Catching up a few days this morning before we pull anchor. We returned to Islamorada World Wide Sportsman Marina Saturday morning after being moored overnight at Lignumvitae Key. My friend, Max Guzman, and his wife Donna drove over from Englewood on the west cost of Florida to visit. It had only been about 15 years since I had seen Max. He and Donna are both sailors up in the Great Lakes and Canada. I followed their blog this summer aboard their 34' Tartan Sin Sal. They wanted to see our Liquid Therapy and met us about lunchtime at the marina. TALK, TALK TALK you bet. We had lots to catch up on from the Phone Companies, ( Max and I had worked at C&P / Bell Atlantic / Verizon) and Donna at Cincinnati Bell. Max transferred to Cincinnati Bell ) We also talked a little skiing, as we both were snow skiers in the past. And of course boating. Their boat is all fixed up and ours needs LOTS of beautification. So, ideas were given to us about restoration. We ate at good places and of course were to Lorelei's for happy hour and the sunset celebration..Max and Donna left about noon on Sunday and Susan and I just didn't feel like getting underway for a few hours and elected to stay one more night. We got underway about 10AM after pump out and saying goodbye to the staff at the marina. We had contemplated going on the outside, but the wind dictated an inside passage. The winds are MUCH better. But they were forecast to reach 20kts off shore. We had a nice ride up the ICW and decided on Pumpkin Key for the evening anchor. A very pleasant breeze and sunset don't you know..
Todays picture is Max, Me Susan and Donna at Moradas Restaurant next door to the marina...........

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Today we left World Wide Sportsman Marina for a nice trip to a Florida state park on a close by key called Lignumvitae. The trip tried my navigation skills as alway around the lower keys with very little water in any channel. We were leaving the "Little Basin with only about 4' of water on an outgoing tide. It was only because the low was supposed to be higher than normal by about 6". I felt the boat touch from time to time until I got to the deeper water of Yellow Shark Channel. The channel led to an intersection channel again with not much water until we felt our way into the dock at Lignumvitae. Ranger Robbin Tangen met us and welcomed us to the island. It has been sort of protected since 1919 and finally turned over to the state parks and recreation. Lignumvitae is a tree that grows very slowly. We saw one that could not have bee 15' tall and it was estimated to be 400-500 years old. There were several rare trees there. Iron wood that was used on the decks of submarines in WWII as if a piece came off it sank. I thought all wood would float. There was a very interesting house built out of quarried coral from the island. The island had been a coral reef thousands of years ago and was submerged at that time and now is 14' above sea level.
So, we had a wind pinning us to the dock and the rangers helped me get off and told us where the mooring balls were. That's where we watched the sun go down. It's pretty dark with no moon at this time.
Picture is the rangers helping Liquid Therapy out of the slip at the park.

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"You can check in anytime you want, but you can never leave" That's the way we were starting to feel about Marathon. But finally the Wednesday forecast was for light winds!! Yes folks we were going to leave on Wednesday. We took Liquid Therapy off the mooring to the dock and took on water and got one more holding tank pump out so we would be ready for tomorrows departure. We celebrated in sorts by going to happy hour at our favorite dinghy dock bar named "DOCKSIDE" and had a sunset margarita. Then we went back to the boat and got our clothes and bath supplies for one more bath ashore and then to the "HOOK LINE AND DRINKER" restaurant right across route 1 from the marina. We had their famous lobster mac and cheese a dozen stone crab claws and a Florida Sushi roll. That really was a treat. It was then back to the boat for our early morning departure from our mooring ball in Boot Key Harbor City Marina..
Next morning we took the dinghy in to the marina and dropped off our keys and said farewell to the marina staff that had become family since December 28th when we arrived. Back out to the boat and lifted the dingy to find quite an accumulation of barnacles starting to grow. It took some time to scrub them off and get the dinghy in place. On the radio cruisers net I got to announce that Liquid Therapy was departing when they called for the departures part of the radio program. Then the couple from Alaska came over to say goodbye and the time started spinning by. It was 10:10AM when we dropped mooring ball E4 and we were off for Islamorada. Nice ride up the outside Hawk Channel in the calmer Atlantic. Still lots of lobster pots to dodge. Nice day and we arrived at World Wide Sportsman Marina a little before 5PM. Bought raw shrimp and a squid salad for dinner.
And todays picture is a few days old back in Key West. Susan standing next to the sponge man statue at the sponge store.

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So, I awake to the howling wind. Which just keeps me in a semiconscious state at night when I'm trying to sleep. Things run though my mind. And all of a sudden WAY back in time the sound of the wind reminds me of something I've not thought of in years.
Believe it or not I DO remember those sounds from a radio show when I was a very small child. Yes. It was Sergeant Preston of the Yukon. Now I really barely remember Sergeant Preston on TV. But I remember the radio. Where the sound's made your mind work to imagine what was happening. And it was the sound of the wind that made that show so real in my mind as a small child.

So, the picture today is the TV character as I cannot post the wind sound from the radio show.
Well King this case is closed..

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SUSAN'S BIRTHDAY! So we took it easy all day. NO WORK. NO PROJECTS.
We started to go out to breakfast at the American Legion. But Susan had many early phone calls wishing her happy birthday so we decided to just have cereal. Besides we were planning on eating out dinner and eating out twice in one day goes against our stomachs.
The cruisers net that we listen to every morning had been promoting a local theater production of "DIXIE SWIM CLUB". Susan and I miss the Barksdale back home and this seemed like a nice diversion from our normal routine too. The playhouse and the play were wonderful. It was a 3PM matinee and to early to go straight to dinner. So, we went back to the boat and watched the sun set. The wind will NOT slow down. So, the dingy ride is iffy about getting wet with our nicer clothes. But, we stayed dry.
Annet's Restaurant straight across from the marina and is one of the finer dinning establishments. Susan got shrimp Alfredo and I got grouper macadamia incrusted dish and chocolate covered key lime pie. Nice dinner and nice day.
Picture is Susan and me at Annett's.

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What to say? What to say. We were leaving Boot Key Harbor today with 10-15 kts forecasted. We were going to run the Hawk Channel (Ocean side) rather than the ICW which is really the Gulf Of Mexico and has lots more open water and it's realy shallow. 7 1/2' in the channel. The wind forecast changed yesterday afternoon late and forecast went to 15-20knot until TUESDAY! So, we are staying on our mooring.
I sanded some today as the dust just flew away and the temperature was high 60s. Nice temperature for work outside. Since we were staying here and canceled our slip at Islamorada we needed to take on water and get more fuel for the generator. Getting off the mooring and back was tricky in the wind. We took on water here at Boot Key Harbor Marina. But they don't sell fuel and we went down to Burdines Marina to get gasoline. Windy in docking maneuvers. But Susan and I are seasoned to about 30 kts now. The boat is very predictable now. Not putty in our hands but we can get it done.. back on the mooring and we took time to actually sit on the Flybridge and watch the sunset. Some guy shoots a loud canon from his boat as the sun sets and lots of conch shells blow. Fun
Yes we have skipped a few days and nights on our blog. Thursday night we went with some fellow boaters 14 in all to see the Blues Brothers tribute band at Salty's Waterfront Grill. Lots of us poured into two cabs and had a great time. It is also a marina and we were walking around and there was a casting contest into some floating circles. They talked me into the last contestant and I dropped the plug into two targets tying for third. I won the cast off. Yep still got it. Lots of surf and swamp casting history in my arms and eyes.
The picture tonight is ME by the scoreboard. Didn't count them but it was right many contestants. Hey the judge gave me a Corona too!! The prize money was huge too.

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