From Ft Myers Beach to our home in Burnt Store Marina there are two possible routes. One is to go “inside” on the ICW(Intracoastal Waterway) which is 38 miles. The other is “outside” in the Gulf of Mexico which is 46 miles. Going inside requires constant vigilance since one has to stay in a somewhat narrow channel with lots of boat traffic. The other is nothing but wide open water almost all the way home. Since the weather forecast was for light winds and calm seas we took the “outside” option and had a peaceful last day on the water arriving at our home dock at 3:30 PM. That night we met Bob and Sandy Post,who were with us the first of the cruise, at our local restaurant for a “glad to be back home” dinner.

32 days total covering 485 mile using 43 gallons of Diesel fuel which works out to be about 11 nautical miles per gallon. We stayed in a marina 13 nights and were anchored or tied to a mooring ball 19 nights.A fabulous trip with lots of great memories.

Marti's poodle fix

Til next time

We left Boot Key Harbor at 6:10am and were going under the Seven Mile Bridge (Moser Channel) an hour later. Seas were a little rough, but once we turned north the ride got better. Most of the day we had 18-20kts. of wind on our beam, so happily we made 7kts across the water. We could see the buildings of Marco Island after 10 hours without sight of land. The last four hours were the hardest, as we could see our destination but couldn’t get there any faster. At about the 10 hour mark we also had to take down the sail since we were seeing some small squalls with wind gusts over 25 kts. Doug (we both had life jackets on by then) went to the foredeck to furl the sail. I had to turn the boat  into the wind and hold it there while he tried to strap himself to the boat and get the sail down. It was quite the exciting and scary few moments as the boat was pitching violently and he wasn’t able to get strapped to the deck. He settled for getting the sail down (he didn’t furl it neatly) because he had to get back to the cockpit as soon as possible. Then we manhandled Tara back onto course and continued on. Gene & Kay watched this procedure from Sojourn–you might want to check out his description at    http://oursojourn.wordpress.com    If it’s not there yet, check back later because I think he’s working on his blog right now.

When we were almost to the Marco River Channel, rain started pouring down. By now the sun had set, but we had hoped for a little more visibility after sunset. Because of the rain clouds it got dark pretty fast. We had a slow journey into the channel because the rain made it hard to see the markers. We have a 3 million candlepower portable spotlight that I could search for the markers with and keep them lit up as Doug navigated the channel. We were drowned rats by the time we had docked at Marco River Marina! Since the marina office was closed, we docked ourselves, tied Tara up, and got ready to catch Sojourn as she came into the slip next to us. Our wonderful dockmaster Bruce had earlier given us our slip assignments and left marina keys for us.

We celebrated our long day and arrival with some nachos (made by me) on Sojourn. All of us were filled with a real sense of accomplishment for our successful journey. Also we were all exhausted!  After hot showers, we fell into bed–blissful!

Captain Doug

5 -6 ft. seas

No Name Pub

It looks like tomorrow is another possibility for leaving and heading back north. The winds are supposed to be decreasing to under 20kts. Some thundershowers possible, but otherwise looks pretty good.

This morning I picked up Kay in our dinghy and we returned our rental car to the Marathon airport. Made a couple of stops along the way and had to abort once when we reached the airport and had forgotten to fill the gas tank. So we recovered from that mistake before turning the car back to Enterprise!

We decided to have a late lunch at Castaway. We dinghied over and had another great lunch. The most fun was the aquarium right next to our table with Seahorses in it. There was a beautiful yellow Brazilian seahorse and six baby seahorses that were another kind. I got some great pics of both kinds. On the way back to the boat, we stopped and picked up another bag of ice. The rest of the afternoon will be spent readying Tara for a 6am departure out of Boot Key Harbor. We plan a 88 mile trip all the way to Marco Island (we don’t want to stop at Little Shark River this time of year   i.e. MOSQUITOES). Also we’ll be going into the famous “dark zone” of no communication for a few hours, but will regain cell phone signals & internet as we approach Marco. Hopefully the winds will help us go “fast” and we can make Marco River Marina before dark. If not, the entrance to the channel is very well marked and we know the way even without following our GPS breadcrumbs!

So for now, that is the plan. Of course, that could all change if we get up at 5am and find conditions not as good as we thought, or a raging thunderstorm at worst.  We are hopeful that we can get going and start making our way back to Burnt Store Marina–home!

Wish us luck with the weather and we’ll keep you informed!

No Name Pub (greatest pizza in the universe)

Kay is fascinated by Gene's story

Back to the boat!

Brazilian Seahorse

Baby Seahorse (about 1 in)

Look through the aquarium!

 Yesterday we rented a car and did some touring,driving up to Islamorada to a huge Fishing and sporting goods store called “Worldwide Sportsman”.  It’s owned by Bass Pro Shops which are scattered all over the country. The focal point of the store is the Sister ship of Earnest Hemmingway’s fishing boat,built in 1933. Completely refurbished, it’s quite a museum piece.

On the bridge of the PILAR

Today we are driving across the famous 7 mile bridge to a place that’s famous for pizza. It’s called the No Name Pub since it’s next to No Name Key. Tonight we are taking in the play “Death Trap “at the local community theater. There’s so much more to see and do around here with access to an automobile. That’s about all for now.

As it turns out, mechanics can’t come to the mooring balls, so we had Tara towed to Marathon Marina. This is a nice facility that we have visited several times in the past. Our TowBoatUS. driver did a fabulous job of getting us towed from our mooring ball into the marina, where we are docked at the seawall. The mechanics from MarathonBoatyard showed up within 30 minutes and had us fixed and up and running within 2 hours. It turns out that it was just a wire connection which was what Doug suspected all along. We paid for two nights here, but after checking the weather, we decided it would be prudent to launch tomorrow morning. No Refunds, though!  However, we feel that it would be the best window of opportunity to get out of town and back to the mainland. We have decided not to go nonstop to Marco because that would be a journey of 90 miles (over 16 hours). So we are going to stop at Middle Cape (near the end of the Florida peninsula) or go near Little Shark River. We hope to not get too close to Little Shark because this time of year the mosquitoes and no-seeums are legendary.

We met Gene and Kay at Lazy Days Restaurant which is right here on the marina property. We all put our heads together and came up with the plan to leave tomorrow morning at @ 9am.  Once again, we’ll be losing all contact with the outside world for a while. The nice thing about this cruise–we can always talk to Gene & Kay on Sojourn by radio! 

So, goodbye for now. We’ll be back in touch from Marco Island sometime Wednesday or Thursday!

Doug has spent the better part of the past two days checking connections, replacing hoses and filters, and even replacing the start switch. He and Cap’n Geno have been putting their heads together in trying to troubleshoot the problem before calling in the pros. We have left messages at two diesel repair shops and hope to hear back from someone tomorrow when it’s a workday (hopefully). At least we have been able to somewhat narrow down what ISN”T wrong, so that the mechanic won’t have to do that (at $95/hour!)

So today we celebrated Mother’s Day by going out to lunch at the Castaway Restaurant. Doug and I walked to West Marine to buy the new switch, then we walked to the restaurant. Gene & Kay came by dinghy and then gave us a ride back to the marina after lunch. We paid for another night on our mooring ball, got more ice, and spent the rest of the afternoon on the boat. We are definitely on “Island Time” now!

We are so grateful that this problem cropped up when we are in a very nice place with access to many repair options. We are so glad we are not at Little Shark River, where we would be out of touch and couldn’t even call for a tow! Lucky break. So for now we are just enjoying ourselves and trying not to be too anxious to get going. Oh well, that’s what boating is all about–most of the time things go well, but when they don’t, you have to be flexible.

Hopefully by tomorrow we’ll have an update.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Castaway Restaurant

The Gang

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!

Click HERE to see our location!

Another gorgeous sunset and Doug took some wonderful pictures of Sojourn anchored just west of us. Of course Doug and Geno blew their conchs at 7:57pm (official sunset)!

Today we are enjoying the scenery and doing a few things on the boat. Last night our V-berth fan died, so Doug replaced it with the fan from our “storeroom”. It got a little hot during the night since the current skewed the boat’s angle away from the wind. Not much air could make it’s way down the V-berth hatch, but tonight the fan should work all night to make up for the lack of airflow.

So it’s almost time for lunch and afterwards an exploring trip with the dinghy. Tomorrow we’ll probably start heading east toward Islamorada–probably to Grassy Key (just east of Marathon). Looks like we’ll be motoring since the winds are forecast to be low. Forecast for the next four days:   sunny and HOT!

Sojourn at sunset

This is just a quick post as we get ready to leave Key West. We have had an incredible time, but as I always say, “you can only take about 4 or 5 days here. We’ve been here 6 days and it’s finally time to go. The winds should be decreasing today to 10-15 knots. We are heading for Cudjoe Key (Fat Albert’s home). This time we will be traveling on the North side of the Keys and will be going East.

Yesterday Doug and I walked into town for lunch at Mangoes. I scored another two tee shirts, but this time I spent the big bucks ($7.50/each). We grabbed a few things at the Waterfront Market that I hadn’t picked up at Publix. This time we will probably be at anchor for at least a week.  Last night Kay made a beautiful tuna carpaccio plate with seaweed salad, wasabi, and pickled ginger on the side. We celebrated sunset on the marina dock. Cap’n Geno has now joined Doug among the ranks of Conch Blowers ! 

We hope to have internet coverage the next few days. If so, we’ll talk to you from our anchorage!

Sittin' on the dock of the bay....

The boys with their conchs