"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On 12 Feb 2007 18:05:38 -0800, "Frogwatch"
wrote:

ts a long friggin way from even Naples to Marathon and the
probability of getting over the large shallows north of Marathon in
the dark is nearly 50% no matter what you do. Marathon was a bad
choice no matter the schedule.

It's not that difficult if you stay on track, although my first choice
would be daylight also.


Well, my first rule of night sailing is to never enter a strange port or
shallow water until daylight, and if it looks like the current sailing
conditions will put the boat into either of them under the dark of night, to
slow down or heave-to and wait. Even then, I'd better have a damn good
reason for entering shallow water, which in Essie's case is anything less
than 12 feet -- with draft of 5 feet. Yes, that might make me
overly-cautious, but it's worked so far.