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There no rooms at the inn….Marathon is full and as usual has a waiting list.  The good news is that about 30 boats left on Wednesday taking advantage of a good weather window for crossing the Gulf Stream so there were plenty of anchorages available.  I love our Manson anchor and have such confidence in it that I would just as soon be on the hook.    Rick,  Kristen,  AJ and Lisa came over to SYL and spent a little while onboard talking boats and such.  Rick and Kristen are self proclaimed “Newbies” ( but only to the Seawind) and are doing it right.  It is always good to talk to other cruisers who have the same boat you do.  A lot of the “innovative”  non-sailing changes that have been done to SYL were not my idea but were “borrowed” from other cruisers.  You look at what each owner has done and take those things that fit your personality or lifestyle and implement those on your boat.  Our King size bed was an AJ invention.  The “Natures Head” we first saw on Morning Glory.  Putting a floor in the kitchen “storage compartments” was taken from Sol Surfin.  Now when it comes to making SYL perform……there is no one better than Rusty!

We all jumped in our dinghy’s and AJ took Rusty and Karen to pick up the rental car and Lisa, Kristen and I met the guys at the Key Colony Inn  for lunch.  After a great lunch we came back to SYL and just hung out.  It was Karen’s last night onboard.  We sure enjoyed her visit.  She is a natural sailor!

Saturday was bitter-sweet.  We were losing Karen but Jono was coming.  Rusty and Karen left early to drive to Ft Lauderdale.  They would pick up Jono, have lunch and Karen would fly home.

OK now I am going to vent:

I am really easy going and usually unless you mess with my children I am very easy to get along with.  Here I am on SYL alone and this 36 ft monohull named Northern Lights dropped anchor and drug, dropped anchor and drug, dropped anchor and drug, for an hour I watched them try drop anchor and drag TEN times trying to get a plow to hook up…..then they drug out a danforth ( why that was not their main anchor I can’t fathom).  I watch this, this PERSON take about 10 ft of chain and attach it to rope and throw it over as well.  The Danforth hooks up except they are a boat length away.  Now we are getting ready to have 30 mile an hour winds that night.  I put out three bumpers on that side and take two more to be ready to put on that side.  I call AJ and he comes by and says that since they are on our side we are not in any immediate danger.  Rusty gets home and is considering moving when a large heavy monohull goes aground behind us and the wind is pushing against him.  So of course Rusty is off helping get him out of trouble.  By the time he gets back to the boat it is dark.

I keep checking all night to make sure this PERSON is not dragging.  This afternoon the wind shifts and now he is over our anchor in front of us.  Rusty finally says, “Are you spending the night there?”  He replies that he is, and Rusty lets him know we are leaving early in the morning and he says he will as well.  Rusty just shakes his head, comes back and starts his engines.  We have had enough of this PERSON.  Northern Lights then started his engines so he could move over so we could get our anchor up.  There is just no cure for STUPID!!   OK, I feel better now…..:)

We went to Burdines, fueled up, took on water found a good anchor closer to where we are exiting and all is good.

Earlier, we got a blanket for Jono, went to Publix’s and returned the rental car.  FREE!!

Thursday we sailed Hawks Channel from Islamorada to Boot Key (Marathon).  Hawks Channel is the Atlantic ocean but there is a reef line offshore before it gets deep.  The reef does not come above the surface so it does not offer any protection, you just need to know it is there.  It is the reefs that everyone snorkels on in Florida.  We had good winds again.  We have been able to sail since Miami which has been really, really nice.  I am so glad that Karen got to actually sail a lot instead of motoring which  is a totally different experience.

Upon arriving at Marathon,  one of the first things we did was to find AJ and Lisa.  AJ and Lisa were the first people who took us under their wing here in Marathon and showed us the ropes.  We have kept up with them ever since that first year.  It is because of AJ and Lisa that we met Ted and Mili, s/v Morning Glory.  AJ and Lisa have just purchased their second Seawind 1000.  They are both amazing.  For me especially Lisa,  I would just like to follow her around with a notebook taking notes.  She can do anything and is a wealth of information.  When they are not cruising she works for West Marine, infact she is working part time at West Marine now.  She told me about two products I had no knowledge of so I will pass it on….303 which is a UV protector she said we should apply two times a year to our tramp and and Plexus for glass.  I intend to quiz her more and will pass on the information.  She also told me that the sticky glue from the velco I had first used to attach the bug screen will dry and you can use a plastic razorblade to get it off.  Just a word…..be very careful about using self adhesive anything on the boat.  It tends to stop working in time and the adhesive separates from the product leaving a mess.  Also be very careful with rubber backed rugs.  In time if you are in heat the rubber will adhere to the surface of your boat and it is very hard to get off.  Finding rugs that do not have a rubber back is hard.  I still use them but I make sure I take them up fairly often.  We left a rug down in the salon when we left the boat in Brunswick and the rubber back has attached itself to the deck and we are playing heck getting it up.

But back to Marathon.  We found out from AJ and Lisa that the couple that bought the Allons-Y ( currently named Windfall) is coming to Marathon for a couple of days.  The Allons-Y was the Seawind 1000 we rented for our honeymoon and a couple of other times. We all met up for dinner at Burdine’s which is a seafood restrauant under the bridge.

Rusty found the restrooms interesting!

They had other facilities!

We took the dinghy to Burdines and the sunset was spectacular!

Islamorada has been a stop for us every year.  Our first year to cruise we choose Islamorada as the final staging point before crossing the Gulf Stream.  Besides having a great small grocery store a short dinghy ride and walk to it has Lorelei’s.  Another favorite night spot of ours.  One of the first things you may notice is the amphibian Cadillac.  You have to have your picture taken with that in the background.

We had a greata evening.  Lorelei’s New England Clam Chowder is awesome.  We listen to Billy Davidson serende us and took a dnghy ride home that evening.  It was Karen’s first nightime dinghy ride.

We had a delightful evening on anchor in Blackwater Sound.  After a breakfast of pancakes we pulled anchor and set off for Islamorda another one of our favorite hangouts in the Key’s.  During the sail we saw an odd sight.  Sail boats being oared.  Check this out:

Outward Bound

Outward Bound participates

Outward Bound 2

We looked up Outward Bound on the net and this is what we found out:  Outward Bound is a program for “at risk kids”.  They offer several different experiences where the participants learn responsibility, leadership and working as a team etc.  It sounds like intervention for kids who are headed down the wrong path.

In the Key’s one of my favorite places to anchor is Blackwater Sound.  It is large, close enough to eatery’s (if you want) yet you can get off by yourself without a lot of traffic ( can’t tell you what it is like in the summer though).

We got our anchor down well before sunset.  Karen spent some “downtime” on the bow of SYL just soaking in the spectacular sunset.  One of my greatest pleasures cruising is that everyday, and I mean everyday we are treated to beautiful sunsets and sunrising.  Even the lake can not compare to being out on open water.  There is nothing to obstruct the beauty.   All this is missed in populated areas because there are always structures of some sort blocking the beauty nature provides us every day.

Karen Relaxing at Blackwater Sound

Sunset at Blackwater Sound

Blackwater Sound - Full Moon

One of our favorite hangouts in Blackwater Sound was Gilbert’s.  We pulled up and found they were under major renovations projects.  They once small, quaint outdoor karanoke bar is growing and they are expanding…..big time.  Much of the expansion was still under construction but their new Cabana bar was up and running.

The new and improved Gilberts

Gilbert's

After their famous drink which I now can not remember the name, we left for Jimmy Johnson’s The Big Chill.  We heard about this place from the charter boat at Boca Chita.  Jimmy Johnson’s Big Chill is not set up for dock side large cat’s but they allowed us to “park” in a “no parking zone” since they were not busy.  I guess if you wanted to go to The Big Chill you normally would have to dinghy in.  The Big Chill was very, very nice and I suspect by the presentation of the food I saw being served it was very good….and very pricey.  Rusty went inside and looked at their “sports bar” at the encouragement of one of the managers and apparently it is also very, very nice.  If you are in the area and want a very nice, high end, dinner I suspect it would be a great place to go.  Again we all had a drink and we were on our way.

We left Boca Chita for a leisurely 16 mile sail to Card Sound to Alamba Jacks.  You really have to know that Alabama Jacks is there because it is down a very narrow, mangrove line channel.  It is known as a “biker hangout” but there was a conspicuously absence of bikers for probably a couple of reasons, one it was a weekday and two it was a misty, overcast day.  We pulled up to Alabama Jack’s dock and started our order with their famous conch fritters.  Sailboats there are somewhat of an oddity because of the shallow entry so we were greeted with a lot of looks and when we lefted we recieved lots of waves and good wishes.  Rusty’s ability to manuver

Karen and Rusty at Boca Chita

We left Scotty’s Landing and had a lovely sail for the 13 or so miles to Boca Chita arriving around noon.  There was a charter boat there and Rusty’ soon struck up a conversation with the Captain and his wife, swamping information and boat cards.

Sailing into Boca Chita