Uncharted Waters

We snuck away quietly from Karen's dock at about 6:45 this morning.  It was a tight turn around in the canal, but Ray did perfect.  Thankfully the Atlantic waters smoothed as the day went on once we exited Sisters Creek.  They were predicted to be one to three footers so we were going to try to stay as close to shore as possible.  Remember, add them together, and this time they were on the port stern, making it a little rolly.  Ray thought they would get better once we were beyond the Seven Mile Bridge.  The seas flow under the bridge creating quite a current.  He was right.  When we crossed the Bahia Honda Channel though it got quite bumpy, again because of the flow through action between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.  It continually subsided after that, especially when the wind direction changed, which was not predicted but helped us.  When they switched to Northwest the islands helped to block it.
We pulled into Stock Island Marina just after 1:00 p.m. after 46 miles, most of which we have never traveled before.  Bill and Patty were here to grab our lines and greet us.  They had already text to ask if we wanted to go dinghying after our arrival.  We thought that sounded good, especially if we could get in the water to cool off. 
We were not here long at all when we headed out along with Patty's sister Annette and her husband Barney to the sandbar.  It is just a shallow spot of sand just east of here where boats go to anchor and wade in the water.  It felt good.  After a while when Barney could not make Annette a drink because he forgot the vodka he thought he brought, we decided to dinghy over to Hurricane Hole just to the west of the marina.  We recognized places we have been by land.  It always looks so different by water.  Ray and I went ahead and had dinner while we were there.  It was a great place to watch people and fish with fishing boats, rental boats, a dive shop, tarpon, etc. all right there.  By the time we dinghied out of there we just barely caught the cloud covered sunset.
We're looking forward to this new adventure here so close to Key West.  We plan on staying a month before we return to Marathon whenever the weather is right at that time.