Ready for sea

After a run ashore for lazy book reading in the park (is there such a thing as a lazy book?) and late lunch, we returned to Calypso, hoisted the dinghy inboard, ran some fresh water through its engine and threw the cover over it.

I ran forty gallons of diesel per side through the fuel polisher from storage to service tanks. We have 520 gallons of fuel remaining, sufficient to get us all the way home with about 200 gallons to spare (that 200 gallons was bought in Fort Myers Beach). It is MIGHTY FINE to pull into a marina and respond negatively to the inevitable question about the need for refueling.

We are finding our water needs to be about 20 gallons a day; so our 240 gallon capacity is good for almost two weeks. I love the looks on the faces of the sailboaters when I go out and sprinkle down the hand rails to ge the salt off. Most of them have the ubiquitous blue 4-5 gallon plastic containers on deck or in their dinghies they use every trip ashore to replenish their water supplies.

Our other equipment is checked, stowed, and otherwise set to go for what COULD (but hopefully won't) be a rocky ride tomorrow for 36 miles of open Atlantic Ocean en route to NAF Boca Chica.

We have seen several boats departing today as the winds have definitely died down. In contrast to the brisk winds we have had all day for three days running, the breezes are quite mild this evening and from the west as predicted. The wind should be out of the north tomorrow which is good for us because we will be skirting the southern shores of the Keys.

When we decide to head for the Dry Tortugas in a week or so, I'll look at the predicted winds and go either north or south of the shoals and Marquesas Islands to avoid the worst of what may get kicked up. Ideally, our trip out there will cover a five-day period with reasonable weather predictions allowing us visit a couple of days and then run the 100-plus mile track directly back to the mainland at Naples. Once out at there, we will have little information on weather coming directly to the boat. We will have to look at the NOAA weather bulletin posted daily by the rangers at the visitor pier to get an idea of what to expect. Maybe will will find a sugar-daddy out there with a big satellite dome mounted in the top hamper of his big yacht where I can go begging for a real0-time update. Another thing to get when we win the lottery - that list is getting awfully long.