Messin' Around in the Keys

                                                                           

  

Sunset in New Found Harbor

I mentioned in our last post about our aborted snorkel trip to Sombrero Key.

Well! We finally got our snorkels wet at Looe Key several days later. Our friends and we took our boats about 4 hours west to an anchorage at New Found Harbor (about half way from our marina down to Key West) and spent two nights on the hook. We took our boat about an hour out to Looe Key, a protected under water state park and snorkeled in perfect conditions around this huge, totally protected and unspoiled reef. The water was an amazing blue, the fish and coral were some of the best I've ever experienced, including our frequent snorkeling in the Bahamas.

      Bob and Amy aboard their trawler, "Sea Lark" on the way to New Found Hbr.

At anchor in the harbor

                            Bob and Amy Aboard Opus V getting ready for steak dinner

Diane and Amy showing their best sides as they release the mooring ball

We headed back to the marina after our overnights in time for me to catch the Masters tournament and, the spectacular folding of Jordan Speith on the final round.

A few days later, my cousin Jane from Ft. Lauderdale and my cousin Marsha, from Michigan and husband Jim arrived for a mini-cousin's reunion. After they checked into the nearby Holiday Inn we picked them up and brought them to the marina for cocktails aboard Opus V and then a communal lobster and fixin's party at the marina Tiki Hut.

                                    From left to right--Marsha, Jim and Jane

                                                              More Marina Folks

Mine's the big one on the left

 

The next day we all went to Key West and did the tourist thing for the afternoon, including the tour train, touring the "Truman White House", lunch, tee shirt shopping, cruising Duval Street, and then stopped at a very good restaurant for dinner on the way home--"The Square Grouper" (If you don't know what a square grouper is, I'll tell you---Back in the 60's and 70's --and I suppose continuing today--many of the area fishermen turned to a more profitable venture of picking up bales of marijuana from the drug smugglers offshore. They would then deliver the bales inland through the various channels, creeks and rivers---Thus, the name "square grouper", indicating the shape of the bales)

The upstairs portion of the restaurant named after this practice is "The Other Joint".

I don't know for sure, but suspect that the owner made the money to start the restaurant from the drug business--thus, the name. (Makes sense to me)

The next day, at the request of the cousins we took the boat out for a quick boat ride to Coffins Patch Reef, about 3 miles out, tied up to a mooring ball at the reef and enjoyed a relaxing hour or so of conversation and just marveling at the colour's of the water. Then back to the marina and farewells. (Because of our many trips to Florida over the last several years we have been able to spend more time with cousin Jane than we had over the last 40 years. Jim and Marsha have been coming to Siesta Key, outside of Sarasota for several years, so we have been able to see them as well--in fact took them and their daughter and her family sailing aboard Assisted Living in Charlotte Harbor several years ago. It's wonderful to be able to catch up with family that you've not been able to see much over all those busy years of living life and raising family.

Now, it's back to the real world. WE departed our marina and the fabulous Keys 2 days ago and are currently at a marina in Marco Island on the west coast headed for Legacy Harbor Marina in Ft Myers where we bought the boat a year and a half ago. We are sorry to leave this beautiful area but feel like we did a good job of seeing the sights and enjoying new friends and especially family in this fabulous area.

So we left the White Marlin Marina on Vaca Key (Marathon) and headed down a few miles and under the 7 Mile Bridge into the Gulf of Mexico, and north, northwest about 40 miles for our stop for the night at the Little Shark River in the Everglades. (I now know from what it gets its name---while in the dinghy messing around with a stuborn outboard a small shark showed its fin several times around the big boat) Diane refused to get in the dinghy, but I took it for a trip up the river several miles. A beautiful, remote, wide and deep river. I'm not sure where it goes to but it goes deep into the Glades.)

Knowing that bugs can be a big problem here (past experience) we buttoned up and ran the A/C off the generator for a couple of hours before retiring. Got up early the next morning to get an early start on our 70 mile trek to Marco Island and were met by hundreds (thousands?) of No-see-Ums. Here's a picture of one:

Can you see it?? (That's why they call them No-See-Ums)

They are smaller than a gnat and have a sharp, not painful sting--but the sting is annoying. I have no residual effect from the bites, but Diane gets small itchy bumps and right now she has hundreds of such bites all over her arms, chest and legs and neck. They itch her. It's like a small mosquito bite. They got into the flybridge overnight and wouldn't leave, and stayed with us the whole 7 hour trip to Marco--such that Diane spent most of the trip inside the salon. Still, whenever she did come out on deck they swarmed her. So far no one I know of has come up with a repellant that works although we've heard of numerous "home remedies"---(they don't work) We understand the Indians that lived here figured it out, but they're not sharing their wisdom with us---maybe getting even for stealing their land??

We arrived in Marco at the Factory Bay Marina at around 2 PM on Friday the 15th. As we rounded the corner headed toward the marina some guy up on the 6th floor of a condo looking over the marina started shouting and waving. It was Bob (ne Bobbie) one of my closest friends from high school whom I've not seen in many years. (Best Man in our wedding in Adrian, Michigan 47 years ago)(Actually, we knew he and his partner Jan were here. We had communicated by phone earlier. They have been staying in the condo for the last couple of months and we've been trying to figure out how to get together) So this worked out perfectly----we got together on the boat for cocktails and horses duvers and then went out to dinner--got reacquainted and had a great time. Tonight, Saturday, we go to see Bob's older sister and her husband. Marsha (Bob's sister) lives here in Marco. (Marsha was always a beauty and I had a crush on her in my younger years--can't wait to see her--it's only been about 50 years)

That's it for now---will post again with a bunch of photos in a few days.

Life is really good when you can do what we're doing and be able also to see relatives and old friends--and make new friends. This really is a very special time in our lives and we love it!!!

Life in the Keys

It has been a quiet although somewhat busy couple of weeks in the Keys. We have an activity planned each day---side trip to Key West, beach combing, dinghy rides around the area, a trip in the big boat, with friends, to one of the snorkel reefs,  grocery shopping, boat maintenance, repairs, laundry, driving around and site seeing, exploring state parks---but just about each evening we gather at the Tiki Hut here at the marina for "sundowners" and conversation:
                                                                

                                 The marina group gathered at the Tiki Hut


Key West---You either love or hate Key West (or, as in my case, both). It can be ridiculously crowded because a couple of cruise ships are in town and the "Amateurs" are ashore noisily crowding the bars, restaurants and shops. But after the ships depart it becomes quite tolerable. For the second time we hopped on one of the tour trolleys that travels all around "Old" Key West and the driver points out the sites, architecture, museums, etc and gives a history lesson as you ride around town.

                                                          Hwy 1 Mile 0

Several of hundreds of chickens that roam free around town

                       "Casa Marina"  a Flagler Hotel, now a Waldorf Astoria

(Stealing the Show)

On the way to Key West we stopped and spent a couple of hours at Bahia Honda State Park---beautiful beaches, nature trails, picnic and camping areas. Our friends here at the marina have gotten Diane  (and consequently me) into combing the beaches for "Sea Beans". These are large bean husks that have been carried from the Amazon rainforest northward to the beaches of North America (we understand they are in profusion along the Texas beaches this year). You find them mixed in with the sea grass that comes ashore on the tides. They look, when cleaned up, like giant buckeyes  

Cocoa Plumb Beach at high tide

While the flora is not yet quite in bloom we found a few beauties on our nature walks:

Diane is reading a book loaned to her by one of our new marina friends. It's titled "Tales of Old Florida" and consists of a collection of writings by turn-of-the-century authors describing what they found in south Florida and the Keys on their visits here (eg. Miami--6000 people and 2 hotels, relations with the Indians, traveling the natural waterways by boat). It is a very interesting collection and falls right into our goal of exploring "old" Florida on this trip.

Henry Flagler was a very wealthy (Original investor in Standard Oil) entrepenure

 who came to Florida, built hotels and a railroad and developed St Augustine, Palm Beach, Miami and dreamed of extending his railroad to Key West to pick up on the soon to be coming ocean trade from through the Panama Canal, Cuba and S. America. He financed it himself and completed it (for 50 million dollars). (It was later destroyed by a hurricane and not rebuilt but in the meantime accomplished Flagler's goals of trade and tourism.) It's a fascinating history and Flagler is a fascinating man of great vision, energy and absence of fear of risk. He will be the subject of my next biographical read.

One of our trips was out to Pigeon Key, a State Park on a small island right off of the foot of 7 Mile Bridge--west of Marathon. This was where Flagler staged the railroad construction--dormitories for the imported workers, supplies, etc. It has been well preserved and makes for a very nice tour.

Yesterday we (Diane and me; Bruce and Rhonda from Sarasota and Terry and Dale from Niagara Canada) went out on our boat to do some snorkeling at Sombrero Key, about 8 miles out. We fought some rough seas on the way out and although were successful tying up to a mooring ball at the reef we never got off the boat---too rough--4 and 5 foot rollers. The wind was not high so I figure the rough seas had been stirred up by something going on off shore someplace. Needless to say we were very disappointed that we didn't get to snorkel this highly touted reef, but there will be another day!

We returned to the marina, had lunch and then lounged around on floaties of various kinds, off the back of our boat, for the balance of the afternoon, until it was time to move the party to the Tiki Hut. 

Tomorrow it's back to civilization for a few days. We fly back to Houston and I, on to Albuqurque for the almost annual Dormer Cup golf tournament and Diane on to some decadent spa in the Texas Hill Country with her girl-friends. We'll return to the boat in a week

Life is good and fun in the Keys

In the Keys !!!

At long last we have finally made it to the Florida keys after a trip of (roughly) 370 miles. We departed Palm Coast, on to New Smyrna, on to Cocoa, then to Vero Beach, then to Lake Peck (just north of North Palm beach), then on to Ft. Lauderdale, to Key Biscayne (outside of Miami) then to Rodriguez Key (just off Key Largo) and then, finally, the last leg, from Rodriguez on to Vaca Key and the White Marlin Marina.

                     The approach down the channel to the White Marlin Marina

                                       Opus V at rest at White Marlin Marina
The trip from F L was quite fun and exciting. The weather was perfect with light winds and calm waters. After leaving the marina in F L we motored down the ICW through the opulence--mega yachts and mega  waterway homes -- of downtown Ft. Lauderdale, finally emerging into the outlet to the Atlantic at Port Everglades and the cruise ships, tankers and freighters. We opted to pass the outlet and continue "inside" in the ICW. BUT---about 2 miles south of the outlet we came to the Dania Point Bridge at 25 ft above water--plenty of room for our 17 feet to pass under. The problem, however, was that the bridge was under repair and they required a 4 hour notice for permission to pass through (I learned this by contacting the bridge tender on our VHF radio, channel 9, when a boat moved out into the middle of the channel to block our passage). Not to worry! we did a 180 and headed back to Port Everglades outlet and "went to sea" . (You can see this reversal of fortune on our SPOT tracker--upper left hand margin of this page--just click on it and it will show our "track")
Fortunately, our first venture off shore in this boat was met with the calmest of conditions possible. We turned south after leaving the jetties and although there was a slight side to side roll the seas were only, at most, 2 feet high and the ride was quite comfortable about 2 miles off shore. We arrived at the lighthouse at Key Biscayne/ No Name Harbor around 3 PM, anchored in this small "lake" surrounded by State Park along with about half a dozen boats. (This is a very popular daytime and, especially week-end anchorage for all the boating crowd out of Miami. One time aboard Assisted Living we tried to find space on a Sunday afternoon with probably close to 50 boats in the harbor---what a mess--we moved outside and then moved in again later after all the daytrippers and the cacophony of Latin Music left for home). But this time it was quite peaceful, although the harbor started filling up toward evening--to around 20 boats by nightfall.
                                                             

The Lighthouse on the south end of Key Biscayne (Looking East toward the Atlantic)

We left the following morning with the destination of Rodriguez Key just off Key Largo. Again--very benign conditions in the Hawk Channel (The Hawk Channel is a somewhat protected waterway a couple of miles wide with the Key Islands on the west and north and a long coral protective reef on the outside. We've been through this channel several times previously and this was the most gentle ride we've ever experienced.) The water got bluer and bluer the farther south, then west, we traveled. We arrived at our overnight anchorage at Rodriguez Key around 2:30 in the afternoon, set the hook, dropped the dinghy, put on our snorkel gear and had fun--the first time we had been in the water since we left Palm Coast---watched a beautiful sunset and a number of other boats arrive and drop anchor--early to bed--in anticipation of our last leg tomorrow.
                                                           

                                                    Sunset at Rodriguez Key


An early departure for Vaca key the next morning---again--- very quiet conditions, although the water started getting just a little bit rolly the farther down we traveled as the boat traffic, especially sport fishermen, that stirred up even this large body of water. We made excellent time and arrived at the entrance to our marina channel around 1:00 PM.
                                                             

Approaching the entrance channel into Vaca Key--White Marlin Marina

After getting the boat berthed and secured and our traditional celebratory Corona Light with a lime we set about cleaning the boat--me on the outside and Diane inside. Then, it was all about exploring the marina and meeting some of the current occupants.

We had chosen wisely. The marina facilities are immaculate and the people, very friendly and welcoming. The marina is a square peninsula in a small "lake" surrounded by homes and other marinas. We tied up to the north face dock (all berths are face docks, meaning you merely just sidle up to the dock and tie up--no backing into a slip. But the entire lake is a "No Wake/ Idle Speed" waterway and wakes and roll have not been a problem.

                                             Opus V shaded by the Mangroves

                                      The Marina Tiki Hut (gathering place)

The next day we rented from Enterprise at the marathon airport and went back to F L  to retrieve our car---all day on the road, but a delightful lunch with cousin Jane in F L.

The plan is to experience "Old Florida Keys" by visiting some of the state parks and museums and basically basing out of this marina for the next month as we take day (or 2) trips to various anchorages to snorkel and just enjoy the Keys and the water.

So---more later as we begin our Keys experience (but first--laundry)

A brief note about the weather:

 Naturally the weather has been getting warmer and more humid as we travel south. Overall, it has been perfect. Temps now are in the mid-eighties and with soft breezes. The nights are cool but we sleep with the a/c on just to keep the night air dry. We open the boat up during the days but we enjoy our complete comfort at night. A cold front is expected shortly--it's Sunday morning, the 20th of March. This will bring strong northerly winds for a couple days with temps in the 60's, but warming up again shortly thereafter. So far, no problem with bugs--a few mosquitos, but no "No Seeums"

Life is Good in the Florida Keys!

The Boat---Opus V

I had a little time to kill before Diane takes me "shopping", so I thought I'd post some pic's of our boat for those who may not have previously made her acquaintance :
                                                                 

                                         View of main cabin from the back
                                    (Fridge and entertainment center on near right)


                                                                 

Galley

"Downstairs" steering station (helm)

"Living room" and dinette

     Master Bedroom

   

                                                 Guest room/office/closet


                                                                

                                                         Head and Shower


                                                                

                                                    The Fly Bridge  (Upstairs)

                                       Rear Fly Bridge and Outdoor Kitchen

The Author:

Boats on the Waterway

As we sit on the boat at the Coral Ridge Yacht Club--right on the Intra-Coastal Waterway--we are treated to quite the spectacle of boats of all shapes, sizes and       configurations, passing by on a daily basis.
                                                         There's this:
                                                                 

                                                Then, there's this:
                                                             

                                                  Then, there's this:
                                                               

Then, there's this:

Then, there's this:

Then, there's this:

                                          This is Steven Spielberg's Yacht
                                              (15 feet per gallon of diesel)


We took a Water Taxi ride the other day when our friends, Chuck and Nancy drove over from Punta Gorda to spend a day with us seeing the sights. What a way to see the city and the incredible opulence of the waterside residences! Interestingly, each yacht or home described by the tour guide is "For Sale". I don't know if it's a commentary on the state of the economy or just the way "the rich" treat their possessions (make a few million selling the dream house and move on to another, bigger and better)--I suspect it's the latter. Couldn't believe how many are owned by "Hedge Fund Managers" and "Investment Bankers"---(and we, the tax payers, had to bail out Wall Street????) Thank you George Bush. Maybe it is time to oppose "the establishment"????  Trump???? Cruz???---Surely not Bernie.


Here's a few more pic's :
           

                           Our little boat is hiding behind the blue umbrella and the sign

                                            Diane, Nancy and Chuck

                                   Mega-Yachts at a neighboring marina

                                     
Today is Saturday, the 12th. Tomorrow we provision and prepare the boat to move on south. Monday we leave for Key Biscayne for an overnight (key Biscayne is just outside Miami) and then on to the Keys. We're getting excited about the prospect of leaving all the F L hubbub behind and getting into the tranquility of the islands. More in a couple of days.
                                       First a short note about the boating life:
We wake up with the sun and have our coffee usually on the upper fly bridge. We do some clean-up on the boat and any maintenance chores or just routine maintenance necessary. We try to plan an activity each day--sight-seeing, exercise, provisioning, just strolling around (yesterday we visited several of F L's beaches and got some exercise and some sun (we drove back to Cocoa on Thursday to pick up our car)---cruised by the Spring Breakers---, and then returned to the boat with the plan to hang out at the pool, wash the sand off and then a relaxing evening---NOT---the club was holding a swim meet with dozens of munchkins running around and screaming and having a great time---then, the "band" showed up at the pool bar and we were relegated to listening to him for the next several hours as he played--not bad--and MC'd the "oreo stacking contest" for the kids. Needless to say we did not get to swim, but we did have several hours of free entertainment) As evening comes on it's cocktails (for me--Diane is pretty much on bubbly water--an occasional beer or glass of wine), dinner, either out or on-board, listen to some music, watch very little TV, read and then to bed --usually not long after sun down. (It seems that living outside--and this is truly living outside--takes it out of you ) and we are usually in bed by 9:00--10 at the latest. Sound boring?? It can be, but that's OK too. We enjoy it.


                                                   Life is Good!