ANOTHER GLORIOUS DAY!

Just let me start with last night. Around 11:00 P.M., John and I were headed for bed when we heard this crackling sound. It was so quiet back in our cozy anchorage that you could hear this very plainly. It sounded like a fire crackling or maybe water running. We tore this boat apart trying to find out where we had a leak. We took the bed apart and looked at the water tank. John got down in the engine room and looked for any sign of water on the walls or the floor. He lifted all of the access panels in the floor trying to see what the problem could be. He ran the bilge, but there was very little water pumped put. We were afraid that we would have to have the boat pulled and that there might be a split in the hull. I went on the swim platform to look at the outside shower, but no leak there. However, the sound was louder outside. John stepped out the side door and he noticed that it was louder outside as well. We finally decided that it was the current running past our boat and the thru-hull openings. Today, however, we discovered from talking to other boaters that it was shrimp. They make that crackling sound, apparently. What a relief!

So, we left this morning at 7:00 A.M. (first light) and headed for Marathon in the Keys. We had another perfect cruising day. We came across the Gulf and after 91 miles and 10 hours 20 minutes, we reached our destination. We were hoping to get a mooring ball at Boot Key Harbor, but they were all taken. Tomorrow we are going to put our name on a waiting list. For now, we are anchored out. It's nice and warm here, but the weather is supposed to become bad for cruising for the next 4 or 5 days. The winds are going to pick up and we are supposed to get scattered thunderstorms. That's why we pushed to get here today.