on the move :)

This morning was divide and conquer.  Donnie went to Bryan's to catch a ride to Driftwood on his fishing boat, and I packed up our belongings (again) from Dave and Diane's (again) and drove to the boatyard.  Four trips between the Jeep and Marquesa loaded down like a pack mule had me in a sweat and it was only 11am.  The sun was shining bright today, and it was at least 80 degrees.  I'm not complaining.

I no sooner got all of our stuff loaded, and all of the tools and mess from yesterday cleaned up, and I heard the boys coming down the canal.  Good timing.  I also happened to look back towards the boatyard and saw two manatees in the water!

They are such gentle giants...cute in an ugly sort of way :)

That's the look of contentment...she looks like she's sighing and saying "ahhhh!"

Bryan and Polly were so kind to offer their boat, and assistance, in getting us out of the boatyard and over to Banana Bay.  There was a good southerly wind; we just needed some help getting through the canals and out to the ocean.  (Jay came along for the ride :)  They side-tied to Marquesa. Bryan's motor provided the propulsion, and Donnie did the steering on Marquesa.  Pretty ingenious idea, really.

We passed this sunken boat and were reminded that it could always be worse! Do you see what I see up on the bow?

Cap'n was just happy to be on the move and at the helm again :)

It's a beautiful sight as we entered the channel, to have nothing but the wide open ocean in front of us.

If was a very LONG channel, as the water is so shallow throughout the Keys.  Unfortunately, we were nose into a strong southerly wind.  We were bouncing in 2-3's, but poor Bryan was slamming into them and into Marquesa, too.  They were really getting beaten up, so we had to cut ties before the end of the channel and cut the corner as well, praying we had enough depth.  It was a little dicey exchange; throwing tow lines, gathering lines and raising the jib all at once.  Thankfully, there was no harm, no foul.

We immediately hit over 7 knots under jibsail only- Marquesa was like a race horse charging out of the gate!

The wind direction and speed was to our favor all afternoon.  God was smiling down upon us, for sure.
We put a reef in the mainsail and cruised along on a beam reach to the seven mile bridge. We never had to tack until we turned to go under.  There, we had the wind directly behind us to push us under the bridge.

Bryan and Polly were on standby at the bridge, in case we had any issues trying to go under.

No problemo!  God continued to smile, as the tide was running with us to carry us through :)

You can't really appreciate the beauty of those two sails...but they are SO NICE.  The jibsail is brand-spanking new as we blew ours out last season crossing back from the Bahamas.  The mainsail is only a year old as we had blown the former one out when the boys sailed to the Dry Tortugas the season before.  We attempted to have it restitched, but it too, gave way by the end of that season.  For those of you that are sailors, you'll notice in the picture above that there is some 'bag' in the mainsail.  When Donnie raised it earlier today, after shaking out the reef, the main halyard winch on the mast blew apart in pieces all over the deck.  Even with turning into the wind, there was still too much pressure and force for him to take it all the way to the top. Hence, the bagging.

We had another beautiful beam reach sail four miles along the Gulf of Mexico coast to bring us back to our winter home at Banana Bay.  It was glorious sailing today; we averaged about 6 knots and made great time.

Late in the afternoon, Bryan and Polly were again right there for us.  We side-tied as before, and Bryan gently eased us up the channel and right into our slip at Banana Bay.  It was calm on the Gulf side, and the plan worked perfectly!  We owe these two dinner out AND a tank of gas for all of their help. We couldn't have done it with out them. What a great way to start the new year!

All of the family was there, and our good friends Dan and Biddi, to help us turn the boat around and tie down.  Then, I hand-delivered a Christmas gift from Greg and Wanetta to Danny- apple cider moonshine!  Great gift for a KY boy :)

We met up with our niece and nephew, Courtney and Derek, at a Mexican restaurant. Sadly we didn't get them on the boat this trip, and they have to leave for IN tomorrow.  But we ordered margaritas, and toasted to making plans in April for them to fly down to Cozumel and join us for some fabulous scuba diving!

We mostly ordered Cuban food, from our Cuban waitress, and it was ah-mazing!

All in all, the day was a success, for sure.  Yes, we already have a to do list a mile long of boat projects and such, but those are the joys of owning a boat.  They say boat stands for B reak  O out  A nother  T housand, and boat ownership is working on your boat in exotic places!  That's for sure.  The salty air and salt water is hard on a boat, no matter if is it left in the water, or up on the hard like we did last year. But, we work like h**l and save like crazy for eight months, so we can have the privilege of sailing and living on Marquesa for four months out of the year. The good news is we're on island time now, and there's no pressure :)   If we want to tackle a project, we do, and if we don't, we won't!  Calling it a night, for tonight, and more on all those projects tomorrow.