OOPS!!!!

We've been there and we live on a trimaran............NO FUN.......... but after a few years.........REALLY great stories!!!!!!

Look who has pulled into town!

We have some neighbors in the mooring field.... Kimosabi with Phil & Cathie on board buzzed past Honahlee in Florida Bay and pulled into town just the other day.

Now where is the rest of the gang from Green Bay???

First test of the year!

So........what are we looking at???

First one to get it right wins a prize!!!!!!

Ps.....it's not a Blue moon......that was last month........so????

The traditional boats are all around

Hook is a beautiful Leigh Morris 30 footer with a family of 4 on board.......yep, she is pretty full. Jon, there is another 36C in the harbor for you to look at also! Look in the background......both boats are red. All we need in Kasidah!

There is always work to be done.

Ray and Marianne are game to do just about anything so when it became time to adjust the spreaders...........well, they just did it!

They have TECHNOLOGY!

Lake Ontario is in the House!!!

It is a lot of fun seeing all the boats from our old neighborhood.......Lake Ontario in the mooring field in Marathon..............soooo, we have:

- Mystic - Hunter - Gordon & Lorrie from Chaumount Bay (oh ya, Wendy & Gordon's parents of the old Hobie days)

- Waves of Grace - Catalina 42 sold from Navy Pt - Walt & Pat

- Tug Hill Tug - Sea Ray - Alex & Cindy doing the loop

- Sweet Sensation - Hughes 40 ......friends of Les & Anne from Mimico. We are still looking forward to meeting them this week

- Tropical Gale Winds - Brockport.........we'll track them down soon

- Tecumsuh - a beauty from Toronto. We will find them also because the boat is geogeous!

ps: oh yea, last one out of NY.....turn out the lights!!!!

It takes all kinds!!

Cruising is something you just can't put into a few words but from small boats to medium to large...... we're all doing the same thing........... Here's 16 ft of cruising fun!!!!

ps Cosmos followed us down the west coast of Florida and is a great example of size doesn't matter!!!!

It's Australia Day!

Today it was announced that it was Australia Day, so we just had to fly the colours!! There is a boat here from Sydney and at the end of the dinghy dock there was a big sign that said "G'Day Mate!" Man! all we wanted to do is play Slim Dusty............Here's to you Ian & Jill!

Back to Grey Hound

Soooo, Admiral Amy was the chauffeur home........... per Nu-it....... what does Capt Ron say?!? If we get lost, we'll stop at an island and ask for directions!!!!

Sunday night appetizers on Grey Hound

After our "nibblies" we headed to the Keys Fisheries for dinner..............they are the home of the Lobster Reuben, Yum!!!....... as usual there was the local musician playing his tunes on yes the roof......... Yup we're in the Keys!!!!

Where the streets have no name!!!!!

The floating city

It was really great to share Marathon City Marina with Amy. The whole facility has been redone and sports 12 new showers and a new laundry..........not to mention a library and flat screen TV's.....oh yeah the "hut" as Amy called it also offers wi-fi and plug-ins for computers. It really is an amazing place complete with classes for yoga, softball if you want it and home schooling for families with kids!!!!

Amy's in the House!

Friday night Amy arrived in Marathon for a little R&R before Trawler Fest in Ft Lauderdale. We promised her nothing but a fun weekend and lots of smiles and "down time". The weekend was by far the warmest we've had and we were warm with lots of sun and great times!! After a few cocktails at the Dockside we made it back to GH for some "snacks" and then called it a night.

Saturday found us relaxing in the cockpit for breakfast and lounging on the nets during the afternoon.

Florida Bay 2010

A one minute video of our sail down to the Little Shark River

Heading to Marathon

Our trip to Marathon took us three sailing/motor days as we did not get much help from the wind gods. The first day we were hoping for a nice run down to the Little Shark River but lumpy seas and no wind made it slow going and we pulled into Panther Key for a nice quiet night. We were the only boat in sight.

The second day saw good sailing down to Little Shark in 6-9 knots of wind and similar boat speed. There was only one small Hunter at anchor when we came in but the anchorage added a few more boats by the evening. Wednesday was supposed to be a beam reach down to Marathon but the wind never came up and we ended up motor/sailing the last 48 miles.

80 DEGREES!! Water temp in the 70's!! Now we are talking much nicer!!

Our first night on the mooring ball in Boot Key Harbor. Now we just have to wait for Amy to show up in a couple of days.

Getting ready to head south where it's warm

It was nicer in Ft Myers Beach but we still had very cold water and of course we also got FOG. We had to make sure we would miss that stuff and we did manage to stay out of it for the sail down to the Keys, but the cold has hurt many things. First, you should have seen all the dead fish in the water. Many of the smaller ones just could not cope with the extreme length of the cold spell. I read yesterday that the Turtle Hospital picked up 170 turtles in just 3 days and kept them safe and warm until the water temp improved.

You also had to keep out the warm apparel. Style isn't too important when you want to stay warm!

Provisioning with the "Beach Limo"!!

Today we got to ride into town for some "stuff" with Jim & Laurie. Just like last year we took the "limo" and as you can see it's a real cool rod!!

- check out the miniature (OK, missing) rear view mirror.

- notice the rusty brown roof liner

- the locks don't work

- the trunk sometimes does

But.......it got us there and back with our good stuff!!! Jim is sure proud of our "ride".

Thanks guys.........

Salad

Ya thinkin' about some veggies...... they have salad in reef points here........Main sail is no taste, 2nd reef has spice and 3rd reef is delicious!!!!

Oyster eating at it's best!!

What a great time!!! Thank You, Guys!! Trace & Dianne and all the people we met.... Ft Myers Beach RULES!!!

YUMMM!!!!

We can't eat anymore.

WOW!!!!!!! Friday afternoon..at Burp & Slurp!!!

Amazing fun at Mantanzas Inn (aka managers of the mooring field). What a great time and an even better group of people. At 3pm today we went to an absolutely great Happy Hour/Cook-Out party. A seafood lovers delight!!! Thanks to Trace & Dianne we feasted on fresh!!!!! WE mean really fresh oysters and shrimp...........actually you couldn't even call the shrimp, shrimp, 'cuse they were HUGE!!!! :-0 Dick had his oyster shucking lesson and survived without a puncture.

Sunset in Ft Myers

looking out the bridge Gulf-side....................

Ft Myers Beach

The weather is finally getting a bit warmer and we're in Ft Myers Beach. Old grey Hound is need of gas, propane for Mr. Heater and water.......imagine that! So we'll be spending a few days hear to restock and do laundry.

There are all types of cruisers here on all different types of boats..............from the big ones to the small ones.............. Hey Otium does the Precision bring back some memories????

The "Real" Florida!

Cayo Costa is the largest undeveloped island on the west coast of Florida and I think we hiked most of it today!

Right now we are in the northern most part of the tropical zone and as we hiked around the island today we saw, smelled and enjoyed the island for most of the afternoon. The scenery was great, shelling unbelievable and the staff at the island was really helpful. Barry, the island manager went out of his way to make us feel welcome and the rangers couldn't help enough.

We found some great shells and other "fruits of the sea" and will get to work on making them even better........for you, Erika and Katie!!

Here comes the sun!!!!

Time to get the "stuff" out of the floats and .......let's get going!

Oh boy.......where did we get so much STUFF!!?? Where is this spartan concept??

You know it's cold while cruising when.......

• The skippers wife doesn't go beyond the front of the cockpit (which is under to dodger) for days on end!
• The white pelicans start looking like penguins!
• You know the local K-marts propane department's phone number by heart.
• Ospreys are setting up tip-ups for their fish meal of the day.
• No dumb chatting on the radio for days.
• Your heavy socks seem to smell good even after 5 days of constant wear.
• You haven't had a cold beer in days.
• The ice box is in no need of ice.....it's too cold in there already!

AND finally......we are still the only boat in the anchorage!!

Osprey!!

There are a least 4 or 5 nests in the area.......... we never seem to get tired of watching these guys!

Maybe..........

We took a wrong turn!! It's been pretty cold but that's OK, Mr. Heater and the Honda generator are saving the day!!!! We have another cold night ahead of us but we have really good, warm fleece bedding and believe it or not we've not been cold at night yet. Yesterday was raw!!!! Rain, clouds and wind but we are sitting tight!!! Today the sun came out and we were able to read in the cockpit..... Thank you Cooper Canvas!!!!

January 7th........ah, we are off the dock!

It sure takes a lot more time getting this boat ready when it is cold. But we are off and running, yesterday we left the dock and headed out. It is an 8 mile motor to get out of the canal and we held our breath getting out of the lock but by sunset we pulled up to Cayo Costa for a night on the outside and our best sunset of this winter (ok, our first). The next morning we went inside for a secure anchorage for the upcoming northerly that is coming in this weekend. Of course our 24 inch draft helped out nicely and we are sitting in 4 feet of water with sand under our bottom.

Forecast tomorrow..........more cold!! Guess we'll stay put for a day or so.

PS: those are White Pelicans and they are HUGE!!

Unbelieveable, but true!

Talk about wild and crazy. Here we are working away and a couple goes by dinghy after slowing down and keeps looking at us and GH......what????

Anne says "that looks like Elliott and Linda". Guess what??!! It is them!!!!

So.....after 6 years and many miles of who knows what, those guys are still in Charlotte working away on their steel mono-hull!! For many of you, these guys were at the marina when we helped Tom and Linda put Bahama Hunter, F-33, hull #4 (now EPIC, residing in Hawaii) together back in 2004. Elliot and Linda (not their first rodeo) recognized GH as an F-33......they truly were a big part of the ex-Bahama Hunter / EPIC build process. Ian Farrier mentions them in his web site.

It was really great to see them again and they finally have their boat almost ready to go!!