Tarpon Basin to Angelfish Creek Again! 2/25-2/26/18

We left Tarpon Basin around 2:00 PM to catch the high tide and we also learned that Gilbert's had reopened their fuel dock after repairs from hurricane Irma.  We wanted to top up with fuel and water before we headed to the Bahamas.  Fuel in the Bahamas can be $4-5 a gallon and water runs around $.50 a gallon.  Gilbert's is a happening place and we had to hover for about 20 minutes to wait for a boat that was fueling up to clear the fuel dock.  They have a huge Tiki hut here with live Rock and Roll on Sunday afternoons and the place was packed.  It reminded me of Miami Vice with all of the bikini clad girls, loud music and tons of cigarette boats and people.

Not a picture from the actual day we were there but you get the idea of the place.  Music so loud you couldn't hear yourself talk, let alone any warning of the fuel tanks being full.  That's the Tiki hut behind the boats with the band playing under it.

206 gallons of fuel later and 350 gallons of water we were back on our way to Angelfish Creek to cross to the Bahamas in the morning.  When we pulled into Angelfish Creek there was a nice Fleming anchored there along with a catermarin around the corner.  It was a peaceful night and we were looking forward to the crossing in the morning albeit with some trepidation as this was a first for us.

Angelfish Creek to Tarpon Basin 2/20- 2/25/18

Since the wind will be strong all week we have decided to head to Tarpon Basin, just off of Key Largo and anchor out for the week.  We have some boat chores to do and we can do another last minute shopping trip in Key Largo before we cross to the Bahamas.  We left Angelfish Creek and crossed through Card Sound back west towards Key Largo.  The trip down was uneventful and the waves were not big on the bay inside of the Keys.  The water as we had seen down near Channel 5 was skinny and we saw lots of mud being stirred up as we passed through some areas

Abby's  favorite position in the dingy 

This is the dingy dock/park at Key Largo.  We went over twice a day for walks  with Abby and there is a farmers market just across the highway from here

Nothing too much to say about this week.  It was mostly sunny and warm but windy, and we were happy to hang out until the winds were predicted to subside. Good internet and busy with work so the time passed quickly. Abby met Schooner, another dog to play with at the park and that wore her out for the evening.

That's Drift Away in the background

Marathon to Channel 5 2/17-2/18/18

I took Abby out for her morning bike ride over to Seven Mile Bridge and then made a quick trip on the BMW to Publix for a few things.  We have been trying our best to stock up on booze, wine, and groceries before we head over to the Bahamas hopefully this week.  I think we must have done a good job because the boat has developed a list to port where all of the wine and booze is stored!  We have never had so many supplies aboard so I hope we didn't forget anything.  The plan today is to go up the outside or Hawks Channel and cut over to the inside at Channel 5, then work our way north towards Tarpon Basin.  Right now the weather/wind forecast doesn't look for our crossing and we may need to hang out for a week until it settles.

The cruise this morning was windy but not too bad conditions. We turned out of Hawks Channel and into Channel 5 to rejoin the ICW.  Once we crossed under the RT 1 bridge the bay was fairly shallow but depth were consistent at about 6-8 feet.  We followed a sports fish in through the inlet and he didn't slow down at all so either he knows 1: there is good water 2: wants to stay on plane so he draws less water or 3: doesn't care its not his boat....  It took us about an hour to cross the sound and then we came to Bowlegys Channel leading through a narrowing in the ICW.  We saw lots of 0's on the depth sounder and once we made it through, dropped the hook to catch lunch.  Upon reading further reviews about the ICW from here going north we decided to turn around and head back to Hawks Channel.  Some of the comments were downright scary and most said don't do it. This was just too nerve racking and would not be worth it if we dinged the props or bent a shaft. We stirred up a lot of mud trying though.
Our anchorage tonight will be Lower Matecumbe Key anchorage just off of a marina and small development.  Our afternoon was busy with lots of small boats and jet skis zipping by but the evening and night were quite

The girls watching the sun go down

Key West to Marathon 2/10-2/17/18

Another day in paradise ending

Abbys getting ready to go to the Bahamas

We left Key West this morning and are heading east to Marathon for a weeks stay at the Marathon Marina Resort.  We passed close by one of the cruise ships on our way out of Key West.  The weather was clear with about three foot waves and was pretty comfortable.  When we arrived at Marathon Resort we were greeted by Debbie who works the fuel dock.  She is a real character and helped us get tied up at the fuel dock so we could unload the BMW before moving into our slip.

We are in Slip 1 which is quite close to the fuel dock, but on the plus side is also close to a nice bathroom and near the end of the dock so the view is pretty nice, and the sunsets are fantastic. All of the docks here are new Bellingham brand floating concrete docks.  Very stable and new power pedestals and water connections.  The new power pedestals also have the new GFI breakers.  This is the future of dock power pedestals and we found out that our boat will trip the breakers.  Under the direction of Robert the dock manager we plugged in and turned on one breaker at a time until we tripped the GFI.  We found out that it is only the 220 system breakers that would create a fault and trip the breaker so we ended up not being able to use the washer/dryer, oven, cook-top, hot water heater and the upper salon AC while connected to shore power.  Its a bit of a pain but we made do with microwaving and grilling on the BBQ.  When we did need the cook-top or oven we started the generator and that also reheated the water which was good for a day or two.  I guess I will need to spend some time going through all of the 220 appliances and isolating the neutral and grounds on them as this is what is causing the GFI to pop.  Household appliances are commonly wired with the neutral and ground bonded together inside the appliance and this just won't work for the new pedestals.

On our first evening at Marathon Resort we treated ourselves to dinner at the attached restaurant Lazy Days.  It was pretty good but not worth a revisit.  Over the next days we rode the BMW around Marathon and explored different places, bars and marinas.  Our favorite was Faro Blanco Marina which is attached to a Hyatt and allows access to the resort pool and facilities.  Pretty nice place.  We may stay there next year for a month if it fits in our schedule.  We went over to Banana Bay Marina where we had looked at a boat years ago to buy.  Many loopers make this their winter home and they were full up and not looking like there would be any room next year either.  Both of us agreed that we liked either Faro Blanco or where we are better anyways.

Marathon got hit pretty hard with the hurricanes last fall and although they are working hard at rebuilding there is still a lot of visible damage everywhere.  Some parts of it reminds me of driving through third world countries.  Another consequence of the hurricane was that there were over 300 boats on moorings in Boot Key Harbor (Marathon) and something like 65 made it through the hurricane.  They have two very large cranes picking up the salvaged wrecks and a large excavator smashing up the hulls and loading them into dumpsters.  The harbor is full again with not an empty mooring ball to be seen.  We dingyed through and stopped to visit some Canadians that ended up being from Lachute QC.  They recommended that we take the three Sisters channel over to Sombrero Beach for a visit and dog walk.  Abby was very keen on that idea.  We liked it too and we spent an hour or so there people watching and walking Abby.

One day we headed off to Key West on the BMW and rode along the south breakwater to downtown.  We parked and walked through Malory Square and Debbie looked in a bunch of the shops but came out empty handed.  We then moved over closer to the Marinas and went in for lunch at the Conch Republic Seafood Company.  What a great choice.  Delicious local steamed shrimp in clam broth, lobster bisque, and a Cesar salad.  We shared all of the items and Debbie had a few margaritas and I had a couple of beers since I still had to ride the bike back to Marathon and the highway can be busy and dangerous.  I didn't think margaritas would be a good choice.

Debbie and I at Mallory Square

Key West seemed to be in good shape, certainly less visible damage than Marathon.  We enjoyed our visit and headed back to Marathon.

Other days were spent getting haircuts, grocery shopping and visiting different bars and restaurants.  We went to Castaways and also Burdine's on the wharf.  I much prefer Castaways food and menu.  Its a dump but a nice dump!  Every morning I took Abby for her morning bike ride and we would ride down the highway and over to Castaways and Burdines to see what was going on.  All of the commercial fishermen are in this area and there is always something happening.  Abby got lots of treats and compliments.  After a few days of this I found a park right at the beginning of the seven mile bridge that Abby liked better because she could go off leash and run around. That became our morning regular run and we did a couple of miles every morning.  Good for the old dogs to get out!

Casey Key Fish House

The ocean had an eerie look to it today.  Like it was lit up from below

Everglade City to Key West 2/10-2/12/18

We very much enjoyed our visit to Everglades City.  A real Old Florida feel.  We departed towards Key West right after 8:00 AM and made our way back out the winding channel to the gulf.  Once you get offshore about 3 miles it's a straight course to Key West and we took turns manning the helm.  I was sitting on the aft deck watching the water go by.  Often there are dolphins which will follow us and swim right beside the boat playing in the wake.  I was watching astern when I thought I saw a dolphin and started to watch what it would do.  Well after about 30 seconds I realized it wasn't a dolphin but a crab pot that we were dragging. I signaled to Debbie to cut the engines but the message didn't get across very quickly and about another half mile later she finally brought the boat to a stop.  I thought I would have to go swimming to untangle the crab pot line but as we stopped the buoy bounced up and we were clear.  Sometimes you get lucky.

We arrived late in the afternoon at Key West and set about to find an anchorage that would make us happy.  One of the first places we were set to try, as we were starting to lower the anchor along came a guy in a dingy and advised us that the holding there wasn't very good and there was a lot of current that ran through where we were trying to set.  We thanked him and moved over closer to one of the anchorages with lots of boats in it.  There are quite a few mooring balls here and lots of derelict boats too.  I can see the problem Florida and other states have with these under maintained, and probably uninsured vessels squatting in the anchorages.  The other side of that coin is that there are lots of people who work here and other places and there is no affordable housing so this is somewhat of a necessity for the working class. Workers are hard to find in the keys and the recent hurricanes have only made it worse.

There were two cruise ships tied up at Mallory Square when we pulled in and they changed out over the next two days.  The cruise ship business is doing well.

Carnival Ship

Disney Ship

We stayed in the anchorage for two days and did not venture over to Key West.  We will return via motorcycle from Marathon next week.  It will be much easier.  We did take Abby over to Wisteria Island for some playtime via dingy but the beach was rocky and Debbie wasn't thrilled with it.

Marco to Everglade City 2/7- 2/9/18

We left Marco near 10:00 AM after taking Abby for her walk or in my case for her bike ride. We headed out into the ocean because there is not really an intracoastal waterway.  Well there is one but its not very deep and the ocean was calm.  Our destination was the Rod and Gun Club in Everglade City and we had a nice calm ride down on a sunny day.

The Rod and Gun Club has a lot of history and has hosted many celebrities from presidents to Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall, Sally Fields and Burt Reynolds.  Read the history below.

What a fun History

The dock was quite and there was only one other boat for our first night.  The second night saw two other boats come in but they were ramping up for the weekend with their annual seafood festival and expecting 20,000 additional visitors for the weekend.  We will be long gone by then. The internet wasn't bad right at the Inn but they don't open until 11:00AM so I had a meeting for work that was held via Webex and I ended up sitting at a table on the veranda having my meeting.  The staff when they came in were very gracious and set up all of the tables around me but left me to my meeting.  About 10 people had been seated for lunch by the time it was finally over.

Debbie, Abby and I went out for lunch by bicycle.  We went over to Triad Seafood for lunch and I had the stone crab claws and they were delicious.

Great crab claws

Abby was a very good girl and lay under the table well we had our lunch. We rode around town after lunch and Abby got to meet lots of tourists.

The Rod and Gun has definitely seen better days but its still a neat place and I'm glad we went in to see it.

The interior is all Cypress wood and lots of dead animals

The bar area

An old victrola

The original front desk and cash register

Its very dark inside and no AC.  They no longer rent any rooms out in the main building but do have a couple of cottages for rent

I don't think these people have checked out yet and the truck was probably new when they arrived

Ft Myers to Marina at Factory Bay 2/3-2/6/18

We left Ft Myers on Saturday and headed down to Marco Island for a few days.  We found a marina at Factory Bay.  When we arrived we discovered it would be very difficult to unload the BMW on their dock that had a long and winding walkway up to the parking lot.  We had ridden the BMW over to Chuck and Sylvie's house in Naples the day before and met up with Fred and Lizzie Zickmantel.  Chuck invited us over to watch the Superbowl on Sunday and they picked us up at the marina.  Pretty good game and we had a nice evening at Chucks.  They lent us a vehicle to do errands with the next day.  We are stocking up for our month and a half in the Bahamas and bought more wine and booze and lots of meats and frozen foods.  The freezer is now full and I know we have never had more provisions on board than we do now.  We had to get a permit to bring Abby into the Bahamas and we accomplished this along with trips to Walmart, Publix, the banks and West Marine.  Its good to have cash in the Bahamas so we stocked up at our respective banks.
After a long day of shopping and storing all of the provisions we met Chuck and Sylvie for a nice Italian meal at Ciao Bella.  A very nice family run place with great food.

I guess Chuck and I had the same memo on shirt colors