I think you'll agree that we may have just found paradise. It was a perfect day for the beach, 80's and humid. We were excited by the color of the water and how clear it is. Now let me just say that is a good thing and a bad thing when it comes to anchoring in clear water. (Especially since everything we've read about this little harbor is the poor holding. After dropping the anchor and letting out the appropriate chain, Jon spent about an hour looking at the anchor. (It looks to be on its side half covered). We pull it up and start the process again. (Jon is in the dingy now rowing over the chain and anchor... He stands in the dingy while he rows and looks a lot like one of those extreme snow ski jumpers...row, lean forward, glide. It so funny and yet I didn't take a picture. He tortures himself enough I guess). We decide after poking around a while longer that we really don't know what the anchor looked like when it's perfectly set..there's the rub of the beautiful clear water. We had the other signs that our anchor was set well, including both of us feeing the jerk when we put the boat in reverse. So now we are both exhausted but leave Quicksilver for the beach. When we walked to the other side of the island, we both tired giddy. The view was glorious. Some parts of the water over sand was crystal clear, some parts turquoise and the deeper water emerald green. Wow!! Pinch me , we're in paradise. We had so much fun waking through the clear water that never gets past our chest. Many times we see little schools of small fish in front or on the side of us. Several people are snorkeling in the sea grass. I hear different ones saying they found star fish or coral. We decide we had to stay another day and work on our snorkel technique.
That's exactly what we did. I proclaim that Jon and I are mediocre at snorkeling but have a great time and plan to get better. With so much sun and fun, Jon and I fell asleep with no problems at about 9 30 both nights. (Wait, that's not true. Jon stayed up to close to 11pm making sure our anchor alarm was on. He woke me up to look at the stars. With no light pollution we were able to see more stars than we've ever seen before. And true to what we read and heard they look different from up north. The Big Dipper was angled differently than we were used to...maybe because we don't usually get to star gaze that much in the middle of March. Oh! And another thing we noticed. We can watch the sun set with out seeing sunspots. From Fair Haven, NY if you watch the sunset straight on you are seeing spots for the next half hour. Interesting, right?
Well it is Sunday and we are heading for Key West....just spotted our first look at a sea turtle....I'm sure we will have much to report about the creatures who live around and on key west. Until then, wish you were here!
Jon floating in the clear water near our anchorage.
The view, looking out the Atlantic side.
From off the old bridge...now an observation deck. We could see fish and sting ray swimming .
Almost an emerald green.
Another view from the observation deck
Crystal clear water. No wonder the FWC (Florida Wildlife Conservation) is working so hard to protect these waters.
One of our sunsets, In paradise, Bahia Honda Key
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