New Found Harbor to Boot Key. . . Wheeeeee!

On Friday we once again set sail. The wind had been east and heavy for a few days but it looked like Friday it would swing to the south-east and if so allowing us a nice run to the ENE to Boot Key. NOAA wasn’t wrong this time. Before leaving we spotted a water spout snaking out from under a cloud. Never got near the water though but still . . . .

After taking able seaman Jeff D. on board as crew beer delivery guy we got going around 1000. We went just about straight south on a port tack to get an angle on Boot Key. We tacked about 3-4 miles out and headed for Boot Key. What a great day. Made it all the way in one reach. Enee was heeled over with her rail touching the water and sea water coming up the sink drains. Wheee! Seas were only 2-3 feet so it was a pretty fun ride. About half way there we finally put a reef in the main for a little more comfort with no loss in speed. In fact, Enee seemed to go faster as the day went on perhaps scrubbing her own bottom!

Great to have our own driver!

Made the drawbridge into Boot Key harbor around 1530 and dropped anchor soon after that. What a great day. It’s been awhile since we’ve had a truly good sailing day as our runs on the west coast of Florida were either on the inside or on the outside with dead air or wind on the nose.

We have the usual list of boat issues while we are in Boot Key. Number one is getting hauled on Monday and painting the bottom. It’s been about a year and the bottom took a beating from the Barnacles in Ft. Myers. Float switch on the bilge pump went on the fritz during the sail yesterday so that either needs fixing (right. . .) or replacing (more likely). We’d also like to order a new thermostat for the fridge to see if that fixes it and hope it won’t take too long to get shipped.

We already met up with our old friends Joe and Peg who we first met Nov 1 of ’05 at the start of the ICW. It was fun to sit with them last night aboard their boat and catch up a little.




Looks like another cold front will be moving through in the coming week causing winds out of the north which is no good for crossing the gulf stream. So, we’ll probably be here for a week at least.

Stay tuned