May 22nd: Back to Yesterday's dream in Marathon, Florida

 

Mychael has been taking good care of Yesterday's Dream. We currently are sort of joint owners. He is paying the docking expenses, uses the boat and keeps it in good condition. Meanwhile, I am still happy to own the boat and use it as a "getaway" rather than a place to live. Mychael encouraged me to visit on my way to Burlington VT and then Canada to travel on Guppy.

The trip to Marathon started with me flying from Phoenix to Miami. I was scheduled to arrive at 10:30PM so I arranged a rental car to drive to a motel that night. Then I'd drive to Marathon the next morning. I'll spare you the details, but due to two weather delays, I arrived in Miami at 12:15AM. Fortunately, I had called the hotel from Houston to make sure they knew I was still coming. The rental car agency was open until 1:00AM. Whew! I arrived at my hotel at 1:30AM, happy to have made it. My friend Ian Jukes sent me this cartoon. Very fitting given all the travelling I've done lately

There is a Thai restaurant half way to Marathon that I was hoping was still there. It was! I got some Vietnamese shrimp noodle soup that is excellent. The drive to Marathon was quite scenic, as usual, and I arrived without incident.

Mychael & Steve inside Yesterday's Dream

Mychael made my travels easy. He said he would meet me at the car rental place so I could drop off my rental. Then he took me to where he arranged storage for my nice little Nissan Sentra. He also had replaced the battery the day before! We picked up my car and went to Yesterday's Dream's new home. I had been by the place before but had no idea how nice it is.

First we went inside to drop off my bags. The boat was immaculate! It looked great and I felt like I was home again.

Mychael on Yesterday's Dream's Flybridge
View looking northeast

Then we went to the flybridge to see the view!
 

View looking southeast

The view looking forward is all water. 

Mychael and Amanda

 Amanda is Mychael's girl friend. She's a lot of fun and a willing boater. She also likes to fish. She joined us on the boat and brought a fresh grouper that her son Andrew had caught. Mychael is a great cook and prepared it perfectly along with a great salad.

The sunset was very pretty

The weather forecast for the next few days was for minimal winds. Amanda has Thursdays and Fridays off so we decided to cruise to Bahia Honda State Park and anchor outside the park. It's great to sleep out on the water on a calm night. 

Leaving for Bahia Honda

Amanda worked until 6 PM so we didn't leave the dock until about 8 PM. Mychael and Amanda are in their 30s and they have no problem staying up late. Me??? I knew Mychael would be driving. We knew we would be cruising in the dark but we are familiar with the waters and we have a GPS to guide us. It was very calm, lots of stars and a beautiful ride. I held up fine.

To be safe, we went pretty far out from shore so we didn't arrive until midnight. Then it took 4 tries before we finally found a spot where the anchor held. We stayed up a little longer enjoying the evening. I slept in until around 9pm. My sleep schedule was screwed up from jet lag anyway.

We wanted to catch some fish for dinner. Amanda caught a small hammerhead shark. Definitely not dinner but fun to catch and release.

We caught a lot of fish but they were too small to keep. Was still fun catching them and no one had to clean them.

Cooking with the propane
 burner on the walk around deck

We had a backup plan. I had bought chicken thighs, which would be tasty. Still anchored, we used the generator to power our induction burner to pan fry the chicken. Half way thru, the generator died. We were pretty sure the problem was old fuel. Fortunately, in preparation for our outing, I had called and asked Mychael where the propane burner was. He said he had it stored but would bring it along.

The chicken, broccolini and mushrooms turned out great.

It was such a calm night we decided to move into deeper water for the night and maybe catch bigger fish. Tried to pull the anchor up with the windlass and it would not come loose. Played with it for a long time and decided the current was too strong to try to work it loose. We waited for slack tide. Finally, at 6:00PM the current died. Mychael jumped in and followed the chain down about 20 feet to the anchor. He determined it wasn't wrapped around anything, just stuck under a shelf. He was able to get a rope around it so we could pull it backwards and retrieve it. It seems like there is always something unexpected when boating!

The sunset was interesting. The clouds and a little lightning provided a nice view as well as pictures. Nothing beats watching a sunset on the water.

The sky cleared off and the stars were amazing. The Milky Way was very easy to spot and there were so many stars it was hard to pick out the constellations like the Big Dipper.

Turned out there were some very small waves overnight that were broadside to the boat. Made a note for next time, don't go out too far. It wasn't at all dangerous but we were rocking port to starboard and  and bow to stern as the current slowly swung us back and forth broadside to the waves. None of us got much sleep!

So first thing in the morning Mychael found us an 8 foot deep hole surrounded by 5 feet of water. No rocking there. Plus we wanted to get off the boat and into the water. I made an omelette with the left over mushrooms, onions and broccolini. Glad we had leftovers.

After breakfast, Mychael decided it would be fun to jump off of the fly bridge. Amanda got a great picture.

Steve Snorkeling

I opted for snorkeling. It was surprisingly good. I saw a wide variety of fish. They were all small but very colorful.  My favorite was a little scrawled boxfish. Here is a link that has numerous pictures of boxfishes. Florida Boxfishes 

It was quite hot and sunny but being on and in the water helped a lot. Then it was time to head back. We wanted to troll on the way back and also stop for fuel and a pump out at Boot Key Harbor.

We caught a nice Cerro Mackerel and a small Jack. The mackerel are good to eat but not the Jack.

We noticed some clouds building as we entered Boot Key Harbor. We got our diesel fuel, pumped out and got ice cream. As we were getting ready to leave we looked to the north and saw three water spouts forming. The two smallest quickly dissipated but the longest one kept growing. 

Water Spout

It was probably 1/4 mile to the north of us. It was not heading toward us but going past East to West. Mychael and Amanda got some great pictures. We don't believe it came ashore but it definitely touched down on the water. Eventually it dissipated.

Dodged the storm

The clouds moved toward us so we decided we better wait to leave. Ten minutes later the clouds rolled over us and dropped a deluge of rain. Fortunately, it ended quickly. Another storm was forecast in 1&1/2 hours. That was about how long it would take to get back to our dock. We decided to head back and just head further out to avoid the next squall if necessary. As it turned out the squall passed north of us so all was good.

0ld 7 mile bridge
 to Pigeon Key

The next day Amanda and Mychael were working. I wanted to ride on the recently restored Seven Mile Bridge. Old Seven Mile Bridge The winds were very low so the water would be very clear, easy to see through 5-10 foot water and see fish, eagles rays, sharks, etc. 

I went early because it was going to be 90 degrees later in the day. It was hot, but riding my bike created a breeze. It was a fun ride.

A new addition was this little train. It picks people up in Marathon and delivers them to Pigeon Key. It is a 2 mile walk so on a hot day it's a nice option.

Amanda invited me to her place for dinner Sunday.  I offered to go to the store to pick up what Mychael needed to make Chicken Alfredo. In the Publix parking lot I saw one of many chickens running loose. I never considered it was dinner! This rooster was making a lot of noise for some reason. The chickens have move up from Key West. Many years ago, after cock fighting was outlawed, the locals turned all the chickens loose in the street. They have thrived ever since and are now protected. It's good to be a chicken in the Keys!

Amanda, Andrew
 and Mychael

Mychael showed me this picture of Andrew, Amanda's son who gave us the grouper. When Andrew is not in school he works on a crab boat or fishes. He apparently loves fishing. 

Mychael was once again doing the cooking, Chicken Alfredo. Amanda made a great salad. Meanwhile, I played with Ollie. He is very friendly and fun. Mychael's chicken Alfredo was made from scratch and the best I ever had.

Ollie

Meanwhile, I played with Ollie. He is very friendly and fun. Mychael's chicken Alfredo was made from scratch and the best I ever had.

Monday morning, Mychael helped me return my car to the storage unit and dropped me off at the car rental where I got a car to drive back up to Fort Lauderdale. I got a good deal on a nice hotel with a great bathtub. My flight on Tuesday was at 10:55am so no need for me to get up early to fly to Manchester. The flights to Manchester were much better than Burlington and my sister Terri said she'd come pick me up. Very nice of her. It's a 2 hour plus drive through the Vermont mountains back to Burlington. I'll be at my sister's until Thursday June 1st. Then it's on to Canada. I'll fly into Toronto where Cindy and Randy offered to pick me up and drive me to their house, it's 3 plus hours away. I am very fortunate to have such great family and friends that make my travelling easier and less expensive. I'll stay with the Peterson family until Guppy is ready to go. The marina is promising the week of June 5th. One can only hope, but it's nice to have friends to stay with until Guppy is in the water.

Guppy