To see as much of the world as we can,
Using the smallest carbon footprint we can,
Spending the least amount of money we can,
Making as many friends we can.

Team Red Cruising

Ph. IV, day 17, The Conch Republic

Mon 18 April 2022 | Archive April 2022 | Tags BoatLife

Reliably moored in the Garrison Bight Mooring Field. Our location is 24°34.704′N 081°47.151′W.

Start of US 1
Start of US 1

Lunch at Blue Heaven.

Weather

The weather is looking almost scary for the next few days.

Lower FLKeys-KeyWest:
Variable NE-SE under 12k<NNW-N up to 15k/1-3' today;
N<NE@10-20g25/3-6' Tue19;
NE<ENE@17-22g27/5-7' Tue19 night;
ENE@18-25g32/6-9' Wed20-Thu21;
NE-ENE@16-24g30/5-8' Fri22

Those 6-9' seas Wednesday the 20th and Thursday the 21st sound scary. We're on a heavy-duty mooring ball. Wind gusting to 32kt (the "g32" part of the forecast) is intimidating. We may want to bring the dinghy up on deck to minimize worry during this.

Eventually, we want a slip in a marina to do laundry, take on water, and fuel. It might be nice to get into a slip Tuesday. Or. We might want to wait until Saturday when things calm down. That's a lot of "stuck on the boat" days. We have plenty of food and water. CA has plenty of yarn. I have plenty of planning.

The Tortugas Plan

I'm starting with this as our Dry Tortugas itinerary:

  1. Key West to Dry Tortugas a. Direct: 61.8nm 10h 17m. This is a LONG day. b. Stop off. 1. Key West to Boo Boo Key 28 nm 4h 40m. 2. Boo Boo key to Dry Tortugas 44 nm 7h 20m.

We can then hang around in Dry Tortugas waiting for a good weather window.

Then off to the Everglades:

  1. Dry Tortugas to Cape Sable 107nm 17h 49m (overnight)

  2. Cape Sable to Flamingo Basin 9nm 1h 30m. This is where we might be able to find shore access to the nature center.

  3. Flamingo Basin to Little Shark River Inlet 30nm 5h

  4. Little Shark River to Ponce de Leon Bay 3nm 30m -- yes, this is just around the corner. Different view, though.

  5. Ponce de Leon Bay to S. Pavilion Key (Red #10) 30nm 5h

  6. S. Pavilion Key to Indian Key 12nm 2h. If we want to, we can consider a side trip up into the Russell Pass and back.

  7. Indian Key to West Pass/Lulu Key 3nm

This is about the north edge of the Everglades. The next part of the plan is getting to our haul-out location in Port Charlotte. In order to do that, we'll likely need to find a place near Marco island to do laundry, top off the water and fuel, buy fresh veggies, etc.