Category: Captain’s Log

Captain’s Log – Sat 5/10/25

The wind really picked up overnight and the calm place we anchored at turned pretty bouncy overnight. It was convenient for where we wanted to go diving today but really didn’t have any shelter. It was too rough to go out to the reefs again this morning so we decided to sail down to Tavernier Cay where we could tuck behind a little island to get some shelter from the southern wind and waves. This should be much better tonight as it’s supposed to get even breezier. The southern wind made for a great sail here. It was 15kts, gusting to 18 on a close reach. I had the 155% headsail reefed to about 100%. I’ll take a great day sail over a bad day of diving any day.

Tavernier is just SW of Key Largo. This key provides a little better southern wind protection than Rodriguez Key. There is also a little sandbar that had several boats hanging out there having fun. I also noticed Blue Water Marina here. You can only get in and out there at high tide but it appears popular for sailboats. Making a note for future reference. There is a restaurant called Snappers about halfway between here and Rodriguez Key. Will have to try that sometime, reviews looked good.

Since diving or snorkeling at the reefs didn’t look good, we just dived at the anchorage and cleaned Hula Girl’s bottom. It’s been about 5 weeks since I cleaned her in the Abacos and she definitely needed it.

There was a gorgeous classic sailboat anchored next to us. It has a wood cabin and mast, looks well cared for. ❤️

The nice thing about cleaning the bottom here was that I could just walk along the sea floor to clean the keel! It was only 7’ deep at low tide. That job done, it was time for today’s craft cocktail, a raspberry mojito.

Since it is Saturday night, a date night, we felt a bottle of wine and a steak dinner were in order. This was the last of the KC strips in the freezer. I better start actually catching some fish soon! We had a bottle of Caymus Bonanza Cabernet, which has quickly become one of my favorites.

Plans for tomorrow are a bit up in the air. I’m not hopeful that the weather will be any more conducive for going to the reefs than it was today. The Southern wind is just the wrong direction for visiting the reefs.

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Captain’s Log – Fri 5/9/25

We were tired from the last couple of long days getting back to Florida so we slept in and had a lazy morning.

We headed out to the outer reefs around lunchtime. When we got there it seemed a bit rough for comfort so we headed back to an interior reef where it was relatively calm. We grabbed a mooring ball at Higdon’s Reef which was nearby. I got the snuba out and Alicia opted to simply snorkel.

I thought about just staying the night here, but when I dived to check on the mooring it looked like it was moving quite a bit. 😬 We’ll just go anchor somewhere.

On the way to where I wanted to anchor, we heard a May Day call on the radio which was nearby. Apparently they had an electrical fire and used all of their fire extinguishers but it was still burning. I notified the Coast Guard that we were about 15 minutes away and diverting to assist. I still had two fire extinguishers even after one accidentally discharged back in March. At least it would be something. By the time we got there, Tow Boat US had already gotten there and helped put out the fire. The Coast Guard made it about 15 minutes later. Hope everything works out for the couple, I feel for them. We saw them getting towed past our anchorage a couple hours later.

I noticed when we were snorkeling that the boat hull needs cleaning. I guess I’ll do that first thing in the morning before we try to go to another reef. Looks like I’ll be in the water all day.

After anchoring we decided to have a cocktail. We were inspired by the craft cocktail club in Atlantis, so today we have Blue Hawaiians in tiki glasses.

I put up the Conch Republic courtesy flag and got out the conch shell horn for sunset.

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Captain’s Log – Thu 5/8/25

Yesterday was a long day, so we decided to delay the departure from 6:00am to 7:00am so we could get some more rest. Unfortunately it was a pretty rolly night. It would be fine for a half hour or so then there was a monster roller that would wake us up. I assume it was ship wakes but who knows.

With the Bahamas flag down, we raised the anchor at 7:15 and reluctantly headed toward Florida. The crossing was about 60nm. On a suggestion from my friend Jeff from Two Can Sail, we sailed an “S” shaped course so we could go with the flow of the Gulf Stream as much as possible. I used the vectors on the chart plotter to approximate the apex’s of the “S”. If we had simply calculated the drift and required course angle we would have been heading SW against the current the entire way. This way we sailed SW while the current was negligible then turned due West, drifting NW until we exited the Gulf Stream slightly North of our destination, turning SW again for the last few miles. Overall we averaged about 6kts in pretty light wind and we hit our destination so we’ll call it a good plan.

We sailed for about 3 hours early then motor sailed for most of the remaining passage. A sea breeze going once we reached the FL coast allowing us to finish under sail. Since we had to run the engine more than usual, we were generating extra power so we charged our dive batteries and made a tank of water.

We had hoped to spend the night on a reef but it was a bit rolly so we headed back inside. We wanted a calm spot since we didn’t sleep very well last night. I checked us in with customs via the CBP Roam app. Easy Peasy.

Tomorrow we plan to sleep in then go diving.

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