Ah, The Colors

Hollywood, Florida

25 56.887 N 080 06.242 W

Last night Libby said,"This is as good as it gets for Florida sailing." We were a few miles offshore, in light winds, almost no waves, and mild temperatures. The sunset was beautiful. Still, we were able to average 5 knots until early this morning when the wind died to zero. Right now, we re motoring to Biscayne Bay where we will anchor tonight and admire the nighttime skyline of Miami.

It was a grand day of sailing. We would have gotten even further except that we didn't get away from Vero until 1300.

I've blogged before about navigating in this area by the color of the water. Actually, I overstate that a bit. Polynesians navigate by the color (and taste) of the water. Sailors in the Bahamas navigate by color (blue deep, green shallow, brown coral, white sand shoal). Done here it is more of a case at marveling at the colors of the water.

When arising this morning, I thrilled at the deep deep blue color of the water, rather than the grey green typical of places north. It was as if we were in The Gulf Stream. Oh oh, wait, that is Gulf Stream water, we were too far away from shore, and losing speed to a northward current. I turned us closer to the beach. Soon the water became forest green. Now, with each mile further south we go, the shade of green turns lighter. By the time we are well into The Hawk Channel near Key Largo, it will be a beautiful turquoise typical of the ocean side of the keys. On the bay side of the keys, the color is a darker green.

If the wind would blow, we would keep going straight for Marathon. But it is not, so we'll poke around a bit. There is a spot we love near the hurricane hole on Key Biscayne that offers spectacular views of the Miami night skyline.