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!!!!