No Sharks Here

 Little Shark River

On Sunday morning the weather cooperated and the winds dropped and were forecast to continue to subside through out the day. Seas would be on our stern so a comfortable 44 mile cruise along the coast was ahead of us. The weather was sunny and cool with temps in the low 70s. We were on the lookout for dolphin, turtles and manta rays that jump out of the water.

No luck on the last two but we did see dolphin. We arrived at the anchorage about 2 pm. There was another boat in the anchorage when we arrived but before night set in there was two others. This place was pretty remote pretty 50 miles from the nearest point of civilization. We did the usual exploration on the dinghy and actually spotted a small alligator hanging out in the sun but no sharks. That night I spent about an hour up on the Sundeck staring into the brilliantly lit heavens realizing what a tiny speck we are in the overall scheme of things. Shooting stars were plentiful. 

Johnson Key

On Monday morning we hauled the anchor after a leisurely morning and made our strike across the Gulf to Johnson Key about 54 miles to the south east. This would be only the third time we would loose sight of land in all directions. Neptune smiled on us and granted us a smooth passage. We saw a couple of turtles, dolphin and one ray that jumped out of the water a good distance away.

The further south we travelled the more tropical colored the water became. We reached the channel where we cut through the reef and weaved our way 3 miles in to a beautiful anchorage. We set the anchor and admired the beautiful tropical waters that surrounded us. Johnson Key is just North of Cudjoe Key. We were a short 32 miles from our final destination, for the next month, at Sunset Marina on Stock Island.