Meandering thoughts of a sailor, traveler and foodie.: Day Two of the Great Keys Artic Sail

Condition improved today. Temp reached the mid-60s and was actually going to warm up during the night.

However we knew we would have to be motoring into the wind, so we took our time leaving the marina.

So we set out and, lo and behold, we got to set sail for awhile. But soon our course veered Northeast and we were back to motor sailing.

So the decision, do we go inside the Channel 5 bridge for anchoring, or do we attempt a Hawk channel anchoring. We decided to forego Channel 5 since it was actually windward anchorage and from driving down we still had memories of the Bay side waters kicked up into a frothy mess were still keen in our mind.
It looked NASTY. However, the winds were supposed to die down.

NOTE: In the great weather forecast provider contest: Weather.com is permanently in last place. It seems they update the weather AFTER it happens. Weather Underground is good, especially if you want the actual compass direction of the wind. NOAA is pretty good about updating their marine forecast. Weather XM is currently in the dog house, we are thinking of dropping the service, but not until we figure if its an user error. Tim can download GRIB files on his iPad charts which is nice, but even that hasn't been updated like it should.

Back to the story...during our runs down below to warm up I reviewed anchorages online, bad bad bad reviews about the Indian Key anchorage. But we did our pros and cons and the big pro was that we'd gain about 2 hours by staying in Hawk Channel. So off we head to Indian Key.

We visited Indian Key once before, it's actually a State Park, Tim explored it, and when we get the dinghy we'll definitely probably visit it and Ligumvitae. The first time the mooring balls had been zapped by hurricanes, but this time the mooring balls were back. There's three that we saw, all occupied.

So we proceed to set the hook, then get yelled by some dipshit that seemed to think he needed the entire anchorage to himself. We moved, just because I didn't want to deal with the gesturing and freaking out.
He was set in over 10:1 scope. We set in about 7-8:1 scope and we got dug in good.

Now that it's over with, I'm not going to say BIG MISTAKE. But....BIG MISTAKE.

Our anchor held beautifully, even with a big wind shift and higher winds than forecasted. Special K...not so much. Amazingly I never got seasick like some folks reported. (But that could have been the pharmaceutical cocktail I had going of sinus meds).

But Indian Key is a rock and roll anchorage. Period. I think it's a combo of little protection, shallow water and a bridge nearby that doesn't provide protection. Our normal transom slap was more like BAM BAM BAM. Scared the hell out of me more than once. Our neighbors (not the dipshit) drug.

I managed to make what I called the Indian Key Rock and Roll Paprika Chicken and Rice Stew.

Amazingly--we got some sleep.