Friday, January 26, 2007

Had  a great charter in the Abacos aboard "Island Girl" with Margo and John from Saratoga Springs.  Plenty of good wind, sun, and good eats.  John and Margo dubbed me "Captain Cook"! 

                      John and Margo, Hopetown                                 "Captain Cook"                                         "Island Girl"

We flew back to West Palm Beach on January 16, picked up the car and trailer with the RIB and drove across the state to Cape Coral.  We found "Mystic Jitney" in good shape and started making plans to leave the dock.  By Tuesday, the 23rd we were ready to cast off.  We left the dock in Cape Coral and headed down to Fort Myers Beach where we picked up a mooring for a couple of days. 

We left Fort Myers Beach on Friday, the 26th and sailed to Naples.  It was pretty chilly for Florida.  We had jeans, sweaters, socks, shoes and jackets on.  But it was sunny and we had good wind.  We had pods of dolphins with us all the way. At any one time we would have  four or five swimming in front of the bow leaping out of the water and doing flips.  It was delightful watching them.

Fun with the dolphins

A chilly day on the Gulf                                                                                                   At anchor in Naples

January 29, 2007

From Naples we sailed to Everglades City and anchored in the Barron River. We spent Saturday and Sunday in the Everglades National Park.  It was very secluded and peaceful with plenty of birds and fish.  What a wonderful natural resource.

We took a dinghy ride into Everglades City which is a small town up the river from where we were anchored.  Big business there is airboat rides through the Everglades and crabbing.  We found a great little crab shack on the water and had stone crab claws for lunch while we watched the tourists come and go on the airboat rides.  From Everglades City we sailed to the Little Snake River, also in the Everglades National Park and spent the night just inside the mouth of the river at anchor.  Another wonderfully peaceful place. 

                         Crab Shack Restaurant, Everglades City                                                     Crab Fleet, Everglades City

January 31, 2007

Yesterday we sailed from Little Snake River in the Everglades to Marathon Key in the Keys.  Along the way we saw a loggerhead turtle.  It was very big.  They have a “Turtle Hospital”  on Marathon where they bring in sick and injured turtles, doctor them, and then release them again.  They have a little museum that you can visit so we stopped in there today.  The dolphins are back with us again.  We’ve never seen as many dolphins as we have on this trip.  This afternoon they were  putting on a big show all around the boats anchored here.  It was amazing.  They were actually coming all the way out of the water and turning flips!

We anchored just outside the harbor in Marathon.  The harbor is packed with cruisers and liveaboards, many of them waiting for a window to cross over to the Bahamas.   This is a very boat friendly town.  They have a city marina where you can tie up your dinghy (once you figure out which dinghy dock to use--they're very organized and have signs for type and length of dinghy on each dock)!!!

The city marina also has a  huge "hanger" type building  that houses the dockmaster's office, a laundromat, restrooms, showers, mini library of books and videos to swap ,a couple of cubicles with chairs and TV's, plenty of tables and chairs for hanging out, a mail drop and place to receive mail and packages, and even a "project area" where you can work on small projects like repairing a dinghy.  All of this is provided for the small fee of $10/day for a mooring or $5 to land your dinghy and use the facilities. We did laundry, then took a walk around Marathon.  Had lunch at the "Keys Fishery", a great seafood market and restaurant on the water.  They're famous for their "lobster reuben" and coconut shrimp.  We shared both and they were fantastic!!

February 1, 2007

Last night the winds picked up out of the south and made our anchorage a bit bumpy.  After about 4:00 am we didn't get much sleep so we raised anchor at first light and got a head start on today's trip.  It was very windy out of the southeast all day so we took the inside intra-coastal route and were able to make it all the way to Key Largo.  Found a great anchorage, very quiet, no wind.  We're hoping to get to Key Biscayne tomorrow before the winds shift to the north on Saturday night.  This part of Florida is such an amazing natural resource.  As far as you can see it's all  clear water (you can see to the bottom), keys, mangroves, and national protected sanctuaries with abundant wildlife and not that many people (no high rises, condos, etc). 

February 2, 2007

Learned from the morning news that we're going to have an early spring according to the groundhog.  Good news for those of you "up north".  We continued up the waterway today past Key Largo and anchored off a small key in southern Biscayne Bay.  We heard from our friends Craig and Amy from Mystic CT.  They're on their boat at anchor about 25 miles further up Biscayne Bay.  We plan to meet them tomorrow and spend Superbowl Sunday in an anchorage just south of the Port of Miami.