BIMINI

We anchored off Pumpkin Key, at the entrance to Angelfish Creek.  Ed listened to the forecast, and decided the Gulf Stream needed another day to calm down before we left. So we used the time to go out Angelfish and sail to the outside marker, beyond the reefs.  This would give us a "tick line" on the chart plotter to follow when we did leave.  It was a great idea, because there were so many crab pots to navigate around and we were leaving at night.  On the return to our anchorage we hooked a nice size mackerel! Yay! Dinner tonight!

We weighed anchor Tuesday morning at 0115. The winds were out of the east southeast and higher than forecast (of course!). Ed stayed on the bow, with his harness and tether attached to the boat, and used the spotlight to watch for those pesty crab pots and the channel markers. My job was to keep Manatee on the tick line of the chart plotter, as best I could. It felt like a computer game, and I wasn't very good at it. The auto pilot worked way better. It was pretty rough out and we were bashing right into the wind.  Ed had to really hang on! By 0330 we had made it through the channel and past the last shallow areas without hitting any pots. Whew!  We raised the mainsail, Ed took the helm and I proceeded to take a nap. Ed plotted the course, aiming for Cat Cay further south than Bimini to allow the current of the Gulf Stream to carry us North.  He was a bit concerned because he wanted to head the same direction as the wind was coming from, but we needed the sail out to mellow the boat out some.  After a couple hours nap,  upon sitting up, Ed says very calmly, "we may miss Bimini".   I'm like "What???". He says, "but it'll be close".  I thought "close doesn't help", but what Ed was saying was if we overshoot Bimini because of the current in the stream, we would just have to turn around and make a jog back. He continued to monitor the wind direction, which never had much south to it like we wanted and expected.  We had nice weather, it was a touch cool in the breeze, but no rain, and the Gulf Stream was fairly tame. Seas were choppy but only about 2 ft.  Clouds covered the horizon so we were not able to witness a gorgeous sunrise.

We were approximately 20 miles from our destination and Ed was ready to put out a couple of fishing lines. Within 20 minutes we hooked a Mahi Mahi!  It was so exciting watching Ed haul it in, as we watched the bull jump several times. Our first Mahi! We got him in the boat and Ed had quite a time cleaning and filleting it on the stern deck in the choppy seas. But he did fine and the beautiful fillets got into the freezer quickly.

We brought the fishing lines in and Ed studied the charts again.  We were right on track for Bimini! Capt. Ed hit the mark right on the bullseye! We found the channel that led to Brown's Marina and docked in a slip without issue.  There was a super strong current, but we got in fine.  We arrived at 11:30 am. The water is absolutely gorgeous. Clear and aqua blue in color.  The breeze was awesome, and the sun was shining. There were only about 4 other boats at this Marina when we arrived, but as the day wore on, more boats were coming in, mostly sailboats.  The tide was going out so fast that one boat didn't quite get into the slip and ended up broadside, giving us quite a show of what NOT to do!

BROADSIDE! OOPS!

We have been here 3 days now, and having a blast!  We are meeting lots of great folks and enjoying the small town atmosphere.  

A wall along the roadside topped with Conch Shells

Walking along the beach road, only minutes from the marina

Great snorkeling beach, lots of sea glass and pretty shells

The name on the building caught me by surprise!

Ed went fishing with a neighbor and came back with at 30 decent sized red and yellow tail snappers.  The guys filleted them up at the dock and as the skin and bones of the fish were tossed overboard we received an awesome show of fish coming to grab a bite, including one very large shark that we were told hangs out around the marinas for an opportunity like this.

Snapper!

A 10' Bull Shark!

WAITING FOR A WEATHER WINDOW

Our view from Manatee in Key Largo

We returned to Key Largo after a great Thanksgiving weekend with the family.  Thank you, Casey and Edward, for being great hosts, and making it all happen!

Casey and her mom Mary, a super yummy Italian Thanksgiving!

On our return to Manatee the wind we were experiencing before Thanksgiving gave way to rain.  It has been raining with occasional downpours everyday.  It rained so much and so often that the cockpit was as wet as if there was no dodger/bimini overhead. Ugh.  

On a following still morning we tossed the kayaks in the water to go for a paddle around the mangrove swamps.  It was very quiet.  We enjoyed viewing the foliage and wildlife going on in these eery looking swamps.

Heading into the mangrove channel

A tunnel!

Deeper in the mangroves, mosquitos!

We also continued the never ending improvements to Manatee.  I wanted shades to go around the cockpit to keep the afternoon sun beaming in and keeping it hot.  Since we don't have power while at anchor, I brought my roll of Sunbrella into Georgeanne's and cut out what I needed using the hot knife.  (keeps the material from fraying at the cut edges).  I used the sewing machine manually aboard Manatee, with Ed helping by turning the crankshaft.  They turned out pretty good!

Stern Cockpit shade 

From the outside

We are excited to get be getting ready for the next leg of our cruising season, crossing the gulf stream and getting to Bimini.  We need a few days of nice weather, with winds from any direction but North.  Any north will make the gulf stream choppy and rough.  So far, still waiting.

We have been so fortunate to have family here and to be able to use the car to run into town for the little miscellaneous things we keep thinking we need.  We spent an entire day provisioning Manatee, including a trip to BJ's wholesale.

Uh, this is a boat. Filled with the provisioning 

Canned goods locker aboard Manatee.

Out with the knick-knacks, in with the food/snacks!

It took a couple of days to stow the amount of food we bought.  We are trying to provision for at least 4 months.  We don't want to grocery shop if it can be avoided!  

The bilge- filled with 5 large bottles each of Rum and Scotch, 2 large and 2 small bottles of Gin, 7 boxes of wine and 7 cases of beer, that SHOULD be enough for a while!! (Beer is stowed under the sink in the head and various other spaces on the boat)

We got the propane outboard motor for LilBit fixed.  (yes, again). This time it was the fitting for the small campstove size propane tanks.  Since the engine is still under warranty we had to call the company and have them send us the parts and Ed fixed it. 

Yesterday we were given a life raft by one of the boat residents at Gilbert's anchorage, who is a long time friend of Georgeanne's. Its old but looks fine and should work.  Hopefully we will never have to use it, but glad to have it!  Thank you Dennis!

Sunday 12/13/15

We left wonderful Key Largo, headed for an anchorage outside Angelfish Creek and then for the open sea around midnight tonight.  The weather looks great for the next week or so, winds out of the South and Southeast, 15-20 kts.  Should blow us right across the gulf stream to Bimini!!

Saying "so long" to Gilbert's Resort.  Key Largo is always very good to us.

Stay tuned for updates as we come into areas of internet signal and I take time to post!

GOING EAST AND NORTH TO KEY LARGO

We left the mooring field early on Tuesday morning, happy to be back on the move.  Key West is an awesome place to visit, but rough on the body and the pocketbook if we stayed any longer!

A beautiful sunrise to greet the day

Leaving the mooring field

Quiet calm

We rounded Key West and said goodbye for now.  The winds were out of the ENE, of course the general direction we were heading.  However with the little bit of North to it, we were able to raise sails and motor sail.  The Atlantic was fairly calm, seas 1-2 feet.  We headed out beyond the Hawk Channel and continued east off shore.  We were on a hunt for a mahi mahi, which are found in deep water.  On our way, as we always try to do, we were trolling and began catching fish! The first two were caught simultaneously on the two lines we had out, two yellow tail snappers! Yum!  After that, Ed had a hard time keeping up with catching, cleaning, filleting and getting the lines back out again (wah,wah, such problems!).

Snapper!

King Mackerel

Lunch!

We continued catching Spanish Mackerels.  Some say they are "fishy" fish, but when caught, filleted, washed clean of all blood, immediately frozen, they are delicious! We still have a freezer full.  We caught a couple of unidentified Jacks.  We only kept the first one, until we were sure of what type of Jack it was.  It was a tough one to clean and fillet.  Thanks to our Facebook friends, we received ideas and Dave identified it as a Yellow Jack, and it was good eating.  (we later tried it and he was right! Yummy!)

We reached Molasses Key right as the sun was setting and at its brightest on the water.  We inched our way back to the nice spot we had found on the way down.  We got through the very narrow channel and then got a little greedy. We wanted to go just a little bit further in, closer to the island. Just as Ed had decided we could go no further due to shallow water, we saw the depth sounder hit 5.2, 4.9 and oops! We ran aground as we were turning around.  Luckily, only Manatee's bow was stuck, and the stern was still floating.  Ed got into the dinghy with the auxiliary anchor and kedged us right off! Whew.  We proceeded back to the "safe spot", dropped anchor and stayed put for the night. It is such a nice spot, as long as you stay afloat!

Diving off the Kayaks

The following morning we went snorkeling off the shallows.  We took the kayaks, which Ed  leashed to an ankle and dragged behind us. The water was crystal clear and inviting.  I actually shelled under water!  Found lots of pretty pieces of coral, and lots of clam shells.

Crystal clear water!  Molasses Key

We stayed an extra day, and just relaxed.  We planned on going over to Boot Harbor Mooring field and wait out the next big blow for a few days, but on Friday morning Ed woke up to a gut feeling telling him its time to go and make our way up to Key Largo. We had a weather window of a couple of days before the 20-25 kt winds get here.  So we pulled it together pretty quickly and weighed anchor at 7:45 am.  We motored to the fuel dock at the Marathon Marina and RV Resort, which was super easy and we were once again on our way.  The wind was out of the NE, and once again, we were going that very direction so we weren't able to sail.  We motored up to Tavanier Key and dropped anchor for the evening there. 

The following morning, we motored up the Hawk Channel, trolled,  but were only able to hook Blue Runner Jacks and had to release.  No yummy eating fish today, oh well.  We approached Angelfish Creek around lunch time.  After making our way through Card Sound, then Barnes Sound, we went under the Overseas Highway Bridge and located the mooring ball.  However, another boat (the owner or the Sand Dollar Boat Rentals) anchored his boat so close to the mooring ball, we were not able to safely tie up to it. Sucks, because we were really planning on the security of the mooring ball for Thanksgiving weekend. Georgeanne had tried to reach the boat owner, to no avail.  Poor boating etiquette...to anchor right on top of an existing mooring ball!  We went past the mooring ball and the small anchorage and found a spot to drop the anchor,  as the winds were picking up to the 25-30 kt range out of the Northeast.  The anchor seemed to be holding, but the bottom was soft and mushy with a layer of grass on top.  Not great for holding.  We stayed put there for a couple of days, but had to pull the anchor and go to the fuel dock to refill the water holding tanks.

The GPS showing Manatee dragging all over the place!

 The rest of the week was busy with running errands (we rented a car), hanging out with Georgeanne and Rob, and re-anchoring.  The winds have been howling all week, so needless to say we were interrupted a few times by Manatee dragging anchor.  We woke up Sunday morning at 4:30 am to being a little too far from where we dropped the hook.  We had to hop up and weigh anchor, and find deeper water.  We motored for a couple of hours until daylight, then found a nice protected basin to drop anchor, have breakfast and get a plan.  We decided to go into Gilbert's and get a slip at the face dock for the day and night.  My brother Tim and his friend Mike were coming later that day to visit for a couple of days.

Tim and Mike

Capt Ed, Me, Tim

We had a great couple of days visiting, and Monday morning we went back out to our original spot and this time we dropped 3 anchors at different points to allow for strong winds from every direction.  It took a full 24 hours to feel comfortable that Manatee would not drag anchor again.

GPS showing not much movement

Wednesday rolled around, forecast is for  WIND, WIND AND MORE WIND all weekend, with gusts to 40-45 kts!  Georgeanne and her friends will watch over Manatee and we are hopping a flight out of Miami to Little Rock to spend Thanksgiving with Edward and Casey, Casey's family, and Erin and Anna.

Just finished with a rain storm, dinghying to shore, to go to the airport

There she is, and hopefully to stay until our return!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Upon our return to Manatee after the holiday, we will be provisioning and watching for the weather window to make the jump over to Bimini.

KEY WEST!!

After checking in with the Marina office and paying for the mooring ball for the next week or so, we took a short hike to Winn Dixie.  It was only a mile or so away so we grabbed our grocery bags and did some grocery shopping.  We used a couple of backpacks and our large freezer bag.  It wasn't too bad, but I know that freezer bag and 10 lb bag of ice inside was a haul for Ed. It sure was hot in Key West, but as my Arkansas friends say, nobody feels sorry for us!
The following day was another hike into town, this time we went towards Old Town Key West, and found West Marine.  Ed has some things to order, (always).
Monday rolled around and that started the week of Parrothead fun, starting with an unplugged show at Schooner's Wharf by Southern Drawl Band.  Steve and Erica from Arkansas came into town and we met them there.  So so good to see our dear friends!

Picture with Mike Nash, and Erica at Schooner's

Southern Drawl Band unplugged

We had such a busy schedule, with trying to see all the bands we love.  We took only one day off on Thursday and rested up to be able to continue.  We left each morning and took the 20 minute (sometimes wet and choppy) dinghy ride into the dinghy docks and headed into town.  We came back to Manatee after dark most nights and some nights approaching midnight!  We were not used to this pace, but had a blast! On Thursday, we rested and enjoyed the sights at the mooring field.  We watched a seaplane land in the field and tie up to a floating raft for a while, then take off.  We watched a huge military plane drop off divers with parachutes and watched them briskly gather their parachutes into a ball.  It looked like it was special forces training. 

Big military plane flying overhead

Splashdown!

Seaplane landing

The rest of the week is kinda blurry...Let's just say there was music, drinks and food all day, everyday!  Here are some of my favorite pictures of the great musicians we encountered this week.

Sunny Jim (James White)

Latitude

The Klee and Mike Show 

Ramajay Intercoastal

Jimi Pappas

John Patti

The JP's

Thom Shepherd and Coli McCabe

Dennis McCaughey

Rob Mehl

Thom Shepherd and Greg Dumas having fun!

Jim Hoehn and Howie Golub

Southern Drawl Band at the San Carlos Institute Theater

Dave McKenney

Charlie Imes and Christopher Dale

Photo shot of us with Charlie Imes an Chris Dale

Latitude at the Rooftop Cafe

Mike Miller

Rob Mehl

Jack Mosely

Dennis Davis

Mike Nash

Jim Morris and the Big Bamboo Band

The Boat Drunks Acoustic Jam at Capt. Tony's

Thom Shepherd and Cole McCabe with a crossdresser, doing "OMG, I phlocked a Parrothead"

Howard Livingston

We met another cruising couple, Curt and Cindy from Virginia.  Steve and Erica just purchased their cruising sailboat this week.  So here's a picture of the three Pirate Captains! Arrrggghhh!!

Curt, Ed and Steve

And the Pirate Wenches

Maureen, Erica and Cindy

On one of our trips to the dinghy dock, we encountered these guys as we rounded the corner at Garrison Bight!

This guy was just sunning himself on the seawall

This guy must have been at least 4 ft. long!! 

Monday rolled around and the town of Key West was gearing up for their next big event, the power boat races.  All Parrotheads have gone home or are heading home.  We readied ourselves to leave early Tuesday morning, heading east and up to Key Largo.