On to the next stop

Fort Myers and the St. Charles YC were a great place to stop and catch up on chores and refill the pantry and fridge but a short weather window was open so off we went.  I know it is so odd for most folks to wrap their minds around how much weather dictates our lives.  Schedules are only "dream sheets" on a boat.  When you push the weather your outcomes range from merely uncomfortable to downright dangerous.  This particular instance we knew we risked some discomfort but not leaving meant another week of hanging around in rain and (to us) cold so off we went.  It was a real mixed bag of boating.  We needed to average 6 kts to arrive safely before dark the next day.  We couldn't leave the marina until in the afternoon due to waiting on a higher tide.  That incoming tide also meant a long, slow slog down the river against the tide.  We motor/sailed about 2-3 hours then the wind piped up from a reasonable direction and we enjoyed a quiet ride into the sunset.  It was a nice beam reach for a few hours then the predicted winds arrived in full force.  We were screaming down the path with low waves, initially.  You notice that initially part, right.  We actually were going way too fast and had to reduce sail.  First we furled the jib and dropped the mizzen.  Those were things we could do from in the cockpit since it was now very dark and going on deck in waves is not fun.  Even then we were still doing over 8 kts with occasional 9s.  If we had not needed to arrive in daylight, we would have loved the rare speed but alas, that wasn't the case. Eventually David clipped in to the jack line and dropped the main.  This went amazingly well from both our perspectives.  I had to control the boom from smacking him and he had to get the sail down in bumpy conditions.  Once we were sailing with only a small scarf of jib, the boat was much less stable and then it was an endurance ride.   We didn't sleep well but knew we'd catch up once anchored and cleaned up.   Ah, the vagaries of cruising.

It is Farewell for now and another bridge behind us.

The sunset was really amazing.  The colors of the clouds and water
kept us mesmerized for a long time.  The afterglow was just as great
but didn't photograph well.

The deep colors as the sun started to dip below the water.

The overhead cloud cover briefly cleared and the seas really lightened up.
We had a short period of time where we saw stars but the cover was complete by
9pm.  It was weird being off the Everglades with no towns but the glow from
Miami was on the far Eastern  horizon.