running the first half of the day until the sun was high enough to keep up with the draw of the engines. It’s been generator-silent since about noon. I made some corn tortillas after breakfast. Tonight we’ll brown up some beef and spices and have tacos…after a swim and drinks in the hammocks, of course.
Stay healthy and take care of each other!
Life on Lady 
Is Elliott Key considered part of the “Florida Keys”? If so, I guess you made it! Stay safe.
LikeLike