Return trip

Thursday
10 am we're 35 miles west of captiva. Fog so thick we can't see anything. Capt Jim is worried someone might run us over. Don't worry says I, anyone out in this will have radar. (except us of course.) We have motored the entire way back so far.
I didn't realize until we were half way back that we had only stayed one night at the Tortugas. All the days and nights run together when you don't sleep. My watch is every other 4 hours starting at 4 am to 8 am.
the fog is gone thanks to the storm that came in. Temp dropped 20 degrees, wind blowing 20 on the nose, waves 6 to 8'. We take green water over the bow. Every screw, bolt, port, hatch, and window on this boat leaks. The v-berth cushions are floating (as is everything I brought onboard.) Trying to sleep is impossible. You have to hold on to the bunk with both hands and still you go flying off when we go crashing down a wave. Of course I wear my rain gear inside the boat because of all the water leaking through. Looks like we will get back to st pete about 7 am friday. Maybe.

Loggerhead reef

Wednesday
we watched manta rays, sharks, etc all around the boat last night. Watched the greatest sunset ever. Capt Jim and I gave the other 2 capt's a eucher lession.
The park rangers gave us the lat and lon of a shipwreck we could snorkle over. This morning we picked our way around several reefs, so as to not become another wreck and worked our way into the shipwreck. There was a mooring ball to tie to so we didn't disturb the wreck with our anchor. The wreck was about 50 yards upwind. Capt ted put on a lifejacket and the two of us snorkling off. We went about 10 yards, and ted couldn't go on because the waves fulled his snorkle. I continued on another 20 yards or so, but I tired quickly. I had snorkled several hours yesterday and my legs wouldn't push me into the wind and waves. And I was now alone except for the large barricuda following me. The water was 15' deep. I was pretty well exhausted, so I returned to the boat.
We started sailing NOrth about 11 am. We were joined by two different pods of dolphins that put on a show for over an hour. I sat up on the bow rail waving to them as they rolled over to look up at me. I kept imagining that they wished they had arms. Then I could envision how they were lining up to time their jumps to bite off mine. They were thinking "too bad that guy doesn't have fins."
We had planned on sailing into Charlotte harbor and spend tomorrow night anchored there but the wind has died, and it looks like we will sail and motor straight to Tampa bay. We are 95 miles from the nearest land. 160 miles from our destination. Going 5 mph. It's about 88 degrees and very humid. Perfect
Dinner tonight included tuna, sardines, vienna sausages, followed by peanut butter and jelly on saltines. Scrumptous ! I guess everyone is over their queasy stomachs.

Ft jefferson

Pumped up the dinghy and rowed ashore. Toured fort jefferson. The largest brick structure in the western hemisphere. 16 million bricks.
Ran into a woman on island packet "Why Knot". Keep their boat on E dock at burnt store. Asked if she knew Priscilla. Silly question. They've been here over a week.
After a nap (we sailed all night) we went back to the shore to snorkle. Got my money's worth the first 15 minutes. Hunderts of colorful fish and some barricudas.
Back aboard the boat, we watched a 5 foot long goliath grouper swimming in the crystal clear water directly under the boat. My phone does not take underwater photos, but I attached one.
The weather is here...........
We have already forgotten the unpleasant trip down here.

LeavIng key west

monday night
The harbormaster in kw insisted we leave a little before 2. Watched dolphins, flying fish and man-o-wars as we went out the channel.
Capt Ted ran the macerator when we were about 20 miles out. I went down below to nap and the cabin stunk! I asked ted to check if the holding tank was empty. He had connected the pump wires backwards and pumped into the tank and up into the head.
We dined on beanie wienies tonight. Each of us had our own can and spoon. Served properly at room temp. Followed by a little debbie. Delicous.
We again encountered elec gremlins tonight. I was assured by the captains in kw that all was solved. But the power went off again tonight. Since the waves are only 2 feet, I was able to get into the battery compartment. I was holding a flashlight while Ted checked the voltage of a battery. It was obvious to me that the negative wire was not connected on 1 battery. Hope that solves the problem.

We're a long way from anywhere tonight and the sky is clear. Stars, stars, more stars.
The weather today and the stars tonight is what the picture in the brochure looked like when I signed on.
4:30 am I asked capt ted what those lights are ahead. Buoys marking the park boundry says he. As we get closer it's a boat says I. The people on the boat were yelling at us in some unknown language as we passed within 20 ' of them. I think I understood the meaning.
Arrived at ft jefferson at 8 am.

Try again

We're leaving key west about 4 this afternoon and sailing to the dry tortugas. We want to arrive in daylight so we'll sail overnight and arrive about sunrise. The entrance to the channel is tricky, and we would prefer not to hit the reef.
So we have a few hours to kill in key west. Not sure what we will do, but at least it won't involve snow.

Scooters

We rented scooters today. Got the 24 hour rate. Probably ride all night. Ran it wide open up and down A1A. 32 mph
The weather has turned much nicer. I think we're sailing out to the tortugas tomorrow.

After breakfast at Pepe's, we looked into the electrical gremlins. We found why the autopilot etc shut down. One of the captains sleeps in the quarter berth next to the battery switch. When he rolled over, he shut down the batteries.
While we were sailing down here and found the batteries low, I asked the captains if the refrigeration was on. "No!" Tied to the dock in KW, we found it had been on the entire trip. Refrigeration drains batteries quickly.
I'm not one for finger pointing but it seems our electrical problems can be traced back to the "Captain Gremlins."