Pelicans............ 1
Neptune........... 1
Fish.................. 2
Dick.......................... :-)
Thursday, February 26, 2009
We thought we were going to Flamingo.........
BUT...........as usual the weather guessers best guess wasn't great. The 10-15 easterlies were non-existant! ........... Our 12 nm head sail trip got changed to 43 nm back to Marathon. We had a great sail under double reefed main and jib......... Grey Hound was "Bookin' Mon!"
"Land of the Walking Trees"
After we left Goodland, we turned southward and went to the Little Shark River in the Everglades. It's a very remote and beautiful area of the 10.000 Everglade Islands. The stars at night were gorgeous and it was so quiet and peaceful we decided to stay for 2 nights. Once again the tides and current were impressive. When the tide starts turning you can actually see were the "Walking Trees" name comes from...........it really does feel like the trees are moving.
The area took alot of damage from Hurricane Wilma so the first "line of defence" mangroves took heavies ...........they're trying to recover but it will take time.
Position....... N25 ' 19.53
W81' 08.882
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Tomorrow will be quieter.
We'll be heading more southward in the morning.........depending on wind we'll be sailing toward Flamingo and then on to possibly Marathon (we need to take back a pair of fins we bought) Then down the east coast (ocean side) to Key West and to the Marquesas and the Tortugas......it seems like we may have had a turning point in the weather and it's the time to go...........
We're back in Goodland
There was no wind today so we took the inside route. We were hoping we would catch the SU game but even though the Old San Marco had TV coverage they had a different regional game...we still managed to have a good time (imagine that)........Who would've thunk it!!! A Sunday afternoon would be hopping like this?!?
A commentary
There's fishing and then there's fishing..........
That's why we don't call it catching!!!! ;-)
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Keewaydin Beach
This beach is so amazing!!!!! And yet we were the only ones' there. That's were we found Teagan's "flutterby"........and some other beautiful shells........
Tea-gity, we finally found a butterfly!...........
but different! We'll keep trying , but what do you think, Sweetie Girl?!?
Friday, February 20, 2009
Are you wondering???
Where we are? We still have signal and we're going to take advantage of it!!
We're back in Rookery Bay after a very nice sail (even though we had hoped to go further south). When we left Ft Myers we felt we were styling on a nice course.......but the wind kept coming more and more behind us and we jibed out into very sloppy seas.......the wind died (as in every wind shift) and Grey Hound just had to deal until better breeze came in.....in the meantime we saw our first sea turtle in the open water!!!!! Talk about big and cool!!!! ---Teagan, we swear that turtle is related to Rebel!!!!
Nice swells about 3-4'
Grey Hound running at 7-9 kts with dolphins off our stern and ...........(ok, we're nerds, immature Northern Gannets)
Also......life on the hook is pretty neat. This place has Ospreys flying everywhere. Just about anytime you look up you get to see one! We have also seen two bald eagles just down the way. It's great to have a chance to see things that most can only see on TV or in books.
Now........where's the crocks??!!
Such a small world!!
As we exited the mooring field we saw "Lady Hawk"!!!! It's our friends Doug and Peggy's Lagoon 37............Doug & Peggy did a great job making her look fabulous and now Lady Hawk has a new VERY PROUD owner from the Netherlands!!!!! Small world, huh?!? Last we knew Doug & Peggy were in the Med and the new owners of Lady Hawk were partying at Bonita Bill's!!!!!!
Here's to Doug & Peggy, Lady Hawk and her new owners!!!!
Because we came in through fog...
We never took in the entrance to Ft Myers Beach..........no wonder we thought the beach was close to the channel.........
SO...............
Just a reminder........where we are heading south so cell and Internet coverage is sparse and we may not be able to update as frequently as we've been doing but......... "no worries" we'll update as soon as service is available.
That's all for now, Folks! Grey Hound needs to get some water moving underneath her!
Heading south again.
We're pulling out of Ft Myer's Beach today and heading south towards the Everglades. We have another cold front in but the forecast looks to be lighter winds (hopefully not really cold) and the Everglades offer many protected anchorages for a shallow draft boat.
We've had a great time here visiting with Jim and Laurie on Kismet and meeting so many new friends. Kismet is heading north in a few days and we are heading south.....so we'll be parting and we'll hope to meet in the Keys or in the Bahamas next winter. Fair Winds "Kissy" on you excellent adventure north to Maine for Summer '09!!!!!!!
From far away......
Here is the 1964 38' Morgan sloop Endeavor.........a real beauty!!!! She is in gorgeous condition and is a real cruising beauty!! Perry and his wife have a goal of entering her in the Antigua Antique Boat Race Week Series. We wish them luck!!! Check her out!! Such a beautiful shear and classic lines......not bad for a 45 yr old vessel, eh?!?
And oh yeah, check out her HOME PORT!!!
Home Ports
There are sailors here from near and far........Here's one boat from our Lake Ontario cruising grounds......
A real working shrimping fleet..
Ft Myer's Beach is a very diverse community complete with a good size fleet of shrimpers. It's fun to watch these vessels coming and going and even better to sample the catches they bring back in from the Gulf. Yesterday we saw a guy packing some of the biggest, nicest looking shrimp.....actually they were prawns about 5-7" long!!!
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Miami Boat Show visit
Yesterday the crews of Kismet and Grey Hound rented a car and headed east.....all the way to Miami for the Boat Show. We were up at the crack of dawn and made it to the show only 19 minutes after it opened! The number of boats and "stuff" was down from last year but we were able to wander around without big crowds and picked up a couple of things. There were not too many new things to see or buy but is was still fun. Amy, Vicki was working hard at the Passage Maker booth and we didn't harass her too much. Dinner was at Bubba Gump's Shrimp Co.
Today will be a day of provisioning and getting ready to head back south as soon as the weather allows. Of course "another" cold front is heading our way and right now the wind is not warm by any stretch...
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Ah.....now I see what Ft Myers is all about!
This place is actually very pretty.......nice sand, people and water. But we had our hands slapped for ice cream at $4 bucks.....ouch!
But the moorings are great....$13.00 per day including a pump out, dinghy dock, water, great HOT showers and trash. About the best we have seen. There is also a trolley that will take us around town for $.25 cents! Maybe we are really turning into the "real cruisers" now!!! Look out Thomascinobabino!!!!!
We were invited to Cambia tonight for happy hour, a Dean 40. There were 20 people on board and it was great to meet Dick & Jan (hosts) along with everyone else. Too bad we didn't have the camera
So this is what Ft Myers looks like ....but different....
We came into Ft Myers yesterday and had really no idea as to what the place looked like with all the fog......well.......we woke up this morning and gues what? This is what we had for our morning coffee.........
Saturday, February 14, 2009
By the way......
Happy Valentines Day to all our friends and family!!!!
Especially our shortest one.......TEAGAN!!
we made it to Ft Myers.....
Forecast.....SW 5-10 kts....
We had NW 5-9kts so we headed north....the Code O worked pretty good and we moved north for ten miles and then.......FOG!! Big A fog as a matter of fact.
So for 10 miles we had about 300 yards visibility and into the channel we went. I really like going into a new port not having a clue of where everything is. Add in the butt-head big cabin cruiser that decides to come into port a full speed, blowing his horn......well it felt like a TV commercial. Thanks to "High Plains Drifter", a commercial fishing boat he did slow down. All in all......we made it to a mooring ball and Kismet is just down the block.
So a good 32 mile sail and another port to harass!!
Friday, February 13, 2009
Lat-Longs
Here are the positions of our last few anchorages:
N 25 11.197'
W 81 08.650'
N 25 51.717'
W 81 32.780'
N 25 55.706'
W81 38.583'
AND..........
N 26 02.575'
W 81 46.414'
And the sailor's question of the week is..........
What kind of knot do we use to attach our anchor bridle to our anchor road??
Hint: It doesn't slip.............
Still north bound....
This morning we continued to head north and after getting some ice and water down the Big Marco River, under two 55 foot bridges (they sure looked close to our 50 foot mast) and past Marco Island. There were plenty of "high-end dwellings and condos to see and a few big boats. You can see by the one picture that some boats don't always fare too well down here
Right now we are a couple of miles north of Marco across the channel from Keewadin Island in a nice quiest anchorage. The fog came in right after we anchored so we didn't go over to the gulf to check out the beach......next time I guess.
We will continue on the ICW until tomorrow and then we will head offshore for the final run to Ft Myers. Winds are suppose to be light so the Code 0 may be coming out of the float for the first time.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Panther Key
Oh, by the way the Everglades are fantastic.......They call them the "10,000 Islands".............Kind of like the 1.000 Islands but not a lot of people live there. This morning was absolutely beautiful!
We made coffee and then got in "It" and then explored............we found even more good places to anchor!
It was great to meet the women on Fourth Season. Thank you for all your tips of the Bahamas and ...........What a nice fishing pole... now we owe you some fresh fish!!!!!
Indian Key & Everglades City
Once again , an even better sail!!!!!! Grey Hound coursed willingly with a 42 nm sail up the coast in a little more than 4 hours!......that includes weighing anchor and wind shifts with a top speed of 16.3 knts...
We're in the land of tides now............check out before and after!
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