It was time to move on. The next leg of the journey was to head from Rodriguez to Marathon, a few miles further down the Keys. Straight line the trip was just under 50 miles but the day I chose to leave was light winds so it would be another slow sail.
In studying and reading about this lifestyle all the forums and books focus on what to do in extreme storms and high winds. Building the boat and skill sets to handle these unlikely (but dangerous when they do happen) events makes you forget that most of the time your fighting wind from the wrong direction, or little to no wind at all.
Rodriguez To Marathon
Getting away from Rodriguez Key was a challenge, as I had to beat into easterly headwinds. There is a large shoal area on the northern edge of Rodriguez Key that means you have to go a mile or so northeast of the island to clear it. It took me about 2 hours and 4 or 5 tacks to finally get past the shoals.
Once I cleared the shoals, it was a downwind sail for the next 20 hours. Winds were in the 5 – 8-knot range. I think there was a current going with me as we did 3+ knots the whole time. This was an uneventful trip; you just had to keep an eye out on the charts for a few shoals and markers.
Around midnight the wind dropped off, even more, requiring me to tack down Hawk’s Channel. Just outside of Boot Key, around 4 am, the wind died completely, and I anchored out for a few hours waiting for the wind to change. Around 6:30 am the wind started to pick up, and I slowly drifted into the Knights Key Anchorage just in front of the Seven Mile Bridge (N 24 42.285 W 81 7.673)
Trip Distance: 74 miles
Trip Time: 22 hours
Knight Key Anchorage
A few notes about this anchorage. I chose it because it’s a short row to shore (or so I thought). I had lost a paddle for the rowboat and needed to easily get to shore and get a new set. There is a lot of current running through here. On my paddle to shore, I didn’t compensate for it and got shot under the bridge and landed in the park on the other side of the highway. Coming back it was a struggle, and I learned a little secret. After trying unsuccessfully to row against the current or pull myself along the bridge abutment, I tried rowing out to the middle of the bridge away from shore. The current was a lot less here, and I was able to make way against the current and arrive back on the boat.
Marathon
I walked into town to get breakfast and stop by West Marine to purchase new oars for the rowboat. Marathon is a quaint little town with a lot of independent small food shops. I only spent a few hours in town, but it reminded me of those little towns out in the middle of the California/Arizona desert.
It seems that Marathon has an issue with iguanas. Once you got out of the town itself and back to the bridgeside park they were everywhere. 4 foot lizards just laying out in the grass by the handfuls. Not quite as big as the Cuban Rock Iguanas we used to keep at the shop but still they were well fed and looked healthy.
Here’s a couple short videos (just raw, no edits) I took on a drone flight this morning and then photo gallery below that.
