Birds (Florida Boating, Post 25)

Saturday, Feb 13

Finally, on our third night, we didn’t ground the boat at low tide. I guess we finally got that figured out! Although we did have yet another wild rocking & rolling night.

The next morning was calm, we were treated to huge flocks of birds feeding at low tide:

After awhile they flew away:

Early morning fishing waxes into late morning fishing…

Then it’s time to go find a better anchorage! We want to be deep enough to stay afloat at low tide, AND be out of the wind, AND enjoy the stability of calm waters.

Here’s an idea; it’s probably deep enough, definitely protected from the southeast winds as well as from swells from either the Gulf to the north or the Atlantic to the south.

Off we go!

We had noticed another sailboat anchored some ways from us overnight. It’s a larger sailboat than ours and it spent the night anchored further out. This boat is a ketch with two masts; a main mask forward and a shorter mizzen aft (behind). We passed close by it on our way out, but I don’t like taking close-ups of other people’s boats. It doesn’t seem polite 🙂 So here it is from a distance.

Sailing along to our next destination!

Here’s a short video John took of us sailing.

Here’s a picture of an app that shows us how fast we’re sailing; 5.2 knots per hour, which is about 6 miles per hour. John says that’s “whipping along for a boat our size.”

Will we continue to progress through our slow learning curve and improve on our anchorage once more?

Here we are at our new anchorage. I’m hoping for a quiet night tonight!

After arriving, we went kayaking shortly before dusk. You can barely see our sailboat way out there in the center of the picture.

These are mangrove trees. They are tolerant of salty water and continuously waterlogged mud.

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