March 24th: A Visit from Ron and Aldo and Some Fun On the Water

We received a surprise phone call from Ron Macomas, a friend from Cleveland. He took his first drive to Key West and stopped to see us in Marathon. He brought Aldo, his newly acquired rescue dog with him. He is very cute, soft and friendly.  He got a lot more attention than Ron at Docktails.









Ron arrived in his fun car, the Corvette in the background. The narrated tram tour at Crane Point was unavailable that afternoon so I gave Ron a walking narrated tour.  It was a beautiful day and we have done the tram tour so many times I felt comfortable being the narrator. Linda and I wanted to support Crane Point so we purchased a Crane Point Membership. As members, we can attend with two guests as often as we like with no additional cost.

We also got in a quick visit to the Marathon Turtle Hospital. We ended Ron's visit with his attendance at "Docktails". As most people, he found the Banana Bay group very friendly and entertaining. No surprise that Aldo got a lot more attention than Ron.











The next day was great for kayaking. I caught a picture of Sharon and Eli on the water.  Eli loves riding in the kayak and won't let Sharon go without him. I usually kayak over to Crane Point for exercise which is fun because it has some nice calm pools protected by mangroves.












I have been seeing a pair of Queen Angelfish hanging around an opening in some rocks. They are very colorful and fun to see. I haven't been able to take a good picture of them but here is one I copied from the internet. They literally glow when the sun shines on them.

Here at Banana Bay many of us anxiously wait for calm winds so we can go on overnight cruises. A small weather window opened and we had been waiting a long time so four boats headed out. I decided to troll on the way to try to catch a mackerel for a nice fish appetizer.

It was a fun day at sea as we saw two pods of dolphins that swam with us.  Included in the pods were two very young (small) dolphins. The young ones are very agile and dart around just having fun. Then when we were almost to our anchorage, I heard my fishing reel whining. I caught a very nice sized Cero Mackerel.

The place we were going is a nice anchorage near Bahia Honda State Park that has a sandbar exposed at low tide. It's very sandy and easily accessible by dinghy. We enjoyed the first day relaxing at the sandbar and I took a kayak ride along the shore where the water was very clear.

Cup sponge in 2 feet of very clear water

There were a lot of sponges, anemones and soft corals on the bottom.

Swimming jelly fish

I have often noticed round organisms of some sort sitting on the bottom in shallow areas. I thought perhaps they were some sort of anemone. I was surprised when I saw a jelly fish swimming along when it stopped, flipped over and laid on the bottom with numerous others. They have short tentacles that catch food as it drifts by.

Jelly fish laying on the bottom upside down.

We returned to our boats and then gathered on Maya, our Cincinnati friends' boat. Steve and Kim invited everyone over for appetizers and, I guess you could call it, "Boat tails" instead of "Docktails". The fish was only one of many great treats. Linda and I decided the appetizers were supper! We watched a pretty sunset and called it a night.



All was going well but we woke up several times and heard the waves lapping on the boat.  That meant the wind was increasing well beyond what was predicted.  We knew the direction of the wind would blow us into the shallow water close to shore if the anchor didn't hold. We had our anchor alarm set which is very reassuring. It sounds a siren if the anchor starts dragging. About 5:00 am the alarm went off.  Not a pleasant way to wake up! The anchor was dragging very slowly so we were able to take out time raising the anchor and moving out into much deeper water. We looked at our friends' boats and saw that Maya and Mystified were also moving. It was of course still dark and our biggest concern was running over one of the many crab pot buoys.  If you run over one, there is a good chance the rope will wrap around the prop and cause lots of trouble.  Fortunately, while standing at the bow I was able to spot the buoys with a flashlight. We re-anchored and this time the anchor held.

In the morning I was walking around the boat and remembered I had left our basket for grilling fish hanging in the water.  It's a great way to clean the stainless steel fish holder.  I had it tied on the back of the boat and discovered I could not pull in the rope. The rope was so long it apparently had gotten wrapped around the prop. Into the water I went to check it out. The rope was not very strong so after wrapping around the shaft about a foot, it broke and the fish basket bent and wedged itself against the bottom of the boat. The shaft was able to spin despite the rope being wrapped tight around it. I was able to cut the rope off of the shaft and free the basket.






Not to be deterred, we stayed a while in the morning to see if the wind would die down as forecast. We were glad we stayed as we again were able to head to the sand bar where we spent several hours.

There were many hermit crabs crawling around in a wide variety of shells. It was fun to watch them. The shell in the picture was about 5 inches long. This hermit crab finally poked his head out so we could get a good look at him. Then he crawled away once he was released near where I found it.

Hermit crab in a Tulip Snail Shell

After an enjoyable day we headed back to Banana Bay. On the way back we were lucky to spot a giant Green Sea Turtle. It's always fun to see them in the wild. The winds were forecast to increase for the next week or so. Looks like a good time to start working on the teak again.