Start: No Name Harbor, Miami  25.40.55 N, 80.09.701 W

Finish: Rodriguez Key, 25.03.008 N, 80.26.110 W

0819 Underway

1500 Anchor down at Rodriguez Key, Key Largo

Total Time: 6 hour 41 minutes

Total Distance:  46.02 nm

Daisy assumed her traveling position at the helm.  She is a real salty dog now, covered in spray from the ocean as is everything outside. 

Since we have to vary our rpm’s for the first 50 hours, we again sped up and slowed down throughout the day.  The seas were a little flatter today and soon we entered Hawk’s Channel which was even more calm.  Hawk Channel runs parallel to the shore on the ocean and is protected by a reef.  It averages about 15 ft depths and is recommended for boats over 45 ft. or drafts over 4 1/2 ft.  Since it is relatively narrow, compared to traveling on the ocean in other areas, boats pass close together to stay in the channel.  We motorsailed parallel to Almost Pawsible, going ahead of them at times or falling behind as they stayed a constant speed and we varied ours. Most vessels were headed north, probably from the Keys, traveling to their hurricane season ports. 

We could tell we were in the Keys by looking at the water.  Notice the turquoise color in the photo of Daisy.  While this isn’t as clear or blue as water in the Bahamas, it is far better than the murky water of Ft. Lauderdale and in fact clearer than almost all of the ocean water north of here.  When we dropped the anchor at Rodriguez Key, we could actually see the chain as it ran out. 

This is one of the few anchorages boats taking Hawk Channel can stop in as they travel north or south in the Keys, so it always has quite a few boats in it.  It seems like a very large area, but in reality, most of it is too shallow for anchoring, so it’s not as roomy as it seems.

Lynn and Shelley invited us over for a delicious dinner of grilled pork tenderloin, fresh green beans and baked potatoes.  Lynn is an expert at making rum punch, the drink of the Bahamas, so we enjoyed a few of those as well. She uses 3 or 4 different flavored rums and several different flavors of punch.  I must get her recipe.

The weather is calm now, but thunderstorms are predicted to begin tomorrow afternoon so we hope to be tucked into the mooring field at Marathon by then.