Marathon to Miami

Saturday morning the 18th of April is the day of the 7-mile Bridge Run.  Fifteen hundred randomly selected runners have the chance to run  the closed bridge.  The result is one enormous traffic jam on the only highway in (or out) of the Keys.
Since we wanted an early start for our intended run to Rodriguez Key near Key Largo, we avoided the clog-up and went to the boat on Friday night.
John Chamberlin is a retired Marine Warrant Officer I met in Boca Chica and the Sigsbee RV Park.  He and his son Jason run Bottom Time Boat Hull Cleaning and spend their days scrubbing boat bottoms.  John (in addition to being the perfect Popeye look-alike) is a fun guy to be around and very experienced in passage making, especially the East Coast.  He offered to just deliver the boat, but I need the experience.  He makes all the strategic decisions on this trip, he is the Captain.
Dan West is almost retired after running a very successful Midwest-based construction company doing large jobs for local through federal governments.  He even has a specialized division designing and spec'ing Air Force fuel farms.  Dan and I are Past Commodores of the Augusta Sailing Club and Micky and I hosted Dan and his wife Patty when they sailed their 46-foot Hylas to the Keys.  He is also experienced in making the passages up the coast of Florida.
Marathon Marina has a sanitary pump-out system installed at every slip.  After a short search for the required hose, we emptied the holding tank, slipped the dock lines and motored out to a beautiful Keys sunrise.
Clearing the last day-mark, we set course east and raised sails.  With the help of a beam reach the boat ran very well with ground speeds in the 5-6 knot range.  The seas were 2-4 feet and running astern, but the westerly current made them sloppy.
The first six hours were uneventful.  We were making great time and secured the engine after checking temperatures.  Sailing speeds increased to around 6.6 knots in the 12-knot winds and we help the course steady until the vicinity of Islamorada where the winds slackened and the motor came back on.
We had made such good time we changed our plan and decided to press on to Miami.  Leaving Hawk Channel near Alligator Reef, we started picking up the Gulf Stream and by the time we passed Carysfort Light we were seeing 7-7.5 knots.  We also picked up an annoying RPM fall-off.   Intermittently, the engine speed would drop around 50 RPM.  Even tone-deaf Marines can detect the change.  From Ocean Reef on, the RPM drops became much more noticeable and on occasion would drop from 3000 to 1500 and slowly recover.  We had fair weather, light winds, calm seas and plenty of places to sail and drop anchor.  I also had been paying BoatUS for the "Gold Unlimited" Towing package for the past few years, so with that trump card in my wallet, we had no fear!
Sunset was just south of Miami and by 2200 we were anchored of No Name Harbor, Key Biscayne with the dazzlingly lit party boats in the shadow of South Beach.
No Name Harbor is near "Stiltsville", a number of squatter fishing houses built in the shallows of Biscayne Bay.  Forced out by the government, the houses look amazing good from a distance and have withstood ferocious hurricanes, but are just hulks when viewed close-up.
I dropped the anchor in 15-20 feet and we settled in for a good meal and a sleep.  Marathon to Miami in 14 hours of sailing and motoring isn't bad for a small 34-footer.