The day after they got to Ft. Myers we drove them around to show them the area. Our mutual friends Gretchen & Mike with granddaughter Addie happened to be in town also so we got together in Naples. Addie was the photog so ended up not being in the picture...sorry.
We left on Monday for a nice run down to Marco Island before heading toward the Keys. There were a couple of Fish & Wildlife boats in the marina getting ready to head down also and patrol the lobster hunt. I'm not sure what all they get into out there but their boat seats look like something NASA designed!
After Marco we had planned to anchor at Little Shark River for the night before heading to Marathon but Mother Nature had other plans. By late morning we could see storms building right where we intended to go so the decision was made to press on all the way to Marathon. It was a good call since we could see the storms all afternoon and there was a ton of lightning.
The dolphins agreed with our decision and helped guide the way to Marathon.
We were lucky to get a strong enough cell signal to call the marina and let them know we were coming before they closed. We stayed 3 nights and explored a bit by dinghy before moving on to Key West. It was our first test of the new dinghy and it rode very nice and dry with 4 people in it.
On Friday we moved down to Stock Island for a night before continuing to Key West for a few days. We'll be spending February at Stock Island/Key West and wanted to check out the marina (very nice).
The ride down from Marathon was a bit lumpy but not too bad....we thought.
In Key West we stopped at the Margaritaville resort & marina for a night and WOW was it a rough experience! We expected it to be rocky during the day with all the para sail charters going in and out but we rocked all night too!! By morning I had decided to move the boat to a marina in Key West Bight for more protection. It was a much better spot and we were able to sleep much better there. Unfortunately between the trip from Marathon and the rocking night in Key West Ron had gotten a bit seasick. We tried about every remedy we could think of but he was never able to get comfortable. Sadly they decided it was best to rent a car and return to Ft Myers via solid ground.
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| He's still smilin' |
From the "things you only see in Key West" file...
Jill & I ended up spending an extra day in Key West as the un-forecast TS Emily had stirred things up in the gulf a bit. We decided to make the run straight back to Marco and got an early start. This allowed me to take a very rare photo (for me)...sunrise!!
The ride back was pretty calm and the great news is the engine repair seems to have done the trick. We expected it to with the price we paid but you always wonder if things are really fixed until you give it a good test.
So now we're back in Ft. Myers with no big plans until the trip back to the Keys in Feb. I'm sure we'll find something to keep us busy. Well....we did buy a house but that's a story for another blog....
