Saturday March 31: Leaving Banana Bay

It was an rather uneventful final week at Banana Bay - mostly getting everything ready to travel again. It's very different sitting in one place for two months as it is traveling 30 - 50 miles each day. Peter and Cheryl on Against the Wind vacated their slip on Tuesday 3/27 and anchored out off shore of our marina for a "test run" of systems. Of course there were still the getting together for sunset and dinner most nights - with them arriving by dinghy.

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Steve in the meantime, decided to try out his new air hose. This is a 60 foot hose that attaches to one of our dive tanks and basically allows him to dive without having to lug a tank around on his back. Downside of course is he is limited to 60 feet! This is plenty for him to clean the bottom of the boat (scrap and brush barnacles and growth). His comment when he was done: next time we'll hire someone to do this!

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One last job for me: change the fuel filter. Thanks to the nice little door cut into the aft cabin, this was a very minor job. Without the little door, a trip under the floor, with batteries removed to make room, would have been needed. What a great idea the little door was! Wonder who thought of that ..... Last sunset at Banana Bay - clouds so no green flash but we had seen 4 or 5 in the last few weeks. Off we went Friday morning. We'll be back next year - probably for Jan thru March.

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As we left, Peter and Cheryl weighted anchor and joined us as we left for a 35 mile trip to an anchorage in the Florida Bay. Nice place to spend the night - although the kayaking was rather uneventful. Against the Wind was anchored nearby.

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This morning we crossed over to the ocean side for the 30 mile run up to Key Largo (northernmost of the keys) to stay at the John Pennecamp State Park. The water is so wonderful on the oceanside with so many different shades of blue depending on the clouds, depth, and bottom covering. It was pretty wavy as we wanted to go out to the reefs to snorkel and fish but ended up not doing that because the ride would not have been very pleasant. Steve saved the day with my squeaky chair by using the silicone on it - what a difference :-)

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Tomorrow the winds are favorable for fishing for sure and hopefully a stop at one of the reefs for some snorkeling and/or diving. We'll anchor at the south end of Biscayne Bay if the weather holds.

Sunday March 25: Getting Closer to Moving Back North :-)

We hosted a farewell dinner for Peter and Chery's son Michael and children and for Puffers as it was time for all to head home (sorry they have to work!). There is a great area here at Banana Bay for group gatherings. Great food brought by all .... and afterwards: the green flash!!!! What a fun thing to see. But maybe better yet was a follow-up of key lime pie on the flybridge.

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With Dave and Sue on their way back to sunny Cleveland (it was in the 70's in Ohio when they were down here), we decided to enjoy a ride down to the 7 mile bridge to look for the eagle rays again as the report from the day before was very positive. But it was a different day, right? So I rode about 1 1/4 miles out the bridge before turning back as we were going to be riding into the wind on the 4 1/2 mile ride back to the boat). Steve went all the way out and reported seeing one very large eagle ray - guess I should have kept going. Back to the boat and finish up the new sunscreen for the cabin door. This lets the air in but not the sun (well, only 20% of the sun gets in) so that will be helpful for the days with a cool breeze but hot sun. Let's hear it for the sewing machine again!!

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No green flash but still a nice sunset prior to Joe and Joy's arrival on Tuesday evening. They were out boat neighbors at E. 55th St Marina in Cleveland for the couple of years prior to both of us selling homes and taking off on our boats. We had a great time - including kayaking for Steve and Joy.

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It actually rained during the day when they were here - hence a very nice rainbow. Steve and Joy went out on a charter fishing boat and reportedly saw a TWIN rainbow but I was suspicious :-) Did I say they went fishing? And did they bring the fish home! Joy wanted to practice up her filleting skills so we got lots of practice :-) Dinner was great with fresh, fresh fish. Up the next morning and off they headed to northern Florida to visit more family and friends. We hadn't seen them since they left Marathon a little over a year ago as they headed to the Bahamas and then up the east coast to Maine.

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Beginning Thursday, we resumed work on the sunscreens for Peter and Cheryl's new boat (Against the Wind seems to be the name of choice). It was like dueling sewing machines with both Cheryl and I sewing at the same time at the nice large dinette table in their boat. The before look and then the 'after look' with Steve and Cheryl finishing up the door sunscreen.

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One last job and our work was done: replace all of the snaps on the door screen (for mosquitos) and then it was time to watch Peter finish hooking up his new generator. It's been a great few days helping get the screen done (Steve was great drilling and placing the screw studs for the snaps). Nice group effort guys!!!

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Tomorrow: work on our generator and start watching the weather for heading north. Our dock fee is paid until April 1 so not sure when we'll leave ....

Sunday March 18: A Busy Week with the Puffers!

Dave and Sue arrived this past Monday afternoon after flying into Ft. Lauderdale. Lots of catching up - Dave has recently retired (sort of :-)) so celebrations were in order. A walk along the old 7 mile bridge didn't produce the eagle ray sightings hoped for but it was still a nice walk - as always. And the search for the green flash began .......

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Where better to see the flash than Key West! Wednesday's drive down (about 50 miles) gave us time to stop on the way to see the Blue Hole with it's alligators and the Key deer which are unique to this place. There are now about 300 of them but it's been a long uphill road to recovery for them. And we are getting smarter about how to get around Key West: park in the free lot and use the trolley to get around (since we wanted to ride the trolley anyway!).

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All went well as we walked Duval Street - found a quick place for dinner at the taco stand - and made it to Mallory Square in plenty of time for the sunset. Some folks were fortunate to be able to be on one of the several boats that went out for a sunset cruise. But we had them all beat with our fantastic places on the wall that gave us a totally unobstructed view of the sunset. We were ready for the green flash!! Wait - there is a sailboat looking like it was going to cross our view. Really?? Yes, really. Just as the sun finished setting, the sailboat's mast blocked our view of the sun - all except for Steve who was on the far right of the wall. He almost hated to say it was one of the best he'd seen ever. Sue, Dave and I were in stunned denial that it happened. Oh well, there are more nights.

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Thursday the winds finally died a bit so we went on a short 15 mile cruise west to the Bahia Honda state park. There is a marina there we could get into at mid to high tide so with the proper timing, all went well. It was a really nice park - complete with ice cream at the concession stand! The beach was very nice with great views all around.

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The old railroad bridge still stands even though it was replaced by a new bridge quite a number of years ago. Because the railroad bridge was not wide enough for two lanes of cars, the road was originally built on TOP of the bridge - 65 feet in the air!. What a view from the old bridge. On Friday, it was quite a wet ride back for Steve, Dave and Sue as they rode on the front of the boat: waves 2 feet with the occasional 3 footer = much water splashing over the front of the boat! But it was all worth it as a couple of dolphin rode the bow wave for a few minutes. alfj owo aweoia wfaefio; jawo;i wef;jiawfio; jawefoi;j aefo;awef o;wefioef woiwejio wefjioawf jioawefolawefm io;aw jwef iawefilawef wefioawe jwaoiawfe aweoef wwaei

Other days were spent at Keys Fisheries either for lunch or buying fish, scallops or shrimp for dinner. And of course there was always time for a peaceful rest under the tree at the point of the marina :-) The continuing quest for the green flash: this time with Peter, Cheryl, their son Michael and his kids, Nick and Taylor. There is a nice high deck which makes it better (it's really a deck for the marina electronics - keeps it out of the water in case of a storm surge!) but the clouds foiled us once again that night.

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Tonight is Dave and Sue's last chance to see the flash - hope it happens!

Saturday March 10: Good Weather = More Projects!

The weather has been really good the past few days with highs in the 80's and lows in the 70's. Some rain but mostly at night. What this means for the most part is that we have the conditions needed to redo the teak railings other trim on the boat! With two coats to be done, it is usually easier to just tape off the wood as it is much faster if you don't have to worry about not getting the coating (Cetol) all over the white of the inside or outside of the boat. So I taped. We split the painting on the gunwale and Steve did most of the rest - it looks really good. Guess we need to be more careful coming in and going out of our slip :-) alsfowaef afj awf owqf wof wefj wqwop eof qwof qw fqf qo fef qfi q

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Finally the dock box is getting permanently attached to the aft deck! What we had done on the trip down was to use a ratcheting type strap to hold it down but then we had to undo the ratchet every time we needed something out of the box. So the solution was to first bolt two pieces of oak to the bottom of the box, then use 5200 adhesive to attach the wood to the top of the deck. For an extra layer of security, Steve added a U bolt which attached the side of the box to the ladder railing. Overall a great job in almost record time - and no extra trips to the store!!

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Storm clouds rolling around the other night were really fun to see. It never did rain though - which was fine of course. More sunsets but no green flashes although there was supposedly one tonight (when we left early) - I have to say that I'm a little suspicious .....

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Last job for the week (to be finished up tomorrow) is to make a rain/shade cover for the front of the boat. Right now, Steve has to go outside to lower the front hatch if it starts raining at night. Not much fun but with the hatch shut it tends to get hot pretty quickly so it'll be nice to be able to just leave the hatch open and not worry about it! I definitely do miss the large sewing table of my other sewing machine but this one does nicely - especially with Steve helping to guide the material through the machine!

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Tomorrow is the Seafood Festival here in Marathon so we'll likely check that out as well as finishing up the rain cover for the front. Monday: Dave and Sue (friends from Nordonia) arrive for a week - definitely looking forward to seeing them!!