Key We$t to Key Largo

I know the thought of us being "stuck" in Key West didn't get us much sympathy but we ended up being in Galleon Marina for 10 nights or 6 more than we had planned on. The problem was the winds were high for the whole week and we wouldn't have made it out of our slip without blowing into other boats and making a general mess of things. Even if we had gotten out there would have been no place to go since the seas were 7-10 feet out there. We ran into friends Ed & Kyle who happened to be in town at another marina and had lunch with them the first Saturday we were in as they planned on leaving Sunday morning....turns out they ended up at our marina for the whole week too after trying to head north and seeing how bad things had gotten.

Kyle, Ed & Jill at the Green Parrot

Nice thing was we were able to slow down a bit and really enjoy Key West as well as get a fresh coat of wax on the boat. Down side is we about blew the March budget in the first 2 weeks! We got to explore a bunch and found some great new spots as well as spending more time at the Parrot listening to live music almost every evening. Once we did get out of the marina we spent a couple of extra nights in the mooring field so I could get in one last Sunday afternoon jazz show at the Green Parrot. While the main band is the same every week the "horn section" changes with various musicians sitting in. The gentleman on the stool in the picture below was there every time we were and we were told he in 93!! He's still got some great lungs!!!

Key West Mooring

Finally we were able to tear ourselves away from Key West and start heading north. This time we wanted to go up the Florida Bay side of the islands since we had gone down the Atlantic thus completing a "loop" of the lower keys once we got back to the 7 mile bridge. Turns out this was a great plan even though a longer way to go. The strong winds out of the south for the previous week had given the bay a chance to become crystal clear and we could even see the crab pots 20 feet below the surface.

A big highlight of this day was the number of Dolphins we saw along the way. One "family" in particular swam in our bow wave for over 1/2 an hour (over 4 miles) never leaving and matching our speed with ease....I have no clue how they do it or why. In this case they seemed to be showing the younger one how to make the silly people on the boat do tricks like wave and clap and whistle at them...stupid human tricks I guess.

Once back in Marathon we went back to Faro Blanco for a few days to re-stock and give Jill a few days to get over a cold she acquired somewhere in Key West. Thankfully she isn't selfish at all and shared it with me as I was to find out a few days later. We were in Marathon for St. Patricks day and Jill was feeling better so we took the dinghy up to Claws n' Straws for one last round of $1.50 crab claws and the traditional Irish whiskey with a pickle back....with a beer back....don't knock it till you try it!!

After Marathon we had a short run up the inside to a FREE mooring ball in Islamorada which should help the budget recover. The mooring is free for up to 7 nights and is at Shell Key which is a state park. It was an easy dinghy ride into World Wide Sportsman and some nice restaurants. We spent 2 nights here before crossing back into the Atlantic for another short run to John Pennekamp State Park which is a well kept secret of a marina at $52.00 a night.

Shell Key mooring field

 We will be in Key Largo until Thursday when we finally start making our way out of the keys after 3 wonderful months. Our next reservations are in Hollywood Fl. (thanks Bryan) starting Monday so we're not really sure where we'll be along the way, keep an eye on the tracker.

One last note about knowing when you've been somewhere too long...The last Sunday jazz we went to at the Green Parrot I started getting the "locals" drink prices (not a bad thing) and realized I was beginning to look like the "Smirk" guy (definitely a bad thing!!!)

Until next time from somewhere not in the keys.....

More Visits, Parties and Key West

End of February brought better weather and more visitors. First up was a looper party (go figure).

There is a couple who winter in Marathon on their boat that did the loop several years ago. Seven years ago they began hosting a looper "Sunset Celebration" every year for those of us in the area. This includes people contemplating the loop who happen to be in the area. We all bring appetizers and the sponsors provide the drinks and cover the band. This year there were over 160 people attending....that's almost double the number that complete the loop each year! Several of us from Faro Blanco Marina went by dinghy and a good time was had by all (I think).

Hello, My Name is.....

Next up was a visit from friends Vickie and Bryan who decided to get away from the cold north weather for awhile. Problem was it wasn't cold when they left Cincinnati but was when they got back, oh well....I think they enjoyed the lower latitudes anyway. You regular readers will remember them from the Nashville trip last summer. I think they now have the "most nights on Chasing 80" award. As most visits began we took them to Sunset Grille to get acclimated, I think we must sit in the same seats every time!

Also we took the trip to Key West as we did with all the visitors. It would be a shame to be this close and not get to see it! I believe they had fun taking the quick tour around town, I know Jill and I did!

What did he say?

Next up was another visitor from our old marina in Cincinnati, Troy or as his friends call him T-Roy.
We can't go in to many details of his visit since this is a family blog but I believe he may have had the best visit of all....

While he was here I had a few boat bottoms to clean and he jumped right in to help (not the water). If I ever start to make money diving I may have to hire him as an assistant. I'm pretty sure he was ready to find a job and move down here after his stay. The wind had been blowing from the north again so the diving was a bit interesting with all the sea grass.

Creature From The Black Lagoon

Most of the loopers here had been scheduled to leave on March 1st but for one reason or another most extended their stay by a few days. Funny thing is the restaurant scheduled the unveiling of their new menu party for the 2nd....coincidence? I think not. We finally got some free food and drinks out of this place and made the most of it.

Well, the next day and after a bit more than 2 months in Marathon we finally got underway. Most folks began heading up the Keys toward Miami and points north...not Jill and I. We decided it would be a shame to be this close to one of our favorite towns and not take the boat, so we headed toward Key West for the weekend....we thought.

7 Mile bridge

It was great to be moving again and a nice smooth ride down the outside to Key West. Once we passed under the 7 Mile bridge we were officially in the Atlantic Ocean. A short 5 hours later and we were passing the southern most point in the US and making the turn into the Key West ship channel. That's a pretty cool thing to be doing in our own boat I will say....

Key West Harbor

The "plan" was to be here till Monday but Mother Nature decided to kick up the winds so we'll be staying put until at least Friday. Our friends Ed & Kyle were here at another marina and left yesterday morning to head toward Ft. Myers...they are now docked next to us waiting for the winds to calm down too. Ed said it only took one time to stuff the bow into a wave to remind them that this is pleasure boating and there is no need to be on a schedule....wise man.

I know it's hard to be sorry for us being "stuck" in Key West but don't be surprised to see me starting a GoFundMe page after more than a week here...it may blow the whole March budget!!

Find Chasing 80

Come Friday you can start tracking us again as we head up the keys toward south Florida.

Until next time...

On the road again....

Just a quick note that we will be getting underway again in the morning. That would be March 3rd for those of you that don't see the post tonight. I know some cold northern readers like to follow along while they should be working...(joking)

After a weekend in Key West we will be heading slowly back up the keys with plans to be in the Ft. Lauderdale area about April 1st. We'll make the decision on heading to the Bahamas or continuing up the east coast at that time depending on the weather.

The second half of February was as fun as the first but we'll put out a real post about that with pictures in a few days. OK...I can't leave you with no pictures....

Name the movie.

February Fun

Well, the weather has been improving since the end of January. We've not had much rain at all and the strong winds have let up a bit in duration. One of the things on the to-do list has been to clean the bottom of the boat and change the zincs on the propeller shafts. I had picked a warm sunny day to do this job but the wind had been blowing from the north for a few days causing our area of the marina to get filled with floating sea grass, no big deal really I could work around it.

However, upon further review we saw the north winds had also brought in a few critters to visit. Seeing a few Portuguese man o'war floating around led me to find other projects that day.

The visits also have continued and we have enjoyed them all. Next up was my sister Kathy and our good friend Gretchen. Jill was able to get in some serious girl time with this visit. The nights were cool but the days were sunny and warm as we spent time showing them around the keys. One place we visited was a canal house we had seen on our dinghy pub crawl. This place was a large boat shed on the water side but built to look like a steam ship from the front. I'll try to get a pic of the water side if we get back that way.

We spent Super Bowl Sunday on a road trip to Key West and had a blast as usual. All to soon it was time for them to head back to the frozen north...hurry back,

Hello Ladies...

After a quick turn of the pillows our friends Ann and Grant checked in to the B & B. We wasted no time in also showing them around our winter home (for this year). First stop was for happy hour at the Sunset Grille. It really helps folks get into the "island time" mood.

It never gets old.

We also paid a visit to the Turtle Hospital which is only a short walk from the boat. They put on a very nice tour and explain how they rehab sick or injured sea turtles. If you find and help rescue an injured turtle you get to name him...that's our goal!! You can find out more about what they do by following the link above.

We also put our guests to work while they visit. Some projects are a bit too big for just Jill and I. Besides, you have to pay for that room and board somehow. One particular project that I had been wanting to do was to lay down the radar arch and measure our height with it down. When we set off on this Loop trip we really didn't know if we could make the boat short enough to clear the 19' bridge outside of Chicago. If you can't do that the Great Loop becomes the Great U-Turn...that didn't sound like fun. Good news is the radar arch isn't too heavy and can easily be laid down by 2 people. The boat is 17' 3" with the arch down and that is in salt water. We'll be even shorter in fresh water so there is no sweat getting through the loop.

Top Down Day

 
We also made the pilgrimage to Key West as well as checking out a few new stops like the Big Pine Key flea market. It don't get better than that!! One other note about Big Pine is that it is home to the Key Deer and we found several as we were trying to find the No Name Pub. Nice thing about Key Dear is they are trained to only cross the road near the deer crossing signs....This buck is about the size of a large dog.

Again too soon, our friends were heading back to the (this time) foggy north. If you see Grant ask him about the adventure getting home.

This week was spent getting some more boat projects completed that we've been putting off. I think they call it Keys Disease when you keep thinking you'll get to it tomorrow. We have another round of visitors coming next week and then our time is up here in Marathon. The "plan" for now is to head west to Key West for a few days in early March before making our way up the keys toward Miami in mid March. At that time we'll look at the forecast and see if the patterns are right to head to the Bahamas. If not we'll just move more slowly up the east coast of Florida being careful not to outrun the warm weather. As nice as it's been to be in one place for this long we've both said how ready we are to get moving again....I guess it's a boater thing. One salty old boater told us "when you're walking down the street and someone honks and waves at you, you've been here too long....that happened yesterday.

Until next time, remember.............

Marathon in January

I figure we should get another blog out before things really start to get busy this month at the Chasing 80 B & B (Boat and Breakfast). They keep talking about island time but we haven't seemed to slow down much.

I know I mentioned in the last post how bad the weather has been so I thought I'd include a few pics just to prove it. Several of the cold fronts that came through brought some serious squall lines and high winds. Once the front would go through the winds would clock around to the North and blow hard for a day or two. After that they would start moving around to the East and finally South where things would start to warm up before the whole pattern would repeat. I know it's been a mild winter so far up North so y'all should be feeling sorry for us! The picture below is the squall line approaching before one storm. This is the same front that caused tornadoes up around Ft. Myers. It's just after sunrise and you can see we are still in the sunshine but not for long. Winds were over 50 as this line went through.

Next pic is how the forecast typically looked during January. We're hoping for an improving trend in February.

OK, you don't really need to feel sorry for us, we are still living the dream! It's been really interesting hanging out here for a month. In the past we would pass through Marathon on our way to Key West with no more than a stop for lunch or a drink. The past month we've become very familiar with the lower half of Vaca Key by riding our bikes everywhere we go. We've found several new places with great happy hour food and drink deals (I am retired after all). If the wind is blowing hard from the North we go to the South side where it's calmer! One spot we like is Porky's with really good food, great staff and a funky vibe (for the hipsters reading).

Buffalo Fish Fingers

Everywhere we've been down here is very pet friendly so we get our fill of tail wags without having to have our own on board.

So this dog walks into a bar....

We've spent time exploring by dinghy on the day's the wind isn't blowing too hard. One nice day we got about 6 boats together and did a dinghy pub crawl (row?) all the way around the key. I'd guess about 15 miles in total.

Don't think its been all play and no work, we've gotten several boat projects done including one day under the boat checking out the bottom and running gear. I'll do it once more before we head off next month. We've also attended a fishing seminar but it's not been great for fishing here either.

We took a quick trip to Key West to have an interview with Customs and get our Small Vessel Reporting Cards. These make it easier to clear back into the country when we go to the Bahamas and Canada. Work, work, work....

This past week our friends Brenda and Ron came down to visit for a few days and brought along the weather we've been looking for this past month. Finally 80 degrees!! We showed them some of our favorite hang outs both here in Marathon as well as a day trip back to Key West. We took them to the Green Parrot which is our favorite spot in Key West. Check out the music schedule in the link for some pretty great acts passing through town.

Green Parrot

The Sunset Grille here in Marathon has been a spot we hit for "Sunday Funday" which is a great party but last night was the first time we made it there for sunset. It's not quite the celebration of Mallory Square in Key West but we enjoyed the scenery and company.

Well, that's it for now. The next set of guests are checking in tomorrow and I need to turn the pillows over so they think they are clean. We're both looking forward to all our visitors and showing them around our little piece of the rock. Unfortunately it looks like Brenda and Ron took the nice weather back to their RV near Orlando....oh well, I'm sure we'll find something to keep our friends occupied! 

Ft Myers to Marathon

OK...We've been in Marathon for a few weeks and it's been cool (60's) windy and rainy so I have no excuse for not posting sooner other than we've been working hard to make the best of it. Truth be told I probably would have put off posting longer if we hadn't run into a fellow boater and blogger today who reminded me how long it's been since my last post. You faithful followers deserve more...both of you.

After an enjoyable Christmas in Ft Myers we left on the 26th and ran out in the gulf down to Marco Island. There is some of the old ICW below Ft Myers but we would have to go out above Naples anyway so the gulf it was. Seas were less than 2 feet so it was a pretty easy run down. Things got pretty busy once we entered the pass into Marco but we got into Rose Marina without any real issues. Any of you that have been to Marco know it's a $$$ kind of town and not really our speed but it is a good jumping off point for the keys. We were there for 3 nights waiting for the wind to calm down (again), It would be a 2 day run to Marathon from Marco with an anchorage in the Everglades on the way.

One highlight while in Marco was a dinghy ride up the Marco River to the town of Goodland. Every Sunday in the winter Stans has a party that is off the charts!! If going by boat you have to get there early, heck the parking lot fills up early too. The party officially starts at 1:00 with the National Anthem but we were there before noon just to get a spot. We were lucky enough to get there a few years ago while Stan was still alive but they have carried on the party pretty well since his passing.

Stans on Sunday

We pulled out of Marco early on the 29th for a 60 mile day to Little Shark River in the southern Everglades. Once past Cape Romano just south of Marco we really started getting into the crabbing area. There were small Styrofoam floats everywhere along the route. Problem is they are connected by a poly line down to the crab trap that can foul your prop and bring things to a shuddering halt if you pick one up. The line of traps run for miles and not always in the direction we're headed. Some are painted dark colors that blend with the water and are hard to spot until you're on it. Luckily we were able to avoid getting one caught but it was a pretty stressful day.  The picture below was a rarity. Brightly colored floats and going in our direction. We have been eating crab since we've been here just to thumb our nose at them!

Once inside the boundaries of Everglades National Park there is no crabbing allowed so that provided a nice break. We puled into a nice cove at Little Shark River and were greeted by a lovely sunset and about a zillion stars once the sun went down.

Early the next morning we had the anchor up and were headed toward Marathon. We stayed in the park as long as we could but were back into the crab pots in about an hour. Luckily there were less once we got into the Keys National Sanctuary and we were into Faro Blanco by 1:30 and will be here for 2 months. 

 

This is a very nice marina and there are several other Loopers here with more on the way. We have been getting some boat projects done as well as exploring the area on our bikes. We've been down this way a bunch by car but it's amazing how many little dive bars we miss when going by at 50 mph. 

Starting end of the month and continuing through February we will be having friends and family visiting from up north, sure hope it warms up for them! We have had one visitor already who is always fun to see. I call him Bobby........

 

Even though it's been cool and rainy don't worry about us. We've been eating OK. Until next time....

Dunedin to Ft. Myers Beach

We finally untied and left Dunedin on December 14th. It was a nice 2 week break and we now had 2 weeks to get down the west coast of Florida and into the keys. I figured it made sense to break the trip into 2 posts...don't want to overwhelm anyone!

The first day was a pretty short run to Tierra Verde which is near St. Pete Beach. We had planned to get across Tampa bay but the winds had been blowing pretty hard all day and we decided not to chance it. Next morning the winds were down and we got across the bay with no issues. Passed the Sunshine Skyway as we were heading out into the bay, pretty impressive site from the water.

Big Bay, Skinny Channel.

Across the bay we re-entered the Intra-Costal at Bradenton Beach. We had a short wait for a draw bridge and were on our way. We were heading for Sarasota and making good time when....

The fog set in!

I can honestly say I've never seen fog develop so quickly and at mid day. Luckily it didn't last too long and we didn't hit anything along the way. We were able to pick our speed back up and got in to the mooring field by mid afternoon. Sarasota has developed a very nice mooring field right in downtown and an easy dinghy ride to Marina Jacks ($$$$). A mooring ball is a nice alternative at $25.00 a night to anchoring or paying over $3.00 a foot for a slip.

Sarasota

  We met up with our friends on Knot Sew Easy while in Sarasota. We had last seen them in Alabama and it was nice to catch up. That seems to be how this loop thing works...you meet people and hang out for a while then go off to see different things. A few days or weeks later you run into everyone and catch up over "docktales"

After 2 nights we set off again. This time the plan was to head up Charlotte Harbor and see Punta Gorda & Port Charlotte. Along the way we passed under several lift bridges and a couple of older swing bridges. On the swing bridge the tender walks out to the middle of the bridge after stopping traffic and turns the bridge from the middle. Then she walked over and had a chat with us as we went by...I think the bridge went to Mayberry.

A short way up Charlotte Harbor we stopped for the night at Burnt Store Marina. I have no idea how it got it's name but I assume there was some type of mercantile disaster involved. I've seen many marinas lately where there is some sort of ceremony at sunset. It may be the blowing of a horn or firing of a cannon but Burnt Store is the only place where we've seen a bagpiper at sunset...no lie!

After Burnt Store we headed up to Punta Gorda for the weekend and a stay at their mooring field. On the way there a cool front came through and the winds behind it blew hard from the East for 2 days. Saturday we didn't leave the boat as it would have been a very wet ride getting to the harbor. Sunday was better and we had a good time exploring town during the afternoon. The marina even had free bicycles and we covered some ground!

Mooring Field

Cool Rides!!

Can you believe we found another brewery?? What are the chances???

 Monday we headed back to Burnt Store to tie up to something that didn't rock all night and top off fuel. They were giving a Christmas special of $1.00 a foot and fuel was good too. Bagpiper had the night off though.....

Jill has been trying to get a good dolphin picture since we hit salt water but they seem as elusive as those Monarch Butterfly's back in Tennessee. Well heading down Charlotte Harbor we finally got a great shot, video even. You have to look quick because he was halfway through the second jump but its there!!

Next afternoon we made a short run to Cayo Costa State Park and a nice quiet anchorage. We did a bit of exploring in the dinghy and saw a small alligator. We tried to Dinghy over to Cabbage Key but the waves were still up outside the anchorage. Cabbage Key is where it is said Jimmy Buffett got the inspiration for Cheeseburger in Paradise...I guess we'll have to find out next time.

Jill said all she wanted for Christmas was to be tied to a dock so we headed for Ft. Myers and Salty Sam's Marina. Despite the salty name it is a very nice marina and there is so much to do in the area by dinghy. They even offered 50% off dockage with our Boat US membership.

Salty Sam's

Christmas day we decided to dinghy over to the beach since everyone would be home enjoying time with family. Well, I guess we did that up north because it is so cold, down here everyone goes to the beach!!!

Find Jill....

Well, we had a very nice Christmas even though we were missing family and friends. Ft. Myers was a very nice stop and I can see spending more time there in the future. Boxing Day we headed out into the gulf for the run down to Marco Island. I'll catch you all up on that next time.

BTW, Happy New Year!!!!!