It was downwind all the way

Toucantook · May 01, 2008, 06:42:47 PM

Nano and I got to Flamingo just in time to flee the onset of mosquitoes and clear away to Murray Key, about a mile offshore and no bugs. In the morning we went back into Flamingo to get water, then set off for the Rabbit Keys, halfway across the bay to Long Key. Spent the evening listening to the birds in the mangroves. The Glades are waterbird central. While at Murray, I saw an osprey come down and snatch a fish. The fish was as big as he was, and made a crash dive, carrying the osprey down with with it. However, the water was less than a foot deep, and he ran into the bottom. So here we have the osprey with his head sticking out of the water, looking about with a "I hope nobody saw this" expression on his face. He then made eight attempts to get out of the water with the fish to no avail. He paused for a few moments, then made a paramount effort, and, finally clearing the water, pulled the fish clear of the water. That was one determined bird...

The following day I headed for Windley Key and spent the evening in a notch in the mangroves on the north side. Entertainment included a two foot shark circulating around the anchorage, and, of course, the birds.

The short stint to Buttonwood Sound was rewarded with cracked conch and a beers.

The next day was spent sailing back to Flamingo on a rip roaring downwind with the second reef in all day. We spent the night in the lee of Joe Kemp Key. This was an error. Kemp is way too close to shore and shares the mainland's mosquitoes. I would have fared better going to one of the islands further offshore.

Much of this trip around the upper Florida Bay was done mostly in waters less than a foot deep and some 4 to 6ft. Wind was out of the West@10 to 15 the first day, then SW@15 to 20 but for the last day, when it was E@15to 20.

Nano is an eight foot cruising dink that has covered sleeping for one, a one burner stove and an oven. I'd recommend this trip for anybody with similar shoal craft, especially if they dig birds. I wouldn't bother with an anchor. Just tie up to a mangrove.

Captain Smollett · May 01, 2008, 07:50:31 PM

Awesome, Stuart!

You didn't happen to get some pictures, did you?

Toucantook · May 01, 2008, 10:47:44 PM

Yes, actually. I tried to attach them, and they were all under 200kb, but no go...

Captain Smollett · May 02, 2008, 12:13:46 AM

Quote from: Toucantook on May 01, 2008, 10:47:44 PM
Yes, actually. I tried to attach them, and they were all under 200kb, but no go...

Give the SailFar Gallery and see if that works better. You should be automatically logged in to the gallery, but if you are not, just use the same username and pw you use for the forum.

CapnK · May 02, 2008, 06:57:51 AM

Wow, Stuart, I would have loved to have seen that osprey incident! lol I have the mental image of this bird, head-only above the water, looking around like "Jeesh, I hope none of the guys flies over right now..." ;D (The reason that is funny to me is because of the countless similar situations I have gotten myself into. ;))

Sounds like some fun cruising, and perfect waters for Nano. I may have to try some kind of modding of my Walker Bay 8, see if I can turn her into a 'nano-cruiser'... :)

Did you get a specific message about why the pic attachment failed? That's odd, unless we've used up the folder space again - in which case I can make it larger...

Toucantook · May 02, 2008, 08:34:09 AM

The message just said something like the file size was too large, or something to that effect. They uploaded to the gallery, though.

AdriftAtSea · May 02, 2008, 08:51:56 AM

You can open a Flickr.com, photobucket.com or picasaweb.com account and then post the photos there and link to them here. :) If you're on a Mac, iphoto has some plugins that will let you post photos to Flickr.com etc painlessly. If you're on a PC... use Picasa ( http://picasa.google.com ) to post your photos to Picasaweb.com. :) Picasa is free, and iPhoto comes with every recent Mac.

Captain Smollett · May 02, 2008, 09:39:54 AM

Quote from: AdriftAtSea on May 02, 2008, 08:51:56 AM
You can open a Flickr.com, photobucket.com or picasaweb.com account and then post the photos there and link to them here. :) If you're on a Mac, iphoto has some plugins that will let you post photos to Flickr.com etc painlessly. If you're on a PC... use Picasa ( http://picasa.google.com ) to post your photos to Picasaweb.com. :) Picasa is free, and iPhoto comes with every recent Mac.

The gallery here worked fine...why change?

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It was downwind all the way