We got up early and planned to be at the fuel dock in Key West when they opened at 7 am.  But.....the weather report said that winds were gusting up to 40 kts in the area.  Then we heard someone call the Coast Guard from the mooring balls near us.  It seems that they had broken free of the mooring ball and were crashed into another sailboat.  Next, we heard someone calling the Coast Guard to say that an overturned boat was floating down the channel we have to leave by.   Looking at the NOAA site  and listening to the marine weather report on our VHF radio, we decided we better wait for the wind to lessen.  It was out of the north, so going north up the Gulf Coast we’d be heading directly into it.  It was a wise decision.  The water was very choppy in our anchorage field all day.  In fact, we didn’t even get in the dinghy to go ashore with Daisy until 4 pm.  Luckily, she has a large bladder and was able to wait.

The photo above shows the sunrise over the bridge where our dinghy almost ended up last night.  The other photo was taken this morning of other boats anchored near us.  It’s hard to see, but some were rocking back and forth almost like rocking horses all day. We’ve had a steady roll all day long, mostly from the very strong current.

A cold front went through today and it was chilly here.  When we went into town, many people had winter jackets on,  Right now, at 10:30 pm, it’s 65 degrees outside.  They actually give a “wind chill” of 64 degrees on the weather report.  I’m not sure why they bother to report a wind chill here.  Coming from Minnesota, we could teach the Floridians a few things about windchill.  On the other hand there are a lot of transplanted northerners and snowbirds here, so it probably makes them feel happy to have a 64 degree windchill when their friends and relatives are getting snow and below zero temperatures.

It looks like the winds will be lower tomorrow, although still from the north for another day.  We want to go straight up to Fort Myers, but we may have to tack for awhile to avoid heading directly into the north wind.  Still, it should be an improvement from today.  It will be our first overnight sail and the straight northerly route is a little over 112 miles.  With a good wind we could do it in 24 hours, but going into the wind and tacking, it will take us a bit longer.