On Tuesday Morning MIDORI and LIVING WELL both left the park. We stayed at a mooring field in the Matanzas Pass which is the river between Ft. Myers and Ft. Myers Beach . We had a good visit and dinner with Jack and Diana Toomey. They are the third couple we came down the East Coast with in 2007-8. They are living in a marina in Ft. Myers that we can’t get our mast under a bridge to visit, so they came to us. Dinner at the BEACHED WHALE…yummmm! (Yes, Dawn and Lindsey, I had fried oysters without you!).
LIVING WELL and MIDORI left Early on Friday morning and ran south all day. It was a very good day to travel so we went farther than we had planned. 60+ miles to Pavilion key and anchored for the night. The next day we were up early and off on another good day to travel…even to sail. The wind picked up a bit late in the day and we were under mainsail and with the motor running as we went under/through 7 mile bridge near Marathon. I had just discussed with the “”Captain” the idea of taking down the sail and we had decided to leave it up. Good Call as just as we were directly under the bridge the motor died. We were able to sail right on through without a problem in a 23 knot wind. Without the sail we would have probably hit the bridge as we were “crabbing “ our way through because of the wind. I took the helm, Steve ran below and talked sweet to the engine and when we tried to start her again she jumped right to life. The one filter he had not replaced this year was one of the diesel filters ( It was replaced today) and we think that was the problem. WE had an uneventful trip the rest of the way in to Marathon…Boot Key Harbor. Our friends Van and Lauren From GRATITUDE were beside us in their dinghy even before we were moored. Later that evening we all (Brian and Lynn too) went out for Pizza. That was yesterday. GRATITUDE left the harbor early this morning for the North {Rodriguez Key) for their jump to the Bahamas. Brian, Lynn, Steve and I went to the American Legion For the Best Breakfast in town this morning then walked on some errands (received our flu shots as the vaccine was not available in Charolette Harbor or Ft. Myers) and then spent the rest of the day catching up on the boat. We will be here for at least a week. Marathon is a really good place to be and a hard place to leave. It’s like “commin home”….and Key West is just a 75 cent bus ride away!