5/11/2010 MARATHON TO ISLAMAORADA

We awoke to a beautiful Florida morning with a bit more wind than anticipated. After breakfast aboard the Quest, we dropped the mooring and headed back South to exit the marina and make our way under the Seven Mile Bridge and into the ICW for the first time. This route would offer us protection from the blowing wind.

LEAVING MARATHON BOOT KEY HARBOR

APPROACHING SEVEN MILE BRIDGE

CHART PLOTTER VIEW OF QUEST GOING UNDER SEVEN MILE BRIDGE

While enjoying the morning sun and breeze on deck, I happened to look up from my Kindle to see a lobster boat fast approaching our Port side. “Is this guy in trouble? Our first pirate encounter? What is his problem??” Dan, realizing that the guys onboard were asleep after a night of picking up traps, gave the horn a loud blast and veered out of their way. Close call!

CLOSE ENCOUNTER

OK, so this was just the beginning! As we maneuvered our way through the narrow and shallow channel, we began to see bottom. Just how shallow? At one point the depth finder read 3’ but I caught it at 3.9’. A few slides across the sandy bottom but we were fine. We certainly are not clipping along at our normal speed!

Our destination for this night was Plantation Yacht Harbor Marina in Islamorada. Tonight we are “plugged in” and have air and water to wash the salty Quest. Dan also put another quick coat of varnish on the railing before calling it a day.