Long Distance Boat Buying - Part 6

4/17/2008
5:30AM


Yesterday was a long day.


We left Marco Island, FL at daylight, a little after 7:00 AM. I have a photo here of the Snook Inn that I spoke about in the last posting. Great place.




The seas were still rough with 4-6 footers coming out of the NE. The wind still was 20-25 knots. We had to venture further out into the Gulf so we didn't have the luxury of calm seas. The good thing was that we had a following sea. The boat performed quite well but could only muster about 16 knots. I made us a pot of coffee earlier and placed it into a thermos as going down below was miserable.


We passed Cape Sable, Florida's southern most tip around 10:30 AM. This marks the entrance into the Keys. The water flattened out to a light chop making 20 knots possible. We cleared Channel 5 about 11:30 AM and turned to the North in Hawks Channel.

We decided to top off the fuel tanks one last time to make a our final run into Miami. We stopped at the famed Holiday Isle Marina. And NO, for those of you that know this place, there were NO naked people on the sand bar.


We topped off the tanks and left the marina in record time. I prepared some lunch to eat while underway.

You have to love those green and blue waters of the Florida Keys, they are almost breathtaking. You can see the bottom in the lighter green areas. The first time you see this from a boat, it makes you a bit nervous; but it was still 15-30 foot deep..


















Once we passed Key Largo things changed dramatically. The NE seas again built to 4-6 footers, maybe even larger. This time were were heading directly into those seas.

Life aboard turned somewhat difficult trying to stand up or just hold on. We had about 3 hours of this to endure before landfall.


The wind was blowing at least 25 knots. Occasionally the boat would dip between waves throwing green water over the top of the fly bridge, creating a momentary white-out.









Thank goodness for the isinglass windscreen. It kept us dry.















We could manage only about 15 knots as that's all we would push the boat so not to harm her in those heavy seas.

But she performed like a champ, never hesitating the first time.





Captain Todd did most of the operating of the Meridian. He's got over 25 years operating large boats, now his job is a full-time delivery skipper. He moves boats for owners, dealers and manufactures. He also has a radio show in St. Petersburg; catch him at http://www.thefishindudes.com/






Welcome to Miami Beach.



We rolled into Miami Beach at 5:30 PM, tired, covered with salt and weary after a full day on the water.







After a nice dinner of Mahi at a local watering hole, it was time for some shut eye.I didn't even check my email. My was it good to sleep.



Today, NOAA is predicting 6-8 footers building to 7-9 this afternoon. We've got one more leg to Ft. Lauderdale to go.

Stay tuned.