We’re not really sleeping in a washing machine, but the wind has been northerly for the last couple of nights, which has created wave motion against our hull that sounds like we’re in a washing machine. And the boat really rocks and rolls so it feels like we’re getting tossed around like a load of clothes in the washer. It doesn’t make for a comfortable night of sleep.☹️
We’ve been relaxing the last couple of days inside the boat – too windy and cool to do a lot outside. ( I guess cool is a relative word – if it were upper 60s, low 70s in Indiana right now it would seem like a heat wave.) It finally warmed up enough this afternoon that I was able to sit up on the bow and enjoy the sun and view.
I will never tire of this view!
This yacht was docked near us and moved across from us today. It’s 83 feet long and can be chartered for $35-38,000/week. It has a 27 ft powerboat with it so you can go fishing or waterskiing. Guess I better win a big lottery if I want to charter this, because the price doesn’t include fuel, food, booze, or other incidentals.
A couple of years ago we found a jar of seasoning at a shop in Saugatuck that we had to buy just because of its name. It turned out to be a really good seasoning so we went back to buy more this past summer. We discovered that there are now several more seasonings from this company so we bought a 6 pack of the various kinds. Tonight we used two of them on chicken and vegetables and they were superb!
In case you’re wondering, the first one we bought was Bull Shit, and the others in our 6 pack are no shit, aw shit, and good shit. The story behind the spices are some guys created the original, bull shit, but decided they needed a catchy name to market it successfully – thus the name Bull Shit. And the rest is history. If you’re in Saugatuck you can buy them at Pink Patio.
We woke up this morning to calm waters and a sea of sea grass around our boat.
Because the water was so calm we decided it would be a good day to go exploring in the dinghy. We went around the western end of Marathon, under the 7 mile bridge and part way around the Atlantic side of Marathon. I’m really paranoid about using my phone for photos when we’re in the dinghy – I have visions of it flying out of my hands and into the deep blue waters, so no visual proof of what we did and saw. Any ideas of how to keep my phone safe and accessible for photos would be deeply appreciated!
I had intended to post every other day, but warm weather and sunshine has turned me into a very lazy writer!
The past several days have been consumed with Rich trying to figure out two nagging boat issues. One involved a non functioning bilge bump for the guest shower and sink. He thought it was a faulty float switch, but replacing it didn’t solve the problem. Next, he replaced the pump. Still non functioning. It was a simple matter to unhook each of those and replace, but when that didn’t work, he was stumped. After many swear words and lots of time wasted, he started unhooking all the wires connecting everything, only to discover there were wires not connected to anything! Eventually he figured out how to wire everything back together correctly and we now have a functioning bilge pump!
So on to the next problem – a dinghy lift that didn’t work. Again, he had checked everything, saw no apparent loose connections, etc., changed the batteries in the remote, and it still didn’t work. After several calls, emails, and texts with several people, he finally got a YouTube video from the installer about how to jumpstart the motor that operated the hydraulics. When he opened up the cover to jumpstart he discovered a hidden connection that was loose. He tightened it and voila! our dinghy lift works perfectly!
We celebrated Rich’s achievements (without having to pay $$$) with a very nice bubbly!
On our lazy days this is what we see from our boat
Looked like a picnic one day!This boat came in after dark and missed the channel. Fortunately the rocks didn’t puncture the hull and TowBoat US was able to pull it off later that day.
We went exploring one day, found the only beach ( where I neglected to take any photos), and stopped by a local fish place for a late lunch. You order at a counter and find a spot at a picnic table over the water while you wait for your name to be called – or you go upstairs to the bar, grab a drink while you wait, and have this view.
We ordered lobster reubens and as strange as it sounds, they were actually quite delicious!We’ve seen historical markers in lots of places, but this one on the wall at the fish market was one of the most unusual.Taken from the stern of our boat, I love how the palm tree is lit up!
Yesterday we drove to Key West. It’s about an hour drive from our marina, over lots of bridges, including the 7 mile bridge. It’s mind boggling to think of what it took to build all the bridges connecting the keys from mainland Florida all the way to Key West. Many of the bridges have parking areas just before the start of the bridge, with a pedestrian bridge alongside the main bridge so people can fish. Fishing is such a popular thing down here that Publix has a freezer section at the end of one freezer aisle that’s filled with frozen chum and other baits.
We have arrived!We had a very delicious lunch at this place.There were chickens and roosters everywhere – this one was wandering around our table at lunch.And this one was perched on the wall by the post officeThis was a huge kapok tree in front of the county courthouse – sometimes it feels like you’re in a land of giants.At the start of the trip, I had two places I wanted to see – the quilt museum in Paducah KY and this marker in Key West – mission accomplished! This is such a populat tourist attraction that there is a line to get up to it for a photo op – it took us at least 15 minutes to get up to it. Amazingly, there’s no one trying to take your picture by it for a fee. It seems to be one of the few free things on Key West.Kilwin’s is one of our favorite ice cream places in Saugatuck, so when I saw that there’s a Kilwin’s in Key West, we had to stop for some Key Lime ice cream – quite tasty!Mallory Square is supposed to be the place to be at sunset, with all kinds of street musicians, jugglers, etc. but it was so cool and windy that we decided we will have to come back on a warmer day to witness that.I never thought of Key West as a cruise ship destination until we saw this next to Mallory Square.On our way out of town – don’t know the guy in the lower right hand corner – didn’t realize he was in it until I looked at the photos last night.Want to go fishing? This looks like a good spot to find a boat for that.Today we went grocery shopping – it’s a good thing I didn’t buy any more that needed refrigeration!
We decided we needed a car to really explore the area – too hot and definitely too dangerous to do much bike riding. We got a taxi to Enterprise yesterday – apparently there’s no pickup from airport locations and the only location is at the airport. Oh well – they upgraded us from a compact to a VW Jetta so we can’t complain.
First stop was Publix, the big grocery chain you find in the south. It was packed, but apparently it’s always that way because it’s the only big grocery in Marathon. It’s always interesting to see what different items you see as you travel around the country, and how much the same the grocery stores seem to be laid out. I was on a mission to get in and out quickly so I didn’t pay much attention to different items this time, but I’m sure I’ll see some unusual items the next time I go – I wonder what all the old folks who winter down here eat (and believe me, there are lots of old folks!)
Our next stop was West Marine. We discovered Tuesday that we had no water from the marina water supply to the boat because the connector for the hose to our boat had broken. We were able to fill our water tank, so we could use water from that, but it’s a pain to have to fill every couple of days. Fortunately they had the part we needed and Rich and a friend were able to get the broken part off. Rich got the new part on and now we have continuous water! Rich has become a different kind of plumber!
On Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons there were weddings on the end of a jetty across from our boat. Fun entertainment!
We’re quickly becoming spoiled by this marina. Both USA Today and the Wall Street Journal are delivered to our boat each day for free. We get complimentary pumpout once a week dockside (anyone who owns a boat knows how fantastic this is) and we don’t even have to be on the boat when they do it. There’s free coffee every morning in the marina office, which is about 150’ from our boat. We have free access to the computers and printer at the Hyatt Place, which is just in front of the marina. What’s not to like???
I will probably be posting every other day now. It’s not too exciting to write about spending 2 hours (and $25) in the laundromat, doing dishes, or any of the other things that happen when you stay in one place for an extended period of time. And I don’t want to rub it in too much about how great the weather is 😊
We spent Sunday relaxing and getting settled in. We decided to explore a little bit on foot and quickly discovered it was not easy to cross over to the other side of the road that runs in front of the hotel that’s connected to the marina. Turns out it’s the only major road on the island – US 1 that runs all the way from the mainland to Key West. We managed to get across to West Marine, a nationwide chain that caters to boaters, and get a chart book that I wanted, but we won’t be crossing that road on foot again!
We bought three strands of tiny white lights to string along the rails for the holidays but had not gotten it done yet, so we managed to get them strung in the afternoon and set on a timer. We figured they would be festive for the new year. We were happy to see that the timer worked and they lit like they were supposed to – we would have been very upset if we spent all that time fastening them to the rail and then they didn’t work.
There are docktails every day at 5 on the deck by the lighthouse. On Sunday it was an ice cream social, with one of the boaters making ice cream in a big electric ice cream maker. Everyone brought toppings to share and amazingly there were no duplicates in toppings. We had eaten a late lunch and then had a lot of ice cream, so it was another night with no dinner. Eating fewer meals seems like a good way to lose some weight, but not when the meals you eat include massive amounts of ice cream with crushed Oreo cookies on top.
Monday was spent enjoying the sun and warm weather. There were a lot of people wandering around looking at all the boats and getting ready to celebrate the New Year. We went to the restaurant here during happy hour, which started at 3:00 (what’s not to like about a happy hour that goes from 3-6!), had a late lunch, and met several other Loopers. We ordered extra food so we would have some leftovers that we could eat later. If we were going to stay up until midnight, we would need some nourishment later in the evening!
They put a big wooden anchor at the top of the lighthouse to drop at midnight. We watched them for a while in the daytime jas they worked at getting it to the top – the wind seemed to create some problems, but eventually they got it to the top.
This is what it looked like just before it started to descend.
There was music blasting at the restaurant and tons of people around as midnight approached. Midnight arrived and the anchor didn’t come down right away – not sure what clock they were using, but it wasn’t very accurate!
Time to get caught up on our travels – I’ll continue with our overnight at the Pink Shell Resort and Marina last Wednesday.
This was the desk for the valet service for the marina at The Pink Shell Resort and Marina – very unique!
We had to leave our slip by 11 Thursday morning because another boat had arrived for their reservation for the slip we were in. We’ve discovered this is a very popular time of year for boating down here!
We knew that we wanted to be in Naples Thursday and Friday so I started calling marinas there early Wednesday morning. After spending 45 minutes on the phone and not finding a slip in any of the marinas I called, I decided to try the Naples Yacht Club. Fortunately they have reciprocity with Saugatuck Yacht Club, where we are members, and they were able to give us a side tie by their fuel dock.
A small portion of the clubhouse. They are in the final stages of major remodeling and expansion and it’s gorgeous!
The dockmaster brought some steps over to make it easier for me to get off the boat and gave us good recommendations for nearby restaurants – very friendly and helpful. We were ready for a late lunch when we got there, but before we could go into the clubhouse and get some food, we needed to change – no denim allowed (I was in jean shorts) and Rich needed to put on a collared shirt. In spite of the dress code everyone was very friendly and accepting.
This was the view from the bow of our boat. The boat in the photo was a power catamaran that was probably 60 ft long. For those of you familiar with boats you know that’s a big boat.
We walked into Old Naples downtown Friday for lunch at Campiella’s, an Italian restaurant recommended by the dockmaster. We both had pasta dishes – the pasta is made fresh there every day and you could tell. We were so stuffed after lunch that we didn’t eat dinner that night. That’s one way to cut down on food costs 😊
We didn’t have an exact distance from Naples to Marathon, but we knew it was around 100 miles. We had decided to leave Saturday morning at 7:30 so if we ran into rough waters and needed to slow down, we could still get to the marina before sunset. We got up at 6, got dressed, and then looked out to find dense fog. What the…? We hadn’t seen fog in a long time, so why now when we only had this last day of travel to get to our winter destination??? Luckily, it had burned off enough by 8:30 that we could safely leave. By the time we got down the channel and into the Gulf, there was no more fog and waves were less than one foot. The water remained calm, with it almost like glass for at least a third of the time. The biggest problem we had was dodging crab pots – it was like a mine field of them!
These were the biggest waves we saw until we were just 3 or 4 miles from Marathon, when the winds picked up and the waves got bigger.
Ever since we got to waters where dolphins live, I’ve been on the lookout for them. Rich sees them all the time, but it seems that every time he says “dolphin”, by the time I see where he’s pointing the dolphin has disappeared. There were two or three dolphins off the side of our boat as we were headed to Marathon which I finally got to see close up. They jumped several times, but this is all I could get a photo of.
There really are dolphins in the bottom half of this photo.
We got to Faro Blanco Resort and Marina mid afternoon Saturday, got fuel, tied up, and lunch.
The view from the bow of our boat at Faro Blanco – The view from our table at lunch on Saturday. The lighthouse is actually a working lighthouse. Our boat is tied up just behind the yacht to the left of the lighthouse.There are all kinds of birds that hang out by the docks here.The pelicans especially like to hang out by the fishing charter boats because the captains throw all the heads, entrails, etc. into the water for them when they’re fileting the fish their clients caught.
Because of tide times, we were able to sleep in this morning, have a leisurely breakfast, and hang out at the resort until after 1 this afternoon.
The back of our breakfast menu gave the history of the building housing the restaurant.This was the view from our booth at breakfast. Note Santa climbing the palm tree, with the Gulf in the background.This is a “resort” that I would love to come back to. It has such a small friendly feel to it with all the amenities you expect from bigger places.As we motored out the channel headed to the ICW, we passed this boat which had caught fire a couple of weeks ago. I wonder how long it will sit here before being hauled out. Obviously the water is very shallow here since it is still above water.
We motored down the ICW, passing Sanibel Island, and on to Estero Island, where we had a slip at the Pink Shell Beach Resort and Marina. We had to be very careful as we left the marina on Captiva because the tides have been incredibly low for the past few days. We were going out between low and high tides so we kept a constant eye on the depth finder – as long as we had 3-4 feet of water showing we felt comfortable. Anything below that and you start sweating. Fortunately the lowest it got was about 3.5 feet and we made it to deeper water on the ICW. The hardest part of today’s trip was getting into our slip. The wind was blowing 15-20 mph and the tide was rising so you got a lot of water movement – not an easy situation. But three guys were on the dock to grab lines and help us in and we didn’t damage anything in the process!
We left our dock just after 10 this morning and continued our travels south to ‘Tween Water Inn and Marina on Captiva Island. The Gulf was very calm again today so we were able to do about 2/3 of the trip outside on the gulf. There were many small boats on the last portion on the ICW, all going faster than us and leaving wakes for us to deal with – ugh. We were doing at least 15 mph, so we weren’t traveling that slowly.
We got docked by 2, so we had plenty of time to wander around the resort. It started as a series of cottages facing the Gulf in 1931, and those cottages are still here. If you cross the road in front of the resort you are on the beach on the Gulf side. And if you walk to the other side of the resort you are at the marina on a chapel off the ICW.
We wandered over to the pool area to get some food at the poolside bar. We were finally wearing shorts, tshirts, and sandals!
This is one of 3 pools at this resort. One of the pools is a tranquility pool, with no running, jumping, splashing, or loud talking allowed. What a great idea!
The rest of the day has been spent chillin’ and enjoying the warmer weather. This will be the first night in more than a month when we won’t need to have the heat on.
By the time most of you will be reading this, Christmas will be over – I hope everyone had a great holiday!
Yesterday we thought we would go to Anna Maria Island, just south of Tampa Bay today. But when we got up this morning we discovered that the Gulf waters were quite calm, so we headed out about 10 and traveled south on Gulf waters instead of going down the ICW. We quickly found we could go a lot farther than originally planned. I called the marina that we had planned to go to tomorrow and they had space for us today, so we headed to Venice FL and arrived there about 3.
Clearwater Beach as we headed south out in Gulf watersIncredibly flat waters on the Gulf! It was so calm that the dolphins were out and jumped a couple of times right by our boat – they’re impossible to get photos of, but I finally got to see them several times.Palm trees and warm weather on Christmas Eve Santa came ashore on a paddle board to a little island across from our dockThe water on the left is the ICW coming down from the Tampa Bay Area, as seen from where we are tied up for the night.Our boat as seen from the second floor of the restaurant where we had a fantastic dinner! We sat at the table on the second floor of this restaurant that’s between the red and green lights. I love it when there are good restaurants this close to our boat – I took this photo from our boat! No worries about drinking and driving!Sunset over the Gulf as seen from the stern of our boat
We spent last Friday doing very exciting things since we had a car – laundry, mailing packages, buying charts for this side of Florida, and grocery shopping. The weather was very interesting while we were out and about. The sun would be out, then it would pour rain for 5 minutes, the sun would come out again for a little while, and the cycle would start all over again. Fortunately it always rained while we were inside!
About 5 that afternoon as I was putting away the mounds of clean clothes I glanced out the sliders in our cabin and saw a beautiful rainbow. Unfortunately by the time I got my phone and took a picture it was rapidly fading, so you’ll have to use your imagination to see how vibrant it was.
We had a dinner reservation at the yacht club Friday night and were quickly invited to join a group of members who were also having dinner there. It was a lively group and fun to socialize with people from all over – I don’t think any of them were originally from Florida.
We returned the car Saturday and asked for a ride back to the yacht club. The driver was picking up someone else and wouldn’t be back for at least 20 minutes, so the agent said she would have an Uber driver take us back. She called for one and less than 5 minutes later he showed up. It was our first experience with Uber, but probably not our last. It’s actually one of the first places we’ve been where there has been Uber readily available.
We spent the afternoon doing boat things and trying to figure out an itinerary for the next few days. We discovered that the marinas we were interested in were going to be closed on Christmas Eve and Day – time for plan B. I was eventually able to come up with marinas for both days, but we’ll be tying up on our own both days (no one to grab lines for us at the dock) and will be tied to a fuel dock on Christmas Day.
Our friends picked us up Saturday night and took us to their home for dinner. Steaks on the grill, sautéed scallops, good salad, and plenty of wine, along with good conversation made for a very enjoyable evening.
We were awakened by a large thunk this morning – it seems there was an unusually low tide because of a full moon, and our lines got so tight they were trying to pull out the pilings they were tied to!
There should be water behind our dinghy! The hull of our boat was basically sitting on the bottom of the river – not good. The tide started rising soon after I took this picture and by 1:00 there was enough water under our hull to get out.
We only went 22 miles today to Clearwater Beach Marina. When I looked at the map of the marina, I realized we were just a 5 minute walk from the beach, so after we got settled in we took a stroll over to the beach. As we headed down the dock there was a pelican standing on the dock. It just looked at us as we walked by and seemed totally unconcerned when I took a picture of it.
And we had a pirate ship pass by our boat!
It was cool enough on the beach for a jacket, but that doesn’t keep people from enjoying a beautiful sunset.
Tomorrow we head across Tampa Bay to a marina on Anna Maria Island and still warmer weather – tomorrow is supposed to be mid to upper 60s – it’s almost warm enough for shorts and sandals 😄
