Wednesday March 28: Boat Dogs and Finished Railing!

So we now have had the experience of having dogs aboard our boat. We had an opportunity to watch the two Yorkies, Gigit and Cricket. Both are over 10 years old so they tend to sleep as much as we do :-)

Cricket weights 4 1/2 lbs and Gigit weights 15 lbs. Talk about a couple of lightweights! Randy and Cindy let us keep them while they went on a cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale - they are very easy to watch and are very well trained - which of course is why they are easy to watch!

Cricket's favorite place to hide is on the front dash among the various stuffed animals who live there. It's also a great place for both dogs to sit and look out over the dock and keep an eye on who is coming and going.

Gigit's favorite trick is to wait until I get up from my reading chair and she quickly takes it over and pretends to be asleep when I turn to reclaim my seat!

Who could kick out anyone so cute, right?

But Friday Randy and Cindy will return and I'm sure we'll be back to being just the neighbors :-)

Missing port railing

In the meantime, Steve has been working hard on the broken front railing.

There was a young guy here in Marathon that seemed interested in making a stainless railing that would transition to the teak. It was a month or so and numerous phone calls and stop bys until we finally realized it just wasn't going to happen.

Steve's drawing for a stainless bow rail

Plan B was for the guy Steve found in Punta Gorda on our road trip that we stopped and spoke to - definitely he could do it and was very interested - he just needed an accurate measurement so he could give us a price. Meanwhile, four weeks and numerous unreturned phone calls later, we wrote him off as well. OK - fine. Plan C: Steve decided to just fix it himself (with some help from the very talented Randy)!




First, straighten the broken stainless steel support that runs under the teak along the curved part of the front. Thanks Dave for that 5
lb sledgehammer!

Next figure out how the broken pieces of teak fit together.

How fortunate that almost all of the pieces were still on the front of the boat and survived being blown away by Irma!

Steve and Randy then worked to permanently connect all of the pieces using a two part epoxy and lots of screws.

Next in the process was straighten one of the stainless steel stanchions that holds the teak up. Again the 5 lb sledgehammer came in handy.







Time now to finish the teak by adding slow-cure epoxy mixed with teak sawdust as well as gluing in teak plugs where the screws were holding the pieces of teak together.

All of this of course takes additional time just for everything to dry and cure




Now on to the next to last step - sanding the excess fill so the result is a smooth surface to the teak.






It of course does not look new but then it is, after all, a 40-year old boat!!

Overall a really great job to fix the railing on the port side!











Definitely passes the 10 foot rule :-)  Best part? I don't have to be concerned that I will flip Steve through the railing if I make a fast stop!

The upper railing repair went very well also. Again we were fortunate that the missing piece was found among the rubbish washed up by Irma.









It definitely needed some extra teak to replace the part that was broken off.



Didn't look that great when Randy initially repaired it but after going through the same process as the front rail - it was amazing!!





Still not quite finished but getting close!







It was a special impromptu gathering the other night at docktails.



Karen on Our Wisha was leaving the next day. She has sold the boat and will return to her home in Indiana. She and Skip had been here forever (which means I don't really know how long but I know it was longer than we were here!)

We hope to see her visiting next winter ......

Wednesday March 21: Calm Seas and a Turtle Rescue

Finally the weather was again cooperating so we could leave the marina and anchor out for a couple of days.

Love You More with Randy and Cindy aboard headed out with us on a perfect day to be able to make sure all of the boat systems are working well. The plan for us is to leave Banana Bay at the end of the month and travel north along the west coast of Florida before putting the boat up for the summer.

We were headed to Little Pine Key for the night but first wanted stop along the way to check out a fishing spot one of the neighbors told us about.


We were going slowly looking for the elusive small coral head which was somewhere! And of course dodging the crab pot buoys which are seemingly everywhere. One buoy looked a bit strange. Like there was a very large amount of seagrass stuck on it

After going past it, Steve and I both decided it may be a turtle stuck on the buoy but couldn't see any signs of movement. But to be sure, we turned around to check.

We radioed Love You More to let them know what we were doing. Cindy did a GREAT job capturing the ongoing drama.

First drive close enough to grab the buoy line after verifying it was indeed a turtle and it was alive! We could see that both front flippers were wrapped with the line. Of course we couldn't do much unless we could bring the turtle to the back of the boat and reach it from the swim platform.

As I drove forward, Steve walked backwards - still keeping the boat hook pulling the buoy along. Finally at the rear of the boat we were able to get a second boat hook hooked on the line around the left flipper.

Steve went down to the swim platform and cut the line around the left flipper. Then the line around the right flipper.

Now all that was holding the turtle was the line which ended up was wrapped twice around the turtle's neck. By pulling the line and basically rolling the turtle over twice, Steve was able to pull that line off of it's neck.


We were a bit concerned that it would be ok after all of the pulling and tugging at the lines entrapping it.

Once the line came free from it's neck, that turtle took off for the bottom so quickly, we knew it was going to be just fine!!

Best as we could estimate, the turtle was about 3 feet long and likely weighed 150 lbs. Good thing we didn't need to get it in the boat :-)

Total time according to the time stamp on Cindy's camera was 13 minutes from start to finish.

For more info about the green sea turtles, click here.

Interestingly enough, even though Steve cut two lines the buoy for the crab pot was still attached to the trap on the bottom!

Having given up on the fishing we continued on to the chosen anchorage for the night.

It was a joint dinner aboard Yesterday's Dream with a great meal of salmon and Key West pink shrimp on the grill, rice and tomatoes.

Of course this was after happy hour on Love You More's flybridge. The stars were out in full force thanks to the reduced ambient lighting as we were several miles away from the nearest town

By the time we were in for the night, the winds were non-existent - which was nice as there were no slapping of waves on the boat side. And it had cooled off quite nicely. Definitely going to be a good night to sleep!


Saturday we moved a few miles to be near the sandbar close to Bahia Honda State Park. Steve and Cindy headed off to do some fishing under the highway bridge there.

It was a pretty good day with lots of catching but only 4 keepers.




Biggest catch of the day though came from Randy who pulled up a 3 foot sand shark - caught in the 5 feet of water in which we were anchored!

Pat and George on Reflection stopped by the anchorage for a while. They wanted to check the boat systems as they will also be departing before too long to head back north. Seems like many folks are taking advantage of the weather to check that all is ready for the exodus from Banana Bay!


After spending  the day near the sandbar, we decided to move to East Bahia Honda Key so we we were away from the highway noise.

The wind had again really calmed down and by the time we anchored, it was time for another joint dinner - this time on Love You More.

It was St. Patrick's day so Cindy had made corned beef and cabbage in the crock pot.

Delicious :-)


The colors at sunset were once again very nice.

Early Sunday morning, Randy and Cindy backed away and headed back. They were leaving the next day to go on a Caribbean cruise and wanted to get an early start on the day.

We stayed for part of the day enjoying the great weather. The north winds were coming in a few days so we knew the cooler weather and winds were on the way.

Steve did manage to have a nice kayak ride as well :-)

Tuesday March 14: Bambics and Fishing for Birds

What a fun three days with Buck and Donna Bambic! Friends who also left the cold winters of Cleveland and moved to the more relative warmth of Raleigh NC. 

They were on a road trip and we were fortunate enough to be on the list of places they wanted to come - the warmth of Marathon FL. Well, not quite the warmth they were looking for - Donna loved my wool socks that daughter Wendy made for me. What's not to like!!

And we played Euchre - with the men having overall the upper hand but I think we were handicapped by the cards - should have pulled out another new deck :-) I mean how many times do you get a hand with all trump?

Donna and I had our moments but I had to admit we never quite made it up to speed.

Steve and Bambics went to Key West for a day - too much walking for me so I stayed back and guarded the boat ...

The primary target was the Hemingway House. They have been to Key West before but had not gone on the tour of his home and the pretty unique cats with 6 toes. Donna was reading a book about his wife (The Paris Wife???? Not sure) and thought the house/museum would be interesting. For info: click here.

There was a very nice display of Hemingway's cruiser that he used for fishing off of the Florida Keys with the name of Pilar. A full size model with full access is on display at the World Wide Sportsman in Islamorda - about 30 miles east of Banana Bay. It's a fun visit!

On Saturday, even with the not so great weather, we were able to ride down to the Island Grill for lunch on Saturday. It's only about a 45 minute ride along the bay side - just about the perfect distance for an afternoon adventure :-)

A waterside table- perfect!

And although there were no green flashes to be seen, the sunset most nights was wonderful with so many colors.

Of course on the way back from lunch Steve decided he should put out the trolling rods. Never know when something of interest might be lurking along our path !

Sure enough - we were on the flybridge and heard the "ziiiing" of line being pulled out of his rod - it must be a BIG one!!

It was a big one alright - a big COMORANT!!! This is a very common bird that dives under the water to catch it's food (fish).

Apparently it came up under Steve's line and became tangled. It wasn't hooked just tangled up.

Once onboard and wrapped in a towel (it REALLY wanted to take a bite out of Steve), the line was unwrapped and off it went - quickly diving under the water. Well, that was certainly a first :-)

Bonus: they came bearing gifts - all very nice but one was perfect: Looks like a good place to hang it to me!!!

Wednesday March 9: Road Trip!!!

So it was time for a road trip!! Since we had some time and we have a car, it seemed like a great idea to do a trip around southern Florida to see some friends and family we hadn't seen for a while. Fortunately they were all in the same general area!

We left Marathon and headed toward Weston - location of the Cleveland Clinic with which we became so familiar over the past year. Destination was our lunch stop at a favorite Chinese restaurant :-)

Back in the car to continue the rest of our 5 hour drive to our destination of Dave and Joyce - formerly of Joysea. They sold the boat a number of years ago but still come to Marathon for a week each season. It's always fun to see them and since they extended an invitation - we were going to the condo they rent in Lake Placid FL!

Dave and Joyce

We had a great time! Their condo is on the sixth floor and overlooks a lake. Of course there are 27 (?) lakes in the area. Some quite large but other just puddles :-)

The town of Lake Placid itself reminded us of some of the small towns on the Trent as they have invited various artists to paint murals on some the town's buildings.

Most incorporate the history of the area in one way or another. Each one also has some 'hidden' items that are in the paintings as well.

This one had a penny and a rooster hidden in the motorcycle!

Orange groves

Dave kept telling us the only thing around are lakes and orange groves. He was so right! It was amazing to see the miles upon miles of orange groves as we drove around the area.

Our favorite stop?

Ice cream at Maxells fruit stop - with non-dairy ice cream! It was excellent - flavor was of course orange :-)

Nice front porch with rockers as well as several picnic tables in the shade. Very fun stop!







Next it was on to Terri and Scott's (Steve's sister) in Bradenton with a stop at Myakka State Park on the way. It was a very pretty day and Terri and Scott had gone early in order to obtain tickets for the tram ride at 11:30 - so nice of them.






The tram ride was really good - with a guide that was excellent and he gave a very informative tour. There were many small alligators along the trail and one very large one near the road.


It was very easy to see it from the car. Which is always the best place for viewing wildlife :-)

Especially if it's of a mind to take a bite out of people who are in it's space!

Steve, Terri and Scott did a couple of small hikes along some of the wooden walkways. The walkways make it easy to walk along an area that is basically a marsh. The walkway in the picture is a 60 foot high "CanopyWalk" with a high observation tower at the end. Another fun stop :)

After an enjoyable breakfast out the next morning, we were off and headed to Punta Gorda. This is the winter home of George and Nancy - formerly of Jenna Star - our next door dockmates for 5 years here at Banana Bay.

They are very much missed by the boaters here in Marathon.

Punta Gorda is a very nice area with water very nearby. We even had time to visit the Wild Bird Sanctuary where numerous types of birds are either held until recovered from injuries or stay permanently due to some disability.

The best? Nancy and George shared their pictures from the driving trip they made to Alaska this past summer. So many pictures of wildlife - it was like seeing a National Geographic special. So amazing. As I recall they traveled over 13,000 miles - talk about a road trip!

Wonder if our little Keys Kruiser would make the trip!


As always, the best part of being away is getting back to the boat. Numerous accidents around Miami and in the north keys area delayed us an hour and a half. So what to do but get off and go to the Thai place in Homestead for a late lunch - way better than sitting in traffic :-)