A Little More Time in Key Largo

It's Christmas day so pretty much everything is closed.  We're on the boat and in the water, but we still haven't left the dock yet.  I kind of wanted to hang around until right after Christmas so we could communicate with Tom and with Andrea and Kyle.

Two days ago we were invited by the owners of the boat yard to travel with them by boat to a nearby restaurant, Alabama Jacks, for lunch.  We left about 10:30 am in the 30' wooden electric runabout that he had built about 2 years ago.  It's a beautiful boat and the electric motor is wonderful.  Totally quiet and pushes along at about 5 or 6 knots .  He could go faster but then he doesn't have the range if he would by going slower.  It took us about an hour to get to the restaurant and a little longer on the way back.  When we got back he'd only used about half the potential for the batteries.  I was very impressed!

We attended church this morning in Tavernier at the Emanuel Lutheran Church.  There were between 40 and 50 people at the service.  Fortunately most of them had shorts on, so we fit right in.  There were people from Denmark, Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana a well as North Dakota of course.  It was a small church but the service was very nice and the people were very friendly and inviting.

Unfortunately or probably fortunately, with the time on our hands, I found that the backing plate for one of our port shroud lines was severely rusted and corroded.  To the point where it had the potential to fail.  I have pictures.  So, after a few special words and help from my first mate, we were able to remove the backing plate.  Now I need to get another one fabricated.  I've talked with the owners of the yard and they've suggested a welder in Homestead.  Tomorrow we'll call and see if they're open and get it to them to duplicate.  It's always a question of how long it will take.  So, it looks like we'll still be here for a few more days.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone.  Contact us, if you can.

Splash Time

9 Lives went back into the water at about 10:00am this morning.  Had a little trouble getting the diesel to fire, but persistence paid off and she started up.  The Manatee Boat Yard is really a tight little yard so moving from the lift to the slip was interesting.  Fortunately there was little wind and we had a yard hand to help us get around a really crowded corner.  We've decided to stay here through Christmas and then head on out.  That way we'll be able to Skype with Andrea and Ky on Christmas Day.  Marilyn got an email from Tom yesterday, but we still don't know where he is.  Sounds like there is a good possibility that he'll be home on or near Christmas.  We hope so!!

The picture is 9 Lives next to another boat.  We're now back off the highway, which is close to the boat yard, so the traffic sounds are much better than where we were when she was still on land.  I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas.  Marilyn just got a call from Tom!!!!  He's in the Crete airport waiting for a plane.  They're sending him all over to get home, but he doesn't care as long as it ends up back in the US.  Our Christmas will be much better now even though we won't be able to be together.  I'll try to post more as things develop.

Back to Key Largo and Goodbye to the Kids

We're almost back to Key Largo.  Should be back to the boat tomorrow.  We haven't had much in the way of a wireless connection while we were on a Carnival cruise with Andrea and Kyle.  Both Ky and Andrea had a wonderful time and neither wanted to go home.  Ky used his charms on all of the waiters and the room steward to make friends forever.  If you're friends with Andrea, you can see Ky dancing with the waiters on her face book page.  The weather was great except for a couple of days where we had some rain on and off.  Andrea and Ky thought it was a lot better than the weather that was back in Bismarck, so no one was complaining.  We visited the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and the Turks and Caicos.  We'd never been to the Turks and Caicos before and the water was beautiful.  We did a semi sub tour there and Ky thought it was great to be able to see under the water without having to get wet.  The photos are of the Dominican Republic and the Turks and Caicos.  By the time I get done posting this information Andrea and Ky should almost be home.

Tomorrow we'll be heading back to the boat yard and hope to see about getting the boat back into the water.  I still need to have someone clean the port fuel tank, so it still may be a few days before we actually get it in the water.  That will give me a chance to think about where we're going to head.  I guess I'm trying to stay close for the Christmas holiday.  As soon as we get something figured out, we'll let you know.  

Cleanup Continues

Just put new covers on the windows, compliments of Micki Giese.  Micki took the covers we had and the new material and put the new covers together while we were home this summer.  They're beautiful compared to the original covers that were there.  The originals were getting pretty tired.  THANKS MICKI!!!

Marilyn was feeling a little under the weather yesterday, but seems much better today.

We did go to Marathon Friday and talked with the guys at the Inflatable Shop their about our Dinghy situation.  Looks like we're going to buy ourselves a new inflatable for Christmas.  At least we know what we're getting each other now.  The Dinghy we had was made out of PVC and it could be fixed for $600-700 dollars and because of the material, he wouldn't guaranteed the glue job for more than 1 or 2 years at the most.  Like I said, we did want to get a little smaller boat to make it easier to carry and move about.  I just hadn't planned on doing it quite so soon and under this type of circumstance.  The one we're getting will be Hypolon and should deal with the elements much better.

Today is Sunday, so that means we'll be looking for someplace to watch the Packer Game, so not much will be done on the boat today.

B.O.A.T.

 You do know the definition of boat (B.O.A.T.) right?  Bring On Another Thousand.  Things were really in pretty good shape when we got to the boat yard until we uncovered the inflatable.  Even though we had it covered, it looks like the summer sun in Florida did a job on the it.  We've been cleaning the big boat and putting sails back on, etc. for the last 3 days and haven't run into anything else that is too serious.  Lots of little Florida bugs to clean off the boat after sitting for 6 months, but we kind of expected that.  Surprisingly, there wasn't much water and/or moisture on the interior so we didn't have anything to deal with like we did last year.

We're going to go to an inflatable sales/repair company in Marathon, tomorrow, show them the picture and see what they say about dinghy repair.  I'm sure that anything can be repaired, but the big questions are how much it will cost and how long it will take.  I did want a smaller dinghy, but I wasn't planning on doing it quite like this.  We'll see what we find out.

The place we're staying is working out very nice.  It has nice accommodations and is relatively close to the boat yard.  The worst thing that has happened while we've been here, at least for Marilyn, is that the Green Bay Packers lost their game last Sunday.  About another week and Andrea and grandson, Ky will be here.  Gramma is really looking forward to that.

On the East Coast of Florida

We've made it to Fort Lauderdale on the east coast of Florida.  Thanksgiving was spent in Cedar Key, Florida which is a very laid back fishing/claming town.  They actually have private clam farms that the residents farm and sell the clams commercially.  The first two photographs are of Cedar Key.  We took a key tour by water in order to get a better idea of where things were.  The weather was sunny and in the upper 60's but it was nice to have a sweatshirt out on the water.

The third photo is off the pier in downtown St Petersburg, Florida.  There was a light wind with several boats in the water, but most were heading for the dock since it was just starting to get dark.  Lots of activity around the pier.  We bought a "Napolean and an Eclair" for our dessert.  They were great!!

Today we went from St Pete to Fort Lauderdale and then tomorrow we'll be headed for Key Largo.  Probably won't get to the boat tomorrow, but will for sure on Monday.  They only have temporary staff there on the week-ends anyway.  I made plans to have the bottom of the boat repainted, so I hope it's all done when we get there.  I have several projects that I want to do, so we'll be busy for at least the next week or so.  We have a small condo lined us for accommodations while we work on the boat.  

Crazy New Orleans

Made it to New Orleans and have plans to spend a couple of days here.  Yesterday we played tourist and went to the River Walk, the French Quarter, ate beignets and did a little bit of drinking in some of the bars.  The picture is of our host at Buba Gumps restaurant.  It was crazy now, I can't imagine what it's like during Mardi Gras.  Today, Sunday, naturally, it was important that we find someplace to watch the Green Bay football game.  The closest place we could find was Hooters, so the game was good, they won, and there was lots of other scenery to look at as well.

The weather is getting better.  It's definitely easier to deal with than what we left at home.  However, it looks like the temperatures are back in the 50's in Bismarck.  Looks like the weather is going to be good for the Thanksgiving week and it should get better and better the further south we get.

We will leave tomorrow for Panama City, Florida, and then on to Cedar Key, Florida the following day.  We've been trying to keep our drives to between 300 and 400 miles a day.  No marathon driving since we don't really have an where we have to be by any particular time.  At least not at this time.

We need to find warmer weather

Did I say it was starting to look like winter?  I should have kept my mouth shut.  We planned to leave on a Saturday and couldn't get away until Monday.  We received 8" of snow after a couple of inches of freezing rain.  Needless to say, it was a mess and I moved snow for a good 3 hours on Sunday.  And here I was hoping I could avoid the snow removal scene.  In the midst of all this, Andrea decided to buy a different car so we were helping her work through those steps.  It's probably a good thing that we didn't leave on Saturday.

We finally turned the house key over to Andrea and made it out of town on Monday, November 12th.  We're currently in St Joe, MO.  Originally we planned to head for Augusta to have Thanksgiving with Tom, however, his deployment was extended and now he hopes he'll be back in country just before Christmas, but even that is not definite.  So, using Plan B, were headed for New Orleans where we plan to spend a few days and then keep going to Cedar Key, FL over Thanksgiving.  We've never been there before, but it looks like it should be interesting.  We have a condo rented with a small kitchen, so we'll see what we can whip up for Thanksgiving.  Ultimately, our plan is to be in Key Largo the 25th of November.  We again have a place rented for a couple of weeks while we work on the boat and get it ready to put back in the water. We still have plans to take Andrea and grandson Kyle on a cruise the 9th of December.  Tom was suppose to go too, but unfortunately his extended deployment will prevent that from happening.  We're still excited to take Andrea and Kyle.  It should be fun!!

We'll give you an update as soon as we get to New Orleans.

Time to head south again

The weather is getting more and more like winter, so it looks like it's time to think about heading south again.  I'll get things active again here and we're thinking about leaving for warmer climes about the 1st week in November.  So, we'll turn the keys over to Andrea again and then grit our teeth.  She stays at the house on and off to make sure everything is working properly and make sure everything is OK.  We're not sure how often she stays here, but we suspect it's more often than not.  But that's OK.  At least we know everything is in one piece.  We hope to take our time going south this year with the idea of being in Augusta for Thanksgiving with Tom.  That assumes that he's back from his submarine adventure by then.  When he left in September he was told that he would be back on or about the 9th of November.  But we'll see.  Probably won't have anything else until November.

Back to Manatee Boat Yard

We've arrived back at the Manatee Boat Yard.  We spent one night at their dock and then this morning they hauled her out of the water.  We had the bottom power washed and it looks like we might have to have the bottom repainted before the beginning of the next sailing season.  I worked most of the day changing oil in the dingy outboard, changing  zinks on the diesel, stowing lines and putting things away in general.  Marilyn took the car to get the oil changed and pick up a few odds and ends that we need to get the boat ready to leave. Besides that, she's been packing and stowing lots and lots of things.  We figure it will take us about 2 days, give or take, to get things ready to leave.  Last night while at the dock we took down the Genoa sail and also bagged the screecher.  We still need to take down the main sail and put it away.  We did have a little excitement on the way to the boat yard.  We picked up part of a ski rope or something similar on our prop.  So, it took us a sharp knife and some words of encouragement to get the prop cleared.  Today is Wednesday, April 25 and I hope that we can be ready to head back to Bismarck on the morning of the 27th.  Till next time.

Down Day, 100% Chance of Rain

Met Micki and Craig Giese on April 16th at the Mangrove Marina.  We wanted to take off on Tuesday to do a little sailing but the wind was not in our favor and it was again blowing about 20 knts, so we decided to play tourist.  We went to Theater of the Sea in Islamorada.  Theater of the Sea is a mini Sea World.  It is nothing on the scale of Sea World, but they do a very nice job with the animals and grounds that they have.  Although they only have two dolphins, the show was very impressive.  On Wednesday the winds had settled down and the forecast was very good.  We sailed from Mangrove Marina to Shell Key for an overnight and then with a wind switch, we sailed back from Shell Key to Bottle Key which is about 4 miles north of Mangrove Marina. Bottle Key is north of the Intercoastal Waterway and gets very little traffic, so we had the anchorage all to ourselves.  The only time you knew that civilization was around was if you look at the lights to the south.  We had a great time with the Giese's and the guys managed to win the Universe while playing penochle.  We returned to Mangrove Marina on Friday so that the Giese's could head back to their condo on Marco Island.  It started to rain hard this morning about 5:00am and it's still raining now at 9:30am.  We've found a few leaks that need to be addressed before head back to ND. 

If the weather cooperates, we plan to be back at the Manatee Boat Yard about Tuesday the 24th.  We hope a couple of day will be enough to get the boat ready for haul out and then after ensuring that everything is tucked away, we'll be headed back to ND.

Slowly Moving

Plantation Marina has been a nice place to stay for a few nights. The facilities are great with the local park close by. The first day here we had quite a few showers with bright sunshine afterward and rainbows. Shopping is not too close, so we had to take a cab to get groceries and exchange a propane tank. We plan to leave again tomorrow. We've made progress toward Key Largo much faster than we anticipated, so we probably won't go too far tomorrow. We may check out Community Harbor where we stayed at Mangrove Marina on the way down. We'll check out the anchorage and if it doesn't look too crowded, maybe we'll stay there. If it is crowded, we may head for the anchorage off of the Upper Keys Sailing Club. The club lets people use their dingy dock and we know that local stores are accessible there since it's close to where we stayed when we first came to the keys.

Craig and Micki Giese are planning on meeting us on the 16th. We hope to stay at one of the marina's in the Jewfish Creek area in order to get them on board and also have a place for them to keep their car. We'll sail for a few days and then return to the same place. That will get us closer to the end of the month. We'll be contacting Manatee boat yard in the next few days to line up arrangements to prepare the boat for haul out.

Leaving Marathon

We were able to get the anchor and deck lights replaced without too much trouble. Looks like me up there. NOT. He was about 30 years younger than me and made it look so easy.

The weather forecast called for 3 pretty nice days before the wind picked up again, so we headed under the 7 mile bridge and turned East toward Key Largo. When we checked the weather again they'd changed the forecast so we decided to go further than orginally planned. We anchored out at Matacuba Bight which was a nice large anchorage. The only problem, it didn't have much protection from the wind for the direction from which it was coming. Thankfully the wind shifted a little during the night and gave us better protection and a much better ride at anchor. The next morning we left about 9:00am in hopes of getting to Plantation Marina on Plantation Key before the wind got too strong. The wind was from our back, so the ride was pretty good. As you can see Marilyn likes to get really clost to the marks. I told her not to get too close or she'd scare the birds. We'll you can see what happened. We also got pretty close to one of the crab pots that are scattered everywhere. By the time that we got to Plantation Marina at about noon, the wind had picked up to between 15 and 20. We tied up to the dock with the help of marina staff. We really appreciated their help since the wind wanted to blow us off the dock. As we settled in, the wind picked up to between 25 and 30 with scattered thunderstorms. Needless to say we were happy to be tied to a dock inside the breakwater rather than out somewhere rolling around on the anchor. The is Easter week-end, so the marina is pretty busy and we assume it will be until at least Monday. Just like the week-ends at home. The weather and wind is suppose to get better after the week-end, so we think we'll stay here until at least Tuesday. Not sure what we're going to do for Easter, but I hope everyone has a good one.

From One Exteme to Another

Just like ND, the weather goes from one extreme to the other. The temperature's pretty constant, but the wind is definitely fickle. The forecast for today was from 0 to nothing for wind, so we went with our slip neighbors out to Sombrero Reef which is about 3 miles from where we have the boat. This is the best water that we've seen yet at least for snorkeling. No wind and the water around the reef was crystal clear. The coral was in great shape and there were lots of fish. The state park system has a series of moorings that you can use around the reef, so it made it very easy to get access.

Yesterday we had to get the sail ready to be repaired so Marilyn was looking for the sail bag and I thought I might as well have her clean the sail locker while she was at it. I would have done it myself, but I couldn't fit down inside. Well, at least that's what I told her. Tomorrow we have someone lined up to replact our anchor and deck lights at the top of the mast, so we won't be playing as much as we did today. Our neighbors have a beautiful Krogan Trawler so it was a very nice ride to the reef. We ended the day by taking them out for early dinner. They've done so many nice things for us, we felt that was the least we could do.

Headed North (East)

Key West is not technically the end of the keys. The Dry Tortugas are the end, but we won't be going there, at least not this time around. As you can see, this is mile 0 and the start of Highway 1 which actually ends somewhere up in Maine. We played in Key West for a few days. The sunset celebration is quite the event. Lots of entertainers like the juggeler we watched. The guy said he's been doing this for 7 years and that is his only form of employment. I'm sure he does pretty good, because there were lots of people there. All cash. No one gives him a W2. The butterfly is from the Butterfly Museum which is really interesting and is also in Key West. A fun place to spend some time with lots and lots of butterflies.

After 4 days of Spring Breakers and touring the town, we left and headed North (East). Winds were from the right direction so we went to Bahia Honda State Park to anchor. Ended up spending 2 nights there because the winds were again blowing 20 to 25 from the wrong direction. The photo of the bridge is of the old train, then hightway, bridge. As you can see they actually took out a section of the bridge so that boats like ours can enter the bay and gain access to the state park. It's a beautiful area, but the anchorage leaves something to be desired. There is a horrible current that goes between the bridges, everytime the tide changes, so between that and the high winds we had a pretty bumpy night. We actually had to move to another spot in the bay because we were having trouble getting the anchor to set.

We made it back to Marathon today from Bahia Honda. We'll be spending another 3 nights here in the hopes of getting a few repairs made. We need to have our anchor light at the top of the mast replaced and I don't do that kind of stuff anymore. We also noticed that we have a small rip in our main sail at the gromet for one of the reefing points. It's not a major problem, but I don't want it to get any worse. I can find people to do these things, but it's a question of whether they can do them before we have to leave again. Right now I could only get three days in the marina, so we may have to move somewhere else. But, I'm on their list in case someone cancels a reservation. I still need to replace the thermostate on the engine, but am still trying to locate the part. We plan to keep slowly heading back toward the Key Largo area.

We Aren't in Kansas Anymore, Toto!

We're currently in Key West. We arrived yesterday after an exciting downwind sail from Saddle Bunch Key Harbor. The weather forecast said the wind was suppose to be 18 in the morning and decrease to around 15 in the afternoon. So we waited until about 11 and took off. Guess what, the wind increased as we got closer and closer to Key West. We set only our head sail since we were going down wind and were doing 5 kts with that alone. Most of the time we have to have the main and the head sail to mak that kind of progress. When we arrived in Key West there was a cruise ship in town so things were pretty hectic. We decided to go into a marina again since we'd been at anchor for 4 days and needed water, needed to have the holding tank pumped and also needed to scrub some of the scum off our bodies. The rich and famous definitely make their way to Key West. The 120' motor yacht in the picture pulled in shortly after we got to the dock. It's from the British Virgin Islands and it makes our boat look like a dingy.

Got a haircut today, so don't look for a pony tail, which seems to be the fashion in Key West, when we get back to Bismarck. But I do feel 20 degrees cooler now. Marilyn continues to enjoy doing the laundry and I did my taxes on line today. So everything is not fun and games everyday. We're going to gradually start to work our way back north on Monday. (Once again if the weather cooperates). They're currently predicting southwest and northwest winds for Sunday and Monday. That's the direction we want to start to head north (really east) and it doesn't happen very often. Our current adventure today was to walk to the auto parts store looking for a thermostate for our diesel. They didn't have it and no one else did after we called around. I may have to wait until we get back to the Marathon area. They seem to have a lot of parts and supplies in that area.

Bismarck Palm and Bahia Honda State Park

Returned to Marathon and said good bye to Pat and Judy Sorenson. Have a couple of new projects to take care of: gluing the dingy and checking the diesel engine temperature, so we're going to stick around Marathon for the weekend and head out after that. Micki and Craig Giese are going to be in Marco Island the first part of April and they would like us to come and visit. It's a little bit of a hassel to get to the western part of Florida from here, so I'm not sure what we'll do. We could also head down to Key West, but I want to make sure that all the spring break activities are over before we do that. Sunsets are pretty nice all over the keys and I thought it was appropriate that we take a picture of the Bismarck Palm that we saw on Pigeon Key.

Shades of Crusing Years Past

Pat and Judy Sorenson arrived for a visit on March 7. We had hoped to visit Sombraro Reef the next day and do some snorkeling, but because of the windy weather, we ended up staying put again. So we played tourist and visited the local Turtle Hospital where they reabilitate injured turtles and also went to Pigeon Key which presents the history of the construction of the railroad and highway bridges across the keys. It also talks about Henry Flagler who had the dream.

After the weather did settle down a little, we took the Sorenson's back to Little Crawl Key so we could use the services of Curry Hammock State Park. We did some kyacking and watched the kite boarders again. From Little Crawl Key we made it to Bahia Honda State Park about 20 miles further south. The wind was blowing between 15 and 20, but we were going downwind, so the ride was pretty good. Judy was still watching the horizon from time to time because of the bumpy ride. Bahia Honda was very nice and had lots of people there, many of which were on spring break. The next day, we helped one of the boaters in the marina move his boat from one side to the other. He had lost his engine so we helped him walk it around 3 or 4 boats to get to the boat ramp where he was going to haul it out the next day. We left Bahia Honda and headed back for Boot Key Harbor where we were again going to stay and be ready for Pat and Judy to leave today the 15th. Our trip from Bahia Honda to Boot Key was long being directly upwind from where we were. After tacking most of the afternoon in pretty bumpy seas, I decided to motor sail to gain a little more in the direction that I wanted to go. It turned out to be a bad idea. About 15 minutes after starting the engine it died and we were unable to restart it. Good thing we have a sailboat. We continued on to the entrance of Boot Key Harbor and anchored in the lee of the key. After anchoring we looked at the engine. After replacing both fuel filters and purging the fuel injectors, it finally start again. We seem to have water in the fuel, but I'm not sure why. We'll have to watch the fuel/water separator a little closer and hope that this doesn't continue to occur. After getting the engine running we motored into the slip we had reserved at about 6:30pm. Much later than I had hoped to be there. First we needed a beer, then something to eat, then a shower and finally time to sleep.

Judy and Pat left this morning at 8:45 am. We did some reprovisioning and I replaced the filters that I needed to use. We have some more projects for tomorrow. The next thing we need to decide is where we head from here. As soon as we know, I'll let you know.

Still at Burdines

We're still at Burdine's Marina in Marathon. Sounds like it's suppose to turn a little ugly tomorrow. Fifty percent chance of rain and winds from 25 to 35 out of the northwest. So, this is probably a good place to be. We've talked with Pat and Judy Sorenson a couple of times and they have everything in place to join us on the 7th of March. We'll be at the marina thru the 8th and then we'll go to a few different places with Pat and Judy. The extended forecast looks like it should be OK for their visit.

Just got off of Skype with our daughter Andrea and our grandson, Ky. Video calls are pretty cool. Things are a lot different than when we cruised in 1993/94. No cell phone to speak of at that time and definitely no Skype. We didn't really have much in the way of email at that time either.

New Marina Friend

We have a new friend. The marina cat Buddy. His owners are actually at the other end of the marina, but they work all day. So, he mostly stays on the charter boat that is in the slip next to us. But, when they are out with charter guests, he comes over and visits us. He slept most of the morning in one of our plastic container boxes in the aft cabin. I guess he pretty much runs the place. Even the dogs won't mess with him.

Marilyn did some laundry this morning and then we decided to walk over the local West Marine store for some items that we needed. We couldn't find a wrench that I needed so they suggested Home Depot and said it wasn't too far down the road. Not too far if your driving a car. We figured that we put on at least 5 miles round trip, but got the things that we wanted. After we got back to the boat, our neighbor asked if we wanted to go to the grocery store, so we couldn't pass up the offer, even though we would rather have put our feet up. After the shopping it was time for a cool shower and a beer. Had two and now we're thinking it feels like it's really late, but wait, it's only 8:00pm. This day just flew by.

Half Way Down the Keys

We pulled into Burdine's Marina in Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, FL this afternoon. We left Little Crawl Key at about 9:00am. The wind wasn't really blowing all that hard, probably 12 to 15, but the ocean was rockin and rollin quite a bit since the wind had been blowing pretty hard for so many days earlier this week. Fortunately we were doing a big broad reach which is very close to down wind, so the ride wasn't really too bad. Just like every time we've sailed the boat, we learned a few new things about how to set it up, particularly when there was more wind and waves to contend with. We had a reservation made at Burdine's Marina so we pulled right into slip number 4 without a hitch. The dock hand was there to help and we even had some of our neighbors helping with lines. More and more we're finding that there are lots of people who bring their boat down to one place, put it in a marina and stay there for the season. The slips aren't real cheap; the boats aren't cheap, so I'm not sure why someone would want to do that. If I was going to stay in one place, I think I'd get a Condo. There would definitely be more room. We're packed pretty tight in the Marina, but the folks on both sides of us seem very nice. One couple is from Illinois and the other couple is from up state New York. The fellow from Illinois has his car hear, so he said to let him know if we need a ride to the grocery store or anywhere else in the area. So, that was pretty nice and we'll probably take him up on the offer. We're going to stay here for several days until our friends Pat and Judy Sorenson from Denver arrive to stay with us. So, we'll see what surprises Marathon has for us in the next few days.

Making Progress but the computer battery died

Seems like the inverter system that we have doesn't want to charge either of our computer batteries. So, haven't been able to add to the blog. This is a picture of Marilyn and boat at Shell Key, a Florida protected key. We made it to Little Crawl Key today and may be staying here for a couple of days until the cold front they are predicting has passed through. Suppose to be thunder storms and 16 or 17 knt winds. So I'd rather be hiding in this well protected anchorage than out somewhere else rockin and a rollin.

We actually motored out through the channel 5 bridge this morning which is one of the few places where we can go from the inside to the ocean side or visa versa. Sails were set and the winds were from the south and southeast so it was good for us to head west. Finally sailed for several hours on our way to Little Crawl Key. We did find out that we need to go further off shore if we don't want to run the slolum course of crab pots that are in the water. Thank goodness for charts and chart plotters. The entrance to this anchorage went all over the place. There is only one other boat in the anchorage and we met Harry and Mary from their power catamaran "Seagull". Turns out they were from Chippawa Fall, Wisconsin and they're Packer Fans too, go figure. Not very good access to anything on shore at this anchorage, so we may have to do some serious exploring if we have to stay here a couple of day. I'm loosing my shirt at Gin Rummy, so I guess I'll have to continue to pay up.

A day for laundry and shopping

We're spending another night at Mangrove Marina to take care of laundry and get some other basic supplies. I managed to commender a two wheel card to use for the propane tank so that I didn't have to carry it the half mile from the grocery store.

The red Hunter sailboat is our neighbor at Mangrove Marina and they are from Kenosha, Wisconsin. Long story, but Joanie the wife is on the boat while her husband went back to Wisconsin to take care of work that he had.

The other photograph is a picture of the chart that I'm currently using. The asterik or mark on the far left side of the chart is our current position in Community Harbor. I thought maybe this would give you an idea of how close things are together. Each one of the marks are potential ancorages that could be used depending on whether we're north of south of the keys. We're currently north of the keys and there are only a few places that we can cross back and forth because of the height of our mast. For now we'll pretty much be cruising on the north or inside in the Florida Bay area. Tomorrow we plan to head for Shell Key which is a state owned protected area. I guess it has 5 moorings that can be used, but I'm not planning on any being open since there are many boaters looking for the same thing. We'll plan on anchoring and be pleasantly supprised if a mooring is available.