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.
No comments:
Post a Comment