March 7th: Made it to Banana Bay Marina

 I flew to Fort Lauderdale March 2nd and stayed over night because I arrived late enough that I didn't want to make the 3 hour drive to Marathon. Surprisingly, I woke up early Wednesday morning, so I decided to leave early instead of waiting for traffic to die down. It was smooth sailing all the way. I had a room reserved at Cap'n Pips for two nights while I worked on getting the boat ready to launch. Check in was at 3 PM and I arrived at Marathon at 11:00 am so I went to Banana Bay Marina where my car was. My friends helped me get the battery charging so I drove the rental car to the Marina where my boat was.

 There is always a lot to do after a boat has been on the hard for 10 months. Typically Linda and I would stay in a motel 4 - 6 days while cleaning the boat up and getting it ready.  I knew there was bad weather coming in for at least a week starting Saturday night, so my goal was to get Yesterday's Dream running and take it to Banana Bay where I could complete the clean-up. 

The first priority is to see if it will run! In order to do that I had to charge the batteries, which I could do with my Honda Generator. While the batteries were charging I started uncovering and untying things. Given the threat of high winds and or a hurricane everything is well secured. That took several hours and I checked the batteries. The engine turned over! Great. Back to Banana Bay to check on my car. It started but wasn't idling correctly. I decided to keep the rental car another day and deal with that issue Thursday or Friday. By now I was quite worn out so I went to check in. My place was very nice. 

The boat was to be launched at 2 PM Thursday. I checked the weather and it didn't look good. Way too much wind to try to dock at Banana Bay. I told the marina I would wait until Friday to put the boat in and stay at their dock if necessary. (There was a 24 hour window Friday that looked good for the 2 hour cruise to Banana Bay.) Definitely not my first choice to stay at their dock, but the weather dictates!

Everything went very well. The boat was launched and my friends came along to help me dock at Banana Bay. My experienced good friend Dennis captained the boat while Steve and I manned the lines. It was a big relief getting to Banana Bay. I had nightmares about being stuck at the marina for many days.

When I went to pick up my car at the marina I was driving right past Keys Fisheries, a great seafood supply place. Fresh off the boat Key West Pink Shrimp. They are absolutely the best. Scroll past the sale prices to learn about these shrimp. Key West Pink Shrimp

Of course I stopped and bought some. While I was waiting for them to be packaged I noticed a Mini Key Lime Pie. It doesn't get any better!

While I was working on cleaning up the boat at the dock a manatee came to visit. Very fun.

I've spent the last couple days working on the boat. Cleaning, laundry, putting the mast up, chlorinating the water tanks, getting the electronics hooked up and working, etc. I was pretty worn out Saturday afternoon and decided to call it quits for the day at 2:30. I took a shower and laid down on the bed. I woke up an hour later a little stiff. Decided to go for a walk to loosen up. As I came back I noticed how bad the hull of the boat looked. Very dirty. Some clouds had come in and it was cool so I decided to wash the hull. It was a good decision. It looked so much better!

The boat is now in pretty live-able shape. Still more to do but it's great to be back on the water. Of course I miss Linda, but it almost feels like she is here with me. The high winds are rocking me to sleep. And of course there was a great sunset.