You'd think you'd have less fear of death the older you were, not the other way round.

This was brought painfully home to me a few years ago when a friend bought a Com-Pac 16. took some courses, and learned how to sail. Knowing about my experience, He asked me if I would be interested in accompanying him on a few more ambitious sails after he had mastered the basics, We decided it might be interesting to sail direct from his launch marina in Coconut Grove to the northernmost of the Florida Keys, Elliot Key.
The Com-Pac is cramped, but the cabin will sleep two in a pinch, one comfortably. Its about 12 nautical miles across Biscayne Bay, mostly open sea and which (depending on the wind) might take anywhere from 6 to 24 hours. So there was a good chance we'd be doing a major piece of it at night.

I used to do cruises like this all the time with my 12' San Francisco Pelican on the Gulf Coast, in similar waters (St Joseph's Sound). about 40 years ago. But when I started planning the trip, studying the chart and making the calculations, I realized this was a long and dangerous trip. The round trip might easily take a week. If a stiff wind kicked up against us we might get exposed to the full fury of the Atlantic all night long, with nothing but mangrove swamps, mud flats and limestone reefs to our lee. Biscayne Bay is shallow, dotted with shifting sand bars and coral heads. I imagine it can kick up into a vicious chop.

I was glad to hear when Robert decided to sell the boat. His partner decided, after one afternoon sail, that he didn't want to go sailing after all.

This one would have been a challenging but enjoyable sail for me and the Pelican 40 years ago, but I could clearly see now all the things that could go wrong.

Com-Pac 16
https://images.harbormoor.com/originals/5d630337-bc7a-415a-b353-1c7e7a9c2695