Leaving Dog Island

It is 0600 Eastern time and I am awake. Bear is still deep in sleep. It is the day we set sail for Tarpon Springs, and it will be over 24 hours before we get there. Motor vessel (MV) Puzzle, with whom we have spent two nights in this anchorage is leaving very soon for Steinhatchee in the Big Bend. Our course will take us ninety degrees south of that. Their lights are on and methinks they are having breakfast and laying in waypoints for their voyage. As I stumbled topside in the dark, two things stand out in the calm night air; there are brilliant lights ashore some five miles distant and I am looking at the Big Dipper and the North Star in the clear night sky. The North Star is in the same position it is when we stand on our porch at home. Same elevation, same orientation. For a moment, we are home, back in the sweet arms of Texas. Nawh, we are at anchor in this fantastic place. The winds are calm which for an anchorage is nice but for a passage is not what we hoped for. We would like to see fifteen knots, in this case from the north east. Maybe it will happen as forecast. Maybe not. Our anchor will be up in a few hours and we will see.