Key Largo

Headed south again today to Key Largo. It's very cool in the A.M., but sunny & gets warm in the afternoon. The wind keeps blowing hard from the northwest. All the boaters down here keep talking about how they've never seen the wind blow so hard & for so long. Usually by this time of year it's very warm with minimal wind. We went through some really narrow channels & some channels go right through a cut in the mangroves.

We pulled into Tarpon Basin to anchor. Had trouble getting the anchor to hold as the bottom is very grassy, but eventually we found a sandy spot & the anchor dug in. This is a nice, but shallow anchorage, only 4-5 ft., with a good dinghy dock at the community center. There is an old cell tower still standing. Once again the main road looks too busy to ride our bikes anywhere comfortably.

Soon after we anchored a precocious 9 yr. old from the next boat over paid us a visit by dinghy. He was so happy to have new people to talk with. He had made us a picture of our boat on his computer & wanted us to have it. He has been living here on his boat with his family every winter since he was 4. Their boat hit the reef on the way in & the motor hasn't worked since. They live in Washington State in the summer because it gets too hot here. He told us everything about himself, his family, his boat, the neighbors & the local area. He asked to see our boat & really liked it. Al gave him a Matchbox car that he had found washed up on a beach in the Bahamas. His name was Johnson Hitchcock. I think he was originally from South Africa.

We saw a beautiful sunset in the evening, but it got buggy once the sun was down.