Day 25

No rescue/ search party has been sighted as of yet. I have an elaborate escape route planned in case they are sighted, lol! Send more limes.

I can't believe I've been here only 25 days, seems like much longer.
I woke up to the chirpings of an eagle who was perched atop my mast.
Pretty cool! Yesterday I saw a spotted stingray lazily swim by, I love the live nature show I've been treated to here.
I discovered a mission house yesterday where you can eat, fill up water tanks, shower and do laundry for free! ...Bonus!
Last night the wind was pretty still= a warm night. But luckily it was mosquito free due to a few improvements to my defenses.
Today's going to be busy, I'll need to make 2 trips to the grocery store to get 4 blocks of ice & some meats for grilling. TTFN

Peace Captain Tony

This graffiti on the bathroom wall at Captain Tony's almost gave me an anxiety attack!
I can hardly listen to the song now, lol

Happy Memorial Day!!!

This Memorial Day is extra special with My little Bro coming home from Iraq!
~~~~~!!!Welcome home!!!~~~~~

Brokefin was back in town yesterday! *Watch the video below* At second 29 you can see his broke fin. Then at around second 44 you can hear him blow air; a sound which has me trained to grab the camera & start looking around anymore =]
I saw him and 2 other dolphins feeding. It's wild to see a wake form and little fish jumping out of the water ahead of them as they chase them.
Once they catch a fish, of any size, the dolphins sometimes flip over to eat it, pretty cool.
I'm not sure if the upcoming job will pan out. If the guy decides to do it, I'm the one to do it he said but his wife wants to go to S. America so.. we'll see.
If he doesn't decide by the 1st week of June I'll have to pass on it & start heading North. I'm kinda itching to get going anyway.
I have yet to dive for any conch, but I made it to Hemingway's house, the Southern most point, Margaritaville, Sloppy Joe's, Captain Tony's, Duval, Caroline, Mallory Sq............
Fishing hasn't been great as I'm more experienced in freshwater fishing..
I miss y'all, I'll be home soon after my families reunion =]

Southeast of Disorder

Last night I shook the hand of the Margaritaville Mango margarita mix man & I loved it, it goes very well with tequila! (Try saying that 5x)
Then later, around 2 AM, there was a micro-burst storm. The hatch was open & everything got soaked. It was VERY windy & my inflatable raft, which I spent the day repairing the floor on, blew away into the night :(
I doubt I'll find it..

upate: I found it! more later

Local Life

I've settled into a pattern of living where I have chores that need to get done.

Each day I kayak to shore, tie up under the bridge & then scooter into town to get ice. It's 'interesting' carrying a 20 pound bag of ice on a scooter, lol. I lay it down on the floorboard and secure it with my feet =] Today's trek lacked the fun of every preceding trip I've taken. Yesterday it rained (I'll get back to that in a second) Soooo today there were gnats all over the place (on land) which made riding a scooter, well, unpleasant! So yesterday morning I fired up the grill to scramble some eggs. As it was warming up it started to rain. It rained harder then a cow peeing on a flat rock! [Thanks Sista Connie for that one!] So there I was, "being me" , wondering what to do. I could see the steam rising off the lid of the grill. Finally it occurred to me that I hadn't had a shower for a little while so I marched on out there & cooked my eggs in the rain :P It did a wonderful job of cleaning the salty sandy grime- off the boat too! It hasn't looked this nice in awhile!
Anyway, where was I... oh, also, every morning, I turn on the solar panel to trickle charge my main batteries.
Then I swap out rechargeable batteries on interior lights which have dimmed the most.
Then I go explore locally or kayak over to Boot Key & explore there.
I haven't done any hard core snorkeling yet but plan to tomorrow. Underwater camera and all! After Memorial Day weekend I plan on either moving the boat to Big Pine Key or Bahia Honda for a few days.
I've met several locals who live on their boats. Just south of the bridge I'm near are dozens of live aboards who never move their boats. I think most are pretty much indigent. I've met Cherokee, a nice kid who's parents both ride scooters too, Wolfe- who actually howled at the Moon a few weeks ago when it was full, Nomad (who's an admitted alcoholic) and toothless Larry. ... ya can't make this stuff up, LOL!
Today, as I readied to board the kayak to go get ice, the line slipped away from me & off it went! As I tossed kayak #2 into the water to retrieve it a passing power-boater noticed the kayak floating in the middle of the channel & hollered over to me, "..is this yur kayak?". I said yes & he kept motoring. I would have towed it over had the roles been reversed but that's how it is in the land of power boaters vs sailboaters >:(
What I reallllyyy wanted to say was, "welp, it was but I just like to catch and release 'em" .....

The days drift by

They don't have names
And none of the streets here look the same
And there are so many quiet places
And smilin' eyes match the smilin' faces.

Yes, I have found me a home

My old black scooter
Gets me around To the bars and the beaches of my town

I heard that song at a bar last night ;)
Anyway, this weekend is the Keys Offshore Grand Prix.
I'll be moving the boat out to the Atlantic side so I can watch them zoooom by.
The cigarette boats will be racing around Marathon & will actually race through/under the 7 mile bridge!
Aside from that I have been working on a new electronics panel..
Very little cost, just reorganizing some wiring so it's easier & out of the way.
Also, I made a table stand that screws into the floor- down below by the couches.

Have you seen the Boot Key Harbor cam to the right?!
It's pretty groovy :) I am off to the right near the always open draw bridge.

Power consumption

Since I'm not underway everyday my batteries aren't getting a full charge.
I can't afford solar or wind generators yet so I've become very mindful of my energy consumption. Each morning I connect my (very small) solar trickle charger to the batteries. I try to use my DC to AC inverter as little as possible & have stopped turning my anchor light on as well.
To get around the anchor light I did what most everyone around me has done..
I went to Home Depot & bought 2 solar garden lamps, one for the bow & one for the stern. I was pretty happy with that. Call it Karma or synchronicity but last night, as the lights flickered on, I was sitting in my lounge chair watching the harbor go dark (and enjoying the cool breeze). Low and behold the Coast Guard came through with their blue lights flashing, telling everyone who's anchor light wasn't on, to turn them on.
I must have had a grin on my face sitting there enjoying the free energy from the Sun.
Also, to solve my need for music, I picked up a small wind up radio/flashlight for like $12 bucks at KMart. These additions compliment my little LED lights which I solely depend on for light at night. Each little light, found in a Dollar store, has rechargeable AA batteries which are recharged by my little solar battery charger.
I've lowered my "Carbon Footprint" and am always looking to lower it even more :)
Here's a picture of the charger and my "toaster" lol

Once I find another bucket I'm going to try a water desalinization trick I learned.
You put salt water in one bucket, as it evaporates and is caught under a transparent lid you drain the condensation into another bucket... Then I can use it to rinse clothes and rinse down the deck :)
"Link"

Happy mom's day to all you mothers... ;)

I just got back from a 5 hour kayak trip around Boot Key.
It was a ton of fun but I'm tired!!! I saw lots of little fish & 1 big one that snapped an 8" mullet in half right in front of me, yikes!
I also saw several stingrays in the shallows of a real small island which I explored.
There was 1 dead tree on it with a rope hanging from it; very "CAST AWAY"ish
Anyway, time for some spiced-rum soaked red grapes & a nappypoo :D
PS- the vascual bridge for Boot Key is permanently "up/open". No cars visit Boot Key anymore & after I explored it I discovered that locals must have been using it as a dump, what a shame.. This was such a let down.... after picking up little pieces of trash and glass on Boot Key's barrier island I described above.

PS- I had Swordfish steaks cook on the aftdeck bbq, OMG....
OMG was it GOOOOOOOD!!!

Brokefin was in the harbor today feeding

I got some video with my phone, not sure how it will look..

A NEW Journey's on the horizon!!

Keep a weather eye on me blog mateys..
I'm in the process of negotiating a job which will take me, via a 36' Gulfstar sailboat, to Texas after Memorial Day with a return plane ticket to here.
Stay tuned >;D for another 1100 mile journey! (I just did the math, ouch- math sucks)
PS- keep the clicks on the advertisers up please :)
They help keep me afloat ;)
This new chapter will make "The Book" even better!
(did I say book?!)
Yes family, I did the math (ouch again) <- an inside parrothead joke..
I should be back, averaging 60 miles/day= 19 days, in time for the reunion.

Happy Cinco de Mayo

I saw a pod of dolphins swim by yesterday, one had a chunk out of his fin so I named him "Brokefin" .
I'll attempt to make contact with Brokefin to see if there is any intelligent life here. LOL
Today I'm unloading the scooter at a local dock then will head out exploring.

edit: OK, Scooter is unloaded, water is fixed & filled up, I'm back at anchor...
Time to go exploring!
PS- no repeat sighting of Brokefin yet..

We're Here! May 2nd for those parrotheads who started a poll, lol

Last night at about 8:20 PM we dropped anchor at Marathon Key!
1200 miles & now we can rest a bit. We sailed under the 7 mile bridge at sunset, I took some great pictures.
Speaking of which I'll be uploading all of my pictures soon.
I should back up a bit to Friday.. Friday we stopped at Islamorada and met some of Scott's friends at an outdoor bar and restaurant where they had live music on the beach. We kayaked up to their attached marina, tied up & had a Corona =]
It was nice to see his friends. I had met them way back in South Carolina at their marina, Myrtle Beach Yacht Club.
The kayak ride, at closing time, was really nice. I felt like a native (in the movie King Kong) paddling an outrigger out to the boat, via moonlight, to kidnap the girl from the ship. lol
The next morning we were pretty happy that it was our last traveling day!
We pulled up anchor, started off & ran aground within 5 minutes!
We were stuck bad and you are not allowed to try to "motor" off due to the protected sea grass. We tried everything in the book until we realized that if we wasted any more time we would not make it the final 35 miles to Marathon... That's why we got here after dark last night. While waiting for a tug we saw a Comerant trying his hardest to eat a fish head, a big fish head. Finally he gave up and a shark stepped in! We first thought it was a Hammerhead but the tow boat dude said they are very rare in these parts so it was most likely a "Bonnetthead", similar to a Hammerhead.
"AFTER" seeing the shark Scott tried getting off the boat (into his kayak) and busted out a quote from JAWS, "sharks in the water, kayak goes in the water, Scott goes in the kayak?!!" So I started singing the next line from the movie (we're both movie buffs).. "farewell an' adieu my fair Spanish ladies...." PS- the shark was only about 3' ;)
We wound up sticking to the "Inside" route, although boats with a 4.5' draft or less are recommended. Mine is 4.8'. It was very shallow in many areas but we made it. It was either that or fight the Atlantic in a small craft advisory... no thank you! So, we are HERE!!!!! YAY!

18 miles to go

I'll catch up my posts tonight..
'Sailing' past 7 Mile Bride now =]

Elliott Key- Friday

There's a cut to get out to "Hawks Channel" by Elliott Key, where we anchored.
We 'were' going to slip out to the outside channel, in the Atlantic, this morning. But-
there's a small craft advisory so we will sail South within the Keys for today.
Destination unknown, we'll just put along until we see a cool beach & call it a day.
Target mileage is roughly 25 miles today- highly dependent on conditions..
Yesterday we wnt on a long Kayak trip to explore Elliott Key. I found some neet driftwood, a coconut and some friendly hermit crabs whom I left alone on there little private beach. The rest of the Key had a ranger station, a dock (for them) a fire pit and picknick table & a nature trail.