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I've been without cell phone service since Goodland. Now we are anchored off of Long Key. (The Keys at last!)

It's been a real long day, so I'll sum up for now.

From Goodland to the Indian River we had no wind so we motored the whole way. Spent the night at anchor. In the morning, motored out of the river then raised the sails. When I tried to raise the motor, the whole throttle assemble came apart in my hands. Several parts landed in the drink and disappeared. I did a temporary fix with electrical tape, cordage, hitch pins and other odds and ends. It's not pretty but it works.

The sailing got pretty rough. We took shelter at a tight little anchorage on the Lostman River. That is one remote piece of real estate. The channel is shallow and twisty. It's also where we encounter several large sharks hanging around the boat. They were about 8 feet long, which is long enough for me.


From there we went to the Little Shark River. (More sharks there, no surprise.) Winds gave out on us the next day so we had to motor.

By then fuel and water were getting low. Instead of heading across Florida Bay to the Keys, we made a side trip to Flamingo. There's a campground, Ranger Station, and a marina of sorts, and that's about it. Very remote. I could not get Verizon cell service, but apparently AT&T is available. We were stuck there three days while waiting for the weather to improve.

One couple in a 17 foot sailboat did leave and they had a horrible time of it. I know as we just anchored next to them at Long Key. My lovely wife and I made the jump across the bay by sailing and motoring. We got to our anchorage just as the sun was going down.

That's a thumbnail sketch. More details later.

-Sixbears