Ocean Trek

3.25.10

We left first light Thursday morning and headed out the narrow inlet of Angelfish Creek. We made it through without complications and headed out into the Atlantic. It was a rough trip - the wind and the waves were off our bow and it took us an hour just to make it 4miles out past the reef. Once we were out there, the wind suddenly picked up and we were in 18knots of wind with full sails up - something that is not recommended, esp for novice sailors like ourselves! Although we were cruising right along at 7 or 8 knots, before we knew it, we were heeling over much farther than anticipated. Let's just say that I was sitting on one bench in the cockpit with my feet propped up against the opposite one and when the boat heeled over, I was practically standing straight up - not something I was entirely comfortable with at the time. After 10minutes of us dragging our rail through the ocean, we decided we should probably reef the main.
Once that was done and the hysteria had boiled down to a minimum, the remainder of the day went fairly smoothly. We stayed on a beam reach for most of the day and were able to make great time - there had been some worry we wouldn't make it to our next anchorage by sunset, but we were crossing our fingers!
We had a great sea animal day - we encountered a pod of about 10 dolphins that ran with us for a good 10minutes, jumping around the boat and swimming along at the bow. The water was so clear so you could see exactly where they were. Brad was steering, which allowed me to run up to the bow or the boat and look down into the water at them. I was so close I could have reached over and touched them! As many dolphins as we have seen on the trip, we never get tired of seeing them.
After that, Brad noticed a patch of seaweed directly in our path and turned the boat to avoid running into it. As we neared it however, we realized it was actually a sea turtle! This was our first turtle sighting and we both nearly fell out of the boat looking over the side we were so excited!
Moments like that justify our whole reasoning for this trip. To take the time to sit back and relax and enjoy the beauty of things around you - it's something I have not previously taken much time to do.
We did, in deed, make it to our anchorage - a beautiful spot on the bay side of Long Key. We had officially made it to the Florida Keys!!