i don't mind the bus at all, it sure beats driving, and the price is right. The travel time is about the same, maybe better when you consider there is a rest room on the bus. I typically stop a lot when driving. Today I only had a 10 minute wait at mia intermodal. 

We are now in Islamorada but the traffic is backed up, 15+ minute delay😞

OK so I'm getting carried away with the posts. The bus is now on “the stretch”, which is the part of US1 between Homestead and Key Largo. Not long ago there were fires raging on both sides of the road. This is the original path of Henry Flagler's FEC railroad. The sidings of a railroad line are areas where cars could be stored to allow trains to pass on the main tracks. These wider area are now used as 2 lane passing areas – the travel lanes are single lane for the 20 mile stretch.

I'm using my phone navigation software to track my journey back to Islamorada. time is flying by as i work to document my travels. Later it's nice to relive the trip, as I do from time to time. For example my trip to Europe

11am, April gave me a ride to the TriRail Train station in Fort Lauderdale so I can get to the Miami Airport Intermodal Travel Hub. I am now on a Flix/Greyhound bus to continue the journey to Islamorada, where my car is. the train and bus rides are relaxing to me and gives me an opportunity to fix my blog grammar mistakes made during my sail. i can also fill in the gaps and add content like I’m doing now.

 

At this point the biggest concern in my life is will I be able to catch the 301 bus from downtown Islamorada to where my car is, at my buddy Tom’s place? I left Tom’s dock earlier this week (I can’t remember the day without check my blog, but I’m editing it now)😄 So in that regard life is good. i enjoy these trips beginning to end.

 

I was totally exhausted last night having sailed a few days. I have learned a few tricks to make my short voyage more enjoyable, such as picking up a small pizza and salad at Habanos Restaurant in Islamorada prior to shoving off. I enjoyed that with a cold beer at the end of the day while anchored at Snake Creek before turning in for the night (When leaving Fort Lauderdale I hit Times Square Pizza).

Today making my way to Biscayne Bay heading towards Key Biscayne. halfway through the bay, the wind changed direction, in a matter of minutes. Now I have a cool breeze in my face. With the sun setting soon, I’m going to motor for a couple of hours up to Key Biscayne, to anchor in the lee of Cape Florida.  The wind is forecast to come from the north and switch to the northeast overnight so that would be a good spot to anchor for the night.

 

Tomorrow morning the winds are forecast to be from the east. Fortunately that will get me to Fort Lauderdale but the ocean will be a little bumpy. There is no way I want to go up the Intacoastal waterway and the countless  drawbridges.

In Angelfish Creek there are lots of little creeks and islands around here… mangroves everywhere, beautiful!

 

After a pleasant sail from Snake Creek I’m headed to the back side (not the ocean) to Card Sound. Then to Biscayne Bay to (maybe) hang around Adam’s Key and Elliott Key. The depth at the entrance to the creek on the Atlantic side was around 5 ft, it’s dead low tide.

As I mentioned in my previous post it looks like there may be weather ahead. As a matter of fact the weather service mentioned that a front Will be moving through, and the winds will switch the northwest eventually.  I will be ready unexpected changes.

It looks like a little funky weather ahead so I have reefed the main sail which means reduce the size of it. The wind could increase as a result of that weather so I’ve also furled the head sail out front just a bit. I can always furl that more if the weather gets too funky.

If you click on the small thumbnail it will enlarge the image and you'll see the detail from the navigation software chart and you'll see that I had to zigzag and you can see where I put the sails up where that yellow line starts is kind of where I am started the tracking process after putting the sails up.  I went through Snake Creek to get to the Atlantic from the Florida Bay side where I spent the night last night

well I pardon my grammar I know the capitalization is not so great but this is voice to text so that's the way it is I may go back and correct it later it's kind of a pain.  in any case in this screenshot if you click on the small image to get to the larger image you'll see the red line is my lover line that's the direction I'm pointed in and you see the boat at the end of that red line and behind me is the yellow line that's where I have been and then next to that is a line with two dots at either end and that's the distance and bearing to Caesar Creek that allows me to get into Biscayne Bay and out of the ocean I may just do that I'll make that call when I get there but we see that it's about 20 miles and I'm doing five and six not so it shouldn't take too long in 4 hours like after lunch I'll get there and decide whether to go up the outside to Miami in hawk channel in the Atlantic or go to the inside and Biscayne Bay through card sound

I'm under sale with the wind at my back for the most part you cannot sail straight downwind so anyway this is the chart detail by the way you can click on the image to enlarge it and you'll see the detail that I'm trying to avoid and then when I turn left here you can see the point that I need to get around to continue my journey to the east towards key largo

I have full sales up and having to keep an eye on the charts since I have to tack I'm going pretty much straight down when but you have to technically jive back and forth and that works out cuz I have to go around some obstructions anyway

I made decent time today with good wind leaving my friend Tom’s apartment near SeaBase on Lower Matacumbe Key, now anchored near Windley Key and Whale Harbor. This is close to Snake Creek, which is a channel where I can get out to the ocean in the morning if I choose to do so.

I left Tom's apartment on lower matacumbe key and made my way past bowlegs cut named after Seminole Indian Billy bowlegs past lignumvitae key now anchored near Snake Creek so that in the morning I can head out to the ocean and go up hawk channel or stay on the back side and go up the ICW in Florida Bay depending on the weather at this point the weather looks like it's pretty good to go on the outside I will double check in the morning and make that game day call on the Morrow

The image in this post shows where I am, under sail. Winds are from the south about 12 to 15 – I’ve been doing around five knots and live streaming on Facebook. I figured I would post some navigation screenshots to let folks know where I am.  stay tuned

headed toward fort Lauderdale ultimately just left lower montecumbe now in the intracoastal waterway in Florida Bay trying to make my way to inside Snake Creek to anchor for the night so that in the morning I can make a decision whether to go through Snake Creek into the ocean or stay on the inside Florida Bay

3:45 pm, I just put up the sails. The winds are from south around 10 knots. So far smooth sailing with full main and head sail.