January 31, 2010

neighbor photos

As promised, I'm posting photos of some of the neighbors. The two story houseboat, the fishing boat with a tent. And the small sailboat we had seen in Little Shark river.
And, Tammi, today we saw a boat from Ludlow, Vermont. Craig can unhook Cloud Nine from the truck with the snowplow.

January 30, 2010

More neighbors

We toured the other half of the harbor in our dinghy today and can add several more states represented by boats here. We saw boats from California, Colorado, Oregon, Maine, Minnesota, Alaska, and the evil city and state which is the home of the NFL team that the COLTS will defeat in the Super Bowl.

Marathon Neighbors

The boats in the harbor are quite a diverse group.  I would estimate about 15 to 20% are from Canada. eh?
The remainder are from almost every state east of the Mississippi and a few beyond.  We've seen boats from MN, RI, NY, NJ, WS, MC, OH, TN, AL, IL, NC, SC, VA, MD, CT, KY, DL, MA, PA, TX, IN, and a few from FL.  We have new neighbors on the mooring next to us who are from Wisconson.  They trailered their trimaran to Punta Gorda and launched at All American Storage.  They don't have to be back in Wisconsin until April.  I'm trying to remember why I have to be back in Indiana before April.
There's some very nice (and expensive) motor yachts and sailboats.  There's also a house boat with a second story added on.  Someone's staying on a fishing boat with a tent.  I'll send photos later. 

On the cruisers net this morning, there was an announcement that the Coast Guard was warning anyone leaving the harbor that a container ship had lost about 30 containers in the gulf stream just offshore of here.  "Florida Icebergs"

Vera, Chuck and Dave

Here's your last clue about Vera, Chuck and Dave

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGtSpsYURAQ

And the correct answer to my age has already been guessed.....................it's "older than dirt"

January 29, 2010

Conch Horns

Every day, just as the sun goes below the horizon, several people in the harbor blow conch shell horns. There seems to be more each day. Better than bagpipes.
Steve took his troubled outboard up to a Mercury dealer on Islamorada. It was a fuel problem as we suspected. And as some of you suspected, the high speed fuel injector was bad. Must be a common problem. His motor only had 45 hours on it. Mercury paid for the part--Steve paid the labor. At least he got it back today before leaving for Marco tomorrow. We went out fishing with them again today. Sharks and large ladyfish.
I think we will stay here until after the Super Bowl. They bring a projection TV into the meeting room of the marina and have a party. (The weather here also influenced that decision)
Talked with the folks from Southport again today. They're living on a Freedom sailboat. I remember seeing their boat when it was on Lake Monroe in Indiana. They have removed the diesel engine and replaced it with an electric engine. Diesel free.
Yesterday, while touring the harbor in our dinghy, we saw a sailboat from Bippus, Indiana. We stopped alongside and knocked, but no answer. We may try again later.
Yes Dawg, we have a full moon here also. I've attached a couple of photos for you so you don't have to go out in those single digit temps at home to look at it.
Vera, Chuck, and Dave are not really my grandchildren. They're characters in a Beatles song. And speaking of birthdays...........Happy Birthday to you Kindra--my favorite daughter. (Yes I know........you're my only daughter too. Doesn't make you any less special.)

January 28, 2010

Marathon dinghy

Great news for cat lovers...........they're delicious! The report on the cruisers net this morning was that the black & white cat did belong on the boat on mooring A1. The first attached photo shows the trawler where the cat was found. The fourth sailboat to it's left is where the cat came from. Must have been almost a 500' swim.
We toured the area in our dinghy this afternoon. It's hard to get a feel for how many boats are in the harbor. The second photo represents about half of them.
While we were cruising around the harbor, we saw the small sailboat (16') we had seen rowing into the Little Shark River. We motored over to say hello and offered to take them ashore in our dinghy. They already had a friend on the way over to pick them up. I haven't spoken with Wayne Stearns this week, but he had debated coming down here in his 22' sailboat from Punta Gorda. After seeing the photos of the small boats at Little Shark, he knew he could make it.
Went through Sister Creek and out into the Atlantic. The third photo is of East Sister Rock.
We went up several canals today. Last week I got complaints that the iguanas in the trees were not very easy to see in my photos. I made a point to get closer today.
Later, I tried fishing, and caught a 24" snook. (a live one) Pam didn't have the camera ready, and I didn't have my Boca Grips, so there's no photo, but Pam can attest.
It is true.........signed Pam.

January 27, 2010

Windy

It's still windy here in Marathon. A lot of the sailboats in the mooring field have wind generators. (a fan looking thing about 3' in diameter) When the wind blows, it spins a generator that charges their batteries. Sounds like dozens of small helicoptors. They might call the wind "Mariah".......but we call it "Honda".

Keeping the batteries charged can be a challenge. Since we're on a mooring (no shorepower) and not running our outboards for at least 2 weeks, we have to run our Honda generator almost every day. We have a battery charger, and the refrigerator switches over to AC while the generator is running so it's not draining the batteries. We haven't needed heat or air conditioning lately.
I mentioned the cruisers net at 9am on the VHF radio. This morning, a boat on mooring A5 said he awoke to find a black & white cat on his boat. (Remember, we're not tied up to shore.) He didn't know where it came from or what to do with it. Someone suggested that they are good with Merlot. Someone else said the people on A1 had a black & white cat--maybe it belongs to them. Those people were not on the radio this morning so we are looking forward to finding the outcome tomorrow. (Reminds me of that song......"cat's in the kettle").
And speaking of cats........TW, ask your wife about Hemmingway's cats. "gimme 6"
Today's my birthday. We took 2 spoons up to the Mini Mart and consumed a carton of Haagen-Dazs Butter Pecan. I got birthday phone calls from the grandchildren. If you want to know my age, check with the grandkids........Vera, Chuck and Dave.

January 26, 2010

Key West




Steve took his fishing boat to a Mercury dealer this morning and then called us to see if we wanted to ride out to Key West with them. Sure.
We walked Duval street and toured Hemmingway's home. Pam bought a "Gimme 6" T-shirt.
We made it over to Mallory Square in time for the sunset and to watch some street performers. Had a bight for dinner near the marina. (Check the map before you correct my spelling.)

January 25, 2010

Night in Marathon


We watched the Colts win yesterday at Cavanaugh's place.  Now we're trying to plan where we're going to watch the Super Bowl.  Cavanaughs will be up near Marco then, but we're so dependent on the weather, we can't plan that far ahead.  There's no TV signal here in the harbor, but we could join the folks from Kokomo, Greenwood, Southport, etc at the Hurricane.  We'll wait and see.  As a matter of fact, I'm not sure we'll ever be able to leave here.  The temp here is 80 in the day, and 70 at night.  Every day.

We've had to find our way back to the boat after dark several nights.  Navigate by the stars.  About 85% of the boats here are sailboats.  Boats are required to display an anchor light in the harbor--even on moorings.  So when you look around there's almost 200 sailboats with an anchor light at the top of their mast.  Good thing I quit drinking--there's "stars" everywhere.  I tried to take a night photo but the subject "stars" kept moving. 

Steve's still having trouble with his new outboard.  I found water in the gas, so we pumped out his tank--about 30 gallons.  Put fresh fuel in, but it still won't run fast.  Runs great slow, but will not run above idle.  Mercury Optimax 115 hp.  I may look for ideas on the internet.  I think he's going to visit a Mercury dealer today.  He's in Florida for another month, and would like to have it running.  (Me too--he takes me out fishing.)

We're doing boat projects today.  Cleaning up, running the generator to charge the batteries.  Probably bring out more water.  And also very important..................Monday is the day the pump out boat comes to our row in the mooring field.  They pump out every boat in the harbor once a week.  That's about our limit.  The weekly pump out is free (included with your mooring fee)  and if needed, you can go in and be pumped out at the marina for $5. 

January 23, 2010

Sharks






Went fishing again today with Cavanaughs. Steve is still fitting out his flats boat--tool cold to do much before he left Indiana. Unfortunately, the gas that was in it had water in it. We're trying to figure out what to do about that. We can go slow, but it won't run much faster than idle. So we slowly made our way out about 4 miles to a reef. Steve caught a nice grouper and I caught a smaller one.
I caught a couple of sharks. Steve grabbed one (see photo) but then it got loose in the boat. Having been bitten by a mad shark in a boat before, I was quick to jump up on a seat. Yes, those are my toes in the photo and they're unharmed. We caught a variety of fish including mackerel, grunts, snappers, blue runner, groupers and sharks.
The woman at the bait shop told us we wouldn't catch anything without a chum bag. (I thought she said "scumbag" and I told her I'd been called worse.") Anyway, Steve bought some chum and a bag. It drew in a lot of ballyhoo--but not much else we could see. Steve let me throw his cast net, and we caught one. Strange looking fish. That's it's lower jaw that sticks out.

January 22, 2010

iguana more



Went out fishing today with Cavanaugh's in their flats boat. We saw something floating by the boat and discovered it to be one of the falling iguanas. This one had the misfortune of being in a tree over the water when he got too cold to hold on.
Later, we heard sounds in the trees on the shore and saw a very large (4' long or bigger) iguana in a tree with a racoon. Saw a second large iguana higher up in another tree. Look close in the tree photo.
And speaking of giants, the first fish I caught today was a barricuda. Big toothy monster.
Plan to go out to a reef to fish tomorrow. Hope S & S invite us over to watch the Colts Sunday.

January 21, 2010

Exploring Marathon




Every morning at 9 they have a cruisers net over the VHF radio. They ask who is new to the harbor, where you're from etc. I gave our info, and in just a few minutes, we had people from Kokomo, IN and Greenwood, IN visiting our boat. The Colts flag helped them locate us. We ended up having dinner with them and two other couples. So far this seems to be one of the friendliest places we've been.
We took our bikes ashore but couldn't find an empty spot on the rack. We locked them to a tree around the corner. The dinghy dock in this photo is not where we tie ours. We use the newer bigger one.
We rode the bikes up and down US1 from K Mart to Daffy Doug's discount dollar store. There's everything on this island.

Steve and Sharon Cavanaugh are renting a house about 5 miles from here and they arrived today. They also joined the group for dinner. They brought a fishing boat and we will launch it tomorrow and see if any fish survived the cold weather.
Our boat is in the third photo.

January 20, 2010

Boot Key




Tuesday, we continued south from near Everglades City down to Little Shark River, where we anchored and spent a quiet night. We had commented about the apparent lack of cruisers traveling. We hadn't seen many boats......until now. There were several boats anchored in Little Shark. And we weren't the smallest. There were four boats smaller than us. Including the 16' sail boat in this photo. Two people. No motor--only oars for power. This is a long way from anywhere. There was also a Hunter 240, a Rhodes 22, and an 20' Trophy walkaround.
It was wonderfully calm for our crossing today. As we got closer to Marathon, we heard boat after boat going in and taking a mooring. You must be in the harbor before they will assign you a bouy. We finally got through the bridge and called on the VHF. We got bouy #O-2. The last one available today. There is a web cam if you want to try to find us--we're here for at least a week, maybe 2. It's Boot Key Harbor at Marathon City Marina.
There's 226 mooring balls, and everyone travels around the harbor in their dinghy and everyone has bicycles ashore. Both the dinghy dock and bicycle racks are overflowing. There are bathrooms and showers at the marina. You haul water to your boat from the marina. We had one 5 gal jerry can with us, but thought we should have another. So we walked to Home Depot. Then to West Marine to find one. Water is $.05 per gallon.
It's finally warm.

January 18, 2010

Dolphins




We never tire of watching dolphins cavorting around the boat. As we were leaving the south end of the channel behind Marco, I commented that we had seen a jumping dolphin in this location last year. Right on cue, he emerged from the depths (3' deep water here). I'm posting three photos from my phone, and will post a video the next time I find wifi. When I was sitting on the transom, I could have easily touched him. He sprayed me when he blew out his blow hole. From the smell of his breath I think he had mullet for lunch.
The gulf is littered with dead fish. We're anchored not far from Everglades City and there dead fish floating everywhere. Mostly catfish.

South



We had to be out of the slip in Naples by noon yesterday so we slowly motored south and anchored behind little marco island. There's four groups of campers who came in at high tide and won't be leaving until it's high tide again. Their boats are stuck on the beach.
There is a weather window to cross the open water of Florida Bay on Wednesday. Light east wind and calm seas. I'm going to call Marathon Marina to see if they're full. If not, we'll stop near Indian Key tonight, then Little Shark River tomorrow before crossing over to the keys Wednesday.
Yesterday, some boaters passed us making gestures towards our Colts flag. Couldn't tell if they were unhappy Ravens or fearful Jets.

January 16, 2010

Naples amenities

We left the mooring ball this morning and came over to the docks.  I topped off our fuel tank, and talked with the harbormaster about the location of our slip for tonight.  It's windy here today, and I wanted to be out of the wind if possible.  Then I asked if maybe there was cable TV available.  (The Colts play tonight)  We made a compromise.  The slip we got has cable TV, but is out near the end of the docks.  I didn't think it would be protected from the wind--until I saw our dock neighbors.  The boats around us are so big, they're blocking the wind.























We walked into town for lunch, and strolled up and down 5th Ave. 
I had on my Colts hat and Pam had on a Colts shirt.  We met some other Colts fans.  They used to live in Noblesville, but have now moved away--to Fishers.

Small world......again


Saw a 38' sailboat in front of some condos here in Naples. The name on the side looked familiar. "DELPHINA II"
Still had our sticker on it from when we sold it new .

Naples

We decided to stop in Naples last night. I had made a reservation for a slip at the city dock for today, and thought we'd anchor somewhere last night. Instead of anchoring, we rented a mooring ball in Naples for $10. They require you to come in to have your holding tank pumped out first.
While we're pumping out (next to the gas pump) some people are filling their deck boat with gasoline. When the guy says "I didn't think the tank held that much" we suspected trouble. Sure enough, he was filling the bilge with gas. The ethonol they add to the gas now acts as a solvent and eats through old fiberglass tanks. We left the dock in a hurry. Later we saw SeaTow towing the boat away. Lucky they saw it before starting up.
Tonight, we will be looking for a place to watch the Colts. If anyone knows how to reach Bill Harrington (assuming he's in Naples again this year) let us know.

January 15, 2010

heading south


Decided it's too cold here, so we're going down to the Naples area. It's about 56 miles. We left at 9am, and we travel at 8 mph. Andrew, what time will we arrive?
The gulf is calm today--another reason to travel. Wind shifting to south and then west tomorrow. You can see how calm it is beyond our flag in the photo. Hope we can keep flying that flag for the duration.
This trip, I'm posting on my blog from my cell phone. Most of the photos are taken from my phone as well. (It's not a "smart" phone, so someone like me can operate it. But it takes a while to type stuff.) You'd think running several miles offshore you would not need to keep a close watch where you're going, but there's crab pots everywhere out here.
We'll anchor out again tonight, then hope to get to a marina tomorrow and maybe find somewhere to watch tv tomorrow night. If you need a clue, look at the photo again.

January 14, 2010

Tunnel of Luv

We left Boca Grande this morning and motored down to an anchorage between Cabbage Key and Useppa Island.  Last year, I had caught lots of snook over in a little pond that is accessed through the tunnel of luv.  Even though the tide was a little above 0, it was still too shallow, and I had to get out and walk and pull CleoPAMtra through. 






The tunnel is finally starting to grow back after Charlie.  And judging from the tracks on the beach, the wild pig relocation project was not a total success.

The cold weather has destroyed the snook population.  Snook are extremely sensitive to cool water, and if they can't find a warm spot, it's the end.  Yesterday, we had seen snooks at the end of the canals in Boca Grande, but the snook in this small pond where we went today couldn't find a warm spot and couldn't escape the cold.  The water was more clear than usual (which probably made it even colder) and we could see the bottom in most areas.  There were hundreds of dead snook.  There were at least 25 snook over 30" long, and many many more smaller ones. 






















The only non-snook of any size we saw was a grouper--most likely the one I caught in here last year.

It's no wonder I caught so may fish in here last year.  They were thick.

Later in the day, I tried Argay's secret spot near Useppa.  I could see four nice snook laying belly-up on the bottom. 

This was a really depressing day.

T & P





January 13, 2010

Cold snook



I was finally able to drag Pam out of the sleeping bag, and we took the bicycles across to town in the dinghy. We ate lunch at the Loose Caboose, and "shopped." We also stopped in Widdens. Interesting.
This afternoon, we toured the canals in the dinghy. Near the end of every canal were hunderts of cold snook. They were floating just below the surface, letting the sun warm them. The tide doesn't flow through the dead end canals, so the water stays warmer. There were some big old snooks over four feet long. It looked to me like they were in state of "suspended animation."
So here's a question. Who has the right of way in the second photo? The vessel with the propeller on the front, or the rubber boat?

Boca Grande


We left the truck and trailer at a storage place in Punta Gorda. Just behind the building in this photo.
Anchored in the bayou at Boca Grande. Not as cold last night. Only got down to 35. However, when I shut off the generator and the electric heat, the inside of the boat did seem a little nippy. I could see my breath inside when I got up this morning.

January 12, 2010

Cool Mornings

Most of our stuff is slowly thawing out.  The overnight temp last night was about 30.  The water is about 60, so that helps some.   However, the boat itself still feels like frozen fiberglass.
Yesterday, I found several little lizards laying around on the sidewalk.  Usually they scurry away when you get close to them, but I was able to pick them up.  They're not dead--just cold.  Sort of a suspended animation.   The iguanas that climb the trees, get so cold they can no longer hold on, so they fall out of the trees.  "It's raining iguanas"  means it's cold in south Florida.  (So when they fall out of the trees they're no longer suspended, and are quite animated as they fall to the ground.  So I guess it's actually just the opposite of "suspended animation".)
For those of you who think I might up some of these stories, here's the link to a Youtube report.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EFUxzGqQE0

January 11, 2010

Laisley Marina

We left Noblesville about 7 am Sunday morning.  The weather forecast called for more snow on Monday, so we took the window of opportunity to escape.  Drove until about 11 pm and decided to get a motel room with heat instead of sleeping on the boat in a Wal-Mart parking lot.  Turned out to be a good decision as the overnight temperature where we stayed in Lake City Florida was 14 degrees.

We arrived in Punta Gorda around 1 pm today.  (Monday)  Once again, everything was frozen solid.  The boat soap, the docklines, the dish soap.  Everything that was in the boat.  We packed all the canned goods, bottled water, soft drinks etc inside the cab of the truck.  Even then, when Pam got a bottle of water from the back seat of the truck, it had ice in it. This global warming thing is really something.....................

We launched at Laishley Marina, and rented a slip for tonight.  (It costs about the same to tie our boat to the dock as it did for the motel room last night.)  The temp here is to be in the lower 30's tonight, and we can run our little heater on shore power all night.  Tomorrow, we'll inflate the dinghy and take the truck and trailer to the storage place.  Then we'll go out and anchor somewhere--maybe Pelican Bay.

When we were walking back from checking in with the harbormaster, we saw a couple looking at our boat.  As we got closer, we recognized them as the Wilhelms from Indiana.  I had worked on thier boat when it was on Lake Monroe.  They've traveled all over, and now their boat is here in Punta Gorda.  Small world.

We've heard from Steve and Jan who are from Canada and are also cruising this area on a Rosborough.  (We met them on Lake Champlain.)  They started out here, and are now down in the keys on Marathon.  We plan to get down there before the end of the month.

I think the drive down here is getting farther every year.  Either that or I'm getting older.  I'm pretty sure it's farther.

January 7, 2010

Departure Delayed

Today (Thursday) is the day we were scheduled to depart for warm, sunny Florida.

Several problems...................first, just driving on snow is no fun.  Towing a boat on snow is not an option.





Second problem is that Florida is neither warm nor sunny right now.  There's below freezing temps as far south as Ft Myers.
This snow extends south through Kentucky and Tennessee--there's no way around it.  So, we plan to wait and depart Sunday.  That should give the road crews time to clear the interstates.  I've seen the road crew in action in Louisville.  They have two guys and one pick up truck.  One of the guys drives the truck, while the other sits in the back and spreads salt on the roads from a coffee can.  That's their entire snow removal crew.

I called the TV stations here to see if they would add us to the long list of closing and postponements that stream across the bottom of the screen................"Tom & Pam's Florida trip postponed until Sunday".................right there with "Little Bo Peep Mensa Preschool Closed".  I guess they didn't think we were newsworthy--I haven't seen our announcement yet.

I thought that since we're all packed and stuck here with nothing to do, I might as well test our new snorkeling equipment.  (Did I mention that my bathing suits are packed?)