Key West to Key Largo

We left Key West Saturday morning via Hawk Channel, nice and sunny but a bit rough 3 footers.  Went inside to Florida Bay at Biaha Honda State Park.  The park looks like a good place to take Owen & Izzy when they visit next month.  The bay was calm but loaded with crab pots and very shallow.  We ran over two crab pots and confirmed that the spurs work.  

The  opening in the old Key West Railroad bridge to Florida Bay

The bay side beach at Bahai Honda State Park

We spent Saturday and Sunday in Marathon at Blackfin Marina and Resort.  The marina is just a small canal, narrow but deep.  It is a small quiet laid back place. Kind of like stepping back in time 50 or 60 years, with lot’s of friendly people here.    Washed all the salt off from the days run and had a quiet dinner aboard. 

Looking for a hand out.

A couple of shots of the Blackfin Marina.

Sunday Sunrise.

Sunday we biked to K-Mart and Publix, found a “lookie bucket” at K-Mart which the grand kids should like, John has already checked the zinc on the boat with this bucket  and said he needs to look for a replacement.  After stocking up we headed off to find Boot Key Harbor.  Missed the turn and instead found Sombrero Beach after a nice but long bike ride on  the way back we did find  the road to Boot Key Harbor.  It is quite large with many boats moored.  We had lunch at Sombrero Marina and saw a couple of Lopper’s boats we had seen on our travels.  Unfortunately neither were aboard.  Back at the marina we met some fellow loopers Bill and Deb, traveling with their friend on 5 C’s.  They were from Michigan, it was nice to meet and chat with them.  We had another quiet dinner aboard.

A couple of shots of Boot Key mooring field, wow were there a lot of boats. 

Monday morning we had a pump out (sort of) there may be a problem with our holding tank gauge, will have to check it out in Key Largo.  The wind had picked up as we pulled out of the slip and we had to back all the way out of the channel.  No bumps or bruises along the way. 

Florida bay was full of crab pots, ran over 2 more and there was a slight chop.  Went outside at Channel 5 and into Hawk Channel in the Atlantic and it was quite choppy, 3 - 4 footers.  The seas calmed down as we got closer to Key Largo.  

The old railroad bridge with the arches next to the new highway bridge.

Tried to capture the turquoise color of the water.

Something Special called just as we were entering the Key Largo canal. We were busy and not able to answer them right then but sent off an email later.  We haven't seen them since the crossing, hopefully we can get together and catch up while we are here.  We gave the boat another good washing (salt water is icky) and settled in to our new home for a month.   

Our welcoming committee

There are no other Loopers here but there is a celebrity of sorts.  The African Queen is kept on a lift  here.  It is in the process of restoration and needs to reproduce the boiler.  Other than that it looks like it did in the movie.  They take people out to for a ride raise money for the new boiler.  We also found a restaurant where they did some of the filming for the movie Key Largo.  It's on the Florida Bay side and is reported to have great sunset views as well as all sorts of Bogart and Bacall memorabilia.

Cruising on the African Queen, this pic doesn't show the temporary outboard.

The view from our back porch.

Getting aboard at high tide gives us our stretching exercises for the day.

One of three pools in the resort complex, this pool and hot tub are right in front of our slip.

There seems to be a lot to see and do here, we have an extra stateroom if anyone wants to escape the frozen north for a few days.


Love to all,
John and Mary

Key West

We left Marco Island shortly after daybreak heading to an anchorage in Little Shark River, about 70 miles away.  We decided to run in the Gulf as opposed to following the old ICW part of the way.  Seas were less than 2’ and as we got closer to shore became flat and only picked up in the afternoon for about an hour, again less than 2’.  All in all a nice run.  We were the second boat in the anchorage and picked a spot and the anchor grabbed right away.  The problem was by the time we let out scope we had less than 4’ of water below the keel and tide would drop over 2’ overnight.  We decided to move to another spot.  Big mistake, it took us three more try’s to get a good hold.  As it turned out there were a total of 10 boats in the anchorage and one boat anchored in our first spot and was just fine.  Oh well.

Sunset at Little Shark River

We left a bit earlier Wednesday as we had 80 miles to Key West, all open ocean.  The seas the entire way were flat!  All we had to do was watch for the ever popular crab pots.  As we approached the harbor at Key West a Carnival cruise ship was backing out, amongst all the other boat traffic.  This is a very busy area with all sorts of boats and jet ski’s everywhere.  We found our way to Conch Marina and were secured before 4 pm.

We gave the boat a good cleaning as we couldn’t do much at the anchorage the night before and then headed to Mallory Square for the sunset.   It was a spectacle, lots of street performers, jugglers on unicycles, escape artists, trained dogs and cats, even a preacher of sorts. There were also artists selling there homemade items. The sunset was great as well as the people watching.  We then walked down Duval street and stopped for a drink at the Hogs Breath Saloon.  We both had read the guide book on the way down that had a listing of the better places to eat, unfortunately we couldn’t remember any of them.  The place we choose for dinner was very crowded but only so/so with a very poor waitress.  On our walk back to the boat we stopped in a store selling treasures from some of the sunken ships in the area.  

Cruise ship leaving as we were entering Key West, very big!

Sight seeing boat as entering the harbor.

Mallory Park sunset celebration

Mallory Park sunset

One of the many sights on Duvial Street

On Thursday The other John & Mary from Mary Frances and also from Mackinaw City came by.  John is retired National Guard and is able to stay at the Naval base marina for a very reasonable rate.  They have been here since mid December.  We last saw them in Hudson just after the crossing.  They had a car and gave us a private “Conch Train Tour” of all the sights in downtown Key West.  We had lunch at Sloppy Joes, a hangout of Hemmingway’s and as we walked around we were given bits of history on what we were seeing. They were both very informative.

They then took us to a Navy base that has some old fortifications from the first World War.  The area is so contaminated that they keep it fenced off and have a small heard of goats that live there and keep the grass short.  There were also a quite a few fairly large lizards living in the area.  There was a home made semi submersible boat 53 feet long weighing 12.5 tons that was sized off the west coast of Costa Rica by the Coast Guard cutter Steadfast in November 2006 carrying 4.1 tons of cocaine.  It’s crew of four were taken into custody to face prosecution in the US.  The vessel was towed into port  by the Costa Rican Coast Guard and later transported to the US as evidence.

We then went to the Navy base where they were staying which was about 7 or 8 mile East of downtown on the Atlantic side.  It was very nice, they are berthed right next to a small bar in an area with a swimming beach, picnic tables and grills.  We bought them a beer for a whopping tab of $8.35 and sat outside enjoying the sunshine watching the F16 and F18’s take off and land.  There are definitely some nice perks being retired military.  It’s the very least we can do for all those who devote so much of there lives protecting our country. 

Sights from Key West

One of the many rosters found wandering everywhere, along with my Captain

Navel ship docked across from us in Key West

One of the very many bars in Key West

A well fed lizard

Goats were well fed as well, only organic vegtables.

Captured drug smuggling boat.

Southernmost Point in the USA

Man of sponges

It was then back in the car and took a different route in to town stopping at the Coast Guard Base along the way.  Which turns out is right across from where we are docked.  John & Mary then came aboard and we sat up top had a drink and enjoyed the surroundings.  It was so very nice of them to show us around.   Thank You both, we really appreciated it and we hope to run into you again on our travels back to Mackinaw City.

After they left we went back to walk around the downtown some more and had dinner at a place they recommended, Caroline’s.  It was much better than the night before.  Thanks again, guys.

Originally we had planned to only stay two nights here in Key West but after our tour we realized that there were a couple of museums we wanted to see.  Friday morning we were awakened at 4:45am by a dinghy’s outboard motor.  John got up and checked and there was a diver at the sailboat in back of us.  When he went to checked and see if our slip was available for another day (which it was) there was another diver and he asked what was going on.  It is race week and the sail boats don’t have bottom paint so they have the bottoms cleaned before each race.  

After breakfast we headed back to town to visit the Custom House and the Truman White House.  Both were very interesting and informative. We learned about the building of the railroad from St. Augustine all the way to Key West.  After visiting the Truman White House we also toured the Key West lighthouse and climbed the 88 stairs for a great view of the island.

Customs House at Key West

Key West Light House

As we were walking back through town John from Mary Frances called and invited us to dinner at the Marina Club at their marina.  We had a nice dinner and enjoyed another chance to visit with them both.  We hope to see them again once we get to Key Largo.

So long for  now from sunny Key West.
Mary and John

Sanibel and Marco Island

Friday the 13^th turned out to be a very good day.  We took a 8 mile bike ride to the end of the main drag stopping at many of the shops.  We went through a portion of the Ding Darling National Nature Preserve, stopped  for a late lunch then did some shelling on a different beach.  It’s easy to see why so many people do shelling you think if you walk the beach just another 100 yards or so, with the next wave you will find the really special shell.

Not a sign you see in Illinois

Turtle at Ding Darling Nature Preserve

Ospray 

Sanibel Marina

Another sign not found at home

On our way back to the boat we had seen a sign for the Historical Village and rode over to see what it was.  Unfortunately, the village closed at 4:00pm and we arrived at 3:55pm, but the docent there gave us a rundown of the property.  It turns out that there are 8 houses dating back as far as 1913 that have all been moved to a central location owned by the city.  The were all preserved to their original condition and filled with period appropriate furnishings.   The city of Sanibel is unique in that it was incorporated in the early 70’s as a means to prevent the island becoming another high rise district.  No building on the island can be taller than 4 stories and there was only one fast food chain store a Dairy Queen.  There are no stop lights just traffic cops at two busy intersections.  The island is 70% nature preserves leaving only 30% for commercial and residential areas.  

Once we got back to the boat we were both full from our late lunch and decided not to go to the marina restaurant even though there was quite a crowd and we thought it would be good.  The marina on Sanibel is quite nice and they bring you blueberry muffins with a paper each morning.  We decided to stay an extra day, do some laundry, tour the historical village and go out to dinner at the marina restaurant.  

Staying an extra day worked out well except that the sun hardly ever came out and our bike ride to the historical village and back was a bit chilly.  The village proved to be very interesting and our dinner at Gramma Dot’s the restaurant at our marina was excellent..

School  house at Sanibel Historic village

Cottage

Tea House that survived hurricane in 1926

Post Office rebuilt with scraps from hurricane of 1926

John with his friend the post master

Bailey's General Store

Sear Roebuck home that arrived on the island by barge in 30,000 pieces

Sunday morning we pulled out of our tight slip without a problem, after having our blueberry muffins.  The tide was down a bit from when we came in and the canal inlet to the bay was very narrow and windy but we made it alright.  We had a bit of wind and waves on the way to Marco Island.  It was a following sea so not too uncomfortable but the auto pilot was working very hard to keep us in a straight line.  Plus there were the crab pots to deal with.  We arrived at Factory Bay Marina at Marco Island shortly before 1:00pm.  Due to the wind and waves the boat was covered with salt spray.  Once we were secured in the slip and checked in we gave the boat a thorough washing. 

The port stern scupper was still draining very slow so John got in the dinghy and back flushed the drain and a broken off top to the water inlet was flushed out.  Who knows how long this had been in there as the scupper has been a problem since we got the boat.  It is now draining just fine. Yea! After we were done washing and drying the boat we took a dinghy ride around the Marco Island Harbor.  We were able to skype with Kelly, Owen and Izzy and enjoyed talking with them, we hope there Daddy feels better, seems that he had a touch of the stomach flu.  After dinner we watched another episode of Dowton Abbey, we have probably watched as much TV over the internet as we have over the air and cable.

There was a bit of wind all night and the AGLCA flag made quite a racket.  The first thing Mary did was put a cover on it.  We have decided to stay one more day at Marco as the Admiral thinks the waves and winds would be better if we waited until tomorrow.  We walked to the shopping area about 15 / 20 minutes away and found lots of stores including a West Marine, Publix and CVS.  We stocked up on some needed items in addition to some clips to hold the boat hooks.  Unfortunately, the clips were the wrong size and we had to walk back to exchange them.  We had forgotten some things at Publix so we picked them up on the second trip. The clips were installed and work great.  Mary made her “Take it Easy Monday” dish for dinner which was very good.  We slept well with the flag covered.

Pathway to the Marina we stayed at.

John and Mary