Thursday January 1: Starting out 2015 at Treasure Harbor in the Keys!

Happy New Year!! No matter where you are celebrating, the New Year gives a new start to all that we are hoping to do.

Personally I prefer the celebration on the right :-)

We hauled anchor early yesterday. 53 miles to travel to Treasure Harbor on Islamorada Key - a marina we first discovered almost 20 years ago when we rented boats from them.

It wasn't hard to spot the anchor lying on the bottom - and this is in 7 feet of water!

Not much sand here really but not much wind either so it was not an issue. No fish either sadly. Later today  .....

After anchoring in Biscayne Bay for the night, we crossed over into the Atlantic for the first time this season.

The waves were MAYBE a foot at the reefs. A convenient stop was Elbow reef in the Pennecamp Marine Sanctuary. There was only one boat when we arrived and by the time we left we were the only ones on the reef!

It was a great snorkel for Steve with turtles, a large moray eel and lots of fish for the viewing.

Next: a quick stop for some fishing in the hopes of catching some nice yellowtail snapper or the likes. I thought of Dave (of Joysea) when I reminded Steve that I don't clean grunts (actually a good tasting fish but a pain to clean). We left empty handed but still the fishing was fun (so I was told).

Next stop: Treasure Harbor Marina. Really a great place. I recall the days when we were renting trawlers thinking that wouldn't it be fun to bring OUR trawler down here to this marina! And we did :-)

And another great sunset to boot!

Sadly the no-see-ums are out in force near shore. They are so small that they come through the screen.

Solution? Run the air conditioner and keep the boat closed up. Fortunately they don't appear until dusk.

They do love to sneak in near the extension chord for the christmas lights on the boat but Steve has the perfect answer by stuffing grocery bags in the cracks.

Tomorrow we'll be up early to leave with a mid-high tide as the entrance to this marina is quite shallow.

Destination will be Banana Bay Marina - home for the next couple of months.

In the meantime: there are college football playoffs to watch!!