We're (still) moored on ball K-9 (at 24°42.250′N 081°05.550′W) in Boot Key Harbor.
Today is prep-to-go day.
This means laundry, top off the water, take on any final galley stores, and final weather check.
Propane
This now means checking the propane for our new outboard. Specifically. How many trips have we taken? How many pounds of propane have we used?
We didn't keep a log, so we have to rely on some estimates...
| Date/Place | round trips | time | cumulative |
| 4/1 Key Biscayne | 1 | 16m | 16m |
| Pumpkin Key, Rodriguez Key, Lower Matecumbe Key | Nothing | 16m | |
| 4/9 Boot Key | 1 | 10m | 26m |
| 4/10 Boot Key | 1 | 10m | 36m |
| 4/11 Boot Key | 1 | 10m | 46m |
| 4/12 Boot Key | 1 | 10m | 56m |
| 4/13 Boot Key | 2 | 20m | 1h 16m |
| 4/14 Boot Key | 2 | 20m | 1h 36m |
We only really care about cumulative time. When we stop somewhere, we start the location's log with previous cumulative time and trips. At a new location the "trip to the dinghy dock" has to be baselined and multiplied by 2 times the count of round trips.
Exploration -- i.e. bird photography -- requires some care in tracking the time.
One nominal fuel consumption rate I read was about 1 gallon (4 lbs) of propane per hour. That's a hair under 4 hr of dinghy-time per nominal 20 lb tank. (A "20 lb" tank generally has 15 lb of propane; it's 1 lb shy of 80% full.)
Our current tank has a tare weight of 18 lbs. I expect it to weight about 35 lbs. Add the base, cover, and hose and it's probably 37 lbs.
Today it weighed 32 lbs (with hose and base and cover.) That suggests 5 lbs of propane carried us around for about an hour and a half. We'll be confirming by expanding on our dinghy use log.
We have two tanks for the cooker. Two tanks for the dinghy. Plus some loose 1 lb cans that we can throw in the dinghy when the main tank gets low.
Weather
This looks really, really good for our kind of laid-back motor-sailing.
Lower FLKeys-KeyWest:
ESE@10-16g20/2-4' today;
Variable ENE-ESE up to 15k/1-3' Fri15-Sun17;
L&V<N up to 15k/1-3' Mon18
Friday, Saturday and Sunday all have seas 1-3' and light winds. We plan on two flat-ish days to Key West. And then we'll spend a couple of days there in light-ish conditions.
On the Gulf of Mexico side, "Variable NNW-NE up to 20k/2-5' Mon18 night" means it will be blowy and bouncy in the Key West Mooring field.