The Hinckley visit was a great success.

The week before Sam, Jess, Ben and Oliver arrived was spent getting the boat ready for their visit and Ben's 6th birthday party.  Their plane touched down at the Ft. Myers/Naples (RSW) Airport at 6:30 pm and Grand Mar, Popov, John and Brandi were there to meet them.  Even though it was a Saturday night, we decided to brave one of the popular beach spots for dinner, Parrot Key Carribean Grill.  Needless to say, it was late when we finally got to the boat.  We thought the plan would be to put the boys to bed in the "V" berth and then when Sam and Jess were ready to go to sleep we'd move the boys out to the main salon and the parents could have the forward cabin.  Sam and Jess decided they didn't want to move the boys so they slept Sam on the settee and Jess next to the table!  That seemed to work well for everyone, but it meant no blogging as I usually do it when everyone is asleep...

We headed off Sunday around noon (waiting for the tide) and powered at idle speed (strictly enforced all long the waterfront here) and arrived at Picnic Island around 3:00 pm.  There were still a lot of weekenders on the island, but we ventured ashore and played a bit on the shore.  By sunset, everyone had cleared out and we had a peaceful night.  The next day, the island was ours and we took full use of it.

Ben got to dig, Oliver got to wrestle an alligator, Sam got to sail, Jess got to ride the alligator
and the boys did lots of adventuring.

Dory also got in a lot of romping, running and swimming and digging. 

Brandi and John took some time to be with everyone and spent time at the beach both across the street from our marina and a bit south of here on Barefoot Beach.   They all spent a day at the Shell Factory which has an animal park as well as a very large (and somewhat cheesy) gift shop. We hosted  Ben and Oliver for a night while the middle generation did some bar hopping.  Danny was able to join them as he was between assignments - one in Orlando and the next in Naples.  The weather was perfect all week and even got to enjoy the small pool here at the marina.

Try as they might, Ben and Oliver never got the hang of using our CCYC communicatiors, but had lots of fun trying.

It was hard to pull Ben and Oliver away from the beach, but they did enjoy a family adventure out on the Hobie Mirage Sport Kayaks.  We were sorry to be sending them back to another 8 inches or so of snow, but that's the way this winter has been treating the rest of the country this year.

We only had one medical interruption to their visit, Dan had an MRI of his back to see if that would answer the nagging question of his pain and nausea.  It did show some stress spots in his upper and lower back, and luckily time seems to be the solution to the situation as he is feeling much better - - - finally!  All in all Dan saw 10 different doctors in the past month!!  We're done with all of them at this point.      ~~~_/)~~~M&D

Cayo Costa State Park and Boca Grande

We never would have attempted either of the to anchorages we visited yesterday and today if we hadn't had Rampage leading the way!  The chart plotter showed depths of 4 and 5 feet as we skirted a long sandbar on our way into Pelican Bay off the Cayo Costa State Park but the depth sounder never went below 7.5 feet.  There was a brisk northwest breeze blowing and we had a beautiful sail up Pine Island Sound, arriving at Pelican Bay around 1 pm.

After lunch aboard we took dinghies ashore and walked across the island to the Gulf side of the island and saw how rough the Gulf could get when it blows 20 knots or so.

We followed Rampage  closely as we sailed up Pine Island Sound and into Pelican Bay - - - note the
pelicans that greeted us as we passed within 100 feet of the sand bar at the entrance.

We spent a pleasant night anchored in about 8 feet of water and were glad to see the wind had

quieted down a bit by morning.  We only had a short motor sail to get to Boca Grande and crept

out the entrance as the tide was lower than it was on our trip in.  Bill and Linda had been telling

us about the Bayou at Boca Grande and how quiet the anchorage is.  We followed them in and we were able to raft up for the night because it is so well protected

We skirted right by a beautiful golf course at the entrance to the Bayou and rafted up with Rampage.
What looks like an inner jib is actually their headsail.  Bottom left we are dropping our stern anchor near the shore.

John and Brandi went ashore as soon as we had settled and rented bikes, they came back aboard for Bloody Marys and then we all took bikes ashore to ride to the southern end of the island to have lunch at South Beach.  While waiting to be served John and Brandi decided to do a little "stunting" on the beach, very successfully I might add.  After lunch we rode to the lighthouse  and also took in some of the sights which included an interesting mural painted on someone's wall and also an exciting remote control laser race in one of the canals on the island.

The rented bikes were due back at 4 pm, so we were back aboard shortly thereafter and decide to take a "cocktail cruise" in the dinghy.  We saw more Hinckley boats in the space of half an hour than we've seen since being tied up in Southwest Harbor!  All of them were the powerboat variety... a sad commentary from our perspective.  We also spied lots of wildlife, that's a porpoise behind Bill's head, and a pelican and great blue behind Linda's.  The sun shining through the stars and stripes just looked so pretty, and Bill wanted a picture from this side of our raft to prove they were actually there!

Linda served up wonderful Gulf pink shrimp for dinner and we watched a bit of the Olympics before turning in. ~~~_/)~~~M&D

You'd think we were Rip Van Winkle we "slept" so long!!

There's a long explanation as to why we haven't posted anything in two weeks, but I'll just say we know the Lee County Medical Community WAY too well at this point.  Dan ended up in the hospital for three days while several doctors puzzled over what was causing his pain and nausea.  Final answer, his health is just fine, all tests show this and that, but nothing to write home about or do anything about at this time, so we are MOVING FORWARD!!

Here we are at our "slip" at Snook Bight Marina.  We've made one trip in the two weeks we've been here....150 feet along the face dock to the spot now occupied by a small runabout.  We walked the boat up to the fuel pump on Wednesday this week.

With great support from both John and Brandi and Linda and Bill Shenko, we have been able to enjoy ourselves while Dan has been dealing with ??? we're not sure what. Last week Linda drove me to Lakeland (the halfway spot between Ft. Myers and St. Augustine) to meet Jay and Pegg to retrieve our car.  

 This weekend we are off on our first real adventure.  John and Brandi are with us aboard Brunelle while we join Linda and Bill (they have a Cal 29) headed for Boca Grande and other spots north of Ft. Myers Beach. 

  

 We left the marina at 1:00 pm to take advantage of high tide and headed north along Estero Island (the home of Ft. Myers Beach),  and passed through the Matanzas Bridge to find that Nao Victoria followed us from St. Augustine!  She is still on her good will tour of Florida.  We also motored past the canal where Linda and Bill keep their boat, tied right in front of their house.  They have the great rooftop deck with the white railing.

We continued on to the north end of the island and tied up at the Bowditch Park dock to wait for John and Brandi.  Linda and Bill arrived first with their boat, Rampage, and rafted with us to wait.  We have a full crew and were ready to shove off a little after 5 pm and headed out the San Marco Pass and followed Rampage  to our anchorage off Pine Island.  Here's the crew being joined by Rampage just as the moon rose.

We celebrated Valentine's Day with dinner aboard Brunelle, and then Rampage broke away to anchor nearby.  A beautiful calm and moonlit night...a far cry from the scene back in PA.  All we hear is SNOW, SNOW, SNOW and throw in a little ICE!    ~~~_/)~~~ M&D 

Snook Bight Marina, Ft. Myers Beach

Finally!  More rain and wind on Thursday night, but Friday dawned warm and sunny and hardly a breath of air.  The trip around the bottom of the Keys and due north to Ft. Myers was going to be about 20 hours, so we didn't want to leave too early and get in before dark, so we moseyed away from the dock a little after 11 AM and headed out.  The seas were still a little sloppy due to the last few days of strong winds, so we put the main up to help steady us and kept the RPMs lower than usual to maintain between 5.5 and 6 knots of speed.

As we passed the southernmost point in the continental USA we saw several sails...it was no longer race week, but it seems there was a schooner race underway.  Unfortunately there was barely enough wind to keep all their sails full, but they still were a pretty sight.

We fought a fair amount of current through the Northwest Channel past Key West, but were finally in the Gulf of Mexico by around 1 PM.  Not much to see once we got through the channel and through the maze of pots.  In preparation for out nighttime run we started up the Radar and practiced picking out "targets" - - - mostly shrimp boats, and were confident we were ready for darkness.  It was a cloudy night without any moon and not many stars showed either.  Just after sunset (not worth a picture) Dan was zooming out on the chartplotter and saw an AIS coming up behind us.  When he checked on it's information he discovered it was the Key West/Ft. Myers Ferry - - - making 35 knots heading directly on the same course we were following.  Dan got on the VHF radio and called them, and after a pause the captain came back with "I see you, no problem."  We could see his lights as he whizzed by us about a half mile away.  That was it for the rest of the night!  One or two "targets" passed somewhere within 10 miles of us but mostly we were watching a blank radar screen.

Shortly after sunrise we noticed that our visibility was getting worse and worse and when we reached the San Carlos Bay light just off the entrance to Ft. Myers we were really socked in... like Maine like fog.  We crept along toward the next two marks which we had a hard time seeing and decided to slip out of the channel and just hover and wait for it to burn off a bit.

This is how the morning progressed!  Finally about 8:45, after waiting at least an hour, we started back in the channel.  Just before we reached the narrowest part of the channel the Key West/Ft. Myers Ferry headed out past us.  This time we had no trouble seeing her.

Our son John had been waiting patiently, first at the marina right next to the bridge out to Ft. Myers Beach and then at the Bowditch Park at the tip of Estero Island.  When he headed over to the Park he found that the free town dock in the park was empty and had ample water so we decided that would be a good place to wait for high tide.  We'd been told we would need at least mid tide or better to make it to our marina.  Here are John's pictures of our arrival, and two very pretty pictures of the fog!

Ever since we decided to head to Ft. Myers we've been in touch with one of my oldest friends (would you believe kindergarten buddies) who lives here.  Linda and her husband Bill Shenko also met us at the Bowditch Park dock and Bill offered to come with us as we headed down the channel around noon.  It was a great help to have him along and we made it to the marina easily.  We are now tied up, plugged in and ready to explore this new territory...oh yes, and get a good night's sleep!  ~~~_/)~~~M&D

Never made it to Key West... as we studied the various guide books and Active Captain recommendations, we opted to stop short of Key West at Stock Island Marina Village.

We missed the Grand Opening by a few days, but found everything still shiny and new and the staff very helpful. This harbor has always been known as a working harbor and still is, but the new facility is planning to add a hotel, swimming pools and a park.  They advertise themselves as being the last stop before Cuba, but we were still surprised to see the hailing port on the Hatteras tied up on F Dock.  After googling the Hinckley Sou'wester 70 custom yacht Patriot,  we learned she had been for sale two years ago for $1,695,000.  The tug - - - I don't know anything about, it just adds contrast!

Another reason to stop at Stock Island was The Hogfish Bar and Grill is here.  We arrived at the marina around 1:30 pm and were glad to plug in and turn on the A/C.  It was a hot ride down with a very light breeze directly behind us.  Dory and I headed out right away to check out the advertised dog park.  It was great.  There were three dogs already there and she had a great time romping with them.  Hogfish is just over a mile away, so we opted to eat aboard tonight and head over there tomorrow.

The weather hasn't looked good for our overnight passage, so we signed up for another night.  Jim Mosher, a fellow CCYC member is in Key West staying with some SOS (Singles on Sailboats) friends, so we invited them to join us for a drink aboard before heading over to The Hogfish.  We all agreed that it's better to go during the day as the atmosphere loses something in the dark.

We joined Carl, Terri and Jim at The Hogfish Bar and Grill on Wednesday night.

There isn't a gourmet restaurant here yet, but there is a unique breakfast and lunch "stand".  It is situated near the dog park, community garden, bocce ball courts and the Guinea Hen Haven.  We enjoyed a good lunch there on Thursday.

It's a dog's life on Brunelle and Dory seems to have adjusted pretty well, but sometimes she wants "out" and lets us know by situating herself on the companionway stairs.

When I see a gorgeous boat go by I can't resist googling it, so I googled Freedom and learned all about this 104' Trumpy yacht built in 1926 for Woolworth's heiress.  It ended up in disrepair in 2002 and on the verge of sinking, so the McMillen Company bought it for $100, put it on a barge, took it to Newport, RI and put together a syndicate to fund it's restoration which took from 2004 to 2009.  She looks wonderful today! We passed her on our way down from Marathon.

Here it is Friday morning and if we don't get moving, we'll miss the Super Bowl Party at John and Brandi's in Ft. Myers!  Actually the weather looks like it will cooperate, so we hope to head off around noon for an overnight passage, getting us to Ft. Myers tomorrow morning sometime.  ~~~_/)~~~M&D

An easy "run" to Marathon

Not wanting Dory to have another tension filled day, we put the dinghy down at day break and took her ashore at a restaurant (Mandalay's) dock for her morning duties.

We were greeted by this white heron as we approached the dock.  He had no intention of breaking his vigil on our account and stood watch as we entered and left the small harbor.

The anchor was up and we were on our way by 8 AM. We were surprised that not as many of our neighbors left at or before daybreak for a Gulf Stream crossing as we had expected.

The breeze was very light and just far enough off the bow to allow us to roll out the jib to steady the ride.  It didn't do all that much for speed, but we made a respectable 7+ knots most of the day.

By midday we were off the Islamorada coast and managed to spot Patrick and Carolynne's home.  I was able to use "street view" on Google Maps to verify we had the right place.  Their house has the blue awnings just to the right of the large white roof.

The rest of the trip to Marathon was easy - - - except we felt right at home dodging crab/lobster traps for the rest of the day!  Dan dipped (the most accurate way to tell how much fuel we need)the fuel tank as we turned toward Marathon.  It was a little before 3 PM when we pulled up to the fuel dock at the Marathon Marina for 25 gallons...dock hands are always so thrilled to see such a big sale arrive!  We headed right back out the entrance channel and dropped the hook in 9 feet of water right near the seven mile bridge.

We watched this schooner head out of Marathon to drift about so customers could experience a sunset cruise.  The beginning of the seven mile bridge is barely visible in the background.

Tomorrow we'll head on down (actually it's almost due West) to Key West and wait to see when we can do the overnight trip to Fort Myers.  It's a quiet night here even though we aren't in a protected spot.  ~~~_/)~~~M&D

Key Largo and Rodriguez Key (corrected version)

We had arrived at Dinner Key in Miami a little before 3 PM Tuesday and rode the launch in to the office, but were unable to sign in because the power was out and nothing was working.  It was particularly exciting trying to use the windowless bathroom without power...thank goodness for the iPhone flashlight!  We did try taking the dinghy in a few times but the dinghy dock was jam packed with what looked like mostly derelict dinghies, so we used the launch whenever possible.  The wind piped up as predicted on Wednesday, so we weren't interested in venturing out into Hawks Channel yet.

After two days at anchor at the Dinner Key Mooring field we made another sunrise departure

(Thursday AM).

By the time we had crossed Biscayne Bay and entered the channel through Stiltsville, the day had shown its true colors and it was pleasantly warm and a gentle breeze was blowing from the Northeast. We noticed that some of the houses of Stiltsville seem to have a new coat of paint.  

We had left before the first launch service and Dory didn't get a trip ashore before our morning departure, so Martha spent a good bit of time trying to convince her to use the green "grass" on the bow. She was finally successful mid afternoon! 

We entered the Port Largo Canal at 3:30 PM (right at high tide) and were directed to the same slip we had occupied on our previous two trips!  

A few changes tho, Candy the dockmaster was no longer there, but the new guy, Brian was very nice and helpful.  The other change was that the African Queen was bought by someone who "fixed" her up and sells rides in the iconic movie star.  

This morning we had breakfast on the veranda at the Marina Del Mar Resort and Marina and got re acquainted with some of the regulars who spend their winters on their boats, many from Canada...no French Toast tho...that's another change!

Robby and Carol have been one or two days behind us since we left St. Augustine, but they caught up today.  They came down the "inside" through Florida Bay (too shallow for Brunelle)  and called to say they were having lunch with Patrick and Carolynne Ellis-Jones and we were invited to join them. Patrick is our third cousin once removed and thanks to our Granny Robinson  the families have made a connection.  They live outside London, but have a house in Islamorada, just south of here, where they escape for the winter months.  Patrick collected us after picking up Rob and Carol at Gilbert's Marina and Tiki Bar just north of here and drove us down to Islamorada where Carolynne had prepared a feast for us.  It was great fun to finally meet them,  as we have heard about them from Rob and Carol.

The view of ocean from Patrick and Carolynne's front yard in Islamorada includes this magnificent flowering bush.

We left Port Largo on the high tide tonight and are anchored off Rodriguez Key with several boats that are ready to jump off in the morning to head across the Gulf Stream as we head off on our way south.  ~~~_/)~~~M&D