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.