We finally sailed out of St Petersburg in glorious sunshine for the Florida Keys. Local knowledge had told us that we could cut through the Keys at Marathon meaning we wouldn’t have to traverse around Key West. The going was good, as there was no wind we gave the engine a good testing. We anchored just outside the Everglades and got some rest as we could only go through the Keys in the day due to the very shallow waters and our 7ft keel. Even coming through the channel we managed to hit the bottom, freeing ourselves after about 5 minutes. We stopped off for fuel and a little lunch and I managed to call home to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.