Key West

Today is a bit of a milestone for us.  We are at the farthest point south of our trip.  From here on in we will be heading north.  Towards home.

After a very bumpy night at anchor outside Bahia Honda, we awoke early and got the heck outta there.  Nothing serious, just a rolly, noisy anchorage. We had been bounced around pretty good all night and neither of us had a great sleep.  It took most of an uneventful day of travel to get to Key West.  Just the regular schick:  taking turns on the helm, working together to figure out where we're supposed to go, dodging crab pots, hanging out below when not on driving duty, doing chores or playing on the computer.  Just a regular Gran Vida day.

We are now in the mooring field in Key West.  For those non-boaters out there, a mooring field is a big area of securely anchored floating balls that boats can tie up to for a nominal fee.

The way it works is, you drive around very slowly looking for an unoccupied ball.  As you do this, you become aware of people poking their heads out of their boat, like gophers out of their holes, presumably to watch the newbees. Once you locate an available ball, one person goes to the bow while the other drives slowly and accurately up to the unoccupied ball, stopping the boat precisely alongside.  Then the person on the bow, with ease and aplomb, grabs the loop on the ball with a pole and very gracefully slips a line through the loop and secures the boat to the ball, the whole process taking mere seconds.  All the while, the two people smile at each other and communicate calmly, clearly and encouragingly.....   That's the plan anyway.  It doesn't always go exactly like that.

Nevertheless, we are now safely tied up enjoying a drink in celebration and looking forward to nap time after our restless night last night.  Staying in a mooring field is new to us and we're excited to have the experience.  Later tonight, after nap-time and dinner, we'll take in the view from the flybridge.  Tomorrow we'll check out the town.  Gran Vida! 

Thanks for reading and following along.  For now, for us...  ZZZZZZZZZZ

Bahia Honda State Park

We spent a fantastic day at Bahia Honda State Park in the Florida Keys.  We got up early and just missed the sunrise over the Atlantic. After a big breakfast we cycled around the park and then along the shore a couple of miles to the corner store to buy milk and bread.  We didn't really need it but it was a good excuse to get out there and stretch our legs and it was such a nice ride.

The day was spent hanging around the dock or snorkling or walking the beach.  We were docked right by the concession stand and we had people walking up and down in front of the boat all day, checking it out, curious, dreaming.  Often, without seeing us onboard, people would stop to take a picture in front of the boat. I remember doing that so many times before I was a boat owner .  Jeff or I would come out and chat them up to answer questions.  We had several people delighted to be invited onboard for a picture on the bow or sitting in the captains seat and we had a lot of fun doing it.

One boat with folks from Winnipeg came in and Jeff helped them dock behind us.  Unfortunately, they ended up in front of the pump out station and had to move as people needed to access it.  Once the gentleman got his boat out in the middle of the little harbour it stalled, which was NOT a good place to be stalled and drifting, with boats everywhere.  Jeff was able to jump in our dingy and tow him to the dock safely.  Yet another towing adventure for Gran Vida!

THE KEYS!!

We've arrived!  We're in the Florida Keys!!

We were up and at'em early, leaving Shark River before 7:00 a.m., at the first hint of light.  The early morning is the best time to be out on a big body of water and we wanted to take advantage of that. The crossing from the Everglades to Marathon was uneventful with one to three foot waves and East winds at fifteen to twenty miles per hour.

For the first while we stayed inside the park boundaries, as there are no crab pots allowed.  What are crab pots you ask?  Crab pots are a nuisance to boaters but a way to make a living here in Florida and provide a sought after food source from the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico (and Atlantic I hear).  While bouncing along over the waves and making sure we're staying on course, we also had to keep a sharp look-out for the crab-pots to avoid getting the line fouled around our prop. If you look closely at the pics you will see little white balls.  Those are the crab pots we had to navigate around.  Usually they are in straight lines, but not always. It can be fatiguing while driving, especially if there are white caps as well.

We arrived safely in Marathon around 2:00 in the afternoon only to find that there was no room at the inn.  All the marinas were full, there was a thirty boat waiting list for a mooring ball and all the anchorages were over-flowing. Mike and Marian found room at a very expensive marina and decided to go for it as they needed supplies and to get laundry done.

We decided to continue our trip South.  We ended up at Bahia Honda State Park and it's lovely here. We tied to the wall, dropped the dingy and into the Atlantic Ocean we ventured for the first time, just for a minute, just so we could say we made it!

As I sit and write this from the shady porch of a concession stand I'm looking over turquoise water with palm trees swaying in the breeze.  

Today we'll investigate the park on our bikes and check out the beach.

We're in paradise!

Shark River, Everglades National Park

With two good travels days forecasted, we were off to start our two day journey to the Florida Keys.  Today we are heading South with Midas Touch alongside, travelling along the coast of the Everglades National Park about three or four miles offshore.  We are headed to anchor in Shark River (catchy name, eh?) which is another wilderness anchorage in the Everglades.  It is known for it’s wildlife, so NOT a swimming day for sure, although the water looks lovely.

As we pulled in to the anchorage there were about a dozen or so dolphins in the midst of a feeding frenzy.  Again a bunch came and visited the boat, swimming in the bow wake and putting on a show for us.  Other than birds, that's the only wildlife we saw, although I'm pretty sure I saw something big thrashing around for a couple of seconds across the way.  An alligator maybe?

The stars were amazing and we wanted to spend some time on the flybridge enjoying them but the bugs were too hungry.  It was an easy in/easy out overnight stop.  Early to bed and ready for another day of travel tomorrow.

Dinghy 'Sploring

In the company of the crew from three other boats anchored nearby: Midas Touch, Dancing Iguana, and Ladybug, today was a dinghy exploring day. A lady at the local museum, with much animation (had to be there) told us about an interesting cruise down a local creek through the mangroves that the locals call "The Tunnel of Love". As well, Russ and Cindy from Ladybug knew of a cool little village with a museum not too far away.  With the plan in place we were off for our speed fix.

The dinghies go far faster than the big trawlers and we had a blast buzzing around the mangroves like four water mosquitos, hair flying, whooping over the waves. 

Smallwood Store Museum

The creek through the mangroves was a beautiful place to be. At some points the mangrove canopy was so low we had to duck under it (always keeping in mind the critters we were introduced to yesterday)

The museum in the neighbouring village, Chokoloskee, was especially interesting to me as we shared a family name.  Smallwood Store Museum (my – Susan’s - mother’s maiden name was Smallwood) is chock full of paraphernalia and local history from the past. Later, we all enjoyed a great lunch on the patio of a local Cuban restaurant.

Afterwards, with rain clouds in the distance, we all took off in different directions to get our various errands done.  What a great day!

Snap, Crackle and Pop

We, well Jeff, noticed that one of our battery banks was wearing out and he decided to shift things around a bit to utilize our generator battery into our house bank.  We have a little portable generator that we often use instead of our big genny, so that will do until we get closer to civilization and replace the one bank of house batteries.  Docked at the Rod and Gun Club, Jeff crawled around in the hole in the floor until he got everything hooked up and secured the way he wanted. Then we headed out to anchor in the Everglades National Park.

The Everglades Park is huge and takes up a vast amount of the entire South West corner of the State of Florida.  It provides some excellent remote anchorages in the mangroves with only a few small villages or ranger stations scattered here and there.

We found a beautiful, secluded anchorage and dropped the hook around 6:00 p.m., just as the sun was setting.  We started the little genny up and heated up leftovers in the microwave.  By the time the genny was off and we had finished dinner it was dark.  We settled in for a quiet evening and that’s when we became aware of the crackling sound.  It sounded pretty much like a louder version of Rice Crispies after you pour the milk on them.  We were stumped and concerned that something was amiss with our electrical system.

Jeff quickly lifted the hatches and we both began to look for the problem.  Was it a short?  We couldn’t figure it out and were getting increasingly concerned.  It was just as loud outside of the boat as inside and seemed to be coming from everywhere!  We were alone in the Everglades, far from help and it was dark.

Google is my usual turn-to solution to a problem but alas our MiFi device from Verison decided to freeze up for the first time ever!  Why do things happen in groups like that? Eventually, voila, an internet signal popped up for just a few minutes and then disappeared again.  It was there just long enough for us to google “weird crackling sound on boat” and low and behold, an answer. We fresh water Canadian boaters had no idea that this is a fairly common salt water phenomenon.  The usual theory is that the sound is made by little critters of some sort eating off the bottom of the boat.  Pistol shrimp is a one theory but others say it electrolysis.  In any case, our boat wasn’t about to blow up.  Whew!  It was a strange sound though and kept up all night.

Below are pictures from a wildlife presentation we attended in the Everglades.  We learned to tell the difference between a crocodile and alligator, both of which are in the everglades.  We learned that there are six varieties of venimous snakes in the Everglades. We learned that there are several invasive species of snakes and aggressive lizards that have been introduced to the Everglades.  Such an interesting place... althought those thoughs sure do creep you out when you hear a bump in the night!