Saturday, February 19, 2011
Sat., February 19, 2011
Last Boat departed Marathon Boot Key Harbor on Monday, Feb. 14 (Valentine's Day) and sailed to Little Shark River along with two other sail boats.(Hardheaded Woman & Skye) We had a beautiful day and the weather was sunny with winds blowing at times 15 plus knots. Great day for lots of sailing! We departed around 7:00am and arrived around 5:30 in the afternoon. After getting our anchor planted, we settled in for a snack and a drink with our friend, Brian on Hardheaded Woman. He stayed and ate pork loin and vegetables with us. We pulled anchor Tuesday around 7:00am and headed over to Marco Island. We traveled over 50 miles both days. The winds were less today and we did some sailing but not as much as to Little Shark River. We anchored around 6:30 and were so tired, we had an early dinner and went to bed early. Marco Island has beautiful white sandy beaches and I hope we go there again someday and stay so we get a chance to visit the Island and enjoy their beaches. Wednesday, we pulled anchor around 7am and headed over to Cape Coral, FL where Nelson's brother Ike lives and where we are leaving the boat until June. We have missed our friends in Boot Key Harbor and hope to see them again. Tomorrow we will drive our car back to Jacksonville and spend two or three days visiting friends and Nelson's sister, Loretta. Our plans are to be in NC sometime late Wednesday. Ondra is going to keep Mya, our little granddaughter who was born in Dec. while her mother, Lindsey, completes teaching Spanish in High School this school year. We plan to drive back to Cape Coral in June and bring our sailboat back to NC. Nelson will be playing golf and visiting Wilmington and Morehead during three next three months. We are looking forward to seeing family and friends when we return to NC next week. We have had a wonderful trip here in Florida and are looking forward to coming back again next year.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Feb 13 Last Boat Journys & Pictures
1-Feb 11, 2011 Happy Anniversary Nelson & Ondra - 45 years
2- Connie & Ed who have their boat at Brunswich, Ga drove to the Keys and were here
to celebrate with us They came on Fri. and stayed until Sun. am
3- Dinghies tied to our mooring ball while we took our boat and two other couples to the Sombrero Light House for diving-water was a bit chilly we did see some beautiful fish
3- Dinghies tied to our mooring ball while we took our boat and two other couples to the Sombrero Light House for diving-water was a bit chilly we did see some beautiful fish
4- One of many beautiful sunset
5- A Meet and Greet (pot luck dinner) (everyone brings a dish to share)at the Marina, dogs come too
6-Good food! We all enjoy!
7-Susan & Dean Perry from Buffalo eating with us at our table
8-Everyone standing in line to get food at Meet & Greet
9-Going on our dive trip to the Sombrero Light House with Dean, Susan, Randy & Kathy
10-Marathon City Marina
11-Nelson & Ondra leaving the marina in our dinghy
12-Marina & Tiki hut-we have had many nights of music and fun around the hut
13-Another beautiful sunset-Ondra blows the conch when we are at the boatduring sunset
14-Dinner on our boat with Randy, Kathy, Dean, & Susan
15-Man of wars jelly fish-I GOT STUNG BY A SMALL ONE BUT IT DID BURN-wouldn't want it to be a large one like this
16-One night after the Meet & Greet, we listened to music and a girl did a fire dance for us with a hoola hoop and fire ropes- she was good and brave
17-Buddies- Ondra, Kathy, & Susan
18-Dean & Randy
19We were sailing on the ocean and Nelson and I were constantly looking out for the lobster pots they are everwhere- Great day for three hours of just sailing
20-Ondra even tried fishing of course with no luck
21-While we were sailing, we took pictures of Intransition(Randy & Kathy Chamberlain's boat)
22-We were at Bahia Honda with Randy & Kathy
23-Anchorage ast Bahia Honda (Can you find Last Boat)? She is closest to the hwy bridge.
24- Can't take enough pictures of the beautiful sunsets. And always blow our conchs at the end of the sunset
Hope you enjoy seeing why we enjoy being here and a few of the many friends that we have made while traveling by boat It's a great life most of the time.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
February 8, 2011
We cannot believe that we have been at Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, FL since January 16th. The time has really flown and we have been very busy having fun and doing just what we want to do, well, most of the time.
Every Wednesday night, we go to the Marina for a pot luck dinner. We carry a dish of something we make and others who go do the same. We have met many new friends and also have enjoyed the entertainment that follows after we eat. There are many boaters who have guitars and they like to get together to sing and play. The others of us enjoy listening to them. We even had a girl dance with fire on one occasion. She was really good. Yes, all the guys really enjoyed her. There are losts of activities that are offered here for us to do daily. They have yoga three mornings a week. No, I haven't gone yet. We do much walking as that is our only means of transportation here unless we catch a bus. We did call a cab last week when we had to buy many groceries. Only cost us $4.00 for a one way trip. There are six washers and dryers here at the marina and we pay $2.00 per load. Not bad but we try not to go often. Nelson said I brought too many clothes and I guess I did. We had two other couples here to eat with us last night. We had a fun time. Dean brought his guitar and we enjoyed listening to him play and sing after dinner. We went to the movies one night to see "True Grit" and the next week, we went to see the production at the little theater, "A Bad Year for Tomatoes". It was entertaining and had some really good actors who live here in Marathon. Each and every morning at 9:00, we tune our VHF radio into channel 68 where we listen to the Boot Key Harbor Radio Net. They welcome new boats into the Harbor and give them a chance to tell where they are coming from and then talk to boats who are leaving and where they are going from here. Then, they have people radio in any announcements or points of interest for the day. Then, they let boats announce things they want to sell or buy or give away. Also, if a boat needs help, they say what they need and if someone else listening can help them or knows of someone who can, they come on the radio and tell. After all boats who want to make a comment have finished, they do two or three trivia questions and anyone listening can answer. We usually listen to this when we are eating our breakfast. Because we are not at a dock, we have no way to keep our batteries charged, therefore, we need to run our generator twice a day to keep the refrigerator running and other electrical things going on our oat. The generator is not too loud but I think it is annoying. We try leaving it running when we are away from the boat. We have had beautiful weather for the last week and have been spending much time at the beach. We take our dinghy(small boat) and carry our chairs and the beach is not far from our mooring area. Last Tuesday, we took our sailboat and another couple took theirs and we sailed to Bahia Honda which is west of here about 12 miles. It is a National Park and the water there is very clear. We only stayed overnight as we did not like the anchorage there. There was a lot of coral and it was hard to find a good place that the anchor would hold. It was a neat place to walk on the beach. We went into the harbor docks there with our dinghy and enjoyed an ice cream treat. The remains of the Flagler raidroad bridge is here and we walked over to the bridge and took pictures of the harbor. The day was perfect for sailing on our return trip on Wednesday, so we sailed for seversal hours before returning to our mooring ball here in the harbor. There is a delicious Fisheries Seafood place here that we have eaten several times. Everything we have eaten is always fresh and delicious. We ate breakfast Sun. am at the Americal Legion close to the Marina. They served a wonderful meal for $6.00. We went with three other couples. We plan to leave here next week as soon as we find a good weather window and head back to the west side of Fl. where we will leave our boat at Nelson's brother, Ike's house and head back to NC in our car. We have enjoyed our time here and hate to leave this beautiful weather.
Every Wednesday night, we go to the Marina for a pot luck dinner. We carry a dish of something we make and others who go do the same. We have met many new friends and also have enjoyed the entertainment that follows after we eat. There are many boaters who have guitars and they like to get together to sing and play. The others of us enjoy listening to them. We even had a girl dance with fire on one occasion. She was really good. Yes, all the guys really enjoyed her. There are losts of activities that are offered here for us to do daily. They have yoga three mornings a week. No, I haven't gone yet. We do much walking as that is our only means of transportation here unless we catch a bus. We did call a cab last week when we had to buy many groceries. Only cost us $4.00 for a one way trip. There are six washers and dryers here at the marina and we pay $2.00 per load. Not bad but we try not to go often. Nelson said I brought too many clothes and I guess I did. We had two other couples here to eat with us last night. We had a fun time. Dean brought his guitar and we enjoyed listening to him play and sing after dinner. We went to the movies one night to see "True Grit" and the next week, we went to see the production at the little theater, "A Bad Year for Tomatoes". It was entertaining and had some really good actors who live here in Marathon. Each and every morning at 9:00, we tune our VHF radio into channel 68 where we listen to the Boot Key Harbor Radio Net. They welcome new boats into the Harbor and give them a chance to tell where they are coming from and then talk to boats who are leaving and where they are going from here. Then, they have people radio in any announcements or points of interest for the day. Then, they let boats announce things they want to sell or buy or give away. Also, if a boat needs help, they say what they need and if someone else listening can help them or knows of someone who can, they come on the radio and tell. After all boats who want to make a comment have finished, they do two or three trivia questions and anyone listening can answer. We usually listen to this when we are eating our breakfast. Because we are not at a dock, we have no way to keep our batteries charged, therefore, we need to run our generator twice a day to keep the refrigerator running and other electrical things going on our oat. The generator is not too loud but I think it is annoying. We try leaving it running when we are away from the boat. We have had beautiful weather for the last week and have been spending much time at the beach. We take our dinghy(small boat) and carry our chairs and the beach is not far from our mooring area. Last Tuesday, we took our sailboat and another couple took theirs and we sailed to Bahia Honda which is west of here about 12 miles. It is a National Park and the water there is very clear. We only stayed overnight as we did not like the anchorage there. There was a lot of coral and it was hard to find a good place that the anchor would hold. It was a neat place to walk on the beach. We went into the harbor docks there with our dinghy and enjoyed an ice cream treat. The remains of the Flagler raidroad bridge is here and we walked over to the bridge and took pictures of the harbor. The day was perfect for sailing on our return trip on Wednesday, so we sailed for seversal hours before returning to our mooring ball here in the harbor. There is a delicious Fisheries Seafood place here that we have eaten several times. Everything we have eaten is always fresh and delicious. We ate breakfast Sun. am at the Americal Legion close to the Marina. They served a wonderful meal for $6.00. We went with three other couples. We plan to leave here next week as soon as we find a good weather window and head back to the west side of Fl. where we will leave our boat at Nelson's brother, Ike's house and head back to NC in our car. We have enjoyed our time here and hate to leave this beautiful weather.
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