Wednesday, February 27, 2008

We have made it to Marathon, Fl. It was somewhat of a milestone when we set our anchor just outside of Boot Key Harbor on the West side of Boot Key. We had always said when we left home in June that we hoped to make it as far as Marathon so when we actually arrived we felt like we had accomplished what we set out to do this year and if we never went any further, we would be happy!
We left our anchorage in Biscayne Bay after a nice week not only weather wise but also fun spending time around the South Beach area of Miami and visiting with Dave and Judy and Kent and Linda. By the time we left our anchorage the boat was in need of a good wash, the water tanks needed refilling and the head needed to be pumped out. We found out that you could go into Miamarina at Bayside and pay a flat fee of $25.00 for a 3 to 4 hour stay. We decided to do that and spent a good part of the morning working at cleaning the boat and getting it ready again for our next leg of the the trip. Bruce and I also fit in a trip to Starbucks to get on the Internet and check out mail, pay a few bills and make a few skype calls to family and friends. We then treated ourselves to lunch and some shopping before heading back to the boat for a short trip to No Name Harbor in Bill Baggs Park. For some reason right now, I can receive e-mails but neither Karen and I have been able to send any mail. We are working on the problem and hope we can get it fixed soon. In the meantime, we are receiving your e-mails but unfortunately cannot send back a reply!
While heading over to No Name Harbor, we started getting worried that we wouldn't be able to find any room in the Harbor to anchor for the night as we had stayed longer at Bayside than we had planned and it would be getting dark by the time we made it to our anchorage thus leaving us little time to get to another find another before dark. We looked at our charts and found another anchorage close by so decided to stop sooner and avoid the danger of not finding another anchorage before dark. I think it was a smart decision as the next morning when we arrived in No Name Harbor, we found it to be a lot smaller than we pictured it to be and already fairly crowded with boats. By late afternoon, we were all crammed in like sardines and any late comers were out of luck when it came to finding a spot to anchor. It ended up to be a beautiful spot and we decided to get our bikes out and do some exploring. The park takes up 494 acres at the southern tip of Key Biscayne, has a working 19th century lighthouse and one of the top 10 beaches in the U.S. It was a beautiful sunny, hot day and after a great lunch in the harbor we decided to check out the beach. It truly was one of the nicest ones we have been on so far. Because of the natural reef in front of the beach, the water is really calm and there were no pebbles, rocks or seaweed, just a beautiful hard sand bottom! We probably should have stayed a few more days, but we were anxious to make it to the Keys. We weren't sure how we were going to get out early in the morning as the harbor was so crowded that we were sure another boat had to be on top of our anchor. We did however manage to leave without hitting anyone on the way out (mostly due to my good driving abilities).
By that evening, we were anchored beside Key Largo just in front of Rodrigues Key and enjoyed a swim in the blue, clear, warm (27 degrees) water. We decided to stay there an extra day to take advantage of the nice weather and water so Bruce could get his tanks on and clean the bottom of ours and Jim and Karen's boat. As the water gets warmer, we get more and more growth on the bottom of our boat and Bruce could notice that it was slowing us down when motoring or sailing. Jim put on his snorkel and cleaned along the waterline and Karen and I helped from the dinghy. With all of us working, it didn't take long to get the job done and Bruce said it really came off easy just using a brush. We finished just in time for lunch and of course an afternoon nap for Bruce!
We had a great sail the next day on our way to Marathon. It was an easy 50 miles and the wind was from the Northwest. We probably sailed for about 5 hours, which is a record for the last few months!! We were unable to get a mooring ball inside Boot Key Harbor so we anchored on the West side of the island for the night. The next day we took the dinghy into the city marina and put our name on a waiting list for a mooring ball. Unfortunately before we were assigned a ball, the weather turned very windy and it was out of a direction which made it quite uncomfortable on anchor. Since there was no where else to go, we just toughed it out and ended up spending 2 fairly uncomfortable nights with high winds and thunder storms. We got in touch with Dave and Pat (Dragon Wick) and they told us about a friend of theirs that had a couple of docks to rent. She got in touch with them for us and to make a long story short (as Lilliane would say) we are now in front of their house on their dock which is only about 2 doors down from Dockside (the dock we had originally booked for January and February) and have all the amenities we would have in a Marina. The place is fantastic. We have taken our bikes out again and plan to call this home for a couple of months. We were sure glad to get this place but unfortunately not before we lost our anchor again for the second time since we bought the boat, Bruce fell overboard while climbing onto the boat from the dinghy (just a few bruises) and we broke our davits while trying to raise the dingy. It was definitely not one of our better days!
We realized once we were finally settled that Bruce had let his health insurance lapse and the only way to get insurance again was to return to Canada. I was planning on coming home for a few days anyway, as Bruce and a few of the guys were planning a trip to Miami for golf, so we moved our trip up a few days and we both flew home together. I immediately went up to Sault Ste. Marie to see my mom ( who is turning 80 years young on the 28th of February) and we had a good visit and I was able to spend a nice couple of days with her and my sister and take my mom out for her birthday. Happy Birthday Mom!!!
I came back to Mississauga in time to do spend some time with Lindsay and take her shopping for her 20th birthday on March 8! Can't believe my baby is getting so old! I was not able to see too many people as my car broke down and was in the shop for the entire week. They still have it and no word yet on when we will get it back. There is no rush now that we are back on the boat. I met up with Bruce in Ft. Lauderdale on Monday night and we drove back to Marathon together. As I was saying, we will be here now until we put the boat away some time in the second or third week of April. We had planned on leaving for the Bahamas but decided that it would just be too rushed and we didn't think we wanted to do that. We will probably plan 2 to 3 months in the Bahamas next year when we have more time to enjoy it. That decision made, we were able to have some company here. Bruce's sister and her husband are coming for a week in March as well as my sister and her husband are planning on coming for Easter weekend. Leanne hopes to come for a couple of days of diving with her dad and we hope to meet up with friends that are planning on coming to the Keys in March and April. It should be busy and the time will pass quickly. It is hard to believe that we have been on the boat for 9 months already and that we are quickly coming to the end of this adventure. We have pretty much decided to leave the boat here in Marathon for the summer at the Marathon Boat Yard. We now have to figure out how to summerize the boat as opposed to winterizing the boat! Any suggestions or helpful tips are always appreciated! Any visitors are also welcome, just make sure to reserve early as we are already getting booked up!



South Beach, here we come!






Heading into Miami.



Sailing in the Keys!

Need your boat moved to Europe, this is the boat that it will be loaded onto and moved for you!


Private boat docked at someones house, makes ours look really small!

Salty Lady, our friend's boat registered in Sault Ste. Marie. They are in the Bahamas now but hope to meet up with them again in the Keys in April.







Visit with Steve, Shirley, Mark and Carol just before leaving Nettles Island
































1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Bruce and Esther,
Case and I are on Marco island. Would Like to visit you for the day on Tues if you are home. We will call you.
Nancy