Hitchhiking to Paradise

Leg 7: Key West, FL to Key Biscayne, FL

Looking back on the journey from Key West to Key Biscayne, it was quite unremarkable. This is not to say that it was bad or boring; just calm. Our first destination was Marathon where we picked up a hitchhiker along the way. The hitchhiker was a juvenile double-crested Cormorant. We know Cormorants as water turkeys. We named him Jackson and he sailed with us for about a half hour before flying off.

On the morning of January 3rd, we decided that the winds were too good to pass up and decided to keep sailing East to Rodriguez Key. I finally caught not one but three fish. They were not big enough to eat so we released them back. Blake serviced the winches and reorganized our stern lazarette, while I did some writing.

On January 5th, the winds were still in our favor and we sailed near the edge of some storm clouds to Key Biscayne. Around noon, the winds were light, and we got to fly the spinnaker for more than 30 seconds.

The wind shifted around to our stern and due to our lack of experience with setting the pole for the spinnaker, we decided to set the pole with the jib and sail wing and wing. The wind was blowing about 9.5 knots and we were moving at about 4.5 knots.

We entered the Key Biscayne channel around 5:30pm and were racing the sunset to get to a spot to drop anchor before dark. We picked up another hitchhiker, this time a dragon fly riding along on the backstay. We dropped anchor around 5:45pm outside of No Name Harbor. This will be our home until we have a weather window to head to the Bahamas.

No Name Harbor is in Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, south of Miami. From the water, you can see walking and bike paths and the Cape Florida Lighthouse, built in 1825. In the harbor, boats are anchored closer together than I have ever seen, like sardines. To access shore, there are signs that say if you are anchoring overnight, in the harbor, it’s $20/night and $8/day for day trips, and that is via an honor system. The state park locks its gates at sunset, meaning you technically cannot enter the park after sunset. Challenge accepted.