March 14

After Joel’s arrival our stay at the mooring ended and we were on the road again, was a good feeling. The first day we had hardly any wind and went to Marco Island, anchored just south of the entrance. Joel and Jacques went for a swim and afterwards we went to search for a restaurant. We had a little difficulty to find a place for the dinghy, where we also could climb on the wall. With some help we found a spot where we could crawl over some rocks to get ashore. We had to wait about half an hour for dinner, so we decided to walk a little bit around and found a fantastic little Italian restaurant, was really a coincidence, we had there a wonderful dinner.

Next day we looked at the charts and decided to go to Little Shark River. We tried sailing but the wind again was slow and we made it to the river, just before it was completely dark.

The next morning we took a dinghy ride up the river, where we found two more boats anchored just around the corner, it was one of the nicest anchorages we had, saw lots of dolphins jumping and diving for their breakfast, really spectacular.

Next morning we left for Boot Key, we had great winds and made 8 knots, wonderful day of sailing, the only small negative thing was that we had picked up a crab buoy and Joel had to take an unplanned swim to check everything out.

We anchored outside the Harbor and Joel went for a dive on Thursday. In the evening we went with the dinghy to pick up Joel and to go to West Marine and have dinner in a very nice place Joel had heard about during the diving trip. On our walk we met another Fountain Pajot catamaran Antigua, we will try to keep contact, there are only about 55 Antiguas made.

On Friday we sailed outside the reef to Key West (to get some Atlantic feeling), the sail was very good but the waves were very high, not a comfortable ride, in the evening we anchored west of Fleming Island and went ashore to get the feel of Key West and watch a wonderful sunset.

Now Joel has left this morning and we tried to do some shopping, but the prices within walking distance were crazy, so we only took water and will find another place to shop tomorrow.

Ria