Spontaneity

At Sea
25 17.00 N 080 15.00W

The Miami Skyline was indeed beautiful last night. We had a good time just watching it. The wind and water were so calm that the sea surface looked like a mirror. Low clouds hung over Miami's urban heat island reflecting the city lights. The clouds looked like a halo (ha ha, imagine a halo for Miami of all places:) For an extra treat there was a ray jumping out of the water near us making big flop noises as he fell back in. I also spotted a pelican swooping only inches above the water. I
never knew that they did that before. I hope they have good night vision. Otherwise, we might hear a big thump in the middle of the night as a pelican gave himself a headache on Tarwathie's hull.

This morning, I sat up on deck drinking coffee and reading a marine newspaper. I noticed a nearby sailboat raise her sails and pull up anchor. It was a little day sail boat, perhaps 23 feet long with two people on board. The wind was nearly still but she managed to sail away slowly nevertheless. I felt a pang of envy as she sailed away southward in Biscayne Bay.

What's with the envy? I thought we had the perfect life. Analyzing my feelings a bit, I find that I miss the spontaneity of day sailing. When one day sails, there is no destination, no objective, no course, no race with sunset. One merely follows one's whims and takes in the pure joy of sailing. When Libby and I cruise we have the freedom to decide what to do every day. For example, today we decided to sail to Key Largo. However, as soon as me made our choice we do have a goal, and a course and
a schedule. I'm sure that the day sailors dream of taking a cruise, but today I was dreaming about day sailing. The cure? Duh --- day sail more. For the most part we day sail only when we have guests on board. That's one of many reasons why we love guests. While in Marathon I'll see if we can't make it a point to take day sails.

Right now, we are in the Hawk Channel sailing South and West. The Hawk Channel is the body of water in between the Florida Keys to our West and North, and the reef to our East and South. We love sailing in the Hawk Channel. It is not easy to explain why. The keys don't look pretty from seaward. All we see are mangrove trees and occasional houses. The reef is totally submerged so we can't see that. I guess it must be the gentle weather, the lovely green color of the water, and the security
of sailing in waters partially sheltered by the reef. You see the reef takes most of the punch out of the sea swells, regardless of weather. Also, when one sails from any point A to any other point B in the keys, one is always going from a fun place to another fun place, passing fun places along the way. It sets a feeling of ambiance.

We think we'll anchor tonight at Rodriguez Key. That is the exact place we departed from last spring to jump over to the Bahamas. Boy, when I think back on all the nice experiences we've had since that day it seems hard to believe.