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.
At anchor in the harbor
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.
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!!!
