We are 5 days from our sojourn in Marco Island. We spent two idyllic days in Marathon at the Marathon Marina. This marina is the host to many live aboards, and they could not have been more welcoming. Our dock mate, who ironically had a husband in Lower Keys Medical center the same time I was there, for the same reason was generous enough to take EJ to the grocery store for some provisions, and we felt right at home with many younger boaters running to help us dock, it felt a little like CYC.

We moved on to eclectic Tavernier Florida and Curtis Marine, another live aboard location, and were again welcomed by the locals. it was surprising that for the first time on our trip were are surrounded by center cockpit sailboats in the 40-44 foot class. Our dock mate here took pity on us and provided an abundance of ice from her icemaker, yes they have them for sailboats.

As you can see from the picture, the temperature outside is in the very high 80's, and it feels like 98, down from yesterday's 101. the water temperature is 91, and as any good A/C guy will tell you, that limits the ability of the boats A/C to cool, so combined with limited insulation, hours of direct sunshine and reduced capacity, the boat sits at a balmy 77.5 inside.

We are anxious to move North, straight line, we are 963 nm from our dock at CYC. We are 3830 miles into the journey, which should come to about 5500 when we finish.

Tomorrow, we have a short trip by car, 212 miles to Melbourne to get a part for the engine monitoring system that blew on the way from Marco to Marathon. It will be stormy down here, so we will not loose a travel day, and I am not comfortable running under power without RPM, Temperature or Oil pressure indications. Hopefully by Wednesday it will be fixed, and we will get underway when the storms subside Thursday. If we are lucky, we will make Port Everglades on Friday, and be on the Atlantic ICW when storm again appear on Sunday.

Take care we miss you all,

Ed ands EJ