Moving On

If we ever hope to make it to the Chesapeake, we have to keep moving.  Our next destination goal is to make it out to the Dry Tortugas N.P.  As with any sailing adventure it all depends on the weather.  We plan to go to Boca Chica Marina, a Navy facility and enjoy the luxury of unlimited electricity and water we don't have to haul.  We haven't been in a marina in over 6 weeks so it will be a treat to easily walk up to do laundry, shower, etc.  We'll also use the time to give the boat a good scrub and use their wifi to get things updated.  The trip West from Boot Key to Boca Chica is not a long run and it was mostly a sailing trip in light winds.   We'll wait out a front coming through here in a few days then see if we can make it out to the tortugas in good weather and have at least a few days there in reasonable weather.   If not, we'll adjust.

This is the old railroad bridge from Bahia Honda to Pine Key.  It parallels Highway 1.

Wisely, a section of bridge was removed to keep people off the no longer
maintained part of the bridge.  The bit of land and bridge is in Bahia Honda Sate Park.
We love the park but haven't made it out this visit.

Crabpot buoys are all over the keys.  They are color coded to let the fishermen
know who's pot it is.  It is a crime to take one that doesn't belong to you and
woe be the once who poaches and gets caught! 

This boat is checking his pots.  If you click on the photo to zoom in, you can
see the crab pots on the back of the boat.

Just your friendly eye-in-the-sky.  It was moored on one of the keys along the way.
David had read that it is monitoring traffic through the keys to catch drugs, illegals, etc.

We saw lots of seagrass.  Some had collected into large beds such as this one.
Small animals use the beds as hideouts from predators.  Sadly we also
saw quite a bit of floating plastic junk.