Valentine's Day

Tuesday

February 14, 2017

On Valentines Day, Mike and Joell went snorkeling on the Sombrero Reef, near Marathon, Fl.  It was a beautiful calm day for skin diving with friends.  We then went to Havana Jack's for dinner with two wonderful Florida residence, who transferred from Green Bay Wisconsin.  Love those Wisconsinites 😊

There were seven of us, plus Elwood, going out to the reef snorkeling.  The others were all sailers, so it was a treat for them to be on a power boat.  They were happy to have an outside fresh water shower, after the saltwater swim.

Tom and Vicky

Tom's sister, Bonnie

Dan and Ken

Tom

Bonnie

Ken

Dan with his glasses inside the mask...

Tom & Bonnie
Pretty calm for being in the Atlantic Ocean...

There were a lot of other boats on the reef.  It was a perfect day.  

All boats are required to use mooring balls on the reef, so it isn't destroyed.  Boats are not allowed to anchor on the reef.  We arrived early and got one of the best mooring balls. 

Vicki adjusting her goggles

Mike spitting into his goggles to keep them from fogging...

Tom, Vicki and Bonnie

Mike

Mike

Elwood really wants to jump in with his dad

Mike and Dan.  We have a fender and line attached to the boat, just in case someone needed help.  The current is usually very strong, but of coarse it was a perfect day.  Tom is living on his boat and said this type of day at the reef is rare.

Tom, Mike and Vicki

Ken

All are enjoying the swim

Joell took most of the pictures, but Mike caught her in one.

Reef tower lights at night, to keep passing boats safe.

Vicki stayed in the water the longest.

We saw quite a few Barracuda.  They were in wait for all the bait fish.  There were a lot of Yellowtail  Snapper, beautiful blue Dory fish (that is from the movie), and many many more species.

Here's a video of fish right off the back of our boat.

At Havana Jack's we enjoyed the wonderful company of Patrick and Jane. 

Meal choices looked wonderful.    

Another view from the restaurant

Lobster Bisque (looked curdled, but tasted good)

Stuffed Lobster.  We never asked for sushi, but under cooked it was.  

The sunset view from our table was beautiful, as always in Marathon

Another view from our table

Mike and Joell on way to dinner

Sunday

February 12, 2017

Today we had a visit from Mike's nephew Chris and his family Maren and Everleigh.  They flew from Wisconsin to Florida for a vacation and were kind enough to take time out of their vacation to visit with us.  It was a beautiful day, so we went for a boat ride.

Here's Joell and Everleigh...

Maren, Joell and Everleigh...

Here's dad...  Mr. Chris Emden...

We couldn't keep Maren inside the boat... 

Hanging out on the port side and standing out on the front of the boat like on the movie "Titanic" 

The family with a little peanut....

Mike must of said something funny, because Mike is funny!

80 degree weather and I'm stuck in here all wrapped up...

We finally got Maren inside, but as you can see she only would sit in the Florida Sun...

Even Everleigh gets my jokes...

Saturday 

February 11, 2017

Just a few notes.

When Mike was in the water replacing the trim tabs he accidentally touched bottom and Joell looked on as the water began to become cloudy.  She then saw a small stingray scurry across the wall behind Mike.  That was a close call.  Stingrays are not aggressive, unless they are accidentally stepped on.  😅

It looked like this Yellow Stingray

Elwood stands at the counter and watches us cook.  He wants to be a part of the pack at all times.

We have been riding our bikes every day in Marathon.  We enjoy visiting our looper friends at the Hyatt Marina.  There are quite a few loopers in the Keys right now.  It is a wonderful place to wait out the cold.
We also ride to the grocery store, hardware store and almost daily to West Marine(West Marine is on the way to most everywhere else).  There are also a lot of wonderful restaurants and activities to attend.  We purchased very good lights, so we can ride home after dark.  The cheap Walmart bikes are one of our greatest investments.

Here are our bikes under cover, to avoid the destructive sea air.

Here are a few of the rusty bikes others are riding.  Others don't keep their bikes covered, so it's amazing they even work. If you are a rider, you would laugh at the rusty chains.

One of our new friends rides his bike very slowly down the road.  Mike says it is because the bike chain is so rusty it won't allow him to ride any faster.

Thursday

February 9th, 2017

Marathon Marina Dinghy run to 

Sombrero Beach...

I'm riding in front...

Yes, that's Joell driving...

Try to focus Joell....

A couple of tail gaters...

What's this, it's a Lord Nelson boat... 

Joell and I almost traded the Silverton in for this to do the Great Loop...

15 dinghys signed up... 

What are these 4 antennas which are owned by the military?

Their pumping 15 Kilowatts of propaganda into Cuba and Cuba blocks it we were told...

Also as you drive by in your boat with all the electronics on board, we've been told that the wattage caused things to crash until you get by it...

Back at Marathon Marine and RV Resort 

The RV area can hold 8 big RV's and according to the guys from these RV's this one's in the 

3 Million dollar range..

Granet counter tops, floors and showers...

They weigh around 50,000 pounds and the owners pay $2500 per month to park them here...

Some fellas showing a smaller Mahi-Mahi that they were getting ready to fillet...We will be fishing next week Tuesday or Wednesday.  Hope to catch anything.  Well, maybe not a shark. 😁