While Scott slept in, I finished my book and had a relaxing morning. We finalized our plans to head to Bahia Honda State Park and pull the boat from there. We plan to start packing up some of the boat on Sunday and then finish the job on Monday. We had breakfast at a place down the street called The Stuffed Pig. Of course it looks like a dive because practically all the places down here do but it was actually quite good. On our way back Scott decided to swing by Keys Fisheries so that he could grab some stone crab claws for dinner. He assures me I’ll find something to eat for dinner (Ramen noodles I suppose) and makes his purchase.
For those of you following along in my medical school pursuit, I’ve been waiting on a decision from one last school. I had been told I would hear back by the end of March, so I made a phone call to the University of Toledo to find out what the status was. I learned that I would not be offered an interview and I will get the “rejected but better luck next time” email tomorrow. So plan B is now in full effect. I’ve applied to a Masters program at Wayne State. I plan to retake the MCAT this summer before I start school again in the fall. When I met with an advisor at Wayne State Medical School, they recommended that I take 20 credits in their grad school program before I reapply. So after I’ve completed these recommendations, I plan to reapply to various (most likely more this time) medical schools for the entering class of 2014. It seems so far away but I guess it’s not at all and I don’t have to worry about time getting away from me. Heck, three weeks down here has flown by! Yesterday, I asked Scott if we could stay a little longer until it felt like more time has gone by.
On a lighter note, we had a lovely sail to Bahia Honda. It was really light on the Gulf side for the first few miles. It picked up once we crossed under the 7mile bridge. The trip was about 15 miles. We decided low and slow was not the way to go so we put in extra distance gybing back and forth. There were 3 pretty exciting moments during our sail today. The first was that I think I may have accidentally hit a sea turtle. I heard several bumps against the hull. Scott was down below and I thought maybe it was him sliding the cooler across the floor of the boat, but I wasn’t sure. I watched the stern to make sure I didn’t catch a crab trap and I saw something on the rudder. I think “crap”, I did run something over. I call Scott up and he’s like what was that noise? He said he wasn’t in the cooler so I definitely hit something in the water. He pulls up the rudder and there’s nothing on it but there is still something dragging from under the boat. Finally we see what it is, it’s a sharksucker fish (the kind that latch onto hosts and get carried all over the ocean). It’s decided to latch on to us. So to explain the noise and how that fish got there, my theory is that I hit a sea turtle and bumped the sharksucker off of the turtle and the fish sucked onto our boat instead of the turtle again. But we’ll never know.
So the second exciting event was when I wasn’t paying attention (again) and I actually did run over a crab pot and snagged it on the rudder. Scott was not pleased and he drove the rest of the way in. What can I say; I’ve got a lot on my mind. And lastly, on our sail to Bahia Honda we saw a pod of four dolphins out in the ocean. I just love that.
We sailed all the way through the old bridge and up to the mooring ball that we planned to hang off of. As we got up to it, we noticed that it said government use only so we decided to head into the marina to ask. Previously, volunteers in the park had told us that if the ball was open anyone was welcome to it, first come first serve. We were slightly wary, not wanted to be slapped with a fine for 2K. In the marina we saw familiar figures under the water, manatees! We’re already so glad we came back to the park. We got settled and decided to stay in the marina. That way we can bring the truck and trailer over here tomorrow and have everything in one place a few days before we need to leave. We do really need the truck seeing as we are out of tuna (thank god) and water. Plus I think Scott is getting sick of cooking on the boat because he said we needed the truck to go out to dinner. I’m absolutely not complaining about this.
We wandered around the beach a bit until we noticed it was low tide. We decided to check our lobster spot again. We walked over to see if they were there. I was able to convince myself AND Scott that a stick under a rock was a lobster. I ran back to the boat to grab gloves and a net so that we could catch dinner. Scott grabbed the stick and it didn’t wriggle at all. This is obviously the point that we realize it’s a stick under a rock. Scott was ready to quit but I wasn’t going to let him off the hook that quickly so I worked hard to find lobster. I found a few in a group and Scott went for them. On his first grab he manages to get one out from under a rock before its thorny whip falls off. Scott launches his hand in the water again to snatch him while the lobster is disoriented. He gets him and tosses him into the net! We’re ecstatic! We don’t see any more that are big enough to eat so we head back to steam this guy. Scott cooks him up and had a lovely fresh lobster tail. He claims it was the best lobster he’s ever eaten.
Before bed I decided it was time to make the final bug net (for the forward hatch). Lovely that it only took me the entire trip. I quickly made it and then went to bed.
Happy at Bahia Honda,
Lauren & Scott
We made it back to Bahia Honda in one quick sail from Key West yesterday. Great breeze out of the south to reach back up Hawk Channel. We blasted thru 3-4ft chop at 11 knots for 4 hours. Scott had a great time steering the boat through the waves and getting sprayed by salt water. I had a little less of a great time with a killer motion sickness. Taking 3-4 foot Hawk Channel chop on the beam for hours will do that to most people. Once we got in we had lunch and relaxed for the rest of the day. 
