Happy New Year

 

As the new year approached, the wind dropped to nothing and the water was almost perfectly smooth.

I tried some time exposures by resting the camera on the cabin top. This is the camp ground and ranger station at Elliot Key.

There were quite a number of campers

 

 

This is a longer exposure and the boat rotated during the exposure.

 

Here is a neighboring sailboat with the anchor light reflected off the water.

 

This is a shorter exposure

 

This is one of the fireworks at the Ocean Reef Yacht Club I think. There is a small powerboat in the foreground. 

I got some videos also but this is quite a long way away and they did not turn out too good. There were a number of fireworks displays visible, probably Miami, Biscayne and Homestead. They looked spectacular with the binoculars.

 

It was a 'Blue Moon'. With all the moonlight and the calm water you could see the sponges and corals on the bottom quite

clearly by moonlight.

 

It was still quiet in the morning. Here the clouds are reflected in the water.

 

My nearest neighbor.

 

This is a sponge and a fan coral just under the boat. I did not see any fish, maybe it was too cold for them.

 

The wind came up around 11 and I headed back to Dinner Key before an expected front was supposed to come through.

The wind got to 20Kt and I was doing 8 Kt on a broad reach. At the mooring I had some trouble picking it up and after a few attempts the guy in the catamaran from Wisconsin came over in his dingy and gave me a hand. A good thing as a half hour later the front came through with wind squalls and rain. Everything is calm now with just some drizzle so it should be a good evening.