From Lumber Key to Little Shark River

Day 12: Friday, March 4, 2016

Neat little Key near Lumber Key - one of thousands!

Today was a great day! It began with a fine breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast.  We had both fallen asleep before 8:00 so we were both up and drinking our first cup of coffee shortly after 5:00.  I was awakened by a slight change in the actions of the boat’s rocking.  It is hard to describe, but the gentle rocking very quietly stopped.  We were sitting on the bottom of the bay.  The tide last night was a fairly exaggerated one and so at about 4:30, three feet of water had moved on to other parts of the world and left us gently stuck in the soft mud of Gulf.  But, tides are on a predictable 6 hour cycle and by 5:30, the boat began to rock again and by 8:00 we were on our way to

What we do a lot of.  Sailing from Lumber Key to Little Shark River

our next destination.

A nice breeze was blowing and so, after about a half mile passage out into the open waters, we raised the sails and headed southeast towards the middle part of the everglades.  The wind was blowing from the northwest so I spread the sails wide and enjoyed a full day of sailing.  We have a “Tiller Pilot” which is an autopilot that attaches to the tiller.  It can be slaved to the GPS/chart plotter in such a way that allows us to follow a preprogramed course.  Usually, after breakfast, I figure where we want to go and using the chart on the GPS, I plan the best course to get there.  I then program the route and save it in the chartplotter.  Today’s route was approximately 30 miles long and tiller pilot and the chart plotter talked to each other the entire way without intervention from me.  All I had to do was

Entrance to the Little Shark River

keep the sails trimmed and by 4:00 we arrived at our destination.

We had a wonderful wind all day. Our average speed was probably 3.5 mph over a slightly bumpy sea.  The path began by passing between a number of small mangrove islands and then for the remainder of the day, we traveled about 1 to 2 miles off shore.  The waters around the shore are generally quite shallow.  The temperature was in the low 70s but with the breeze, we wore sweaters for most of the day.

Our destination was the Little Shark River which burrows back into the

everglades.  It is a highly touted anchorage by both other sailors with whom we have spoken and also the guide book that we are carrying.  We wandered back about 2 miles through beautiful mangrove forests passing an unlimited number of sights where one could drop anchor.  Since our boat has a shallow draft, we were able to venture deeper into the everglades than most of the bigger boats.

By the time we selected our special spot in a beautiful small stream off of the Shark River, it was getting close to 5:00 and the evening onslaught of tiny vicious blood sucking insects who were firing up their engines for their dusk sorties.  We sprayed ourselves with repellent but that seemed only to act as a beacon for these little marauders.   So, we barricaded ourselves in the

Great Blue Heron

cabin and then filled the internal atmosphere of our sanctuary with Raid to kill those little ones that preceded us inside.

As usual, we dined well this evening.  We began with hors d’oeuvres (A friend of ours calls them “Horse’s ovaries.).  Tonight’s selection was sardines in mustard sauce on crackers served with a glass of Gnarly Head Merlot.  The main course was spaghetti and meat sauce followed by

Bake Packer blob spice cake

Bake Packer blob spice cake heavily smeared with cream cheese icing. 

I must at this point report that I received an irate complaint from a follower of this blog who was upset by the fact that in a discussion involving our dinghy, I referred to her as “Damn Dink Two.”  He reminded me that in the contest held last year while we were sailing in the Bahamas, the winning name was “Damn Dink Too.” As you might imagine, it was one of my irate pissed off Holekamp relatives. So, to paraphrase the sign in the south Florida restroom, Deal With It, Don!