Prep Day

Last minute prep done. Few things tomorrow, then off we go in the afternoon! Next sunset we see will be in the Florida Straits.

Chillin' in Marathon

We get lots of questions about cruising life. I will try to take pics to answer them every couple of days. "Where do we charge our phones?" We have several of these ports to charge our electronics on board. Lots of small projects completed this morning, then headed into the dinghy dock. They have several docks for dinghys here, to accommodate the over 200 boats here. After borrowing bikes we headed to the Post Office and Publix. We grabbed some ice to chill down our drinks after Tom looked through the lending library. I dropped off a couple of books & Tom found a new read. There are a lot of derilect Boats in & around the marinas. A liveaboard situation that got out of control!!! There are several beautiful boats here too. Leftovers today so nice day to chill and read. Time again for another gorgeous sunset. Lots of people blowing on their conch shells as the sun sets! Off beat melodies at it's best! Tom took a cruise around the boat to check everything as he headed in to the Marina.

Boot Key

We have a nice mooring in Boot Key at the municipal Marina.Tom inflated the dinghy and we lowered the motor onto it from our new pulley system. Always some angst with operating new equipment, but all is well. After checking in we went for a dinghy ride to Burdines. It is one of our go to places for fries,burgers and fried Keylime pie.We only waited about 15 min., they give you an umbrella to shade yourself which was great. We entertained ourselves taking pics. We rode around Marathon Marina and love the new floating docks they put in. Another beautiful sunset to end our day.

Beautiful day to head South & West

We tossed lines off the boat at 8:30am and motored out to the entrance of Hawks Channel. Beautiful day! Matey put the fenders away and coiled ropes while we headed out. Captain saw a Manta ray jump out of the water when we got into the channel.We must have scared him. Breakfast (cereal & fruit)was easy and next on the agenda. Then we prepared to sail.Kat put the boat into the wind....while Captain put up the main sail. We sailed and motor sailed most of the day. We sailed past Hens and Chicks, another snorkel/dive spot in the Keys. I think the name is so cute. Captain said he is so happy to have the Bimini....Matey too! Giving us wonderful shade. We had a wonderful treat of seeing a pilot whale swim by us south of Islamorada Passed by Channel 5 bridge. Pretty rolly today...so cheese crackers & clementines for lunch! We had a dolphin lead us into Boot Key Harbor. We passed Burdines which is on our list for fries.We entered through this sketchy bridge opening to get to the mooring field. After we settled in and had leftovers for dinner we enjoyed a beautiful sunset.

Getting ready to leave again

We will leave tomorrow morning to head to Marathon and beyond. Today was a prep day and more organizing. We are looking pretty good. We can now use the forward berth. Most of the items we had stored have been put where they need to be. The oversized queen area is big & roomy for both of us. Tom did much better job tucking stuff in than me. We did laundry again so we will be good for a little while. We found we have a stow away on the boatWe get rid of him & he sneaks back on. Tom said we need to start teaching it Spanish! It was Soprano meatball day, over hereYes, those are also Christmas napkins.

It's a work day...no it's a play day!

We spent most of the morning sorting and packing away things we do not need right now. Organized some cupboards & tools. Tom went to the Dive Shop and bought a couple of dive cards for his old Navy ship , the USS Spiegel Grove, he was on. They have now made it into an artificial reef here at this State Park.After lunch we went back to the aquarium to check out the exhibits we missed the other day. We caught a cute presentation on sharks & we both learned new facts. We also enjoyed watching an Ibis trying to steal food from someone eating at the picnic table. Tom finished the cockpit table this afternoon and Kat started working on putting a design on a pocketbook bag. Kat spoiled Captain by making Shrimp & Grits. The boat we helped in yesterday, has a 12 year old boy named Dillon...he asks Tom a million and one questions when we are outside.Too cute. We enjoyed lounging in our blue reclining chairs on the bow,then we took a nice walk this evening and are pleased the winds are dying down. We will head to Marathon Monday Morning.

Another surprise visit

The wind and rains were strong off & on throughout the night. Happy to be at a nice dock.Wind still humming today. While we were starting to settle in last night we received a text from Chuck an old CT sailing friend who is in Key Largo at another Marina. It was a lazy morning on Tomkat then Kat made a brunch of bacon, eggs, homefries & toast.....yummy! We were fortified for the day. Chuck told us Barbara who we also know, offered to take us to Publix after lunch, so we did not need to take an Uber.It was great to replace our perishables. They helped us with getting our groceries to the boat and came aboard for a short visit. We will definitely see them again before we leave. We headed over to the aquarium to see what they had to offer. We found the exhibits very well done and learned about the man who the park is named after. Very quiet at the Marina. No tour or rental boats are leaving the docks due to the high winds also. Winds today have been ENE at 27 mph most of today. Beef stew weather! With tasty biscuits from Publix and key lime pie. Time for another walk around the Marina!

Surprise visit

Kat discovered old boating friends were staying in Key Largo about 5 miles away. We were able to make contact and get them into the park for a visit. We missed seeing them on our trip to Minnesota and their last trip to Florida. Even though we only had a few hours, it was nice to catch up with the "Running Free" crew; Joyce & Carl. We then decided it was time to get the laundry done, so we can store away our "winter" garb. Tom hauled the bag like an old salt.Then with "Murphy's Law" always in play....Kat had 3 loads of laundry and there are only 2 washers! It made for a longer laundry day, but that's ok.I enjoyed reading and Tom accomplished several of his smaller projects. After a prepared dinner of lasagna & relaxing, we went for a walk around the park, hoping to catch a nice sunset by the beach. Instead we found birds on a wire ...and ... We watched a storm roll in so we went back to the boat to batten down the hatches. We made it back to the boat dry & all is well on Tomkat for the night.