Shallow

Day #32: We're cruising in the Keys! The water is 80F, warmer even than the air, and a beautiful green-blue. On a map the Keys look simply like a long chain of islands. But cruising in the area you learn that there's a huge difference between the Keys' Atlantic and Gulf sides. Most notably, how shallow and calm the Gulf side is. That's why we're cruising on the Gulf side. The depth sounder never got above 9' and most of the time it showed 6' or less. This water is too shallow for big boats which is why they transit on the Atlantic side. It's nice to only draw 3'-6".

Today's picture shows Mini-Ne keeping track of our position while worming through the shallows. We dropped the hook off Long Key after a relaxing 54nm run. We're up to 1204nm for the trip.