Jan 21-29 Boot Key Mooring Field

We are still hanging out in Marathon at Boot Key Harbor!

Carol relaxing in the hammock

Enjoying living on a mooring ball with the conveniences onshore just a dinghy ride way.  It can sometimes be a wet ride when its windy!

Institutional plush bathrooms- haha 

Need to watch out for the manatees at the dinghy dock.

It has been quite windy here the past week with north or northeast winds. Temp in 70's. Great for bike riding. Did swim one day at Sombrero Beach.

Bob was having a difficult time getting the dingy motor to start and it often stalled out.  We paid $200 in Miami for a mechanic to work on it, but it wasn't much better.  One day in desperation, Carol suggested Bob "Google" the words "Mercury outboard stalls". He read through a series of blogs and then went to work.  15 minutes later it started right up with just a pull of the wrist!  Even Carol could start it!  Turns out it was the idle mixture needle valve clogged up.  The miracle of WD40 in the right place.

There are several dockside bars here with live entertainment at sunset and we have enjoyed dinghying over to listen to the music.

 Eric Stone Band at Dockside Grill

People are always talking about the
"Green Flash" at sunset, but we haven't seen it yet!  But we have seen lots of gorgeous sunsets:

Some of the bar patrons say they saw the green flash on this sunset.  I don't think we had enough to drink to see it…..

Went to Movie Night at the marina tiki hut and watched a new movie called Red Dot on the Ocean.  It was the story of Matt Rutherford who recently circumnavigated the Americas.  Apparently he was a difficult youth, in and out of detention centers, then discovered sailing. The director was onboard her sailboat in our harbor and gave an interesting talk afterwards.

Outdoor movie screen at the marina Tiki hut

Last week 12 Cubans made it to shore at the local beach here in a very small boat.  The Border Patrol officer told Bob that if a Cuban makes it to shore, he is taken to Miami and given clothing and $10,0000 to get started in the US.  Carol wasn't sure Bob heard him right, then someone else confirmed this. Interesting...

We took the Keys Shuttle Bus to Key West one day and had a blast!  Went with 2 other couples and met up with some other cruising friends staying at the docks in KW. Did the "Duval Crawl"!

Had lunch at Blue Heaven with nice live music.

Rock Hall friends David&Jackie, Gary&Linda, Gary&Kathy

Key West infamous "Sloppy Joe's"

Jan 13- Jan 20 Marathon Harbour Cay Club to Boot Key Harbor

Tues Jan 13-
We rode our bikes out on the old 7 Mile Bridge to Pigeon Key.

Saw some rays and a shark swimming. Took a tour of The Turtle Hospital here in Marathon.  They rescue turtles hit by propellers, entangled in net, line, plastic. Even have an ambulance for pick up.  They then try to rehab the turtles and release.  They do surgery, give blood transfusions, etc.

Have seen lots of iguanas here.

We met a couple from England out walking about that we had previously met in Vero Beach. Met them for dinner and they brought along their Scottish friends.  These people have been cruising over a year, enroute from Thailand to New Zealand! Fascinating!

Wed 1/14-
Had some luck fishing today!  Caught 2 mangrove snappers using live shrimp right off our dock!  We grilled them for dinner!

Thurs 1/15- Mon 1/19-
We are still here at Harbour Cay Club.  We have walked the 7 Mile Bridge. We had our bikes tuned up at a local shop. They have been getting a lot of use and the brakes were a bit worn. Our marina hosted a fish fry as someone had caught A LOT of fish (30 three pound spanish mackerel).  Went to the movies and saw Unbroken. Did more boat jobs. Carol tried lobstering.  She took her net and tickler in at the rock piles here at the marina. Actually got 2 in the net, but both escaped!  They scared her as she didn't realize they would go berserk in the net and then were such fast swimmers!
Bob loves craft beers and so we had an early happy hour one day to try out some great beers.
Castaways over a flight of 5 seven ounce beers for $10!  What a deal:

Rogue Dead Guy, Kronenberg 1640, Old Oak Milk Stout, Optimator and  Green Flash IPA

Tues 1/20
We have been on a waiting list at Boot Key Harbor, The Marathon City Marina.  Heard this morning they have a mooring ball for us.   We motored over and are now at Mooring S6.  This is a huge very protected harbor with 227 mooring balls.  The office even has work stations inside a gymnasium type building with all kinds of tools and even a sewing machine. Very friendly fellow boaters.

On a mooring ball in Boot Key Harbor

Boot Key has a great cruisers net on VHF ch 68 everyday at 9am.  Cruisers announce upcoming plans, sell stuff and ask for assistance.  Wonderful community spirit.  Now living on a mooring we need to use our dinghy to get to shore or another boat.

Jan 5-Jan 12, 2015 Coconut Grove to Marathon

Jan 5-8
Dinner Key Marina-
Our month long stay is coming to an end here, so are researching our next destination.

Saying goodbye to Coconut Grove, Miami

Always doing little projects and cleaning up the boat, biking and taking the bus for provisions. We continue to meet fellow cruisers.  Met a couple from Alabama who cruised for 10 years in the Mediterranean. Seasoned cruisers have great tips and stories.
We toured a homestead built in the 1880's here in Coconut Grove called The Barnacle. It is located bay front in a hammock (small forest here in Florida) and has withstood all the storms and still stands intact today. We learned a lot about the tropical trees on the property.  The mangrove trees actually are able to convert salt sea water to fresh water via their own reverse osmosis system.  Biscayne Bay used to have fresh water springs all over.  However when the Everglades were drained and developed, the fresh water all disappeared.

The Barnacle

We have decided to take a trip south to Marathon, which is about 2/3 of the way down the Florida Keys chain (about 100 miles south).

Jan 9-
We headed down Biscayne Bay and are traveling the "inside"route (Florida Bay side vs Hawk Channel on "outside) to Key Largo.   Chilly day, probably only 70 degrees.

We anchored first nite out off Gilberts Marina in Barnes Sound.  We just had to dinghy over to the huge tiki bar!

Gilberts infamous Tiki bar

Did have a little excitement as we caught our first fish while trolling!  A 10" blue runner- haha, too little to eat.

Jan 10-
The wind has picked up from the north, but its calm onboard since the seas are following us. There is quite a bit of shelter in all the mangrove cuts we go through.

Pepromenon passing through a mangrove cut

No luck trolling today.  A huge bright pink bird flew over us.  After discussion with Carol's brother, David, a birding expert, it was decided it was a roseate spoonbill.  Dolphins around today also. Anchored off Lower Matecumbe Key in a spot protected from the windy conditions.  We could see the anchor sitting on the bottom - nice! and had a lovely sunset.

Jan 11-
Beautiful, sunny and warm day! We arrived in south Marathon, just north of the 7 Mile bridge. We are staying at Harbour Cay Club marina.  This is a condo marina, as in the slips are privately owned.  Its a lovely area and has a tiki hut for boaters to gather nightly, nice grills, and a big indoor area with a TV.

Hayden on left blows his conch horn at sunset

Marathon sunset from Harbor Cay Marina

Most luxurious is the free ice machine.  We don't keep ice on board.  Our small freezer is strictly for food.

An industrial ice machine for 20 boats

Carol putting the ice to good use….

We promptly got our bikes out and rode around.  The Keys have separate paved biking paths, so that gives us a safer ride.

local resort

We biked over to a local dive restaurant we went to several years ago with our friends the Zarrolis and Maguires. Castaways has not changed a bit.

They even serve Lion Fish tacos...

On our way back to the marina we were passed by a guy walking his beagle.  This little beagle was proudly carrying a 2 foot long iguana it just caught.  Now that is iguana control.  Wish I had the camera.

Jan 12-
Friends from our marina on the Chesapeake Bay are also here in this marina.  They invited us to go over to Boot Key Harbor to listen to a talk by a NOAA weather meteorologist on marine forecasting.  Very interesting, but not as interesting as people watching in this huge marina/mooring field.  We put our name on the waiting list to get into Boot Key Harbor for a week or so.  Back at the marina we tried our hand at fishing off the dock - after all we can see the fish swimming around.  Bought some live shrimp and caught many Mangrove Snappers.  All were under just under 10 inches, the legal limit.

Back to Dinner Key Marina

Dec 29-Jan 2
Happy New Year!  We flew home to see family and friends and had a great time catching up with everyone!
We returned to Dinner Key Marina in a short 2 1/2 hour flight from PHL-MIA. Wow- It did take us 7 weeks to get here!  During this week we reprovisioned and caught up on some boat projects.  There is always something wrong with your boat!  We waxed and worked on the dinghy motor and other misc chores.
Decided to get fishing and lobstering licenses. This was a real debate.  Bob wanted to spend the money  just buying fish and lobster. Carol wanted to try to catch ourselves. So we bought FL licenses!!
Had a fun New Years Eve with friends at an Italian seafood restaurant and wonderful fireworks lit up the sky all over Miami!  We even stayed up until midnight! Shocking, as sailor's midnight is known as 9 pm!

Jan 3-4
It was very windy here, so we sailed down Biscayne Bay to Elliott Key and anchored overnight.

c
Camera does not do justice to how beautiful the water is

We cleaned the bottom of the boat and installed a new shaft zinc and looked around for lobsters now that we are legal- No luck!
Sailed back Sunday and threw out a trolling line.  No luck either! We did see a huge sea turtle right next to the boat but couldn't get the camera quick enough. Its much warmer here now than early December- 80 pretty much everyday.
Traveled past Stiltsville, a group of houses built over the water off Key Biscayne. Most have been destroyed by hurricanes, only six remain and they have been taken over by the National Park Service.

house on stilts a few miles offshore on a reef

We did see a big manatee and baby coming back into our marina.