Hole up in Boot Key Harbor

Day 14:  March 13, 2013

The wind increased during the night and was blowing quite strongly by sunrise, 20 mph from the north and waves had built to 5 to 6 feet.  It was reassuring to know that we were tied to a well established mooring ball in a well protected harbor.  The boat was relatively calm but the wind did indeed howl.  We both commented the difference in our attitudes in a place like this in heavy weather as compared to hanging on an anchor.

Ugly weather in the neighborhood

I got up early and worked on the blog postings.  We fixed a bacon, egg, blob blueberry muffin breakfast and messed around tidying up the boat before we settled down to an entire day of reading.  We both have good novels that we are engrossed in and this day was well suited for reading.  If fact, we read until about 4:00 when we fired up the dink and headed for dinner.

I ran the motor for about an hour and a half to charge the batteries.  I had placed the dinghy battery into the boat’s circuitry and put a boat battery in the dinghy.  The motor puts out 6 amps and I was surprised that the batteries in the charging system were almost fully charged in that small amount of time.  We are fairly careful about using up our batteries.  All of the lights on the boat except for two have been replaced with LED bulbs that use very little current.  We still have incandescent bulbs in the v-berth where we sleep and one on the stern which serves as a running light.  These two lights are seldom used.  It is amazing how much more electricity the old style bulbs use.

We did take a break from our reading to prepare our noon meal of Spam and PBJ with chips and butterscotch pudding cups. 

We traveled from the marina to Lazy Days Restaurant on the barrowed bicycles for a wonderful waterfront meal.  I had a truly super horseradish and crumb crusted grouper dinner with rice and Janine had stuffed shrimp.  We both had a bowl of conch chowder which was also delightful.  Right next to where we were sitting, a large, I would say 40 foot, sailing catamaran had signs advertizing sunset cruises.  While we ate, the skipper and his mate came aboard and prepared for the evening cruise.  At around 6:00 15 folks came aboard for the adventure.  The crew cast of their moorings and motored out into the channel the exact way we would have done it with our little boat.  I would not have headed out in such winds, but catamarans are very stable and it appeared that when he raised his sails, he had reefed the down a bit.

Sunset in ugly weather in the neighborhood

The trip back was about 2 miles long and the ride with full bellies was a bit more challenging.  It is great to have an opportunity to get a bit of exercise.  While we sail, most of the time, we are riding and definitely not exercising. 

Back at the boat, we battened things down for another night of wind.  Forecasts are calling for even more wind than last night.  Again, we appreciate the security of a mooring ball.

We read until about 9:00 and then lights out.