When Marion spoke with her son in Norway she mentioned that our next stop would be Marathon in the Florida Keys. He observed, "My geography is not too current, but, Mom, It seems that going to the Keys when you are above Maimi is going out of the way for your Great Loop."

He is right. We decided to go to the Keys after we decided to cross the Okeechobee. This way we got to do both. We invited Ed and Dorothy Hearon to join us in Marathon. Also Bill and Barbara Lowenberg are staying in Marathon and we wanted to visit them.

Ft Lauderdale

The trip down to Ft Lauderdale was an eye opener. There are lots of bridges: some we barely fit under, several we need to have opened. The later are of too kinds: On demand openers, and On Half hour schedule openers. We were fortunate to have purchased both a strip chart pack and a waterway guide that allowed us to know the locations and operating times of all the bridges.

We made it into Ft Lauderdale right about sunset. On the right is a sign "Welcome to Ft Lauderdale Yachting Capital of the World". Seems a bit boastful I thought.

A few miles down the ICW on the left we came upon Bahia Mar Yachting Center. So far on the trip we had encountered three Mega Yachts (they start at 100 feet and $15M): Black Sheep at Fisherman's Warf in Punta Gorda, Tai Pan anchored out in Charlotte Harbor off Punta Gorda, and Seneca the 100 footer that shared the Port Mayaca Lock with us.

Now as we approached Bahia Mar we could not count the number of these giant luxury yachts. One was pulling out in front of us so I slowed to a crawl to give her plenty of room. The name was Alexis and her bow was above my eye level on the fly bridge.

Next I heard, "This is Alexis to the little trawler on my starboard quarter. Thanks, for giving us berth. We are planning to take a left into the harbor."

"Little trawler, indeed," said Marion, "Did you hear that?"

I smiled at her observation and called him back, "Alexis, this is Remedy on your Starboard, we wish to take a left into Lake Sylvia just ahead."

"Remedy this is Alexis I am reducing speed ... You may pass ahead of me."

And so it was that the little trawler named Remedy, passed the giant mega yacht Alexis, in the Yachting Capital of the World.

The anchorage in Lake Sylvia was not mentioned in the Cruising Guide. Stuart had told us about it. It was uncrowded and we easily set hook for the night.

No Name Harbor

Next day we were off to No Name Harbor, its a small very well protected harbor at the southern end of Key Biscane. Several had recommended we stay there.
 

The trip was shorter than the day before.. there were more bridges that we could just pass under. Because it was the weekend, the bridges with scheduled openings changed over to on demand opening.  The bridge operator at the West Venitian Bridge was particularly helpful, friendly and courteous. I could tell we were in Maimi, the bridge operator had a Ricky Ricardo accent. Miami is very impresive from the water. Marion snapped this one as we were heading to the Rickenbacker Bridge.

As we were getting anchored, in our third attempted location, the boat next to us came alive with two people on deck. The woman was waving a flag at us. A moment later she straightened it out. It was a TMCA burgee. The boat was Island Time from Kemah. Dick and Sammie Caswell are the owners. They came over after dinner and we polished off the wine they brought and another we had ready for the occasion. They had left about a month ahead of us and were coming up from the Keys where we were headed.

No Name harbor is located in Bill Baggs State park. We took our bikes ashore with the dinghy and rode into town. There is a historic lighthouse to see and the Key Biscane Rotary club was sponsoring an art show at the entrance to the park. (Picture is on an undeveloped roll)

Key Largo

It's about a fifty mile trip from Key Biscane to Key Largo. We went the Hawks Channel route. It is offshore in the Atlantic Ocean. The first two hours of the trip were in pretty rough water. Wind and wave were on the port quarter and the ride was a bit rolly. It was a one bell ringer. After a while we got a smoother ride when we made the turn to the west. At Key Largo we went into the Marina, enjoyed the swimming pool and did some minor reprovisioning.

Marathon

The trip to Marathon is about 50 miles and we called ahead to confirm our reservations and contact Bill and Barbara.  They met us at the dock and after we got settled we went to Last Dance for cocktails and afterwards to Herbie's for dinner. Be sure and check the specials. My Dolphin Picata was Outstanding. Rating *** Cost $$.

I had a bunch of stuff to do on the boat.  The inverter, still under warranty had failed, I took it into West Marine and they swapped me a new one for the failed one. (That's great service! Pardon the plug.)

The performance of my batteries was marginal all the way from Texas. The alternators could not get them well charged. In Punta Gorda The Battery Shack in Marathon was recommended for great work. All of the advice said: if you are going to run inverters, get 100 Amp alternators. Bill at Battery Shack recommended new 8Ds to start the engines and 100 Amp Delco alternators.  I bought them, and you will hear how well they do in the future reports.

We were visited by a manatee in the harbor when Ed and Dorothy Hearon arrived. This one was larger than a Sumo wrestler, but smaller than a Volkswagen Beetle.
 

He/she had blue bottom paint on his/her nose, and a couple of blue paint marks from close encounters with the keels of power boats.  Otherwise, he/she seemed in good physical shape. This manatee had a Type B attitude in the extreme. Nothing seemed to perturb. Hyper is not an adjective for discribing anything about the manatee. We got some "action photos" of the manatee drinking water from a garden hose. One of the many laid back activities in Florida is manatee watching.

Ed and Dorothy came during the installation of the new batteries.  Ed helped muscle them below, and Dorothy went for a long bike ride with Marion. Swapping out three 8D batteries is not a "pink job". We headed out in the rent car to Key West while the installer completed the job.

Key West
 

We found our way immediately to the dockside boardwalk. We saw the famous dinghy dock... there must have been 60 tied up. At $4 a day, $20 a week, or $60 a month someone is netting $50K /yr on a 2400 sq.ft. of water. We visited the Turtle museum on the dock and had Lunch at Turtle Kraals. The ladies were disappointed in the Conch sandwiches, I really liked the Seafood Enchilladas. Rating ** Price $$$ Atmosphere ****

After lunch we went to the Train Station. I could not resist buying a wooden train whistle and had a lot of fun tooting it on the Conch Tour Train ride.  Our engineer was Jack from Long Island. He fell in love with the train five years ago on a trip to Key West. He went home, sold his house, and moved to Key West to drive one of the trains. He is a non-stop narrator. Lots of facts.. trivia... and corny jokes. The hour plus ride filled us to the brim with the sights and sounds of Key West... Including a few blasts on my whistle. Lesson... Don't ride a tour train in a backward facing seat. You get all twisted and a sore neck. Train Tour *** $$$.

There was still some time for shopping and watching the big sailing tour boats leave the harbor on the sunset cruise.  We stood alongside as Western Union, a 130 foot schooner, loaded up her passengers and departed the dock.  This historic schooner laid cable to Cuba and across the Gulf to Mexico and Venezuela before she was converted into a tour boat.

The next day we took in the Pigeon Key Art Festival. Eighty artists were represented in this juried show.
The day was windy and sunny but great for the show.

Pigeon Key was originally a work camp during the construction of the Seven Mile Bridge connecting Marathon to the next substantial key, Bahia Honda, down the chain. Flagler built the Florida East Coast Railway in 1908 to 1912. It operated until 1935 when the span was converted into the first automobile bridge system to Key West. The Pigeon Key Foundation preserves and maintains it for marine science research.  Once considered "The eighth wonder of the world", the bridge was a massive undertaking considering the technology of the day. I bought a small book about the history of the Bridge and met its author, Dan Gallegher.

Next morning we made our farewells with Ed and Dorothy. It was great having them visit us. We got caught up on ALL of the news about our friends... (from an objective source at that.)

We decided that the next event we wanted to do was the Maimi Boat show. Jack and Betsy Hardy would be there on Antares. That would be about ten days away. We decided to "Go on the Hook" and take our time getting the 100 miles to Maimi.  The marina was running $75 a day and it seemd a waste.

As we were preparing to leave, Marion was on the aft deck and I was below.  A 4-day bearded sailor walked past our boat and noticed our port was Seabrook, Texas.

"You all from Texas I see," he said, " I am too."

Marion determined that he had just completed a three year round the world trip, " in that sailboat over there, New World."

"We have been following your adventures on the Houston Chronicle web page," she said, "you have to meet my husband."

The sailor is Lee Gunter and his trip, and his writing,  had inspired me to write about our cruising adventures. I have been posting a link to his and Mindi Miller's story for over two years. I was  thrilled to meet him in person.

I invited him aboard and gave him the tour of the boat.  I explained that we had been sailors until last May.  Not having sails takes some getting used to. What if the engines don't run?  With sails you can always get somewhere.  He seemed interested in a switch to motor yachting and asked all the right questions about operating expenses and performance.  I invited him to cruise with us to Maimi and experience the difference.

We pulled out and Lee helped casting lines off.   After five attempts to get an anchor to set we were finally sucessful using the Danforth. The next two nights on the hook,  it rained and blew cold out of the north.  The Danforth drug slowly all night. At 4 AM we had drug about 30 feet and were abrest of an unoccupied mooring ball marked "Private".  I let out additional rode on the Danforth to get positioned for the mooring. We stayed there all the next day and following two nights.  The CQR did not help in the soft sandy bottom.  A giant sized Fortress with a combination chain and nylon should be an improvement.

Marion says for life at anchor we need an automatic tracker for the satellite dish. That's two more toys to buy.