Friday, January 31, 2014

This is where we anchored south of Marathon

Our morning sunrise

Our broken water pump on the starboard side!

 Guess where we are !??!

That's right !  Key West !

 

 

Christmas Tree Island

 Bob enjoying his ride in since he is familiar with the area !

Look who stopped in to say hi !

Bob was like "please don't poop on my dinghy !"

Our sunset tonight

 

We left Marathon this morning around 0630 and had beautiful weather.  It was probably in the mid 70's with very few clouds.  It felt quite warm at times...kinda like how you guys were feeling in Middle River/Bel Air area today !  :0)  We did have some pretty good swells going on and I actually felt like I was a little sea sick !  That didn't stop me from doing what I had to get done though !

 

Today I cleaned the port side of Storymaker from top to bottom!  I even had to dig deep into storage in Zippy (forward V-berth) to find another water pump since the one on our starboard engine took a crap !  Luckily we had one; however, after I dug it out Bob decided he should wait to put it on so he can order replacement hoses and do it all at the same time.  Makes sense, but the digging could have waited a little bit longer !

 

We pulled into Key West City Marina around 3:15 and Bob immediately got on the dinghy to go in and get some ice.  Happy Hour will be starting soon!  We will be here for about a month !

 

Oh, and by the way, I see a few of our friends from last year are still here.  Hopefully tomorrow we will have time to look them up, not sure though since we have a lot to get done !  Tomorrow we have to take the bikes up, go pay for the ball, do some laundry, run to the Post Office, order parts on line, go to the grocery store, etc., etc., and etc., and to think, you all thought it was all play and no work !!

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Our sunset tonight

 

Today was a long, dreary day.  We left at 0800 and dropped anchor around 4:45 p.m. It rained most of the day and if the sun did come out, it was hotter than heck!  So in reality, we were grateful for the clouds most of the time!

 

I did a lot of cleaning and rearranging today.  I had to get my food inventory under control, and more importantly, I had to figure out a way to find what I needed, when I needed it.  Accomplished !

 

It was an early night for us.  Tired from the last couple of long days of traveling.  We are hoping to make Key West tomorrow !!



Wednesday, January 29, 2014

 Here you go!

Next year you can take this out of

Fort Lauderdale to Bahamas to come

and visit us !

 

 About a mile out off the shore of Miami

in about 50 feet of water you will find a lot of

cement from demolished building and roads

which creates artificial reefs for the local sea life

 

See the two bulldozers

One for each rock pile

 



 Stiltsville, Florida

A collection of houses on pilings south of Key Biscayne/South
Beach Miami.  People started building them in the 1930's
for fishing and partying, but the government has closed 'em all down.
Pretty interesting history at:

http://www.nps.gov/bisc/historyculture/stiltsville.htm

 

 more,

and more

 

 Miami from the south!

 

 See the blue heron?

Look in the middle of the cloud above the

tree line

 

I didn't realize this was going to be our sunset

Glad I took it...it was the only sunset we had tonight !

 

Flat, calm, no wind, all day made for a splendid 79 mile run from Ft. Lauderdale to Key Largo.  We left at 0800 hours after waiting for the rain to subside then out to the Atlantic Ocean.  One foot chop was all we found.  I started cleaning while Bob looked out from the helm.  The 20 mile distance from Ft. Lauderdale to Miami was smooth enough that I could work below without feeling the least bit seasick.  Last year we went into Miami then down the ICW towards Key Largo, but the seas were so calm that we continued to south of Key Biscayne where we met up with the ICW.

 

This path led us through Stiltsville where seven or so houses are still standing.  There it was so flat that it seemed like they were on a lake in upstate New York, or something.  And it was nice and calm all day.  We ran just east along a squall line and only got hit once by rain for 10 minutes of so.  The squall line did not contain any wind which made traveling splendid.  Bob dodged his Captain's clothes as there was absolutely no one around for 25 miles of traveling and the sun peeked out from the storm clouds.

 

We dropped anchor in Key Largo in a 360 degree protected harbor (Tarpon Basin), had a quick Happy Hour, dinner, then bed. 



Tuesday, January 28, 2014

An old woodie we saw when leaving this morning

 

Our sun coming up

Seagulls seem to think this boat is going to bring them some fish luck !

 

A hippie who made it big !!

Beautiful purple flowers overflowing and lets not forget the house!

This guy even has a built-in garage for his boat !

 

We were listening on the radio earlier and there was a bridge having problems opening
We knew we were headed their way and luckily they were able to make one side of it open
by the time we got there !

Now this is a huge toy....look at all the big toys on the front of it !

You gotta love the artwork people come up with !
I just wish I have an "off the hook" kind of fish like that !

 

 Yummmmm !!!

 

Remember this house from last year?
The boat was sitting in front of some property that was being built...
she's come a long way !

This has got to be the paid crew!  Look at the guy on top washing down the boat !

Check out the helicopter on top of the boat to the right !
Tight fit - but it worked !

These two guys have a long ways to go !

Intimidating !

Coming into Fort Lauderdale
Money up the ying-yang !

 

Another view of ying-yang !

Sun setting

A garage for boats !

 

 

How much more can we take !
A submarine on the back of this boat !!!

Look at this outrageously expensive boat !
Is it being repainted??  Can't figure out what's going on with it !
Came by this boat again on 1/29 and it is just the sun reflecting
off the back of it!

What a great traveling day.  We were up on our way at 0630.  The temperature got up to about 82-85 degrees.  I sat out front of the boat for a couple of hours just enjoying the scenery.  Fort Lauderdale is ridiculously full of rich, rich, rich people, and there are a lot of boats from Great Britain here ! A lot !

After dropping anchor we laid down for a bit.  Haven't slept to well the last couple of nights and needed some rest.  After nap we took dinghy ride and got a few more shots.  It took us forever to find the public dinghy dock, and once we did, we didn't know where to get off at to find a local food store so we just came back to the boat.  This place iis nothing but humongous houses and even more humungous boats !

Tomorrow we are leaving for the Keys.  Hoping to go out in the ocean if weather permits.

 



Monday, January 27, 2014

  Our sunrise very, very, early this morning

 

Still very early, but even more beautiful !

 

 Short-finned pilot whales

 

 More pictures of them

 

 And more....

 

One of them spraying as (s)he went by !

The short-finned whale has a stocky body, a bulbous forehead, no prominent beak, long flippers sharply pointed at the tip, black or dark grey color, and the dorsal fin set forward on body. The flukes are raised before a deep dive; they may float motionless at the surface, frequently are seen in very large groups, prefer deep water, and may be approached. Their diets are composed of fish, squid, and octopus.

Adults males are about 18 feet in length, whereas adult females only reach about 12 feet in length. Adults can weigh from 2200 to 6600 pounds. When they are born, short-finned pilot whales are about 4 ft 7 in–6 ft 3 in long and weigh about 130 lb. Males live nearly 45 years, whereas females can live up to 60 years.

 

We were up and on our way at 0400 this morning.  Neither Gary, nor Bob, got any sleep last night.  It was just so rough out.  Poor Gary hasn’t slept for two days !  We were supposed to go to Fort Lauderdale today but the water is so rough and the winds are stronger than they are supposed to be, so we are just beat-feeting it to Lake Worth, that’s the shortest distance we can travel to get to the states.  

 

On our way out, about an hour into the trip, we noticed water coming into the starboard.  Come to find out it was the bilge pump (the thing that’s supposed to save our life) was actually bringing water into the boat from all the slapping.  I had to take everything out of our forward stateroom to find the leak….now I have to put everything back.  Luckily, safety Bob, had an emergency bilge pump on board because the one we had in the bilge stopped working.  But all is well now.   

The winds have been blowing anywhere from 18 to 25 knots all morning long.  What happened to our perfect window????  It was a little rougher than any of us wanted but we are almost to the coast now.  We are beginning to see the skyline, and what a fine skyline it is!! You gotta love the USA!! 

What a once in a lifetime opportunity we just had!  There was a pod of Short-finned pilot whales just hanging around waiting for us to see them !  There were probably 14 of them in total.  I took about 50 pictures and will put 3 or 4 of them on the blog.  Bob took lots of video, so I’m hoping to put some of it on the blog also. 

Sunday,  January 26, 2014

Our sunrise this morning

 14' deep

see the coral?

 

14' deep

see our chain ?

 

 14' deep

see the broccoli head ?  :0)

 

Dream Catcher

You can't tell the sky from water hardly !

 

 Our sunset tonight

 

More beauty !

Today we were up and on the water by 10.  Before leaving we had breakfast on Storymaker (I had to make up for the night before! :0))  We had french toast and Dream Catcher provided some good eating bacon!  After breakfast we were on our way.   

During our trip we saw a couple of dolphin.  Bob got some good video I think; hopefully good enough to put on the blog. 

We dropped anchor out in the middle of nowhere around 5 p.m.  It was a rough night with all the slapping and rocking.  I was able to get a little sleep, Bob got none!  He was up until the alarm went off at 0300!  We are leaving for Fort Lauderdale at 0400.