Guatemala or bust

Vessel Name: Courtship
Vessel Make/Model: Monk Trawler yacht
Hailing Port: Fort Pierce, Florida
Crew: Bud and Vivian McCall
About: I'm currently aboard Bud and Viv's boat. The 42 foot Hunter sloop named B and B. I'm just along to help them in their first long crossing...Will return to home aboard the Courtship and post some stories as they come to mind.
Extra: Will add info and hopefully funny or at least humorous adventurous sorta stuff as we head from Fort Pierce to the Rio Dulce area of Guatemala....
30 April 2010 | Marathon (still)
30 April 2010 | Marathon (still)
30 April 2010 | Marathon in the Florida Keys
29 April 2010 | Marathon (still)
29 April 2010 | Marathon in the Florida Keys
21 April 2010 | Floriida East coast
21 April 2010 | Fort Pierce, Florida
Recent Blog Posts
30 April 2010 | Marathon (still)

Guatemala trip Part 6

Guatemala or Bust update number 6

30 April 2010 | Marathon (still)

Guatemala trip Part 5

Guatemala update number 5

30 April 2010 | Marathon in the Florida Keys

Guatemala trip Part 4

Guatemala Update Number 4

29 April 2010 | Marathon (still)

Guatemala trip Part 3

Guatemala or Bust Update number 2

29 April 2010 | Marathon in the Florida Keys

Guatemala trip part 2

Guatemala or Bust chapter 2

21 April 2010 | Floriida East coast

Cruising to Guatemala ; Part 1

Guatemala or Bust, Chapter 1

Guatemala trip Part 6

30 April 2010 | Marathon (still)
Bill
Guatemala or Bust update number 6

Well, I just sent the kids off to Burdine's marina to have a quiet dinner together and give the lovebirds some time alone...Viv has been anxious to see Joe Mamma and his band...and to listen to their famous rendition of " Just a bowl of butter beans.." Which has kinda become "our song" . Roughly translated, that means it's an ear worm and we can't stop singing it at the wierdest places and almost any time there is a lull in the conversation....." Just a bowl of butter beans ,,,,Pass the corn bread if you please, I don't want no collard greens, just a bowl of butter beans." Sung to the tune" Just a closer walk with Thee" ...It's like the old Florida lottery ear worm . and Bingo was his Name O.....
Try to get that one out of your head. Well, Viv will get the song and some real butter beans since as part of the band deal the restaurant actually serves everyone that is there a small bowl of the beans....Anyway, it's the semi official song of the cruise....
Like most of the old cruises with " the guys" when 4 of us would go to the Cay Sal Banks area of the Bahamas, we also acquired a mascot, somewhere around Fort Lauderdale. It was a cute little lizard about 5 inches long or so, about the diameter of a pencil and similar to many of the lizards we took to Cay Sal..Unfortunately, just before the cold snap that has made a mess of the Keys, he chose to hide under the cushion in the cockpit where Vivian sits. After not seeing him for a few days, I finally looked under the cushion and instead of being 5 inches long, he was about 7 inches wide. Maybe Viv is responsible for the cold weather.....
Actually today was not so cold...It warmed up to the 60's and it was like being out west...Remember, there are about 200 or so boats, mostly sailboats in the harbor attached to moorings.. ie: no shore power to run things like HEAT...so most of the boaters here just kinda hunkered down ( Jeeze I hate that word,,,reminds me of big windstorms that start with the letter H); Like for the last 3 weeks...Today ( Holy Global Warming, Batman) however, it looked like a bunch of prairie dogs...heads popping out of cockpits and then ducking down to let different head pop up....It was pretty funny..And all of a sudden about 200 rubber dinghies began to head to the marina services area where there are lots of showers with FREE HOT WATER... Just the sound of the drains in the shower rooms sounded like a bunch of people from Arkansas with half their teeth missing trying to eat soup with a spoon...
And the laundry room was a hoot. Just imagine ten or so older women from " up north" with laundry that has been fermenting for weeks. Add to the mix six washing machines and six dryers of which only four work...Then consider that each load of wash takes 35 minutes and each dryer takes 45 minutes...Can you see the log jam beginning to form. One lady was absolutely insistent that the finished clothes in one of the washers be removed so she could start HER wash and some schlub pulled her wet wash out and held it in her arms for 25 minutes waiting for a dryer...10 minutes later guess who was miffed when someone asker HER to take the clothes out of the washer to make room for the next load...Honestly, that's one of the few times I've ever seen cruising boaters start getting peeved at each other....It was still interesting to see a bunch of ladies with wads of wet clothes in their arms watching the front loading dryers like they were TV's.
Oh, and with the sun, out comes the Naked German Guy ( that's his handle) on the boat from NY, NY..( yeah right) who has teeth like a 5 year Meth addict and hair that makes Al Einstein and the tall guy from Seinfeld look like they are both having good hair days..and wears glasses with white nerd tape on the nose piece and one of the ear pieces and wears the same clothes forever and lives with a dark haired honey that has to be a Russian sex slave he bought on Ebay....Actually, I've never met the guy but he does fly a german flag and I heard he was sitting nude in his boat once. I did say hi to him once and made some lame comment about it being cold and he said something like " Ach...Sun....Goot " Reminded me of Ringo Starr's famous movie speaking part in the movie Caveman or something when he said " Nanook zug zug Lana" Bada Bing....
Ooooh Oooooh Ooooooh ...( think Toody and Muldoon if you remember that old TV show) Today I got a care package from Gainesville Fl...from a young lady who works for the Girl Scouts and whose motto is " if you're not prepared, there's always next day mail..." Got some sweat wicking micro fiber high tech space age long johns with wooley socks that will keep me warm on these cold nights and especially while doing night watches in the cockpit ( who thought up THAT word?). Wow, and thanks Sandra.
And speaking of Naked German Guy, this area of the Keys and south as far as we are going, has always harbored some less than savory characters who may have skirted some gray areas of the law, the IRS or other "Gummint folk".
As a result there are a lot of nicknames used instead of real names ( wonder where they got that idea) and it's considered impolite to ask questions like " Wha'd you do before you got here?" or " What's your story". I've met Catman Dave, Grumpy, Teach, Knockster, Pupster, Spud, Rabbit, 5-Oh, Skipjack, the Fly, Shamu and a bunch of others ( My handle is EffLee of all things). I am in the process of naming people that I don't know yet...Like the Canadians, Mad Hatter and Beek ( which actually is his name but the way Vivian pronounces it that's the way Vic comes out.) Lizard Killer ( guess who?) Laundry Bitch, Biker Bimbo, Androgyne and the Laplander sisters....Androgyne is interesting. He (or she) gets into a kayak every morning and then two out of three of his/her big hairy dogs get in the kayak with her/him and the third big hairy dog gets into his/her own kayak which is towed behind the first one...then it's off to the marina where they/them disappear....Captain Jack who is 88 years old and has liver spots the size of, well, livers, is on the lookout for a good lookin' young dame to help him sail away forever. Is there a Mrs. Kevorkian?
Ah, but I digress. Sometimes my train of thought gets derailed. Which reminds me of the 2 lawyers who were stranded on a deserted island for years...One day a dazzlingly gorgeous young woman washes up on the beach, dead. Beautiful, naked, well coiffed, manicured with absolutely nothing on, not even jewelry. And she was so recently alive....still warm. One of the lawyers says " O my God Irv, this is a gift from the almighty, lets screw her" to which the other lawyer replies " out of what?"
Then there's the japanese family at the marina whose dog ( a shii tszu or however it's spelled ) bred with and Jack Russell terrier and had puppies (called Jack Shii'ts ) and are being offered for sale on a " Buy one get one flea" basis... Bada Bing.
And I guess I need to get back on the diet. With the cold weather I was trying to load up on blubber to stay warm, and it wasn't difficult with the local low carb diet. Viv's idea of a low carb meal is a fried flour tortilla filled with rice and mashed potatoes, dredged in flour/egg mixture and deep fried in Mazola served with ( of course) a side of legumes and a low fat, low carb Tabasco sauce...A great idea when it was so cold but now that the weather may warm up a bit during the days and I may want to get into my Mankini made by those folks at Speedo, I guess skipping a few carbs might be OK.
On a more serious note, it looks like Monday will bring the weather window we need to make it to Isla Mujeres. One interesting note is that local scuttlebutt indicates that there's a little marina and harbor at the west end of that island we will be near on the way to Mexico and if you pass the area the marina manager will come out in his boat and invite you in to the harbor where you can clear in ( for that particular area only !!!!) and spend a few bucks. Actually, I have the pamphlet from the marina and it looks interesting to say the least. We'll see....
Oh, and finally the score on running aground hasn't changed. It's still

Bud 2.5 points
Bill 2.0 points
Vivian 1.0 points...
But Viv is getting more time running the dinghy and is back in the running for more points...and may yet get the silver medal away from Bill...

Guatemala trip Part 5

30 April 2010 | Marathon (still)
Chilly Willy
Guatemala update number 5

Here's a toast to all y'all who were whining about the heat and wishing winter would get here!!!!!!!!!!! It's here.
The crappy weather has lasted longer than all the prognosticators indicated and the new crappy weather system is due to arrive sooner than anticipated so it looks like we are going to be here till after the next norther passes thru...I guess that's one of the challenges of heading south late in the winter.
I quit whining about the cold since I realize you are cold too...and it doesn't help to whine...Hell, it doesn't even make me warmer..
The good news is that the marina has hot showers but like anything in life they are a double edged sword...Guys understand this concept better than gals I guess ..It's like this, you're in the nice hot shower and feelin' fine..but you see the room is made of uninsulated concrete and the roof is open around the edges to let the water vapor out and is assisted by high volume fans ...ie: the room into which you have to step when you get out of the shower is freezing cold...Guys understand this dilemma since most of us, dare I say, all of us, have, at one time or another, gotten our wankers caught in our zipper and realized that while it hurts like hell, the UNZIPPING is going to hurt even more. Not to mention trying to decide (while in some pretty heavy duty agony) whether it's better to unzip quickly like tearing a bandaid off a part of the body covered with hair or go for the slow and careful unzippage...Yeah, I know, girls go thru the bikini waxing process, but that's a voluntary thing like childbirth. Nothing like unzippage with Mr. Happy caught by the neck and turning blue.....
Oh, my point was that I have to step out of the shower into a COLD concrete room completely undoing the effects of the hot shower...then after jumping around trying to dry off enough to get on some cold clothes I get into the dinghy for the trip back to the cold boat. Said trip including freezing spray and 15 to 50 knot winds depending on the speed of the dinghy. (and again, the dilemma of the bandaid...ie fast and sub-freezing for a short time or slow and careful for a mere freezing but much longer ride).
Ah, back to the boat and warmth you say. Nay, nay say I. The boat may have been warm when we left ; having run the generator which powers the heater, but in the meantime with the generator off,the boat has cooled off to near freezing. AND what you may not realize is that something that changes temperature like that causes some serious condensation. SO, back in the boat it is not just cold again but it is dripping condensation ( think freezing rain...inside your house...)
But, like all good stories the happy ending arrives as the three little cruisers huddle around the propane stove with all burners going like crazy and the generator providing power to the heater which eventually slows the condensate drippage and warms the boat to a level of comfort allowing us all to crawl under the covers and generate our own warmth...
PS. Just out of curiosity, if you know a physicist, ask him or her how much heat is generated by the ignition of methane gas in an enclosed area, say like under the covers of an average sized bed.
PPS, if you hear a loud BOOM to the south, don't worry...
PPPS... This may actually turn into a little longer than a post script...AND it may include some bodily function humor so if that offends you stop reading NOW......
When we 3 Bentons were young, our parents often referred to us as "the bathroom kids" since we all, ( especially my brother and I ) found certain functions of the body, particularly those that produced noise, very funny. When we were alone we practice blowing on our arms for a good sound and then graduated to the hand under the armpit trick. But nothing was as good as the real thing which we referred to either as SBDs or LADs depending on whether they were Loud or Silent ( and as long as they were Deadly.) This is a fertile ground for this "bathroom kid's" humor but I won't get carried away right now...
SO, here we are just three buds on the road of life pretty much confined by the cold to the inside of a 42 foot tunnel, disguised as a sailboat, which is closed up most of the time to conserve heat. Add to the mix a Guatemalan cook who loves to cook and is particularly enamored of leguminous side dishes and additives to nearly every meal and you have the makings of vaporous clouds in a confined space. ( think of poots in an elevator.) We have had red beans, black beans, kidney beans, lima beans, split peas, pigeon peas and butter beans. They, both striaght and refried, have been added to soups, chile, tacos, tostadas, burritos and other latin things that end in os....Last night we had refried black beans with tostadas and jalapenos with green sauce. Talk about some SBDs...It's really embarrassing to have someone nearby get their nose all wrinkled up and their face turn into what looks like one of those puppies born with too much skin that's been crossed with a bunch of prunes and raisins while I point to the other boatnik and put a clothespin on my nose...and I'm talking about minute amounts of flatulescence causing the facial and nasal reactions I never dreamed possible as a bathroom kid...
That scenario is bad enough, but when you wake yourself up in the middle of the night looking for the dead body you must be sleeping with, it's getting to be a bit much. So it's off to CVS today for a bottle or two of Beano or some other methane reduction meds...Oh, and don't even think about flicking your bic in the bedroom.

Guatemala trip Part 4

30 April 2010 | Marathon in the Florida Keys
Chilly Willy
Guatemala Update Number 4

Global Warming, my rosie red ass!!!!!!!!! Al Gore is in Tierra del Fuego...sitting on a volcano...

We, however, are experiencing the results of Global Cooling. Or to be more politically correct, the temporary dispersion of the effective unilateral carbolic smokeball inversions interlinked with methane induced emissions of Bovine and Homosapienic wind generation caused by the scientifically proven uncontestable and irrevocable fact of Global Warming...Thhhhhhhpt
Oh, and by the way, Al, Warm This.....

I was leaving a leak ( c'mon guys "taking a leak" is a misnomer unless you sneak into the mens room with a little tupperware container ) last night while standing on the back end of the boat and manatees were congregating around the warm spot.

I asked about churches yesterday and the gal at the office asked what denomination...I told her it didn't matter as long as it was heated. And for that matter why does the word denomination refer to religious groups and units of currency?

Seriously, There are gale warnings and the Keys churches are opening shelters for people without heat in their homes. Temps 30 to 35 degrees tonight with wind chills 26 to 31 degrees. Tuesday warming...Really, I'm not kidding...

Jeeze, I think I just saw Shamu swim by. Headed south where it's warm. And it finally dawned on me that all those Manatees we saw swimming south in the Intracoastal Waterway along the east coast of Florida had a distant early freeze warning gene somewhere in them...They were definitely smarter than they looked ( which ain't all that smart to be honest).

Well, the NOAA weather just called for 15 to 20 knots tonight and tomorrow with seas at 5 to 7 feet ( and higher in the Gulf Stream ).

Tuesday may be the day to leave the beautiful keys.

We're off to do laundry, and after stories from Viv's Canadian friend we may need to bring guns to get a dryer. Apparently if you go outside for a minute you lose your place in line and have to start over...or so some of our Northern friends seem to think. They may not realize that mad cow disease is not nearly as bad as mad laundress disease...
More later....Bill ( n/k/a Chily Willy)

Guatemala trip Part 3

29 April 2010 | Marathon (still)
Chilly Willy
Guatemala or Bust Update number 2

First, it's cold...I don't mean just cold, I mean CO effin' L effin' D.

I think the Conch Republic needs to round up all the Canadians and send them back to Canada and have 'em take their damn arctic weather with 'em. And for that matter, the folks from Minnesota and Michigan or any other damn country that ends every sentence with AY? can go too. Vivian and I are both from warm countries, Guatemala and Florida respectively. Bud is from some foreign country like Nebraska where this weather is like a cool day. I suspect his family lineage has some Norwegian influence or some other place where people live in Igloos, and not the cooler kind, the real ones...We've taken a vote on running the generator more than just long enough to charge the batteries and it's 2 to 1 in favor of running it a lot with the heater turned to high....Bud runs his boat just the way I do though. Everybody gets a vote but his is the only one that counts...Heck, Viv and I are fighting over who gets to cook since the cook gets to stand in front of the stove while allegedly checking the meals progress. I go ashore to the laundry room, not to do laundry, just to stand in front of the dryers. I even went to the pharmacy to get a sample of Viagra. I alked the pharmacist to cut it into 4 smaller pieces and when he told me it wouldn't make my " You know what" very hard, I told him I just wanted it to get swollen enough to get it outside my pants to pee, Speaking of using the Whizzatorium or as they say in France, the Pissoir, I've begun to make sure nobody else is using a nearby urinal for fear of being accused of lewd and lascivious acts with myself ( my hands shake that bad.) I've even thought about going to MacDonalds for coffee just so I can spill some in my lap. In fact, I may have to change the pet name of my favorite anatomical male part from Big Willie to Little Richard ( and just to be politically correct, I mean no disrespect to anyone reading this whose name is Dick).
The one good thing about this particular boat is that one of the designers must have been from Alaska since the one little tiny heat vent in the forward head is aimed right at the toilet seat, unlike the seats in the mens rooms ashore which make you think twice about sitting down to do your business.
I pity the poor shlubs from Chicago who saved all their vacation time and money to come to the Florida Keys for the thrill of going home with stories of heat stroke and sunburns. On second thought. No I don't.
Talked to a woman on the dinghy dock yesterday who told me she had been to every store in Marathon ( all three of them) and there wasn't a space heater to be found. And I heard the school district is going to call a snow day tomorrow...
Here's a list of all the things you can do in the keys when it's this cold:
1,

Oh well on to warmer thoughts.
Looks like another Norther front is arriving Friday and Saturday and the weather is going to be colder and windier...We may get enough of a window Sunday or Monday to head south. Nothing to do but wait and see. If you start getting a lot of " SPOT" locator beacons from us you'll know we're on the way.....South.....Where it's warmer....

More later
Sweet William ( fka Wild Bill. )

Guatemala trip part 2

29 April 2010 | Marathon in the Florida Keys
Bill
Guatemala or Bust chapter 2
As of Jan 3, 2010

Well,,,,,
It's now day 14 of the the trip and we've made it all the way to Marathon in the beautiful Florida keys...seems like we're screaming South in this little speed demon of a sailboat and making great headway at Mach Turtle...I figger based on our speed over ground ( 240 miles in 13 days) so far we should be in Guatemala some time in late January ( 2011 )...Today we took down the Christmas tree. Actually, Bill took down the tree and Viv took down the hook upon which it was hanging and put them both in a pint Zip-loc bag for next year...Whew, That's enough work for the day.

We've checked the route time after time and need about 4 good days of weather to get to Isla Mujeres, Mexico. Seems like every time Passageweather.com says there's a window available to go, it's like a building designed by a Mexican architect. The dang window keeps moving. Also, Passageweather never agrees with NOAA weather which means we get to choose. Ie. a SWAG vs. a WAG. ( For those of you with little or no background in the sciences that's a Wild Ass Guess vs. a Scientific Wild Ass Guess.) So we've spent a while in Marathon, seen the sights, listened to Joe Momma and his band, eaten Coconut shrimp and stone crabs at Keys Fisheries, Monster hamburgers at Burdines Marina, seen the Blue Moon of the new year, run aground a few times, watched the morning Yoga class at the marina...( just think of it , a bunch of sixty and seventy something ladies in full winter dress like sweat pants and baggy sweaters stretching and popping things they didn't even know they had while grunting and bitching...what a turn on..). Viv did spot our first naked sailor, some guy about 80 years old with a scruffy beard and the appearance of a homeless bum. ( The boat is from New York. Figgers, huh!) We've prowled the aisles of the local Publix for things we needed and discovered lots of things we didn't but which turned onto Gotta-haves...especially Viv's spare left handed salt grinder.

The good news is that the water is too cold to swim or snorkel and the wind is too strong to take the dinghy exploring or fishing, so we aren't spending much money on outboard fuel. The weather has been pretty good
( if you're a duck) and the music has been fun ...especially the Banned by the Baptists version of " Just a closer walk with Thee" called " Just a bowl of Butter Beans"...If that doesn't tell you how much fun we're having I don't know how to spell it out other than to say we've been playing cards a lot. Particularly Pat's 3-card game called " 99 " where every card means something and by the time you figger out what they all mean you've lost your dollar to Vivian who knows ALL the rules but won't tell the boys until we look like we might win and then explains a new rule to us like a 7 of hearts means she automatically wins...and then she magically has a 7 of hearts and takes both our dollars and starts another game before we can turn on the TV ( OK it doesn't work at the anchorage but its cheaper to watch gray fuzz than play Pat's card game with Viv).
Looks like Sunday/Monday is a possible weather window...either we leave then or spend another week here. Bud and Bill are voting to leave but Viv wants to wait for a week ....and she wants us 2 guys to go to the ATM for more card game cash...She won't take IOUs.
So. The choice is to leave soon ( look at the money we'll save) and have some 'sporty' weather during the first day of the trip or leave in a couple of days and risk having some " snotty" weather near the end of the trip as we are in the Yucatan channel on the last leg of the sail to Isla Mujeres ( or what Bud calls the I'll of Mohairs ). Sporty beats Snotty hands down so we will try to leave Sun or Mon....
But wait ...There's more

We haven't been sending SPOT locator beacons since we haven't changed our location...You can see the marina and boats ( and maybe even us ) if you go to the website for either Marathon City Marina or Boot Key Harbor. You'll have to look it up , but the marina has a web cam that is live and changes camera views every several seconds..Shows the anchorage, the dingy docks, the walkways, the parking lot and lots of other stuff ( but no, not the naked New Yorker ).
PPS. If we don't leave today or tomorrow we are going to give each other pedicures. I'll bring back the exciting video coverage when I come back and post on You-tube...It will surely be an instant hit....

Cruising to Guatemala ; Part 1

21 April 2010 | Floriida East coast
Bill
Guatemala or Bust, Chapter 1

Day 1. December 21, 2009.

We left the marina mid morning and motored south to spend the night in Pecks Lake, just south of Stuart, Fl. Kinda shallow so we kept heading south to wind up in Hobe Sound where we finally found what was a deep enough spot to anchor for the night. Christmas lights along the waterway were anywhere from tasteful to beautiful to amazingly gaudy. Got us kind of in the spirit tho, even if we knew our families and loved ones would miss us, and we, them.

Day 2.

We motored to the Lake Worth inlet area through narrow sections of the intracoastal Waterway with lots of seawalls and boats on both sides of the ICW. The seawalls reflected wakes from the passing boats causing a fairly bumpy ride. I noticed 15 or 20 manatees swimming the southbound which should have been noticed as an omen of cooler weather to come. Didn't really think much about it until later in the trip. Lots more Christmas lights came on after the sun went down and it was dark when we finally got into the Lake Worth Inlet area. We followed some markers by flashlight to the north end of the Lake Worth Inlet area where the charts indicated an Anchorage.

Day 3.

Left the anchorage and after listening to a weather report indicating light winds and minimal seas we've motored out the Lake Worth Inlet and turned south. Found ourselves in choppy three to 5 foot seas with a large groundswell and Vivian began turning green. Came about and went back in the Inlet where I ran aground just outside of Peanut Island and finally continued on through the intracoastal Waterway south winding up anchored in the Lake Sylvia, Fort Lauderdale where we spent a cold and windy night.

Day 4.

Christmas Eve Day we spent in the dinghy traveling up the New River to downtown Fort Lauderdale for banking and shopping. Had lunch at a great Pirate style restaurant on the river which served terrific hamburgers. The weather stayed sloppy and cold so we spent Christmas Eve anchored in Lake Sylvia.

Day 5.

Merry Christmas.

Vivian cooked a great standing rib roast with all the trimmings and after a feeding frenzy we all retired to our respective bunks in a food coma for a nap and another night in Lake Sylvia where the weather stayed stinky.

Day 6.

We left Lake Sylvia with decent weather, heading out the inlet and motored south to Miami's Government Cut. Due to security concerns, pleasure boats are no longer allowed in the portion of Government cut while cruise ships are at the Dodge Island docks and we diverted out of the main channel, following the old fisherman's channel, to the Intracoastal Waterway and headed North through the West Venetian Causeway drawbridge. The bridgetender obviously got a lump of coal in his Christmas stocking since he made us sail around in circles, refusing to answer us on the VHF radio as we begged him to open the bridge. I guess he finally finished his hate mail to Santa Claus since the bridge mysteriously opened without warning. We headed east to a nice anchorage wherewe spent a pleasant night.

Day 7.

After a brief stop at Miami Beach Marina for fuel and water we headed back out Government Cut to the edge of the Gulfstream where we traveled south past Key Biscayne, Soldier Key, the ragged keys, Boca Chita Key, Sands Key, Elliott Key and Key Largo winding up at our final destination for the day, Rodriguez Key near Islamorada. I should have a key ring for all those keys.

Day 8.

We continued motoring south passing Snake Creek and Alligator light which brought back memories of trips to the Cay Sal Banks, the Dinner Key Cruising Club and Plantation Yacht Harbor. We actually put up the sails for a brief period until the winds picked up to about 20 to 25 knots. We arrived in Marathon Key and motored in to Boot Key Harbour which is across US1 from Faro Blanco, a great little marina which is now defunct and overgrown with lots of empty docks. What a shame. Still a lot of good memories there, too. I remember cruising to Faro Blanco long ago and going out fishing in the dinghy one evening. I had heard that big tarpon were at the 7 mile bridge not far from the marina. I had a few pieces of shrimp and a small rod so I caught some small baitfish and since I had no bait container for the fish I put them in my net bag where I kept my snorkeling gear. I anchored the dinghy and put a live pinfish on a larger rod keeping the rest of the baitfish in the net bag tied off to the stern of my 13 foot Boston Whaler. The live bait produced a hook up and the line started screaming off my reel. I don't think the fish that ate the bait even realized that he was hooked so I tightened up the drag and immediately broke the line. Yes, I knew better but I just couldn't help myself. I wound all the line back onto the reel, put on a new leader and a new hook and reached over the stern to pull in the line with my net bag full of bait. As I started to pull in the bag a very large and very wide shark came up and ate the bag, bait and all. So ended my tarpon fishing for the evening.

Back in Boot Key Harbour we were assigned mooring ball Tango 1 which I managed to find after running aground and having to be pushed off by a guy in a small inflatable dinghy.

Day 9.

We checked in at the marina office with the City of Marathon marina manager, checked e-mail, looked at every possible weather web page and decided we were probably going to be at the marina for a few days. Ha!. We met up with Catman Dave who we knew from the Fort Pierce city Marina and had a nice visit. The fresh water pump was leaking so Bud went to West Marine and bought a new one. This turned out to be another one of those 15 minute jobs requiring several days. And there was still a freshwater leak.

Day 10.

Still crappy weather but we manage to take the dinghy over to the dock side bar and grill where they were having a benefit for the "wounded warriors of the keys" which turned out to be pretty good food and fun.

Day 11.

Happy new years eve. Off to the marina for e-mail and weather checks and then lunch at Keys Fisheries and Seafood. Interesting restaurant where you place your order at one window and give them a New Year's resolution so they can announce when your order is ready. Bud gave them "drink more" but that was already taken. I gave them "screw more" but the waitress advised me that this was a family restaurant and she would have to change my call sign to "love more". In any event, we finally got our seafood lunch which proved to be extremely fresh and tasty. Back to the boat where we dropped off computers and headed back to the Dockside bar and grill where we left the dinghy and walked about 100 miles to the local Publix. Originally we had planned to dock next to the Publix where the marina information kit advised us we could leave the dinghy but when we got there all I could see was under construction signs, no trespassing signs, no docking signs, no fishing signs, no messing with the manatees signs, no cast netting signs, no having fun signs; so we went back to the bar where we could leave the dinghy. Because of the walk we obviously had to change our shopping list and delete things like cases of Diet Coke, gallon jugs of water and wine and the blocks of ice. Meanwhile, back at the bar we listened to a band whose leader's name was Joe Mamma. He sang blues, gospel, old country songs and really old country songs. All three of this enjoyed the music and Bud really got into it. He even managed to answer all of the trivia questions about butter beans, Little Ricky Williams or Little Jimmy Dickins and a bunch of guys named Tex,Cow Pie and Shorty. He was amazing. I found out that Little Jimmy's family owned Dickins' Cider Company. You remember the advertisements.." When the frost is on the pumpkin there's nothing your gal likes more than a little Dickins' Cider".

About 10 o'clock a vertically challenged elderly young lady (how's that for PC) with a flapper dress and a white banner strapped across from her right shoulder to her left hip proclaiming 2010 on it came around the tables wishing everyone a happy new year and sprinkling us all with sparkly pixie dust. The place cleared out shortly thereafter and we were back at the boat and in our respective bunks long before the ball dropped in Times Square. The sparkly pixie dust proved to be a constant companion in the boat for the rest of the trip.

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