3rd Trip to Panther Key

The 3rd trip to Panther Key was a rainy one. The rain never stopped on Saturday as they predicted... But, it didn't dampen my spirits. I had a wonderful sail. The winds were off-shore, which is great because they don't have time to cause the seas to kick up near shore. So, a relatively calm ride. I got the chance to play around with my point and click camera and use the timer to take pics of me sailing ;) Since once again I was singlehanding.
Almost to Panther Key I got "pulled over" by City of Marco Island Police. I thought it strange cause they were way out of their jurisdiction. I found out later they were so because a smuggler had brought Cubans in earlier that morning... I guess they were searching for the smuggler cause they hadn't been found yet...
Since I didn't know what was going on at the time though, it through my day for a little of a whirl. It had been such a nice peaceful sail up to that point.
Anchored at Panther Key, rafted up to Lynne & Russell's sailboat, Blue Highway, I met one of their good sailing friends, Espen. He was rafted on the port side of Blue Highway, and I was rafted on the starboard side. It was great fun. There was also another couple on a catamaran anchored nearby that joined us for a wonderful evening of dinner and conversation.
The next day was beautifully sunny. Once again played with the camera to get some sailing pics. There was a nice wind earlier in the day, except it faded out for a while as I was attempting to make it back into Coon Key Channel. I ended up listly going about 1 knot. I started washing dishes, cleaning up the boat... but, she doesn't have an autopilot yet, and she wasn't holding course on her own so well in the light shifty winds and shallow waters were very near, so I ended up motor-sailing for a little bit and headed into the channel, still a little concerned about her fuel lines leaking and the racor fuel filter too...