Leaving Key West, we headed to an anchorage outside of Big Pine Key. We planned to do a few hops up the Keys on our way back to Miami/Ft Lauderdale where Matthew would fly out to join us. We set up on anchor for a few days and it was quite a bit different than the business of Key West!

One evening we hopped in the dingy and went to Kiki’s Sandbar – basically the only restaurant near us – which had a dock for us to tie up to. There was live music playing and we had a delicious seafood medley including 3 kinds of fish, conch fritters, and shrimp prepared 2 ways!

Later in the week, another Looper couple joined us in the anchorage, so we visited them by dingy one evening and hosted them aboard Highwind the next. They are about to complete their loop in North Carolina.

We next ventured to Tavernier, where we managed to get a spot in a marina for a couple of days of strong winds that were predicted. It also happened to be the week that my boss, Steve and his wife were visiting Tavernier for vacation! We met up with them for lunch and hanging out on Highwind (for which we took no pictures!).

After Tavernier, we headed north to an anchorage just past Key Largo on Barnes Sound. We were completely alone in the anchorage and were treated to some amazing sunsets.

Finally, we headed north to Biscayne Bay, were we set up on anchor once again. That night, as we were relaxing after work, we heard a random boom of fireworks, which turned out to be some kind of private show from a barge about 200 feet off our stern!

We were trying to decide whether to meet Matthew in Miami or Ft Lauderdale for heading to the Bahamas on a vacation week, but due to an upcoming boat show in Miami, no marinas where available and I did manage to get a spot in Ft Lauderdale so that sealed the deal.

We had about a week before Matthew would arrive, and David had managed to arrange with the re-seller from whom we had just purchased a water maker that we could pick it up directly from his warehouse (just outside of Miami). We also looked at a map and discovered we we just outside of the Key Biscayne Yacht Club. I managed to organize reciprocity with SYC and so we planned to stay in their marina for the weekend. I also booked a rental car through Turo (an app we just discovered were people rent out their cars). Everything went smoothly and later we were back at the marina with all the parts for the new water maker.