Key West to Clearwater

Leaving Stock Island Marina

Florida Bay must be a lonely place. White Pepper saw only one vessel, a large sailboat coming in as we were exiting the Northwest Channel to enter the Florida Bay.  That was the only sighting for the entire afternoon and night as we crossed from Key West to the Florida mainland.  The Florida Bay is a round shaped body of water about 50 miles across and uniformly 10-15 feet deep. There is not much fishing and sailors avoid it because it gets rough in any kind of breeze.  Fortunately we had ideal conditions.

Sailing conditions were ideal all afternoon with flat water, steady wind and fast speed.  At sunset the wind died so we motored.  I prefer to motor at night when the wind is light anyway.  There was a new moon which set quickly.  The very dark night passed quickly without sighting a single light.

 Flag waves in gentle breeze

Jan starts the dawn watch

 The original plan was to stop at Sanibel Island and Fort Myers Beach.  Both of these resort towns were closed due to COVID and transients were not allowed. The next plan was to anchor behind Estero Island and recover from the overnighter. However, by dawn we had made such good time and the weather was so nice that we decided to continue up the west coast of Florida. By late afternoon Tampa Bay was coming into view.  Friend, Tammy Swart, made a great suggestion via Facebook that we stop at Egmont Key.

Duck flies by with ranger station on Egmont Key

Egmont Key is sort of a barrier island but positioned right in the mouth of Tampa Bay.  Because of its ideal location Egmont Key has a storied history, but currently it is a bird sanctuary. Visiting is discouraged. We passed a quiet night at anchor.

Control panel died

The next morning we set out again passing through the Tampa Bay ship channel  in mild weather.  Again the original plan was to spend some time at the resort town of Tarpon Springs, but the entire town and the marinas were still in lockdown. We had called ahead and learned that Clearwater Beach Marina was accepting transients. As has happened all too frequently this trip another breakdown occurred just offshore.  The engine control panel quit working.  Fortunately the engine kept running.  We made a quick passage to Clearwater Pass and tied up by 2 pm.  Little did we realize that White Pepper would spend 11 days there trying to have the control panel repaired.

Moonrise over Clearwater Beach

Heron inspects boat