At the time of my last update, we were anchored in Lake Worth near palm Beach after a relatively short run from Stuart. The next day we went most of the way to Ft Lauderdale, anchoring in Lake Santa Barbara for the night. The next morning we were fortunate enough to find two moorings free at Los Olas municipal marina so we stopped there and went ashore. The crews of Lamb Chop and Sun cat were joined by Paul & Sue on Sweet Dreams and Janice & Ron from OB2 and we had a nice (but expensive) lunch at a Mexican restaurant on the beach followed by a good walk and happy hour at LuLu's.
The next day was great fun. We took the dinghies with Tim and Jan and motored up from Los Olas through the various canals to the New river, were we stopped, did some of the river walk and had lunch. We then dinghied through more of the canals back to Los Olas. Its really neat seeing all of the houses with boats parked in front of them on the canals. We noted many of both for sale. We also saw some very large iguanas. The next day we did an long bus ride followed by happy hour on the river walk and a walk near the beach at Los Olas. From there we traveled down the ICW to Miami Beach where we anchored in Sunset Lake, surrounded by nice homes, many with docks.
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| Welcome o the Keys- controlling depth less than 5 feet! |
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| ICW in the Keys |
The weather forecast was not great so we decided we needed to get to Marathon quickly so it was up anchor early the next morning and we headed south and west once again, making a 70 mile run to Matacumbe Bight where we anchored again for the night. The next morning we were off early again and arrived at the Boathouse in Marathon around 10:30 that morning. It turned out the forecast was right and the wind blew very hard for the next couple of weeks, making us glad we had gotten down there quickly.
The stay at the Boathouse was way too short, even though it was planned for two months. It was a reunion in many ways as a number of members of the 'Marathon Navy" were there to greet us including Phil & Alice on Wonderland, George on Time Out, Larry & Sue on Sue Sea Q, Ken & Yetta on Stress Free, John & Pat on Gypsy Time, Mike & Jake on Kikeko, Ron & Janice on OB2, Allen & Suzanne on Kaos and Paul & Susan on Sweet Dreams. A later addition to the Marathon Navy was Ray and Linda on Summertime. Most of these boats had been with us in Marathon the year before an/or had done portions of the loop with us. We and lamb chop were welcomed with a trip to Sparky's that evening for happy hour and we felt like the party had started!
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The Boathouse Marina |
One of the things we discovered new this year was that we could use all of the park facilities at Key Colony Beach which was a short bike ride away. These included a 9 hole, par 3 golf course, tennis, pickle ball, shuffleboard and bocce. I played pickle ball several mornings until I twisted my ankle and also played golf twice for the first time in quite a few years. (I actually won one day-unbelievable!). We had many parties including a number of birthdays, Mexican night, Bahamas night, and Italian night with everyone making up the appropriate theme dishes and drinks including 5 gallons of Larry's now famous margueritas.
While we were there, we were visited by our friends Eldon & Dianne and their friends Millard & Mary Lou. Among other things we toured Pigeon Key which was the work camp for the building of the railroad through the Keys to Key West and went to a nautical flea market. Their highlight was undoubtedly Eldon's swim with the dolphins at the dolphin research center one morning. Another highlight was a progressive supper hosted on the various boats. That party began with a simple statement from Dianne that she would like to see the boats and proved once again that with this group it is way too easy to get a party started!
The weather in Marathon was somewhat different from last year as it was somewhat cooler and quite windy. The first Monday we were there, we were over at Dockside for (what else) happy hour, dinner and entertainment when a strong storm came through, drenching us even inside the tent and threatening to bring the tent down.. Winds that night were clocked at 70-80 miles an hour in some places in Marathon and actually picked up and moved a wooden picnic table at one of the restaurants.
When we got back to our boats, we learned that the wind had ripped the track holding the plastic windows off of the back of OB2, had torn the canvas tops on Stress Free and Sweet Dreams and had also torn the track holding some of the bridge enclosure on Sun Cat off. Fortunately I was able to find the piece of track partially on the deck and partially over the rail before it went in the water.
Mike and Jake had a heavy duty sewing machine and Paul was able to repair the top on Sweet Dreams over the next few days. We were able to put the track back and remount the plastic but al of the zippers were shot so with a little guidance from Paul We were able to replace all of the zippers in both the bridge and the sundeck. - A huge improvement. That sewing went so well that we decided to make a new cover for the front windows so we ordered some more material and after a few days we had a new cover. It is a major improvement from the old one which is on its last legs. I also did a fair amount of routine maintenance on the generator and engines. One of the highlights of our stay was a sail under the full moon with Mike & Jake on their big catamaran.
In mid-March, we had to fly back to Maine somewhat unexpectedly as son Bill had major surgery. He came through the surgery pretty well and is now in a rehabilitation hospital getting his strength back. We expect him to return home shortly and want to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers during this difficult time.
Once we determined that the operation was successful and he was comfortable with the rehab process we decided to return to Marathon, arriving there at the end of March after a brief visit to Cape Cod to see my mother and brother. We decided we needed to get the boat north in case we needed to return to Maine again so we left Marathon last Saturday, accompanied by Summertime.
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| Boca Chita |
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| on the New River |
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| Anchorage at Islamorada |
So far on the trip north we have stopped at Islamorada where we anchored and had a nice dinner at Lorelei's, Boca Chita National Park (beautiful but the mosquitoes were fierce), and Fort Lauderdale where we stayed on the New River right in the center of town.
From Fort Lauderdale we spent a night near Palm Beach and then traveled to Stuart where we spent 2 days with our friends Bob and Allie, staying on their new dock. We had a couple of meals out with them and used their jeep to do a little shopping. We also had a nice meal at their home the last evening. Another good stop!
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| Larry and Ray at Vero Beach Park |
Still enjoying the trip!
Steve & Jean
(Pictures to be added later!
