22 Mar The Smuggler’s Run Part 3 – Let’s try this again

So the second attempt at crossing the everglades went better than the first.

We left Rose Marina @0830, just after the Key West Express. The winds were not as good as we had on the first try. They were around 15 knots by noon and it was getting “sporty” by the time we made it to Little Shark River. On our way in we spotted a boat anchored about 1/4 mile offshore, bouncing in 2 footers. I said “with this wind why would they want to stay all the way out here?”
The anchor set right away and there is a nice current in the river to keep you in line, but, as soon as the sun began to set the No-see-em”s came out and they were very hungry. Even with everything closed up we had to resort to burning the Pic coils inside the cabin. It was a nice quiet night in a beautiful part of the world that not many people get to see. It was very quiet the few times I ventured outside to check on things. The only noises were of birds and fish jumping, awesome!
The next morning I lathered up with bug spray and went to pull the anchor early just to get away from the bugs.

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As we were leaving the River there was a sailor just pulling his hook and doing the No-see-em dance, waiving his hands around chasing the little monsters.

As we passed the boat that was sitting quietly offshore I realized who had the better anchor plan. They were getting bounced around a bit at first but when the wind went down with the sun they would have had a nice flat night without bugs.

Just as the last time we made this trip the wind died completely for the run across to Marathon.

But you could tell weather was coming.

Also just as last time big winds were predicted for a few days as we arrived in Marathon. Well we had a few harrowing and busy days so we were ready for some relaxing by a pool and let the wind blow itself out.
So I booked us a slip @ marlin Bay resort for three nights.

It worked we did nothing for a few days other than a trip to the hardware, grocery and package store and lunch at the taco truck.

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Cheers!

The afternoons were spent by the pool taking “foot selfies” to post on Facebook to make people jealous.

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I don’t think the Smugglers stay at a resort like Marlin Bay but we enjoyed it.