In Tavernier, South of Key Largo

We had a beautiful day on the water after a rough night of no-see-ums, mosquitoes and heat! I woke up at 7 a.m. and Chuck was ready to pull out of the slip. The bugs were still thick and he didn't want Jazzy and I to even step out of the boat. I was still getting bit from the no-see-ums that were trapped in the boat from last night and couldn't wait to get the heck out of there! So we went out away from the park and dropped anchor until Bum's Rest was ready to go.

I started coffee on the stove and as soon as it started to perc, we ran out of propane. Great. Lots of bugs. The wind was in our face, so no sails. No coffee. Wasn't looking to be a good day.

A short time later, Bum's Rest joined us and we pulled anchor. Once we got out of the harbor, Chuck set up the generator so I had power to make coffee. While I had power, I toasted a couple cinnamon raisin bagels for breakfast.

We motored across Biscayne Bay. It was very shallow. Only 3.1 ft. at one point pulling away from the dock! At MM1120, the depth was 6 feet with only two feet of water on either side of the channel, so the skipper  had to pay close attention to the markers and the magenta line on the GPS. The color of the bay kept changing from dark green to a beautiful light blue-green.

At 11 a.m., the wind was out of the south and 20-23 knots, so we pulled the sails and picked up some speed. SOG was 6 knots. We passed a neat old ship in Key Largo. See photo.

We decided to stay in a marina tonight because we both needed fuel and pumpout and we needed propane. We also needed groceries. The refrigerator was low and not running very efficiently.

We're at Mangrove Marina, just south of Key Largo. Patti and I walked to the dollar store and made up boxes to ship home. I bought packaging tape and Sharpies to address the boxes. We walked to the post office and they closed at 4:30 p.m. It was 4:40. Our post offices at home are open to 5 p.m. and now I was stuck with a big box filling my cart that I needed for groceries.

So, we walked once again like two bag ladies with our grocery cart full of goodies. Patti made sirloin burgers on kaiser rolls, carrot salad and chips for dinner with carrot cake for dessert.

Tomorrow morning we'll return the grocery cart and go to the post office. They open at 9 a.m. We're only going 10 miles tomorrow, so we'll sleep in and get a few things done before leaving late morning.

A lot of boats are decorated for Christmas here. Patti bought decorations for their boat. She'll probably put them on tomorrow.