Newfound Harbor - at anchor by Picnic Island

Tavernier entrance - Tension rises when you see an on-coming boat!

We wanted to leave with a good, high tide since the entrance is rather shallow although we could have made it out at almost low tide. There's less tension with a little tide though. As stated earlier, it's rather narrow on the way out (see photo) but there's barely enough room for two boats to pass if you're careful. We made it over the bar with a foot to spare (which was the tide height) and headed out to Marathon.

The island has a resident, he's  been hear several years on a tied up "boat"

On the way we started thinking about all the problems we've been hearing about the Florida Wildlife Commission (FWC) enforcement of arcane rules that nobody ever heard of like dinghies must have an anchor light even though they're tied to the mother ship with a 10 ft line which is properly lighted.  Also, there have been night boardings for some type of inspection, waking people up and rousting them out of  bed. I sent an email to the head of the harbor asking about current conditions but never got a reply. With that we decided to skip Marathon and anchor out (for free!) at Newbound Harbor, about two hours further down the line.

Nevertheless, it's a nice, sandy island - Hoolie likes it!

It is a completely still night, no wind, no lights anywhere and we have a nearby, sandy island to take Hoolie ashore. It's all we really need. We'll spend Monday night here too and then head for Key West on Tuesday and our dock there for the month of February, nice!