1,780 miles to the Tropics

Pictures: The "soil" in Marathon and most of the other Keys is composed of coral.{except where they have trucked in loam, or have paved it over, just like in the the Bahamas); Mike and Mimi Powers with us on the Harbor Walk in Key West Bight; juggler on a tall unicycle at the Sunset Celebration in Key West; moonrise over Boot Key Harbor in Marathon; one of the sharks we saw while snorkeling at Sombrero reef off of Marathon; Ken surfacing, with Rising Tide in the background, at Sombrero reef.

Wow! A lot has happened in this past “blog time”. The Patriots have played in the Super
Bowl. That’s enough said about that.  We have been spending time in the Keys, mostly Marathon and Key West.  We had companions with us from Ft. Lauderdale and now they have gone. We were visited by very good friends Mike and Mimi and got to explore Key West with them. And we’ve been snorkeling several times and are enjoying the proximity of the reefs off of the Keys.

First of all, the mileage to this point deserves a comment. We have circled about a lot the past two months but now we have reached the southernmost point in our trip and will be heading north! So 1,780 miles is the number that we have come up with to account for our last 4 ½ months.  And these last two weeks have been tropical: very warm, very bright sun, beautiful plantings and lush greenery, birds and fish at every turn. The fruits and veggies are delicious here, and widely available, especially the citrus, mangos and avocados. We need to wear light colored clothing. Navy blue and black would be way too hot.  We need to have sunglasses and hats on at all times. Not complaining now, just reporting on the conditions in these tropics!

Our friends Peggy and Jack were with us for more than a week, traveling in their recently updated Sea Ray, keeping us company at a few restaurant meals in Marathon and letting us stop by their dock site at the city marina for a few drinks now and then. Just as they were leaving to go back to Ft. Lauderdale we got a phone call that Mike and Mimi were flying down to Florida from Massachusetts and would be in Key West for almost a week. They arrived in Marathon and spent a night and then drove to their hotel in Key West. We moved RINGING TIDE to a city dock there a few days later and overlapped with them so we could enjoy their company, take a few walks, eat out, and catch up on their news. The weather during their last two days in Key West was especially perfect.

Back on our own after Mike and Mimi left we took some bike rides through the neighborhoods in “the Conch Republic” and attended a sunset celebration in Mallory Square. We also loved the lunch on our last day at a Thai restaurant that was on a floating barge right next to our dock.

We have snorkeled at Sombrero reef, about 4 miles off of Marathon, and at Looe reef (4 miles) and Newfound Harbor Sanctuary reef (1/2 mile) off of Big Pine Key.  All three times the sea conditions were a little rough, with 2 ft. swells, but the diving was really memorable. There are moorings provided so you don’t have to anchor, and the reefs are full of fish and interesting corals. Our first glimpse under water on our first dive was of barracuda, sharks, and colorful reefs fish looking for shelter under our hull.

The weather should be stable enough tomorrow or the next day for our next direction, into the Everglades National Park. We are preparing by having enough fuel, food and water to get us through a week in an area that is full of wildlife but not full of supplies.  We had a preview of the quieter side when we were in the harbor at Big Pine Key on the way back from Key West. The water was perfectly clear, the stars were very bright; we expect more of this in the Everglades as there are no cities near and the boating activity is lighter.

It’s time to head north, to the 130 miles of Everglades coastline in southwestern Florida.  

RISING TIDE’s Cruising Tips

Pictures: Miami-Dade police officers training on the bike trails in Oleta River State Park; our new friends Dave and Jessica and their boat KIANDA coming over for happy hour (they are now in the Bahamas for the rest of the winter); sign seen on the bike rack in Key Biscayne; bottlenose dolphin who swam alongside with two others for about 20 minutes on our cruise from Key Largo to Marathon; colorful fish Ken caught off of Shell Key -- he let it go when we didn't get another to make a lunch

We’ve had a pleasant 10 days or so since Pete and Eri left. Ken got the transmission running fine again, by changing the fluid twice.  But no real adventures to report, so it seems a good time to report on our challenges, observations and tips.

Keeping a reliable water supply has been a regular chore. We have a water tank that is undersized for living aboard and using water 24/7. We haven’t needed to get fuel since just after Christmas and fuel docks don’t particularly like dispensing water without a fuel purchase. Our alternatives are finding city docks that have water or taking water jugs ashore in our dinghy and filling them. Coconut Grove city docks provide water; water spigots for the jugs were found on Elliot Key in Biscayne National Park, Key Largo County Park, Oleta River State Park, and Marathon in the Keys. Other anchorages in the Miami and Upper Keys areas, while wonderful spots to enjoy wildlife or get a great Cuban meal, were lacking water entirely. Solutions would be to get a water-maker (makes fresh water from seawater but is expensive and is plagued with filter problems) or adding an additional water tank or changing the one we have.

Flying bugs in this area of Florida seem to be limited to a few areas in closer to the mangroves that have no-see-ums. We have mostly been able to sit out at night or walk beaches during the day with no flying disturbances. We have screens and do use them at night, but I think it’s just a habit formed in New England. Crawling bugs almost never make it out to our boat, thank goodness, but we did have one or two spiders that eluded us for a month. Ken thinks he has recently gotten them both.

Our bike transportation has been working out well. We have split our shoreside traveling about 50-50 between walking and cycling. We have found some good bike trails and Ken even got a quick adjustment on his bike from a trailside mechanic set up in Oleta River State Park. We rented a car for two days in Coconut Grove, got lost a few times, picked up a large grocery order, and met a nice rental agent who moved down here from Boston after college. We’ll probably not need a car again; we usually get groceries into a backpack each and a bike-rack load each and return to the boat looking like hobos. It’s the case of beer that is the killer!

Speaking of hobos, we have been in two or three anchorages lately that each has a dozen or so “bumboats”, which are (sometimes but not always) poorly maintained boats with singles or couples living on them and lots of grass growing along the waterlines. They don’t usually move their boats and travel back and forth to shore in rowboats. The same attributes that attract us to an anchorage is good for them: a water supply and a good place to leave your dinghy when ashore. We find good guys and bad guys (the drunk ones) and have experienced their strong loyalty to each other and to “their” harbors. You can tell they are eking out an existence; they are mostly happy and talkative and enjoying the good boating life.

Our evening’s entertainment has been pretty meager – a few dinners out (more often we eat lunch out and save money), an evening picnic and concert one time, watching recent episodes of TV shows that we can get on the laptop with wifi, listening to music CDs or our ipod.  We play games every once and a while, and Ken has recently dominated in Mexican Train dominos. After Pete’s visit we are feeling fat and happy because he brought us a large supply of DVDs. Now we can watch movies and only have to charge up our laptop first; for internet TV we have to have our wifi source (our cell phone) charged too, and we have to watch the use of gigabytes. It has us on the verge of our technical knowledge limit. But we’ll still be following the latest NCIS and Downton Abbey shows which we are hooked on.

As to our main relaxation activities (besides reading and watching wildlife): I am still working on my banjo licks and my slides, hammer-ons and pull-offs. I’m up to page 173 in my tutorial. It definitely helps to have a hobby to turn to, to fill in the longer journeys or the windy days when we don’t go to shore. Ken is back into fishing after getting advice from a neighboring female boater who has had a lot of luck. He is getting bait-shrimp and pulling in interesting small fish. He intends to work his way up to the larger fish by using a smaller one as a live bait.

We traveled yesterday with Peggy and Jack, friends with a Sea Ray 28 BLUE DOLPHIN, down the bayside of the Keys, watching the dolphins swim along with us at 10 knots. We arrived in Marathon, got on a waiting list for a mooring, and anchored about ¾ mile from the city marina outside of the large mooring field. We’ll probably stay here in this cruiser-friendly  harbor for 10 days or so and then continue on to Key West.