A Great Visit with Brett and Natalie. Marathon Feb 16-21

So on Monday 2/15 the mechanic finished installing the battery charger...all is good with the charging system now, including redundancy with the inverter charger should we have an issue in the future.  Plus, I will be able to charge the inverter bank with the engines when running now if I switch to the house bank for inverter power.  This will be nice when we won't be going to a marina for charging in the near term.
Tuesday we went to Key West via bus to get our Small Vessel Reporting Cards. These may allow us to pass back into the US from the Bahamas and Canada without physically appearing at a customs office.  The key word is may...it is still a bit of luck of the draw.
Lunch spot at the airport after we signed in with the customs official.

A shot of the airport.

from the bus ride....

 

 

On Wed we had a tech aboard to install new engine zincs as I cannot get to the outboard side of the engines to do it myself.  I can probably wiggle in to do it but I'm not sure I can exit...so I pay for this service. 
I also spent a few hours again with Coastal Explorer technical support to get my Bahamas maps working.  I think we are good with that now too.  And I installed the new Raymarine chip for the Bahamas into our chart plotter as well.  I also cancelled XM weather service as I am not seeing the value for the money versus what one can get on the internet free.  We also received our paper chart books for the Bahamas.  So we should now be set for the trip there in March.
On Thurs morning Brett and Natalie came for a visit aboard.  It was so nice to have them aboard for almost 5 days.  So now all three of our children have visited us aboard!!  We so much enjoyed all of their stays! 

Brett learned about Xfinity wireless.  Here he is seeing it really works!  Yep Dad actually told the youngster about some technology!

The four of us took a dinghy ride over to Burdines for lunch.  We then traveled through Sister Creek and on the Atlantic side all the way over to the next cut north to cross back over to the gulf side for the trip home.  It was probably a 10-12 mile dinghy ride in total and was a nice ride.  Maybe a little wet on the way home though huh Brett and Natalie....?  Sorry about that wind!

 

On Friday we took the bus to Key West and had a great time walking around seeing the sites.  There was standing room only on the bus....I guess Friday is a popular day to go there!

Margaritaville and Willy T's were fun.  Had a nice dinner at Keys Fisheries upon returning.  Not much on atmosphere but the fresh fish is very good!

Sunday we visited the Turtle Hospital.  They have 71 hurt or sick turtles they are currently caring for.  Quite an operation and an interesting tour.  Did you know that sea turtles can live 80+ years?

Brett and Natalie went to Sombrero Beach after that and had a nice afternoon there.  We went to Sunset Grille for a nice sunset view and dinner.

 

 

We also had some manatee visitors on a couple different days.  This is the first encounter with them up close for us on the trip thus far. 

On Sunday we went out for breakfast and then Brett and Natalie took the dinghy for the rest of the day, visiting Sister Creek and Burdines once again.  It was a bit rough coming back for them too.

 

Sunday late afternoon Julie and I went to the 7th annual Marathon Winter AGLCA get together at Banana Bay marina.  There had to be about 150 Loopers there, in progress, completed and planning groups were all well represented.  It was a nice "reunion" type gathering with everyone bringing a dish to pass and beer and wine and a live band provided by some boat brokers and other boating suppliers.  It is amazing how many folks ended up at various marinas in the Keys for a month or more.  It is a nice spot.

  

Monday I cooked breakfast aboard and then we went to Crane Point, a 60+ acre nature preserve with trails through the canopy of trees and lots of Golden Orb spiders!  They can adjust the color of their webs to trap different kinds of prey.  On site is the oldest dwelling on the Key, from the early 1900's.  Also has a butterfly "park",  the Crane home from the 50's, and a bird hospital.  It was a nice place to visit.  The property is now owned by a land trust whose intent is to continue to refurbish and preserve the site. 

 

It has been great having all our friends and family visiting.  We have been pleasantly surprised by how many of you all came to visit.  If you still haven't scheduled a visit, get in touch with us!  Our rough itinerary we sent you before our departure is still pretty well intact, although given we are heading South again next winter season, we may not get too far North on the East coast this summer....we'll see what our wanderlust says to us...
Thanks for following us on our blog!! 

Marathon Feb 8-15

We continue to enjoy our time in Marathon.  Yet another docktail gathering of Loopers...

Sunday night we were invited to Tim and Carol's for the Super bowl...two nice big screens aboard Liquid Assets.  We think the right team won too!

 

And Benji liked my leg...

 

Monday through Wed was boat chores.  Cleaning, varnishing, etc.  Pretty cool here for this time of the year.  But nothing to shovel!
A new neighbor...an 80 footer.  His bimini is taller than our mast head light!

Wednesday we met with Randy and Sherri from Priorities and learned more about our upcoming Bahamas trip from them.  They've been there for a number of years so had lots to share about their experiences.   Thank you Randy and Sherri for helping build our confidence to go!
Later in the day, Amber, Mark and two of their daughters visited us.  They have been west Michigan boat neighbors at North Shore Marina and Terrace Point Marina for many years.  We have much enjoyed their company as well as watching their family grow up over the years.  They were in the Keys on vacation and took the time to stop and say hello.  Thanks Amber and Mark, it was so great to see you!

Thursday I put the final clear gloss coat of varnish on everything.  Not a perfect day with the breeze but I think it looks pretty darn good for a rookie.....
Friday we planned a pool day as it was starting to warm up.  So Julie was fixing us a great lunch and took some bread out of the freezer.  "Why is this bread not solidly frozen?" she asked.  Water in the bottom of the freezer....not good.  So we called for service and they came very promptly.  Found low voltage to the freezer, batteries very low and an inoperable battery charger.  So what was thought to be a freezer issue was really only a symptom.  The technician also made some recommendations to set up our charging system a little differently, tying in the inverter charger with a switch that can be used to be able to use it as a back up charger.  So I am having him make this modification as well "while the hood is up" so to speak.  West Marine across the road had the charger in stock, so we are again good to go.  And a big thank you to Tim and Carol for the use of space in their freezer while repairs were underway.
Saturday we took a bike ride over to Sombrero Beach, about a 9 mile round trip.

It is a very nice little beach!  We also toured Sombrero Marina.  Boy, it is much more protected from wave action versus the Faro Blanco site we are at.  May have to check into availability for next year.
On Sunday Susie and Jeff from Idyll Time picked us up and took us to Sparky's for lunch.  Great fresh fish!  We first met them in Grand Haven when they were on the Loop over 5 years ago.  We told them we one day wanted to do the Loop and they gave us a wonderful tour of their beautiful Kady Krogen and many great tips for getting started in our planning.  And today, here we are with our paths crossing just by chance!  It was great spending time with them again.
After lunch we went to their boat and got a demo on their FLIR night vision system.  Amazing stuff.  Jeff also showed me a product called Marine Strip that is awesome for cleaning vinyl, power cords, etc so I of course had to buy some and add it to the cleaning product arsenal. 
Monday morning Julie went to water aerobics in the pool here at Faro Blanco while I stayed and managed electronics technicians and battery charger installation.  I also ordered a SIM card for Julie's phone so we can use it in the Bahamas for voice and data.  Call or text Julie as incoming calls and texts are free on the plan we picked.  I will share her Bahamas phone number once we have it.  We are planning to leave for the Bahamas in mid March.
The marina is also filling up for the winter now.

DeVere and Carole's boat Job Site in the sunset.  We will travel to the Bahamas with them next month. They are from Bay Harbor near Petoskey.

Marathon in Winter. Warmth and Sunshine for our Northern Visitors! Jan 29 to Feb 7

As I mentioned in the last post, the high performance boat poker run event was held at the Faro Blanco marina on Friday to Sunday last week.  And as promised, I got a 70+ MPH ride while Julie prepared our boat for company.  She is not a go fast boater so this was her choice.  So I joined owners Mike and Christie and Tim and Carol from Liquid Assets aboard a 32' Sunsation for the days run to lunch to collect the card for the poker hand.  Oh, and I should mention they did win the poker run!  That was my first go fast boat ride and it was a great day with minimal waves, sun and mid 70's weather!  A fun day for sure aboard a very nice boat.  Here we are leaving the harbor. 

Mike the boat owner at the helm.  Thanks again for the ride Mike!

Eileen, you can have Larry buy you this boat....you won't even need to change the name!

A couple other boats.  The far one went by at 120 MPH...

 

Our good friends Mary Beth and Jim and Mary and Kevin arrived as planned late afternoon on Sunday Jan 31...(The Supper Club group arriving for Supper Club South!!) . 

And supper club it is at Seven Mile Grille:

 

The weather started out rainy on Monday morning so I cooked scrambled eggs, bacon, toast and coffee aboard.  As you can imagine, six on board is a bit crowded....the boat sleeps six but I would say four comfortably.  But we are all great friends and we made it work really well for the four nights we were able to spend together.  The "Supper Club Shuffle" was coined to describe moving around in the tight quarters!  Oh, and it was also the name we used for the new card game Jim taught us and seemed to usually win...something to do with the scorekeeping Jim?

For lunch Monday we walked to Burdines, the local "best burger" joint.  It was good and they had some good craft beer selections as well. And behind us here is the old Faro Blanco Oceanside remnants (destroyed by hurricane Wilma in 2005 along with the marina we are now staying at).  And the Boot Key mooring field is behind us in the picture as well.

Tuesday we had a nice walk to the Stuffed Pig for breakfast.

This was followed by a great pool day and capped it off with a late afternoon dinghy ride for the guys and we then joined the ladies on the fly bridge for a nice sunset.  Weather was wonderful!  The guys leaving for a dinghy ride.  Note the "wave blocker" large boat out on the right...more on this later.

 A little after sunset on the fly bridge:

 

We then went to a local fishery, Keys Fishery for a great seafood dinner.

 

Wednesday we went to Key west via the bus.  $1.50 each way for those 60 and over!  A one hour ride there and almost two hour back but it was very easy and fun to observe all the local color. 

 

A fun day was had by all!  Why there are no hurricanes in Key West!  (Click on it to read)

Walking to the bus stop back to Marathon....

 

Thursday morning we rode our bikes to the Stuffed Pig and met the others for breakfast before wishing them well on the rest of their vacation.  Thanks so much to all four of you for sharing our adventure!!

We continued on to Publix after breakfast to re provision a bit.  I unfortunately got a flat tire as we arrived at the store.  So I got to push the bike 3 miles to the repair shop...but I will not complain as it was nearing 80 degrees and I knew the pool was next!
OK, here is the next lesson learned.  Even at a marina, one needs to be diligent in checking the

 

weather.  We knew the winds were going to shift North (which in this particular marina exposes us to waves coming in unbroken) but I didn't really focus on the strength of the wind and left the dinghy moored beside the boat.  Mistake for sure.  Once the waves started coming in, I had to get up in the middle of Friday night and retie it as well as place some fenders to keep it from bouncing into the boat.  And once the waves are of a significant height, it is also impossible to retrieve the dinghy with the crane due to the forces it would exert on the boat and crane hardware as the waves rise and fall.  So, now we will launch and retrieve the dinghy each time we want to use it rather than leave it in the water.  Lesson learned.  Note the flag and the whitecaps in this picture.   The island and large boat are helping knock down the waves from the North.

The rainy windy Friday morning was filled with a rousing game of "7's" with Bob and Liz (Knot Sew Easy) and Carol and Tim (Liquid Assets).  I guess one knows they are really retired when they are playing cards at 10:30 AM!!! :-)

 

The winds are continuing from the North here on Sunday (and are forecasted to continue most of the week) so a move to the east basin sure looks a lot better to us.  Less of a view but definitely calm.  They only have 6 or 8 slips in that basin for a boat our size so we'll have to see what happens.  Sum Escape is pretty heavy (50,000 pounds) so movement is at least dampened.  And maybe the view makes up for the waves.  They were actually about two feet coming through the marina. Here are the large wave blockers to our NE ....we are thankful they are here!

I was giving Nick, one of the dockhands, a little "grief" about the winds.  He just looked at me and said "you don't have to shovel it right?".  He wins....!
We walked down to the marina where our friends Rod and Julie aboard Tuscobia are staying.  They are taking an even bigger pounding there as we have Palm Island to the NW at least knock down NW waves.  Their marina is directly open to the NW to the NE so any northerly component in the wind is allowing the wave action directly into the marina.  These are all the things they don't tell you on their websites!  At least these large boats are helping knock down the waves!

Tonight the restaurant at the marina has Super Bowl specials and the game on a few big screen TV's...may have to wander up there and see what is happening.

We look forward to Brett and Natalie coming to visit in mid Feb.  It is so great to have family and friends aboard to share our adventure!  Thanks to those who have come and also have committed to come.  We love having all of you!
So this week will be some boat chores/maintenance, catching up with other Loopers and friends in the area and perhaps some work on a tax return so I don't have to try to file it from the Bahamas.  Busy as always!

January statistics:
Miles travelled:  275 /Trip to Date: 2784
Travel days:   4 / 49
Engine hours: 29 / 317
Locks:   0/35
Bridges opened:   3 /14
Days on hook or free wall:   3 /14
Gallons of diesel:   280 / 2081
Marathon in the Winter: Wow.  Maybe only the Bahamas could be better!