Monday March 30: Headed North Tomorrow - Maybe - We Think ...

Well, today was to be the day but then the weather changed. At least the winds changed. The weather is still fine - sunny, warm and less humid than it's been for the past couple of weeks.

So now it's tomorrow that we'll go. Assuming the winds don't again decide to change for the worse. Because we'll be anchored out at least a couple of nights, it would be nice if the winds were from a direction and at a low speed so the night is enjoyable.

And if it's not tomorrow, then we wait another day. 

I'm beginning to feel like the sign on Joe's Crab Shack that used to be in the Flats in Cleveland: FREE CRAB TOMORROW

Does tomorrow every come?

One last sunset at Banana Bay!!

Friday March 27: Must Be Time to Go North

The sunsets continue to draw us to the point each night to look for the green flash. Lots of clouds at the horizon lately - no green flashes around Banana Bay lately. There are now 12 hours of daylight - definitely makes traveling easier when it stays light until almost 8 pm instead of pitch black by 5 o'clock or so!

The weather continues to make us know that it is time to leave. Most days we run the air conditioner for a good part of the days - too hot and humid for us born in the north folks. Time to move.

Steve has made several trips to the grocery store the last couple of days working to get some staples back into the reserves. We get spoiled with such close access to grocery stores!

How he manages to get all of this stuff in his backpack and back to the boat without tipping over is beyond me ......

So I've been pretty lazy lately - on the computer a lot. Finalizing taxes, checking out reservations for this summers travels. In general finding things to do that don't take a lot of effort :-)

But at last I decided to continue the wallpaper painting. It really does freshen up the walls and will hopefully help keep any mold growth over the summer to a minimum when the boat is in storage again for 5 months in a hot Florida.

Maybe it's a hopeless case but we'll see!

If the strong north winds due in tonight move on as predicted, we'll leave Monday morning with a destination of either Cape Sable or the Little Shark River to anchor for the night.

The red line show our approximate path from Marathon - a total of about 95 miles along the shores of the Everglades National Park. After 3 days we'll reach the city of Marco Island and return to the populated area of the west coast of Florida.

Hence the need to stock up on store stuff! No grocery stores (or anything else for that matter) to be found along this shore line!

With winds Monday predicted to be out of the E or NE it should be a good start to the trip up the west coast of Florida.

It will be nice to be traveling again .......

Tuesday March 24: Spring Migration Continues

As it happens every spring, boats here at the marina start heading north in search of less humid cooler weather.

Stevedore (Stephen and Sharon) left bright and early Sunday morning followed a couple of hours later by Randy and Cindy on I Think I Can... - one of the newest members of the America's Great Loop Cruisers Association (AGLCA).

We call them loopers for short :-) It'll be about a 6,000 mile journey for them over the next year. The plan is to be back here at Banana Bay for the next winter season.

We already have missed them just over the last two days - always a fun time. And of course there's the dogs, Cricket and Gigit. How could you not miss them?!! Cricket paid us one last visit the evening before they left and Gigit waved goodbye from the aft seat on their boat.

With any sense of timing we may run into them at some point this summer as we travel some of the same waters with Guppy. Who knows?

In the meantime, Steve's been finding treats all over for us - including the greatest Dunkin Donut: Boston Creme.

I mean he was at the auto parts store and right there was the donut shop - good decision on his part :-)

Mild entertainment as Steve prepared to step off of the boat onto the dock: big iguana RIGHT there! It didn't take too much to scare it away although it took it's good old time moving along.

Best new use of the smart phone? An app called Anchor Lite which we can use as an anchor alarm.

This is a picture of it set. The anchor as set is in the center of the large circle. The boat is the dark blue spot. If the anchor drags and the dark blue spot ends up outside the large circle, an alarm sounds!

How great is that? We have an alarm on the GPS but that's on the flybridge. Don't think it'll help much since we wouldn't be able to hear it ring if we're back in the aft cabin!






All of the sewing is done. YEA!!! I finished Guppy's flybridge cover this morning, The interesting question of whether any or all of the cushions and covers will fit won't be answered until we return to New York and get Guppy out of storage in a couple of months.

In the meantime, we will continue to watch for the green flash and enjoy the sunsets even if it's cloudy. The plan for us is to leave and head north next week.

Saturday March 21: In Search of Mr. Grouper!

Finally.

The weather Steve had been waiting for arrived for real on Thursday. Off we went - back to Looe Key reef to see if we could find the giant grouper again.

The water was crazy calm - and supposed to stay this way for the next 4 days or so.

Once we were tied to a mooring buoy, Steve was off searching.





Mr. Grouper was not to be found anywhere but Steve did get some neat underwater pictures - thanks to Cindy for the loan of the camera!! - including a couple of angelfish and the shark that swam underneath him while he was trying to take a picture of another shark!

Time for a late lunch - then Steve looked out and saw George and Nancy on Jenna Star headed our direction! All of the mooring buoys were taken so they just tied to us. Which is an indication of how calm the water was! They decided it was just too nice to stay in the harbor.

Steve and George decided to actually dive instead of snorkel so that was nice as it was the first time this season for a real dive.

Mmmm... think Steve really thought no one would see him behind this elkhorn coral??

Off to anchor for the night (Thursday) at Newfound Harbor. Time for a dinner out at a restaurant on the water about a 30 minute dinghy ride up the waterway.

The best part of the night was the dessert on the flybridge: key lime pie!!

Well that and the sunset of course.

Plan for Friday: more snorkeling on a small reef for us - another Looe Key dive for Jenna Star. Meet for the night somewhere on the bay side.

Snorkeling was great - fishing was just ok. Sadly Steve had a very nice mackerel on the line but when he got it close to the boat, it decided it just didn't want to get caught just yet. No pictures of fish today!

Biggest catch of the day though? I managed to get Steve's trolling line caught on a crab pot!

Man that line just reeled out like crazy - we thought it was really a BIG something. Guess it was ....

I suggested just cutting the line. I might have suggested just throwing the pole overboard based on the response I got. Guess it was one of his favorite lures :-)

We settled in for the night near East Bahia Honda Key on the bay side. Winds were predicted to be basically nonexistent for the night and the next day.

Kayaking was definitely in the picture for the morning.

Sunrise was so crazy beautiful - neither one of us could stop taking pictures. And it just kept getting better as the sun rose higher in the sky.

The water was so calm.

Definitely needed to check out the island closer.

So easy to see the fish under the water. Just amazing.

Almost couldn't tell the water from the sky .......

Yesterday's Dream in the distance -

Back home tonight at Banana Bay .....

Tuesday March 17: Happy St. Patrick's Day

Because it's St. Patrick's Day we're thinking the green flash will appear for sure tonight!

Night before last was one of the BEST ever we've seen. It's the low north winds that perhaps produced it - some of the humidity from the past week of south winds was blown away.

It's this humidity that produces the clouds that appear on the horizon - only visible once the sun has started to descend. And of course there is no green flash in that case.



Sunday night had the perfect conditions. And we watched, cameras ready, for the last bit of the sun to sink behind the water.

Ready for the green flash. Keep the pictures coming ....










 I was doing so well with the picture taking - surely I could catch this phenomenon in a picture.












Once again, disappointed that it did not appear on any of my pictures. One of these times though I feel certain it will happen .....

In the meantime, Happy Birthday to my younger brother. His name of course is Patrick and he's the only one of us five kids that has green eyes. Weird, isn't it?

Sunday March 15: How is it Mid-March Already?

The days here at Banana Bay continue to blend together. I'm not sure how it is that we've been here 2 1/2 months as it seems we just arrived.

A new experience today though: sunrise! One of our neighbors commented to me that 7 o'clock actually occurs twice a day ;-)

Personally, if I'm up before 8 it's unusual. Which is ok as I have accepted that I'm just not a morning person. Or perhaps that's just my excuse ....



Regardless, folks have been leaving the marina and starting to move north for the past couple of weeks.

This morning, Jon and Susan on Sundance headed out at 7 - hence my opportunity to see the sunrise.

We'll most likely stay another couple of weeks.

Yesterday Steve decided to tackle the ill-fitting side pieces of the flybridge enclosure.

Ever since we added a layer of sunbrella to the top canvas, the sides just barely were able to be snapped.

The new layer of canvas solved the problem of my needing - literally - an umbrella to stay dry on the flybridge if it rained but the additional stiffness didn't allow the sides and back to be fully snapped.





The solution started with shortening 4 of the stainless steel poles. The dremel was the tool of choice.

Once that was done, it was a matter of refitting the side and front plastic.

Some restitching and moving of snaps was needed but overall, it wasn't too bad to do.

Took Steve most of the day though. I spent the time finishing up taxes.

It was lunch out at our favorite place - The Hurricane Grill. They have a $5 lunch menu that is great.

This place has a huge lego display - Miami Beach.

The detail is surprising given how large the display.

I've declared today a 'think about it' day. The flybridge cover for Guppy is the last sewing project and I'm just not sure how to approach it. 

So I'll think on it for a while - usually a solution will present itself - either when I'm awake but more often as I sleep :-)

There was a 6 mile round trip bike ride this morning so maybe the solution will come during my nap this afternoon .......

Wednesday March 11: Sewing Sweatshop .....

The sun is now finally setting over the water so every night is an opportunity for the green flash.

Steve was the lone spectator the other night - I checked and determined no way was it going to happen - too many clouds.

But you know Steve - ever the optimist! He was the lone spectator to see one of the "brighest yet" as he deemed it.

Next time I'll listen when he says I should do something. Mmmm ... we'll see how that goes .... :-)

The fishing the other day was ok but not spectacular.

Sometime before we leave, perhaps Gary and Steve will find the perfect combination of wind, current and sun which will enable them to haul in a boatload of mangrove snappers!

In the meantime, they still go out enthusiastic and with dreams of the best of the fishermen :-)

For entertainment, we've recently discovered wine clubs! It's interesting with a wide variety of wines we would otherwise never try.

Introductory offers produce anywhere from 6 to 15 bottles of wine from small wineries worldwide.

Shipped free. Delivered to our door by the dockmaster. For about $7 a bottle - how do you beat that?

Bonus: last club included a free opener. Nice as ours was on it's last legs. Of course once we leave here all memberships are canceled - too hard to keep up with as we move :-)

 What I've missed the most for the past 4 days: the parquet floors at Matt and Wendy's home when he was stationed at Cherry Point.

Those floors were so AWESOME when making the front shade cover for Guppy. We are now reduced to using covered space by the pool or trying to work inside the cabin.

For the limited space, I've been quite happy with the finished products especially as two of the covers were close to a finished size of 12 feet by 7 feet!



Steve's been a great help by doing the 'on the hands and knees' work needed for some of the cutting and pinning.




And measuring. And sewing.



In the past 4 days, we've made three shade covers for three different boats!


One for Randy and Cindy on I Think I Can ... , one for Mike and Andi on Two Hearts.

And of course when we realized our cover needed to be replaced as well, that became the third cover to be made.

Even the duct tape we used in an attempt to temporarily fix ours didn't do the job! One the few failures for duct tape as it seems to work for just about any patch job ...

Steve was his usual inventive self again with an umbrella as he finished putting the last of the grommets on the cover for us.

Project completed!

This was not all work with no play for Steve.

Last week the local airport hosted the 1928 Ford Tri-motor airplane. Want to ride, anyone?

Several folks from the marina were game - including Steve!

Thank you, but I'll wait on the ground if it's all the same to you. 1928? Really??


But both George (Jenna Star) and Steve said it was great! About a twenty minute fly around over Marathon - including a flyover Banana Bay!

Sure is easy to see where the dredged channel out of the marina ends. The depth goes very quickly from about 10 feet in depth to about 4 1/2 feet just across from point on the right of the picture.

The yellow arrow is us!!

If you want more info about the Ford Tri-motor plane, click here.

This particular plane is owned by the Liberty Aviation Museum in Port Clinton, Ohio - close to our old stomping grounds!