01/07/2025 ICW Day 7 : The Cheetahs mouth

We waited out some very strong winds in the morning; the weather forecast was very accurate. We used that time to walk the island and relax. No one was really on the island except for us… until a ranger came with two men from the USDA. They wanted to look around to see how they will go about eradicating the Mexican Red Bellied squirrels. The two men spoke kind of secretly as if they were part of the Oceans Eleven crew… but the ranger told us what was going on with alacrity.

Once the wind had subsided to a reasonable level, we set sail - straight into the wind again. You guys know I’m more of a “human powered” kind of guy, but I feel like the wind kinda owes me something after years of fighting headwinds on a bike. So, guilt free, we tacked and pedaled into the wind as best we could. It took 2 hours to go 5 miles in the intended direction. We covered nearly 8 miles in the process.

Upon arrival at Boca Chita, we were continually amazed. It is this tiny island with no water or electricity, but a great harbor where people come (usually on weekends) to dock and camp. Happily, only 2 boats were here when we arrived. Our diminutive boat attracts attention, and a guy named Sebastian came over saying that he had a folding boat too - a Corsair - except his weighs a few thousand pounds. No hand launching off beaches like we do, but he can go faster than us (under sail). I wish our little boat could go a little faster, but I like that it is small, maneuverable, and exempt from some of the issues encountered by larger boats such as going under bridges, fitting into narrow channels, getting mired in sand, etc. There was a nice catamaran parked in the harbor - surely a million plus buckaroos… but hey, we’re all looking at the same sunset!