February 26, 2015 Little Shark River to Russell Key, Everglades City, Fl

We traveled 53 N.M (63 statute miles) from Marathon to Little shark River yesterday.

Today we pulled up the anchor at 816 and headed back out into the Gulf. The forecast was for 1-2 foot waves with wind 10-15 knots out of the southwest. I figured it would be a following sea and not a bad ride. I was wrong. The forecast was wrong also. As every boater knows sometime the National Weather Service must be broadcasting from a closet somewhere without actual weather data to make their forecasts, today was one of those days. We had 3-5 foot waves off our beam which makes for a VERY rolley ride for us. Colletta and the cats all did fine but it was not a day to get out of your seat and wander around the boat. We had to turn and run before the waves so it was calmer while we retied the dinghy to the back of the boat twice. Colletta did a masterful job steering and minimizing the rolling while I retied. A long run of but we made it to Indian Key Passage none the worse. We called a marina, Everglades Isles in Everglade City and they assured us there was deep enough water to make it up the river to them. The problem was that they were 5.25 mile up river and at idle speed that would take us an hour. We decided that for one night it was not worth it because we wanted to make sure we entered the Marco River at near high tide tomorrow to avoid any thin water so we anchored where we had on the way south to Marathon. Like Little Shark River this anchorage has become very popular. Last time it was us and another 80 foot yacht, tonight there are 9 other boats in the anchorage, plenty of room for all, just surprising.