It is boating

"Septembre" at anchor

 We departed Sombrero Dockside Marina at eight o'clock this morning with a nice gathering of friends for our send off.  Looking forward to seeing some again soon.  Claude and Pascale aboard "Septembre" were just ahead of us, showing us the short cut through Knights Key Channel.  It is still the seven mile bridge, but not at the high span where we usually travel through.  The 19 foot vertical clearance was slightly nerve racking.  We were glad the current was against us and not at our stern.

Pre sunset

It was an uneventful and pleasant travel day.  Some of the best weather we have had all season.  Doug, our boating friend from Chattanooga has come for what looks ahead to be a great week of travel.  Glad he brought the weather with him.
We traveled almost 37 hours today, but it took six and a half hours.  It was slow speed against the tide as usual.  "Septembre" had been at anchor for an hour before our arrival to Shell Key near Islamorada.  They were nice enough to leave a mooring ball for us.  Claude was also nice to dinghy over and pick up the line on the mooring ball for us.  Doug was also helpful and said he had the boat hook I let go of and watched fall into the water.  Claude got to pick that up for us too.

Once secure, Cla

ude and Pascale came over for a cocktail to review our plan for the next few days.  After they left we decided to make some rice and microwave the smoked ribs Doug so graciously brought us.  That was his suggestion against grilling them to reheat them, and I out-voted having potato chips.  Well once we finally got the generator started, we then realized that it was not running the fuse panel.  Ray could not figure it out after the cocktails that had already been consumed and he claimed having already fixed the Auto Pilot today (a wire that had come unhooked), one repair a day was his limit.  So it was delicious ribs heated on the grill and potato chips for dinner after all.  No complaints though.

We'll see what tomorrow brings.