Marathon to Tarpon Basin

It's midnight and I should be asleep resting for a long day on the waterway tomorrow  but I find myself sitting on the bow pads enjoying the silence of the night. The water is like glass tonight, the wind nonexistent. A welcome break from the past several days. The night is filled with the twinkle of white anchor lights on the water. An occasional ripple changes the shape of the lights, stretching them like fingers reaching out to beckon a passerby. The red lights of four nearby towers flash adding color to this beautiful painting on the water.

Up and at um early. What a stark difference from the prior evening. Overcast, windy and gloomy.  Storm clouds and rain could be seen out on the Atlantic as we left the harbor. That made me a little nervous. We wanted to run the the Atlantic side up to Penni camp State Park but because of the weather the ICW would be a better route.  The storms seemed to follow us the entire day but luckily never really caught us.  We had showers now and then and wind but no storms. I was thankful for that.  We arrived at Tarpon Basin our anchorage destination about 3:30. I was bringing us in. The charts, chart plotter and depth finder all seemed to agree on the depth. I kept a close eye on the chart plotter while maneuvering but failed to monitor the depth finder. Big mistake. The chart plotter indicated five foot of water when the alarm went off indicating we were in TWO feet of water. We need almost four.  So much for those silent little thoughts that occasionally crept into my head "I won"t touch bottom because I pay very close attention to what I am doing" I was furious with myself and the chart plotter. While we waited to float into deeper water I checked the charts against the chart plotter. Both indicated five to seven feet of water in this area. Ugh!  So much for my clean record. Once back in seven foot of water we anchored and threw a line in before dinner. Tonight a New moon appeared through the clouds. Pretty

                                                         New moon at Tarpon Basin

                                           Skies over seven mile bridge as we left Marathon

                                            The dark skies made the water look really greeen

                                                Not an inviting sky as a backdrop for boating