Final post from First (and only) Mate Karen

We left Marathon on 4/14 for Plantation Key Marina on Islamorada.  The water was very flat and we made it in 5 hours.
 

 

 

One last pic from Marathon....

 



A big storm blew seagrass into the marina.  It made a supercool design on the water.

Islamorada

 

 



The boat next to us had a cat which is unusual.
The cat never leaves the boat.



This is the view from the Zane Grey Lounge on the second floor of the World Wide Sportsman store. This is an extremely fancy fishing store with a really nice bar!
It even has a full-size replica of Pilar Hemingway's boat that is still in Cuba.

http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CFPageC?storeId=10151&catalogId=10051&langId=-1&appID=94&tab=3&storeID=21

The pink boat was made to look like a car and said "Nauti Limo".

 Our friend Jim joined us on the 17th and we went to Ma's Fish Camp for dinner. 
They have a dessert called Hummingbird Cake that I've been obsessed with since we had it last year. 

 

 

I flew to CA on Friday the 18th and John and Jim headed back to Miami. 

They went out to the reef to snorkel then anchored at Jew Point near Key Largo.

 

 

 

I have no idea how they got there from the Atlantic.  Captain Scruffy will have to explain. 

Here is Jim chillaxing...

We had a really fun time! Maybe we'll go to the Bahamas next year. :-)   



 ii

 



 

 





Marco to Marathon

We left at 7:00 am on Saturday morning to hit the high tide through Goodland Pass.  We followed Dan and Carol on the sailboat "Maxine" because they'd traveled that route before and have a 5' draft. 



Following "Maxine"

The chart says 3' of water but there was actually 10'. Our draft is 3'8", so Captain Scruffy was nervous about this passage.

Yep. This mosquito bit me.

Maxine

After 86 nautical miles (9 hours) we arrived at Banana Bay Marina on Marathon in the Keys.  We stayed here last year. John likes this marina because there is a Home Depot across the street.

 

 

Sunday we rode out bikes to Sombrero Beach which is one of the nicer beaches in the Keys.  http://www.ci.marathon.fl.us/government/parks/city-parks-and-beaches/

We have our own little beach at the marina where we can watch parrot fish, manatees, and spiny lobsters.  I got this picture from the internet - we're not allowed to catch lobsters in the marina.  

 

The view from the flybridge.

We're planning on leaving Saturday for Plantation Key.  

 

Arrived Marco Island April 2

When we tried to leave Estero the wind suddenly picked up, so we turned back and stayed 2 more days waiting for the weather to calm down.  The next day, our water pump broke.  By some crazy miracle, the other Mainship at the marina (John and Barbara from Texas) had an extra water pump that they kindly gave us.  John - aka Captain Handy - replaced it.  Then we were on our way to Naples. 

Egret eating a shrimp

Captain Handy in the engine room replacing the water pump



Rick and Sue on Moonshine. We met them in Zihuatenajo 3 years ago.

Naples appears to be the Beverly Hills of SW Florida, if Beverly Hills had lots and lots of canals.  These are houses - not hotels......

 

We stayed at the Naples Boat Club which was made up of mega-yachts.  We liked the name of this 100' yacht. 

 

This is for my cat-crazy niece Alison.  This Persian Cat was in a store called

"The Wind in the Willows".  It was shaved to look like a little lion or poodle or who-knows-what. This is a real cat!  

  

 

Some years ago we spent Christmas with Augie Palma's family in Miami.  His grandparents kindly gave us gift certificates to the Bonefish Grill.  We FINALLY FOUND ONE in Naples.  We took a water shuttle to get there. The driver sold beer and wine out of an ice chest.  It was really fun!  Thank you again Mr. and Mrs. Palma! 

  

 

 

 



We are now at the Yacht Club of Marco Island through tomorrow.  We rode our bikes to the Snook Inn for lunch.  John had the Gator Sliders.  I had the blackened tuna sandwich. 

 

 

 

Then we rode to Tiger Tail State Park.  http://www.marco-island-florida.com/beach.htm     

 

 

There is a lagoon there that you can walk through to get to the beach on the Gulf of Mexico - it's the short cut to the beach.