No Problems, Mon

Aaahhh....Marathon.....

It's so nice to be in the Keys, with weather getting warmer (anything above 30 feels toasty now), the water beautiful, and easy walks or bike or dinghy rides to revisit fun places. Laundry's caught up, Publix has replenished our larder, boat's clean(ish), dinghy's repaired and clean, and now we can concentrate on beach walks, sunsets, and meeting new people. There are boat projects to finish (begun in TN last year) and new ones to start, but we're on island time now.

We toasted our arrival in the Keys with mimosas on Optimystique, and heard Joe Mama play at Dockside, so we're officially here now. We've seen and heard of several boats and people we traveled south with or met along the way, and have already met new people in Boot Key Harbor. It was fun to listen to the cruiser's net at 9:00 a.m., which we loved on earlier visits. It's a combination of announcements of upcoming events (and there are so many!), requests for or offers of help, and Treasures from the Bilge (buy, sell and giveaway). It's amazing and heartwarming how many people are involved with community service and aid to others in need. A boat left yesterday for Haiti, loaded with water and supplies for an orphanage, and they left with many donations from the harbor population. There are always benefits for local and national organizations, and the people in the harbor appear to be most generous (even though we all know how tight sailors are rumored to be!).

The Keys!!!

We had a beautiful day to head for Marathon. Sails out, winds out of the northeast, and finally the beautiful blue-green water (after months of brownish-green). Lots of crab pots were waiting for us, but we managed to avoid them all. The tide was exceptionally low in the Boot Key Harbor mooring field due to the full moon the previous night, so even though it was an area we'd traveled through several times we found a shoal that couldn't accommodate our 6' draft. We were visited by lots of nice dinghies and friendly sailors offering assistance, but ultimately had to wait for higher tides to continue. But we did make it into the marina, hooked up to electricity and water and TV (after a month on the hook), and had a good dinner and happy hour at Dockside. We opted to stay at Dockside Marina for a month, since all the mooring balls are full with a waiting list of 40. Apparently it's a zoo at the city marina (which is in charge of the mooring field), with cold water showers and an actual fist fight over washers/dryers (who likes to do laundry enough to fight over it??). With all the fronts moving through, there's no guarantee anyone will move soon, so we gratefully took the two remaining slips at Dockside.

We're close enough to town to provision on our bikes, which is a good thing since all the soap on the boat has been used to wash out the captain's mouth!

To the Everglades

We left Marco in choppy waters, but it eventually smoothed out and we rolled out the sails! We traveled to a beautiful anchorage in Indian Key (Russell Bay) in the Everglades. Since strong winds were predicted, the captains decided to put out two anchors. While setting anchor #2, we backed over the first anchor line and it wrapped itself thoroughly around the prop. It was a chilly, windy day, but we greased the captain and poked him into his wetsuit (which had shrunk considerably over the past few years). He received a new hookah (sorry, kids, it's for diving) for Christmas, and got a chance to try it out! Thankfully, his dive was successful and no damage was done to either the prop or the line. He did, however, mention a few more new nautical terms.

We went by dinghy into Everglades City the following day, and it was quite an adventure. Since Serendipity's dinghy was incapacitated (floor leaking air), we all rode in Optimystique's dinghy. It's always nice to have a limo and driver, but it makes it a little hard to plane -- we were all drenched by the time we got back from our ride, but still had a good trip (4 miles each way). We walked around the town (which took about 6 minutes), visited the Rod and Gun Club (gorgeous structure), and had lunch in a restaurant that had exactly 2 beers and 4 pieces of Key Lime Pie left. Gotta get there early! Our waitress was very nice, and I bet she would've been even nicer if she'd heard anything we said....

We left Russell Bay to head for Little Shark River (famous for mosquitoes and no-see-ums) to hide from some severe storms. It was another beautiful anchorage, and thankfully it was cold and windy enough to minimize the buggage. We had good protection from the storm, and left after two days for Cape Sable. It was a bumpy day and a pretty bumpy anchorage, but the full moon was absolutely gorgeous and William and POJ saw the green flash at sunset.

Ft. Myers to Marco

The fog finally began to clear when we were offshore, but the day stayed so gray that it was hard to tell the water from the sky (Serendipity is the top photo; Optimystique is the third). But it was smooth and of course good to be moving again.

We encountered a nemesis from an earlier trip, a tiny, innocent-looking crab pot. When we traveled the first time, we snagged a crab pot that resulted in pulling the engine in Marathon and taking it back to TN in a rented truck (because that's where Russ Jones was and he's the diesel genius who rebuilt it for us). This time we snagged the little sucker with the dinghy and it pulled the bridle loose in front, resulting in a dinghy totally full of water (and partially deflated). The captain pulled the dinghy alongside, and got in fully clothed to bail it with a bucket. It would've made a great picture, but the photographer feared being bludgeoned to death with the remaining oar (its mate abandoned ship when a passing yacht who hadn't completed Slow, Courteous Pass Training went by). The Captain used some new nautical terms, but he eventually rigged a new bridle and we towed his little bathtub behind us again.

Off the Mooring Ball, Headed SOUTH!!

We finally had some warm beach weather in Ft. Myers, and got to scamper about in the sand just before we left. We also got to visit with William and POJ's daughter Kathryn, her husband Jim, and their little guys James and Max (the Admiral got a little granny fix).

While we were in Ft. Myers, we of course encountered lots of other boats and lots of other dinghies. One boat was particularly interesting, having been obviously constructed of two boats (complete with a wooden outhouse door with a half-moon). It was named "Freddy Freddy," and we guessed that may have been the wife's response when the Captain showed her his plans. One dinghy in particular caught our interest, because when passengers were aboard, all you could see were passengers with an outboard sticking out the driver's rear. It was hard (make that impossible) not to laugh out loud, especially the time they had FOUR people in it!!

We passed the Matanzas Inn on our way out, where we'd spent many Happy Hours on the top deck overlooking the harbor and using our 2-fer coupons (much to the dismay of our waiter Anthony). It was VERY foggy the morning we left (see Optimystique squinting under the bridge).

We're baaaaack!

Internet service is back, and we're back on the water. We had a good Christmas in Tennessee with the family, and had fun in Bradenton in January getting the boat ready to leave and generally enjoying the great town and Twin Dolphin Marina. We enjoyed a visit in January from Bob and Mary, best friends from TN along with their friends Bob and Charlotte and LaVada (standing on dock in Bradenton). We left Bradenton February 7, and traveled in mostly cold windy weather to the mooring field in Ft. Myers. We planned to stay here a few days, but we're now in our second week (this is beginning to be a pattern). There's a 30+ wait list for mooring balls in Marathon because the weather has everyone backed up, so we decided to wait here for the crowds to clear rather than try to find a less-than-desirable anchorage there while waiting for a mooring ball. We have enjoyed Ft. Myers several times before and haven't been disappointed this time...with the possible exception of having to wear 6 layers of clothing for dinghy rides to town and the beach (see William and Poor Old Judy on the beach). There's something less than beachy about socks and turtlenecks.... We reconnected with old friends Pat and Dan from our days in Marathon 5 years ago; they live in Ft. Myers and joined us for lunch at Doc Ford's. We also got to reconnect with new friends Mary and David from Fairhope, Alabama who were visiting their friend Pat in Naples and drove down to join us for lunch at Bonita Bill's. People are the best part about our travels, and it's always fun to see and hear from them again. It's also nice to be traveling with William and Judy on Optimystique (that's their Island Packet on the hook at Useppa on our journey down), because we can share dinghy rides, confer about the best happy hour prices (Jay and William could write a book), mix our laundry together, have family meetings about our travels, and share leftovers. We've found great happy hours and appetizers and restaurants, and also been invited to a pizza party with other boaters in the area. There was a singing duo we really liked on our first visit here 5 years ago, and we were lucky enough to hear them again and get a new CD on this visit. This, as William says, does not suck!

Under construction

Having been without internet service for a few weeks, the blog is now in a mess. The admiral finally figured out how to get pix in the text, and lost service in the process. Pix will be back, text will be updated, and photos of the holidays will arrive....soon.