Thursday March 17: Happy St Patrick's Day!!

So Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone - especially to my brother Pat who turns yet another year older (of course while living on a boat, time is meaningless so there is no aging of individuals at this end :-)). He doesn't look like this anymore but I thought this was a great picture - not sure what year this was taken but I'm sure he does! Work on the aft cabin on ongoing but we are closing in. Full report in a few days. In the meantime it hasn't been all work. Steve does take some of the projects outside to work on which is nice as the cetol he's using as a finish is quite smelly. Steve and Ty continue to check the crab pots on a regular basis but Tim is due back so that will end. I think their stash of claws is up to 4! Yesterday we finally were able to go out on the water again to try our luck at fishing and diving. It was a great fishing day and an ok diving day. Steve ended up with 5 Spanish Mackerel, a small grunt and a fish that we had no idea what it was but it was fun to catch -- it went back into the water. It was the best fishing day in a LONG time so Steve was very happy :-) The reef by which we were fishing was not a great reef for diving but it was good to go because I hadn't been diving in probably 8 - 10 years. My conclusions: I'm getting older ..... walking around with a 40 lb tank on my back is not something I'm sure I want to do anymore .... and a trawler is not the best boat from which to dive! I'm thinking I may really like snorkeling :-) Steve says we just need calmer water - I don't disagree with that. Anyway, the Ove Glove has a new use: fish glove! The second mackerel Steve caught straighted itself out after it was in the boat and bit Steve on the finger (check out the teeth on these things). Fortunately he is already on antibiotics due to a stabbing by a catfish (in his shin). Mmmmmm ..... maybe he should give up fishing! Guess who cleaned the fish - it's my job. Bonnie and Ty watched the fish cleaning happening. We hung bags of water with a penny in it to keep the flies away (it really works!) One last crab trap check yesterday produced 1 claw and 2 puffer fish! One was normal sized but the other one puffed up when the top of the trap was opened! It was like someone blew up a balloon!. Last item of the day: order in pizza - we were both tired and thought pizza sounded good - delivered right to the marina. End of a good week.

Thursday March 10: Crabbing

The wind continues to blow and stir up the water so we still have not been able to go to any of the three reefs nearby to try diving again. A road trip to Mangrove Mike's for breakfast was in order the other day as Ty and Bonnie left us the keys to their car as they were going out on the bay side (not much there but protected from the wind) for a couple of nights. It seems every restaurant has T-shirts for sale so we finally were able to send the one we bought for Tom. It's from Marathon but Mangrove Mike's had some fun ones as well. Hope you like the shirt, Tom!!

Steve bought a crab trap yesterday but found out it really wasn't what he needed to catch the stone crabs that frequent this area. As luck would have it, Tim and Beth (on the catamaran from Ohio) had left for Key West and needed someone to attend to his 3 traps! Of course, Steve volunteered to do this. So into the water went the dinghy - we use the boom to lower the engine down and then Steve goes into the dinghy to guide it the rest of the way down. I snapped a picture of the boat at the dock on the way out.

We were totally clueless :-) First the top of the new cooler buckled when Steve sat on it (he always used the old one for a seat - worked well - guess the new one was cheap for a reason even though we thought it was exactly the same as the old one). Second it was very windy and by the time we were done, both of us were soaked from water spraying over the bow of the dinghy. Third I should have been driving the dingy instead of Steve because the crab pots were HEAVY (cement in the bottom I think). Fourth the crab pot markers were not very well identified as being Tim's. We were just hoping that we weren't crab poaching and finally - by the time we pulled a pot, got the claw (you take only the larger of the two claws as these crabs will grow another one but still need at least one claw to defend itself and get food) the boat had drifted way away from the original spot so we had to again fight the wind/waves and place it at least somewhat close to where we thought we picked it up. We'll do better next time!

What? We were supposed to put more food in the traps? Ok - so another trip out today but this time Dan, Ty and Steve went. Off with cans of cat food with small holes punched in the top of the can. Should be interesting to see what we pull up in a couple of days ......

Tonight though: stone crab claw appetizers :-) No wonder these things are so expensive at the store - it's job 3,268 that I DON'T want! You could easily lose a finger to these things!

Meanwhile, wallpapering is coming along well. These are a couple of the pictures of the project: the desk area. When we're finished with the aft cabin, I'll put the before and after pics on picasaweb!

Sun March 6: More Work, More Play

It's been a nice week since we arrived here at Treasure Harbor. The artist's colony right across the road is quite interesting. It's the place with the giant lobster that is a memorable item in the Keys. Lots of fun stuff in the many booths/stores/workshops here. Steve particularly liked the scuba diving frog! Good thing there isn't room for him on the boat :-) Iguanasare quite plentiful here - and they are great camouflage artists! See if you can pick out the one in the tree in the first picture. He's circled in the second picture (you'll have to click on the picture twice to see the red circle around his head) if you can't find it. It was really a pretty big one. Apparently they are considered an invasive species in this area. I don't think that's a good thing. Work on the aft cabin is finally under way. The winds have been too strong to do any snorkeling or diving at Hens & Chicks reef so it's a perfect time to tackle this project that just requires time as much as anything. First step is to make a mess out of the entire boat by emptying the aft cabin into the main cabin. Next is Steve sanding all of the teak that is deemed salvageable (which means it isn't totally destroyed by water damage when the windows used to leak). Then two coats of Cetol (kind of like varnish but made for marine use) on this 'good' teak. What a difference in the bathroom door! Makes me wonder why it took us 5 years to tackle this project :-) Once the cetol is dry, the next step is to tape off any walls that will get wallpaper (to hide the ruined mahogany/teak). These areas are trimmed in paint which matches the wallpaper as I have found it much easier to do this before wallpapering rather than after. Makes the papering much easier if I have a bit of a cushion on the edges! Of course it hasn't been all work. Other than the wind, the weather has been perfect. Highs in the low 80's, breeze and sunny. A kayak break was in order for Steve but the report back was it was VERY windy and I would not have liked it. Nice to have a kayak scout aboard :-) There was also a road trip back to Marathon (about 40 miles) to pick up some engine parts we ordered and forgot to pick up at Banana Bay. Dan (on Ty and Bonnie's boat) was kind enough to drive us down so we had him over for dinner last night (Ty and Bonnie are out of town for a few days). Barbecue on the aft deck - perfect! Spotted on the way to breakfast this morning: a really colorful peacock. Too bad he didn't put on a show with his great feather tail. FYI: breakfast place was 4.5 miles away - yea - I made it there and back with no problem :-)!!!

Wed March 2: Treasure Harbor Marina - Tavernier

Moving another short day of only 14 miles brought us to the Atlantic side of the keys and Treasure Harbor Marina. This is where we first chartered a boat and traveled the Keys - like 15 years ago or so (with Paul and Miriam - the only folks we knew who would go on vacation with us :-) ). At that time we thought how great it would be to have our own boat down here so we told Pam and Pete (the owners) that "Someday we'll be back in our own boat" - yesterday was that day!! The aerial view sort of gives you an idea of what it looks like. The water is so clear and as it was calm part of yesterday, it was easy to spot the rays as they glided out of our path. No dolphin though. Strange. Steve finally fixed the light in his bathroom - it was the wrong kind of bulb and put out a miserable amount of light. He fixed the bulb holder with superglue (amazing the uses for that and duct tape on a boat!) and now has enough light to actually see! While he did that, I put a retaining collar on the propeller shaft. This is a "one less thing to worry about" item as we heard from a couple who experienced FIRST HAND what happens should the shaft come out of the transmission coupling. The shaft falls backwards. If you're lucky the rudder will stop the prop and shaft from coming totally out. If you aren't lucky then you suddenly have a 1 1/2 inch hole in the bottom of the boat through which water will enter at an alarming rate! The retaining collar will keep the shaft in place (well, at least it won't be able to drop out of the boat). A bike ride (3.6 miles) to Craig's for Steve's favorite lunch: grouper sandwich! Nice back roads so we don't have to ride on Route 1. Very enjoyable.

The marina is going to be a good home for ?? weeks. Not nearly as much around as in Marathon but maybe that's a good thing. Dinner tonight is a pot luck with Bonnie, Ty and Dan (on the sailboat a couple of docks down from us. They seem really nice and are here until the end of May. There is also a couple here on their catamaran from Marblehead on Lake Erie (if I'm remembering correctly). We met them last month when we stopped by to discuss staying here with Pam.

Tues March 1: Left Banana Bay

Looking at the weather coming, we decided to leave Banana Bay yesterday (Monday 2/28) instead of today as the wind was going to change directions and blow for a number of days. Since we planned on anchoring out, high winds are not a nice thing! The oven FINALLY got cleaned and again the boat swept with our new little brush and dustpan. Steve loved how the oven looked :-) It was a very busy morning as we weren't really ready to leave but Steve managed to make a trip to West Marine, CVS and two trips to the grocery store while I did laundry and filled the water tanks. Fortunately I had entered our route into the GPS yesterday. A final look back at Banana Bay and we were on our way! It was a relatively short 28 miles to the mooring site. The keys are mostly flat land - barely above sea level so it's easy to see why hurricanes are so devastating when they hit along any of the keys. Cormorants are everywhere (as they are on Lake Erie) but for some reason they really liked the short poles which mark the shallow areas along the channel. Weird. Anyway, we made our way to one of three mooring balls along this island (owned by the government). Double click on the pictures below to see where we are. You can see from the picture of the chart how shallow the Florida Bay is. It's still a bit unnerving to always be in water where the depth finder is reading 5 feet! Good thing if you were sinking though :-) And one final picture: another great sunset over water - but no green blip :-(