We left our anchorage at Sawyer Key at 9am, traveling 36.2 miles to Grassy Key. Not much wind, so we motored all the way. It was fun to notice when we crossed over our original GPS path from when we first approached the Keys a few weeks ago. This time instead of continuing toward the Seven Mile Bridge and Marathon, we proceeded further east to Grassy Key–another beautiful anchorage, but this time there were houses and civilization on the shores. Click HERE to see where we anchored.
Gene and Kay came over for Happy Hour and a discussion of our plans for the next few days. We decided we were going to start working our way back toward Marathon and prepare for our launch to the mainland. Tara needs fuel and water, so we plan to stop at Boot Key for a few days to take care of that and also get a few provisions. Another beautiful sunset and burgers on the grill for dinner.
The next morning we departed at 9:30am. We only had 18 miles to Boot Key Harbor. Sojourn led the way under the Seven Mile Bridge and into Boot Key. Doug and I stopped at the Marathon Marina to take on fuel, water, and ice, then cruised on into the harbor and picked up the mooring right next to Sojourn. The procedure at Boot Key is to call the City Marina on the VHF radio (channel 16). They then switch you to channel 14 and assign you a mooring ball. Click HERE to see us in Boot Key.
Since Doug and I had missed going to the Dockside Grill on our last visit, we decided to have dinner there. It’s a fun, outdoor, low key grill with typically live music every night. Last night we heard John Bartus & Storm Watch ( www.johnbartus.com) . Great food and fun Keys’ music! We have his CD, so when we’re back home, we can pretend we’re back in the Keys. Gene and Kay picked us up in their dinghy, so we actually had taxi service to and from dinner. Back to the boat for Key Lime Pie–did I mention we are little pigs on this trip?
Today (Saturday) is HOT! We went to breakfast at (APPROPRIATELY) “The Stuffed Pig”. While there Geno made the observation that it was obvious where we had come from–three of us had on Key West attire! Doug even had a tank top AND hat with Key West on them. Picture to follow. After breakfast of Seafood Benedict, the boys walked to West Marine and the girls went to Publix for a few supplies. Kay and I had our collapsible carts with us, which really helped on the walk back to the marina. It was a HOT walk. The boys had returned a while before us and had gone back to the boats on Sojourn’s dinghy, so I took our dinghy and dropped Kay off at her boat before returning to Tara. Doug was already changing the water pump on the engine when I returned. He is doing it as a precaution because he feels that the old one is leaking a small amount of salt water. He’s going to keep the old one as a spare. He actually ordered a new pump a few days ago and had it shipped to the City Marina office here. When we checked in yesterday, there it was, waiting for us! Wow, the wonders of modern shipping when you can order a part while at a deserted anchorage and have it there two days later!
So tomorrow we say goodbye to the Keys as we head North to Little Shark River. We’ll keep you posted when we can!
Sunset at Grassy Key
After sunset
Key West Attire
Our taxi arrives!
