Week 2 in Marathon.

On the 14th, our good friends Rod & Allison from Legacy Marina in Ft Meyers drove our truck down and stayed on the boat with us for two nights. With a vehicle we explored Marathon and went to the Crane Point Nature Preserve and other sights. We went to Sunsets for lunch and Barney's Tiki bar for dinner.  Brigitte even got to fire a miniature cannon at sunset.  The boom from a 10 gage shell scared the H out of us. On Wednesday we drove to Key West to the Border and Immigration office for an interview and obtain our frequent boater card.  This will enable  us to simply call in to clear customers when we get back into the US waters after the Bahamas.  We had other Legacy friends, Tom & Doris  ( pictured) meet  us for lunch back at Faro Blanco.

Thursday we packed up the truck and drove 5 hours back to Ft. Myers and dropped Cody off at Happy Paws Doggy Ranch. After running a few errands, we had dinner with our friends the Hoffman's.
At 7:20 am Friday we flew back to MN for our Grand Daughter Sorens's first birthday party!  We will spend as much time as possible with the kids before we fly back to Florida.  We are leaving our truck at Legacy  until  the end of May and renting a car to get back to Marathon.  The next post should have a lot more boating stuff.
Cheers Scott

Marathon on Vaca Key

We now have been at Faro Blanco for a full week. We are making new friends as you can see by scrolling down to the Docktails gathering by the light house. This occurres at 5 PM every night, weather permitting. It might we a good thing that the wind has blown hard 4 of the last 7 days, not sure docktails 7 days a week is a good idea.  I would guess there in excess of 15 Looper boats here!

The wind died down on Thursday so we took the dingy down and cruised down the gulf, under the 7 mile bridge and into the Atlantic and to the entrance to Boot Key Harbor.  All in all, about a 1 1/2 hr cruise.  Friday's weather was also fairly calm so we road the bikes down to the Steak and Loster house for early happy hour.  $2.75 drafts, 5.95 for a half proud of peal and eat shrimp,Tuna, wings, and other appetizers. We got back in time for docktails! Saturday was beautiful , we took a 3 1/3 mile walk down to the 7 mile Bridge and back, then biked down to the grocery store and back. In the afternoon we hung out at the pool for a couple hours.

Our plans for the Bahamas are starting to shape up. We have met two other couples who are heading over about the same time. One is a 48 foot Sea Ray Sedan Bridge and the other is a 47 ft Grand Banks. Our ridgid plan of infinite flexibility is as follows.  Around the 10th of March we will cross to Bimini from the Islamarada area.  We will then move on to the Berry Islands, Nassau, and the Abaco. We might sneak in some time in the Exumas. Our plan includes being home around June 1st.

Happy Valentine's Day

Faro Blanco

Key West to Marathon

Well the party did get started in Key West with our friends John and Cappy. Highlights included Schooner Warf, Irish Kevin's, Sloppy Joes, and McConnells Irish Pub. Around the Marina we saw 6 ft Tarpon and a 400 lb Goliath Grooper swimming about. We had eighty degree weather all week. Thursday night the wind started blowing and the waves started building. Even in the marina we saw 30 plus mile an hour sustained winds.  The moring  and anchorages were full, and I can't imagine what it would have been like out in open water!  One 30 ft sale boat lost its anchor and it ended up crashing into the Jetty and sank, thankfully no one on board.  John and Cappy flew out Friday afternoon, and the wind continued to blow.

We were originally leaving for Marathon on Sunday but Sunday looks ugly, and  the forecast for Saturday looked favorable untill around 2 PM. At 8:30 we said good buy to Key West and rounded the west side of Key West and headed to Marathon! As we headed out into the Atlantic we where greated with an unbelievable sight,  the entire shrimp boat fleet some 16 ships were anchored in the Lee of the Key trying to stay out of Friday's Storm and the up coming blow on Sunday. We headed East at 13 knots into 1-2 ft waves, after a bit they grew to 3 plus. This lasted for about 30 minutes and then they settled back to 1-2 footers.  After 45 miles we turned North and passed under the overseas highway and back into the Gulf.  We arrived at Faro Blanco Marina ( a Hyatt Resort) at 12:30.  By 2:30 we started to get rain and 28 mph winds are expected as early as 9 PM. The God Lord gave us a short but pleasant passage. 

We are hunkered down and will be here a month. We will fly home the 19th - 25 for Soren's birthday!

Pics

Pics

Putz'n Around - the adventure continues.

We splashed Putz'n around October 30 and made our way down river  to Legacy Harbour in Fort Myers and our home for the Month of November. After 5 days of non stop cleaning she was ready for another season.  Our friends Terry and Diane Emigh joined us for 4 days in early Nov.  We had a great visit with them prior to their return to their sailboat which they live-aboard in the Sea of Cortez.  The weather was unseasonably hot with many days in the 90's

December 1st we headed to Fort Myers Beach and SnookBight Marina were we spent two months.
We met new and old friends making this marina feel like home! In December my Sister an brother in law visited for 3 days and had a great time seeing them. We flew home for nine days for Christmas. We spent 7 of the 9 days with Jillian, Eric, and Soren.  On Christmas Eve our best gift was seeing Soren take off and walk 12 steps.

The weather in December was great but when we returned in January some one hit the Switch!  January was the wettest on record. We had 3 severe thunderstorm with Tornado warnings and 2 touched down 10 miles from us. One storm blew out the zippers on the windows in the Flybridge and something hit and snapped off one of my 14 ft antennas.  $1400 dollars in damages but we were not the only ones that had damage.  The good news no one got hurt.  The second storm dumped 5.3 inches of rain in two days. Storm 3 had sustained winds in the Marina at 44 knots.  One of the storm surges came all the way up and over Estero Blvd.

Jan. 31st, our friends John and Cappy Clemency came aboard and at 6:30 am we headed to Key West!  We had a short weather window so instead of making it 2 day trip we made ran 140 miles in 9 1/2 hours at 14.4 knots. Yup, we burned some fuel!  The first 1/3 of the trip we had 1-2 ft seas, the second 1/3,  2-3ft and the last third near flat seas. We pulled into the Galleon Marina at 4, and as the saying goes let the party begin!  More in a few days. Pictures to come as well.