Since joining 3rd Coast Cruising at the end of last summer, we’ve started our sailing adventures and education.  Just finished a four-day sail from Punta Gorda to Key West, Florida with a crew of new boating friends. Amazing.

Every once and a while there is a trip that Debbie and I wish lasted longer. Like the birthday weekend we spent in a remote trailer in Big Sur. And now, sailing in the Gulf of Mexico. We definitely were not ready to get off the boat.

We lost a sailing day because of high wind gusts and rough seas, so we spent an extra night on Marco Island at Deb’s Dad’s, looking out at the rain and the waves.  We boarded Lattitude Adjustment at the Burnt Store Marina on Saturday night and set sail as the sun came up on Sunday morning.  Cold, wavy, wonderful Sunday morning. Headed toward Naples, we spent much of the day on a run, with the parasail up. At one point, we hit 7.5 knots.

Then it was dusk and time to anchor. We needed to make a few repairs, but couldn’t find an open slip.  So we entered the canals around Naples and anchored in a protected and perfectly calm spot — surrounded by multi-million dollar homes. I suspect we were an unlikely sight. We drank. We ate. We slept.  We woke to another beautiful day and spent the morning taking care of things on the boat. We needed a jump (just like a car in the Chicago winter), so we inched our way over to someone’s dock that had an electrical hook-up. Mike went a-calling at the back door. Hello? Lucky for us, someone was home. Even luckier, he was extremely accommodating to our group of strangers at his back door, allowing us to hook up to his electrical and spend the time we needed on his dock. Once charged up with both engines running, we again set sail. Our destination was Key West, but to safely navigate the channel, we needed to arrive in daylight.  So, we decided to anchor off Marco Island for a few hours, then sailed through the night so that we could arrive at daylight.

We sailed past Marco Island and waved to Debbie’s Dad.  At Cape Romano, we anchored near the bizarre geodesic homes. Check the story out here. We fixed dinner, dinghied about, relaxed and planned the next leg. This meant checking navigation and dividing up into three-hour shifts for the sail through the night, one experienced person on the helm and another crew member to help watch for crab pots and other boats.

Sailing at night was an amazing experience. The moon was completely full and lit our quiet way.  We saw two other far-off boat lights, but otherwise we had the ocean to ourselves.  The waves were around two to three feet high, but hit us perpendicular to the boat, on the port side. Lots of crazy tossing in the berths.  I took the 1700 to 2300 shift with Russell, then Mike and Debbie relieved us between 2300 and 2:00. Deb saw a shooting star. When she came down to the berth, we laughed about our ability to sleep through the rolling.  Must be all the fresh air.  I woke at 5:30 and joined Russell and Johnny to watch the sunrise on our port side and the moon set on our starboard side.  What a night.

With Key West on the horizon, the sun coming up and the temperature finally rising, the rest of the crew joined us on deck. Under sail, we navigated a pretty wide channel to the marina, found our slip, scored the first shower in three days and made breakfast. A great morning, and sadly our last with this amazing crew. Thanks for an awesome trip!