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.