Islamorada and Marathon

We took off from Coconut Grove, just south of Miami and travelled for 10 hours down Biscayne Bay past Key Largo stopping at Islamorada.  This was our first journey across wide expanses of water.  It felt like being on the ocean.  We arrived late in Islamorada because guess what....we were boarded by the Coast Guard off Key Largo.  The placed two crew on board and did a safety check...virtually what we do as vessel examiners for the Coast Guard Auxiliary.  We had a great time talking Coast Guard and they invited us to visit their Coast Guard Station if we had time.  Needless to say we passed with flying colors. 

Our first sunset in Marathon

 

TIKA on the OCEAN

 

The next day we got up at 5:00 AM due to a sleepless night at anchor off Islamorada.  High winds from the north created some rocking and rolling in the anchorage we chose and Admiral Marlene was hard to convince that we weren't dragging our anchor.  Because of the breezy north wind we decided to cross over the to the south side of the Keys at Channel 5 (a really huge bridge) and head to open ocean for the final leg  The water was crystal clear and when we passed over white patches of sand the color of the water looked like clear pool water.  There was no problem seeing 20 feet or more to the bottom. We arrived early into Marathon to find the mooring field full, but we managed to find TIKA a slot in the anchorage next to the mooring field.  We are on a waiting list and we will be here until a mooring ball opens up