Day #2: Today's picture shows Nellie's crew readying for the cross to Bimini. We ran until just after midnight yesterday. It got a little bouncy rounding Cape Sable at the bottom of Florida but other than that it was perfect. As night fell we made sure to keep Nellie inside the Everglades Park boundaries where crabbing is illegal. The boundary, which is otherwise indistinguishable from any other patch of ocean, is made obvious by the many crab pots pushing up against it. Our spotlight did yeoman duty continuously scanning the waters. The Yacht Channel route, which is the fastest way around the southern tip of Florida, is narrow, shallow, and reef laden. Nellie's two-person watch managed, sometimes barely, to keep her prop clear of both rock and rope. The final challenge of the evening was the Yacht Channel itself. This 100 yard stretch, which motorists would describe as a switch-back, captures its fair share of inattentive mariners. In fairness Nellie's chart plotters make it easy to figure out on which side to pass the channel markers. Safely through we motored another 40 minutes before dropping the hook on the west side of Fiesta Key. 98nm for the day and 98nm for the journey. DBH.
