Friday

January 6, 2017

We have moved from Marco Island to an anchorage in the Everglades and then on to Marathon in the Florida Keys.

Driving from Marco Island to our anchorage for the night, we constantly had to dodge these little bombs, called crab traps.  

We did see a huge sea turtle on our way to the Everglades.  It was out swimming in the gulf.  

If you run over one, your propellers can get tangled in the thick line that goes down to a big trap on the water floor.

At Little Shark River, in the South of the Florida Everglades.

 We anchored for one evening.  The mosquitos started to arrive immediately.We used a Thermacell to keep them away.  It worked great.  We were able to have a martini on the flybridge and relax while watching the sunset.

There were two cats anchored when we came in. "meow"

A motor yacht anchored right after us.  They came in a little late, but a sail boat did pull in after dark.

This beautiful anchorage saved us from rocking through some north winds.

The sunset was spectacular, but we were a little late at taking the pictures.  Must have been the Martini.

Left the anchorage for Marathon in calm seas.  Only issue were those lovely crab pots.  This is one of the crab pot work boats heading out to pull their catch in...

Seven mile bridge in the distance.  A good sight to see.  

We pulled into the Marathon Marina & Resort for gas.  This is the resort we have been calling for a reservation since April, 2016.  They knew us immediately.  We asked if they had a slip available and were told no.  We then asked them, (first Jules) about the mooring field and or a safe anchorage.  Over 25 mph winds are expected for this weekend.  She was worried for us.  There were boats anchored out in the open, because they were on the waiting list for the mooring balls.  She went and talked with a manager, Julie.  Julie looked through the big wall chart of slips and discussed it with Jules.  After a while they decided to give us the one open slip they had.  There had been some type of cancelation, but we didn't care why we got the slip.  👏  We are at Marathon Marina & Resort, for at least a month.  Wonderful.  And a great price, which is why we have been trying to get in here.

We are now working on a leakage issue.  We might have to stay in a hotel for a few days while the boat yard pulls our boat out.  Looks like the port engines "dripless shaft seal" is not dripless anymore.  We've been getting in about 5 gallons of water a day while underway...  This means getting the boat lifted out, drive shaft uncoupled from the transmission and pulled out a few inches so they can slide on new shaft seals... More on this as it develops.

Tuesday 

January 3rd, 2017

Early morning at Marco Island anchorage...

Plenty of Pink during sunrise..

Elwood's ready for a dinghy ride to the Win Dixie dock to go get food provisions and also a short walk to the doggie store for Elwood's gourmet dog food...

A quick stop at McDonalds for lunch and we meet Donna and Wally just outside...  Donna and Wally are from Michigan and before Mike knew that he said, "How about those Packers" Anyway we found out we all enjoy boating...they have a beautiful wooden boat that they enjoy cruising around on, when in the Michigan area...

Very nice talking with you Donna and Wally...

While sitting outside the Win Dixie I noticed this tree and at the top were these pods... I've never seen these before...The pods were the size of a mango.

Anyway, back on the boat, all loaded up and we'll head out tomorrow morning looking for an anchorage in the Goodland, Fl area...Maybe.  Looks like bad weather is moving in for the weekend.  We will have to be careful to find a nice sheltered stop for the weekend.  Not sure if we want to venture to the keys before then.  

Monday

January 2nd, 2017

Kay and Jim, Joell wanted you to know that we do ride our bikes...

We almost lost Elwood...

Two days before leaving Pink Shell, Elwood and Mike walked Joell off the boat, past the elevated marina office, across the street and waited for the Trolley to show up.  Joell got on the Trolley and rode it to Walgreens.... Elwood and Mike went back to the boat.  Mike decided to start loading the bicycles for our departure onto the boat and after the second one was carried up the stairs to the fly bridge Mike noticed a Trolley had stopped at Pink Shell and either dropped off or picked up some passengers and then drove away...(Joell wouldn't be back for a good hour or more) Right about then Mike thought of Elwood...the transom door was open and he hoops off by himself pretty much anytime we disembark...  all of a sudden I hear "Mike"...it's Dave the Marina manager carrying Elwood in his arms like his baby...  I told Dave that I had just got done loading the bikes and was wondering where Elwood was...he said, I know, I was watching you!  Dave was perched high atop the Marina office where he was watching over everything at the marina and said that he witnessed Elwood leave the boat, walk down the long floating dock, up the ramp to the hard (ground) and that's when he decided to intervene and pick up Elwood... 

All we can guess is that Elwood was heading to the Trolley stop to greet Joell on her return....or was heading to the marina office to get another treat from Dave the Dock Master...

we had a little talk with Elwood after that, but not sure if he understood...

After leaving Pink Shell Marina and Resort we grabbed a mooring ball just south of there...The picture shows a painter, which makes it a lot easier to grab the mooring ball.  Not all mooring balls have painters attached to them.

Looking north at the mooring field...

From the mooring field we took the dinghy over to Salty Sam's to watch the Packers kick the Lions #%&!

Tim and Michell, if you were down here with your sail boat you could deck it out like this sailboat...

Back at Salty Sam's to help the Packers Win...

I figure that when you go to a church festival you have to "drink for god" to support the church,

well isn't it the same for the Packers?  Ok, we only had two buckets of beers...between Joell and myself.

Kay, these were taken for you so you know were at Salty Sam's, aka, Parrot Key...

Leaving our mooring area this morning, back under the Carlos bridge and out into the Gulf...

More restaurants in Matanza's Pass as we head under the bridge...

Coming back past the Pink Shell Marina, heading out into the Gulf...A month was long enough.  We are ready to head out and continue our adventure.

Looking at the Pink Shell Resort from out in the Gulf...Bye Pink Shell👋

So, why would our speed stop working on our Ray Marine unit....well, after you sit a month #@%& grows on things...this is my water wheel that transmits my speed to the display...thank goodness it's removable from inside the boat for cleaning....

That's better..... Joell screamed when she saw the wiggly things living in there...

After leaving Fort Myers Beach we cruised past Naples and pulled into Marco Island to an anchorage...  Low and behold but who was there........another boat flying the looper flag... 

We had cocktails and Hors d'oeuvre's on our boat... Turns out these Loopers are from Canada...Thunder Bay!  They're Rachel and Nick Kovachis, a wonderful couple on a 38' Bayliner called Sandy Gail II !!!  They are leaving the anchorage tomorrow but we hope to run into them again!

Elwood leaves the boat again!!!

After a nice evening with Rachel and Nick, they boarded their dinghy which was tied to our transom...Nick got on first, then he helped Rachel into the front seat...then Elwood disembarked from off the swim platform right into Rachel's lap...he was ready for a boat ride we think!

we had another talk with Elwood...we don't think we're getting through to him!!!

Friday

December 30th Update...

After walking the docks at Pink Shell this morning we found one casualty.

This is a 18' Hurricane boat that was just fine at 2 am in the morning when Don and I were out walking the docks, checking the boats.

Turns out this is a rental boat brought over by the rental company the other day...

We talked with the folks that rented and drove it and they said that it wouldn't get up on plane and that they called the rental place up and wanted to exchange it for one that operated properly...  This is one of the 3 guys from the rental company trying to raise the boat...

Who knows what really happened here....

Friday

December 30th, 2016

A fifty footer....looks pretty new...

There goes Homeland Security

We've not seen this in the Wisconsin area...see next picture below...

Several boats with outboards have color matched engine covers...

A very new Sea Ray at Pink Shell (the L series)... 65 footer

This behemoth cruised by and parked over by the coast guard station...

I'm guessing this is it's name...

A nice Hatteras Yacht..

called Baby Grand...

This boat's name is Fish Tail....we think it's the owners boat from Fish Tail Marina

Glass bottom boat...

The beach in front of Pink Shell really got busy after Christmas...

Busy, busy, busy..

Pink Shell finally got the thatched roofs on...They had to wait for the turtle hatching.  Turtles are a major priority in Florida.

Bowditch State park is right next to Pink Shell.  It is at the north end of Estero Island.  We walked on the beach/in the water, from the gulf side to the ICW side.  

Beautiful red on this Formula...

Party Boat...

Looking out the boat door in the early morning hours

The tide is really out this morning after a windy night...

Total rise and fall will be 3'4" today...

Pink Shell Marina from off of the 6th floor...Yesterday we washed cloth for the last time before leaving pink shell.  Nice to not have to use rolls of quarters for the wash.  We will miss the free wash machines.

We will be leaving Pink Shell on Sunday, January 1, 2017.  Moving a short distance to a mooring field, for a few days.  Last night a major weather system came in.  The winds were blowing up to 20 miles an hour from the north.  Right at us.  Mike and our neighbor Ron were outside at 2:00AM adding lines to another neighbors boat.  They then walked the docks checking on all the others.  Two great guys 😀  When the weather lets up we will head south toward the Keys.