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.

North Dakota in the Keys

Caught this picture of the North Dakota flag today while sort of sailing from Tarpon Basin to Community Harbor. Thanks to Jeff and Laura Ditges who gave us the flag as a present after we had been sailing with them in the British Virgin Islands.

They had been predicting 12 to 15 kt winds, but it dropped to almost nothing. So, the weathermen are as good here as they are in ND. We were sailing down wind so decided to use just
the Genoa rather than take the time to put up the main sail and fuss with it in the light winds. We got a later start than we expected since our chart plotter decided that it didn't want to get a satellite fix, so we couldn't find the boat on the screen. After about an hour of messing with the antenna and trying to reboot the machine we gave up and went back to the old fashion method using paper charts. The sad part of that story is that it started to work again after we got to our destination.

So, now we're at Mangrove Marina for a couple of nights. We needed to get some more drinking water and propane. Had the holding tank pumped and filled the water tanks at the same time. Might as well since it's included in the price of the slip rental. The marina is much more reasonable than the one we stayed at last Fall, however, that one had a fancy pool that we never used and other amenities. This one is pretty basic, but meets all our needs. We walked to the Winn Dixie market and picked up some supplies and had a bit to eat. I'll get the propane tomorrow. Still trying to figure out the best way to do that. Winn Dixie has exchange propane tanks, but it's about a mile away and it might be a bit of a walk with a full 20lb propane tank. Maybe I'll have Marilyn do it!! We also have some exciting plans for tomorrow that include doing our laundry. But Marilyn is getting a fair number of books read and loosing a lot playing hearts online, so life isn't too bad.

We have to have something to eat

I really wasn't as sick as this picture looks. I wasn't very happy with what I was doing, but we have to have something to eat, so we were putting away our provisions. Since space is limited, we've tried to get rid of as much packaging as we can. So, that means putting lots of stuff in zip lock bags rather than leaving them in their boxes. Weather has been great!! Mid to upper 70's so we're enjoying it. We will be leaving the boat yard sometime tomorrow. We have a few more things to do before leaving, so it might be a late start. If it is late, we'll probably anchor out near Manatee Creek again and then get an earlier start on Saturday. I'm a little concerned about the President's Day weekend and how busy things might be out on the water, but at least it will only be for the weekend.

Got the dingy engine running again this afternoon and it works pretty well. I did notice that there is a pin hole leak in the fiberglass floor, so I will have to get some resin and fill that in. Wish Ron Yeager was here now, because I've witnessed his fiberglass work and he's an expert. Oh, well. I'll do what I can.

Back to warmer weather

We've made it back to Florida. As you can see we stopped off and saw our son Tom for a couple of days before heading south. He was great and it was really nice to see him again. We were happy to be heading for warmer weather. It was 18 degrees the morning that we left Augusta, Georgia. Needless to say, the local residents were not a bit happy with the weather conditions.

After arriving at the boat yard, we dropped clothes and other odds and ends off at the boat today. The boat didn't look any worse for ware than when we left. Had other things to wrap up. We needed to get the tender registration completed before we use it, so the Florida DOT was a real joy to experience. Take a number then wait and for awhile I thought we were going to have to get additional documentation before we could get a new title. Thankfully, everything worked out. Then over to West Marine one more time. I decided that we should have inflatable life vests that we would wear without objection since they're so compact but would be instantly available if someone ends up overboard.

Tomorrow we hope to get things settled and unpacked and also head to Walmart to get basic provisions and food for meals for a week or so. We have pretty good access to stores in the keys, so it's not like provisioning in the Caribbean islands where staples are not so readily available. As soon as we know the boat is ready to go then we have to head for the local U-haul dealer where we will be able to leave our car while we're gone. More to come

Headed back to the Southland

It's time to think about heading back to Florida. Sorry I haven't been very conscientious about putting information on the blog while we've been in North Dakota. We had Christmas to deal with when we first got back and then I had a cruise group that needed to be escorted to Hawaii at the latter part of January. The two pictures attached are from that trip. There were 28 in the group that I put together for the Dakota Community Bank and we were gone from January 20 through January 30. It was only suppose to last until January 29th, but the airlines provided another vacation day for us in the Minneapolis airport. Airline delay. Need I say anymore?





We will be leaving Bismarck on February 9th and will head back to Key Largo where the boat is waiting in the water. We're going to stop and visit our son Tom again for a day or two, so I'm not exactly sure what day we'll get to the boat. We are more excited this time than in October and November, since we're hoping that we'll get to use the boat more rather an cleaning and fixing like we did earlier. As soon as we leave I hope I can be better at blogging.