Ft Lauderdale to Rodriguez Key to Marathon - THE KEYS!

Day # 126; Loop Miles to date = 1,740

We are officially in the Keys!

We finally "escaped" Fort Lauderdale after a week there. The weather finally gave us the window we were looking for, so we grabbed it. On Wednesday morning, we and Inspeyered 2 set off at 7am with the intent to head south on the outside...meaning that we would bypass the Intercoastal Waterway and go out in the Atlantic and cruise in open water. We found the weather, wind and seas to be ideal, with the wind at our backs. We had planned to travel about 40 miles to an anchorage we had chosen, but with the early start and great weather, we ran for about 78 miles to Rodriguez Key (Key Largo area). This put us more than halfway to Marathon, and we had a quiet night at anchorage here. The only downside, was that it was a longer dinghy ride to shore than we would have liked, and made for a chilly ride in the morning.

The Miami skyline from a couple of miles offshore.

The color of the water changed noticeably as we ventured south.

Inspeyered 2 at anchor...sunset at Rodriguez Key.

To add to our adventure, we decided that having some minor engine difficulty would make things more interesting. When we performed our engine room checks on Wednesday evening, we were greeted by the distinct smell of diesel fuel, and found about a quart or two puddled under the engine...typically this is not a good thing! The really short version of the story is that we had a pinhole leak in one of our fuel lines that was spraying diesel onto the floor of the engine room. Fast forward to 11am on Thursday morning, and the line had been patched, and deemed safe for venturing on. The patch lasted about 2 hours and then it failed and we were leaking fuel again. After anchoring for a short while, a second more aggressive patch was applied, and we were good to go. It was safe to travel with this patch, but stressful none the less...with engine room checks every 15 to 30 minutes assuring us that this second patch was holding. We finally arrived at our destination just after sunset, and pulled into our slip at dark.

So...we made it safe and sound, and added another page to our adventure. Now that we are camped out here for a few weeks, we will be able to order replacement fuel lines and fix this issue more permanently. Whew...we're glad that one is behind us!

And now for some catch-up photos from our time in Fort Lauderdale:

One more shot of some really big boats...

Our day at the beach with our friends from Inspeyered 2.

Waiting in the dockmasters office for Rob to finish up some paperwork.

And finally, our first official picture in the Keys...this was our Wednesday afternoon puppy run to shore...since we used this restaurant's dinghy dock, we decided to give them a small bit of patronage...