Key West, FL to Fort Myers, FL

Total Miles Traveled 1725.2

Our one month reservation at Stock Island Marina Village turned out to be eight weeks.  We just can’t think of a better place to spend the winter…….so we have made reservations for two months next year.

The only downside to this marina is its location between the Key West International Airport and a Naval Air Station.  If the wind is blowing from an east or west direction, the air traffic fly’s over the marina, luckily the planes don’t fly before 7 a.m. or after 9 p.m...  The fact that the Key’s are a narrow band of islands running east and west, I don’t think it would matter what marina you are in, the planes would be flying overhead.

We were able to get the dinghy out a few more times and had a great time on the water with our friends.

 Notice Bob passing around the snack tray, what an awesome group!

We left the sand bar and cruised 3 or 4 miles to a Tiki Bar for lunch at Cow Key.

It hasn’t all been fun and games; we have knocked out a lot of projects during our stay.  When we purchased our boat, it had a clothes washer but not a dryer.  I bought Moni a dryer for her birthday and we installed it above our washer.  You gotta love that Amazon!

We really enjoyed visiting Key West; most places have happy hour specials for food and drink so we usually go downtown four or five times a week. 

One of our favorites...The Green Parrot

 Roosters and hens roam through the restaurants and bars.

Music on the street occasionally.

I had to put this on the blog, these two guys, 70's something, each wore the others sock and shoe.  If it means something, I don't want to know.

We found our favorite Ice Cream shop.

Fixer upper?  Two blocks off of Deval Street, the lot this place sits on is probably worth a half million dollars, houses go for around a million dollars here in old town Key West.

A boat club arrived from Miami several weeks ago, they were all go fast, high horsepower boats, were heard there were going to be 50 of them.  If you look close in the background, they had their own tanker arrive to fill them up with fuel.

Finally, a great weather forecast for the Atlantic and Gulf sides of the Keys, with predicted wave heights of a foot and a half or less.  The only challenge was to convince my better half it would be no problem at all setting out on an 80 mi Gulf crossing on Friday the 13^th.    As luck would have it, we cruised 83 miles to a protected anchorage at Little Shark River without any problems and awesome cruising conditions.

Sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean on our departure.

Cruising the Gulf of Mexico after going around Key West.

We cruised from Key West to Marco Island with our new friends Randy and Cara on m/v Passages, they are from Ottawa, IL.

On March 14^th we cruised 67 miles to an anchorage at Marco Island.  We anchored here a few days and visited our good friends Merrill and Jan that have a condo nearby.  We spent two days visiting with them and had a great time!

Approaching Marco Island, we're 10-15 miles out and the Gulf is almost flat!

If I had a reason not to be a sail boater, this would probably be one of them, this guy is climbing his mast to either replace his anchor light bulb or some other malfunction.

This guy has a huge waterfront spread, according to the writing on his Tiki Hut, I guess he want's everyone to know it doesn't suck to be him?

The weather has been perfect for cruising, especially on the Gulf.  On Tuesday, March 17^th we cruised 64 miles to Fort Myers, Florida.  We usually stay at a marina here but with all the issues regarding the Coronavirus, we decided to anchor across from the city behind Lofton Island.  We have friends at two different marinas here, and another with a summer home so we took the dinghy over to visit everyone.

We found the anchorage to be full of crab pots, I usually put out 100 foot of chain when we anchor, it was a little difficult finding a spot that we could swing 360 degrees without drifting over a floating marker.  I sat on the back deck one morning and watched this guy run his traps, a one man show and he worked his butt off.  

Our friends David and Barbara “m/v Miss My Money” live about 11 miles up the Okeechobee Waterway from Fort Myers.  They have purchased an empty lot a block or so from their house and have installed a dock with power and water.  On Friday, March 20^th we arrived at their dock and have decided to stay here a week or two to monitor the Coronavirus pandemic.

The boat in front of us is Cat Daddy, a PDQ cameraman that we met in 2016 while doing the loop.  Unfortunately Rafe isn't here, he's back home in Texas.

David and Barbara stopped by in their Volkswagen Thing to see if we needed anything.  David restores Volkswagens when not cruising.  We met them in 2016 in Charleston when they were on their second Loop and spent much of our time crossing Canada with them.

 We don't get lonely though, we have a friend that stops by when you least expect it.

 David and Barbara also have a pontoon boat so we cruised the canals for a couple of hours to look at the houses and boats.  This was a really cool sail boat we passed moored to the homeowners dock.

Our original plan was to cross Florida along the Okeechobee Waterway to the east coast, then head north spending the summer on the Chesapeake Bay.  The seriousness of the Coronavirus nationwide may alter our plans.  All of the beaches, restaurants, and most businesses have closed in this area and we are hearing of marinas up the east coast are closing until further notice.  Since our main purpose for cruising the east coast and the Chesapeake Bay area was to visit the small towns and historical sites, this may not be an option when we get there.  We have reservations at the Capitol Yacht Club in Washington, DC the first week of July and there are no indications that the Coronavirus will not continue to be an issue.  We’ll decide in a week or so if we’ll continue east or turn around and head back up the river system to the Midwest.

Key West February 2020

Greetings from Key West!  

Moni and I celebrate our birthdays in February and when you get our age, you need the whole month to celebrate.  We’ve really had a great time with our friends here.  We have taken several dinghy rides on the Gulf and Atlantic sides of the Keys.  The highest danger of exploring the Keys in a dinghy is running aground.  The water is very shallow until you get a quarter mile off shore in most places.

Our nephew Ollee is in the second grade and has asked us to be a part of his Flat Stanley Project.  Flat Stanley is a book by Jeff Brown and according to the book, Stanley was a normal boy, but one night a bulletin board fell on him while he was sleeping.  When he woke up, he realized he was flat as a pancake.  Since Stanley is flat enough to be sent in an envelope, he is mailed to places all over the country, so Stanley traveled from Indiana to Key West to see new places and report back to Ollee’s second grade class, with pictures and stories about his adventure. 

We have had a lot of fun with Flat Stanley and were surprised how many people we have met that knew all about him.  The project was started in 1995 by a third grade teacher in Canada and features paper cut-outs based on the title character of the 1964 children’s book.

 Chickens are not caged on Key West or Stock Island

 Flat Stanley visits the sharks at the Stoned Crab Restaurant

 And an iguana hiding in the mangroves

We are quickly approaching the end of our stay here, and will be heading north around the first of March.  This year, instead of heading up the rivers to Grand Rivers, Kentucky, we are traveling across Florida, up the east coast and exploring the Chesapeake Bay this summer.

Fort Myers to Key West, FL

Total Miles Traveled 1501

Wow, this is my first blog of the New Year and it’s already closing in on the end of January.  We kept our boat at Fort Myers City Marina for a month while visiting family and friends during the holidays.  Fort Myers is a great city to visit and the marina is only a short walk to downtown. 

We attended the Seafood and Music festival during our stay, the city blocks off main and  the water front streets during festivals and events, there is something going on here every week.

  

Although most of the boat slips are designed for boats less than 60 feet, there is an occasional mega yacht that ties to the face dock.  

On January 6^th we cruised about 50 miles along the Gulf coast to an anchorage at Naples Florida. 

We have anchored here several times, surrounded by multimillion dollar homes.  We followed a stingray out as we were leaving, I just didn’t get the opportunity to take a picture.

Timing is everything on a boat; we had a two day weather window to go from Fort Myers to Everglades City before another system moved through the south.  We cruised another 50 miles from Naples and arrived at the Rod and Gun Club at Everglades City. 

We passed this island on the way up the Baron River with hundreds of white pelicans covering the shores.  What a beautiful sight…..then as we passed within a quarter of a mile of it and as luck would have it, downwind, the smell was overwhelming.  We hurriedly closed all of the doors and windows but it was too late, the boat was consumed with the smell.  I have passed a few nasty turkey farms in my day, but nothing compared to that.

The Rod and Gun Club is an historic site that has been visited by several rich and famous people, including five presidents, several actors, and musician lead man Mick Jagger of the Stones.  Although this town of about 400 has been a popular place back in the day, it’s not the attraction it once was.

Our main purpose for stopping here is to visit with our good friends from back home, Merrill and Jan who winter at their condo about ten miles away.  We stop here every year on our way to the Keys and always have a great time with them during our stay. 

Entering and departing Everglades City is a bit of a challenge.  The access to the city is through the Baron River, about six miles inland from the Gulf, with a few shallow sections.  We always try to time the tide, which is about three feet, before arriving or leaving.  On January 14^th, we waited on a rising tide until 1 p.m. before departing, and then anchored in the Baron River about a mile from the Gulf of Mexico. This is a great anchorage, and the fishing turned out to be exceptional.  Moni caught several spotted sea trout, yum yum.

There is not an Intracoastal Waterway between Fort Myers Beach and the Keys so we have to have good weather conditions in the Gulf when cruising in this area. On January 15^th we cruised 43 miles to the Little Shark River anchorage.  We arrived about two in the afternoon and had the whole place to ourselves, but later in the day we had five boats taking advantage of this last stop before the Keys.

On January 16^th we cruised 49 miles to Marathon, Florida just a day before another weather system approached producing 25-30 mph winds. We tried to get a mooring ball at Boot Key Harbor but there were 13 people at anchor ahead of us on the waiting list.  We didn’t want to be swinging around anchored with several other boats in a tight anchorage, so we secured a slip at Marlin Bay Marina at Marathon.  We had a great time during our stay and met up with our friends Randy and Sherri on Priorities, Peter and Teresa on Gallus, Jim and Faith on Third Degree, and Clark and Evelyn on Sunset Delight.

Our reservation at Stock Island Marina was not until the 29^th, but after several calls, and a cancellation we were able to make the 45 mile cruise on the Atlantic side of the Keys from Marathon to the marina on January 20^th.  

This will be our home until March 1^st, we have already met old friends and new ones, so we’re excited to finally be here.