Nice to be in Key West!

You know you are in Key West when you see people walking around with their parrots!
This friendly guy's name is Mango!  He is a yellow-naped Amazon parrot!

1/29/19.                                  Yay!!!    70 degrees and sunshine!!!
     We left Marco Island at 7:30 am.  The weather had finally stopped blowing enough to make a safe crossing to Key West.  Seas were about one foot and winds from the NW, which was great for traveling.  The sky was blue and cloudless.  We were soon in beautiful green water, with the sun’s reflection off the water, sparkling like diamonds! We saw plenty of dolphins and unfortunately loads of crab traps!  Karl had to stay pretty vigilant to avoid them!
     I am always amazed when we go offshore, can’t see land for many hours and then suddenly we spot our destination!  Karl gets it right every time!  First he uses the paper chart to find our longitude and latitude from beginning to the end destination, plotting a course.  Then he will enter the information into the Furunos, which are the 2 GPS plot charters.  We have autopilot which is so helpful.  It is so nice, but he had to keep dodging the crab traps, which meant taking it off the autopilot quite a bit.  We traveled a little over 100 miles, took us about 5 hours.  Our boat can go about 18 knots, which is  a little over 20 mph.  It is always exciting to spot land and trees and buildings up ahead!
     We decided to try something different this time in Key West.  Usually we stay in a marina very close to Duval Street in the heart of Key West.  We have done most all the touristy things to do in Key West. We kept hearing good reviews about Stock Island Marina, which is located on the other side of Key West, out of the crowds and much more dog friendly.  When we first arrived, we were greeted by the sounds of jets flying overhead.  Come to find out, the commercial airport is very close by, and the navy base is close, too!  At first we thought we could not stand the noise, but decided to give it a try.  It really isn’t as bad as we initially thought it would be and the marina is very nice.  A shuttle runs every hour to take you to town, which is only a few miles away.  We plan to go into town.
   

Everglades, Airboat ride and Alligators!

Friendly Alligator

                                                        Take a Ride on the Airboat!!

Airboat ride in the Everglades!

Yikes!

1/26  Saturday
     We rented  a car from Enterprise to explore the island.  We went to Everglades City and took an airboat tour with Jungle Erv's Airboat Tours.  The Everglades is made up of preserved wetlands, mangroves and sawgrass marshes and home to many different species of birds and animals.  We saw great blue herons, anhingas, ospreys, vultures, snowy egrets, a kingfisher and lots of mangroves!  The airboat ride was a great way to see the area!  The weather was very overcast, threatening to rain any minute.  So we were the only ones there!  We got a "private" tour and thankfully the rain held off. Our guide, Dave was excellent.  He took us through canopied mangroves which were very beautiful.  He stopped when we spotted something, he explained all about the Everglade's history and wildlife.  It was educational and fun.  He also gave us a great ride, doing 360's in the open areas!
     We then went to the boardwalk closer to town and saw alligators.  We could get up close and personal with several of the alligators! The alligator man, named Nathan, let us hold them and get photos.  He told us that these gators were brought up in captivity and were very docile. He would rub their necks and pat their bellies just like a dog!  The big one, named Marshmallow, had been raised  by him and is about 4 years old.  Their skin is soft and leathery, but felt very pleasant actually.  It was a little unnerving at first to hold them, but it was a lot of fun! We got lots of pictures!
     It rained the rest of the day.  I got my hair done at a very nice salon and spa, which was located in the shops at the marina.  Convenient and a nice way to spend the rainy afternoon!

Moving on to Marco Island

Golf in South Seas Resort

1/21-1/24
     We enjoyed a few days of chilling out at South Seas before departing to Marco Island.  We ate lunch at the famous Doc Ford’s restaurant, made popular by the author Randy Wayne White.  He wrote a series of books (25 novels!) about this area, Captiva Island. The main character is named Doc Ford in the novels.  Karl read a few of them and liked them.  We got up several times at night to watch the beautiful lunar eclipse.  We played golf on the gorgeous Par 3 course on Monday.  We do not play golf often, I have only played a few times in my life.  I was pretty awful. But, it was a lovely crisp day, plenty of sunshine  and blue sky, with a beautiful view of the ocean. The winds were a little calmer, but the surf was still up.
    1/22  Tuesday.  We got diesel fuel for a good price at $2.67 per gallon and then departed for Marco Island.  The seas were 2-3 feet, a little choppy, winds 10-15 knots.  It was a nice trip of 46 miles to the entrance of Marco.  We have reservations at Esplanade Marina.  We are delighted with this marina!  It is lovely, clean and close to grocery, West Marine, hardware store, and shopping.  Joe, the dock master is very nice and helpful.  It is a private marina, but will take transients when a space is available and the owner of the slip agrees to rent it.
      Karl has studied the weather, using several different apps., including Buoyweather.com, windfinder pro,  and windy pro. Looks like we will be staying here for about one week!   It is a great place to be.

Captiva Island

One of our favorite  houses on the ICW

Anhinga drying out in the sun.

Bald Headed Eagle

1/18-1/20
    We departed Marina Jacks in Sarasota on Friday and traveled to South Seas Island Resort in Captiva Island.  We went for about 19 miles on the ICW.  I am always amazed to see all the huge homes on the ICW! I never get tired of looking at them.  We also saw lots of dolphins, bald eagles and ospreys.  We went out the inlet at Venice into the Gulf to continue our trip to Captiva.  The Seas were calm and smooth. We went a total of 61 miles and it was so pleasant.  Lots of sunshine and pretty weather!
     We arrived in time to enjoy the beautiful beach.  The resort is one of our favorite stops on the west coast!  We spent some time at the pool, too. There is pretty good running and walking here, around the golf course and down the road to the southern part of the island.
     It rained very hard early Sunday morning and it got very windy and chilly.  The waves are high today, seems that most of the boats here are staying through until tomorrow, which is Martin Luther King Day.  We will decide if we want to leave tomorrow, based on the weather report.
   

Poster Art and Botanical Gardens

                                                                       Poster Art

Masks created by artist from Costa Rica 

Embracing Our Differences

1/16-1/17. Sarasota
     We took Salty on a walk in the nearby park and happened upon an outdoor art exhibit called Embracing Our Differences.  It had 45 large billboard sized works of art, each accompanied by an inspirational quote.  Students from schools all over the world submitted their artwork and quotations to the juried exhibit.  The art celebrates cultural diversity.  It was very inspiring to see what the kids came up with, matching the quotes with the art work.  If you want to see the art, the website is EmbracingOurDifferences.org. We really enjoyed walking around viewing each one.
     The park has been full of friendly people walking their dogs and consequently Salty developed kennel cough.  She has been vaccinated, but still managed to contract it.  We called our vet, who helpfully explained what to do.  She coughed quite a bit for several days, but got over it, thankfully.
     The next day we biked to the Shelby Botanical Gardens and enjoyed the afternoon looking at all the orchids, trees and plants.  It was beautiful and peaceful.  They also had a display of rainforest masks, made by artist from Costa Rica.  Each mask was carved from a single log of balsa and then painted.  They were so alive with color!
     Karl worked quite a bit on the boat, replacing the search light and he washed and waxed the roof. It seems there is always something to do or fix on the boat.
Every evening there has been live music in the outdoor bar.  We were close so we heard it! We are ready to move on!
 

Nice Days To Run!

John and Mabel Ringling’s  winter home in Sarasota 

Circus Performers were actually shot out of a cannon

1/13-1/15
     Karl got interested in running shortly after we moved to Tallahassee in 1977.  It is a great way to stay in shape and a good way to make new friends! Running and exercise have been an important part of our lives ever since then! For Karl, it is a way to manage stress and problem solve.  Throughout the years, he has enjoyed competing in races and setting goals, meeting up with friends for interval training and longer runs. I have enjoyed running for many years with my best friend!  After she moved away, I now enjoy walking and listening to books on my phone and going to the gym.
     Boating is similar in some ways, in that we meet people who have common interests and goals.  When we arrive at a new place, Karl loves to take off on a run to explore the new environment.  It is a great way to see a new city!  I usually walk around the town, looking for the nearest shopping and places of interest to visit.  We usually always end up talking to people in the marinas. They are very friendly and are happy to talk about their boating experiences!  We have met so many friends already and are looking forward to meeting more along our trip.  We have been told that people make lifetime friendships while traveling the Loop.
     We spent all day Monday at the Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota.  It was built in 1925 by John Ringling, one of the famous brothers who created the Ringling Brothers Circus.  He became one of the richest men in the world at the time and developed an interest in European art, along with his wife.  He left his collection to the state of Florida as his legacy and memorial to his wife.  It is so impressive.
     There is also a museum dedicated to the circus, highlighting the various circus acts, exotic animals and performers.  The history of the circus was documented with displays of the train cars and various memorabilia pertaining to the circus era. It was all fascinating.
     There is an entire miniature circus model on display at the Tibbals Learning Center, which is administered by Florida State University.  It took Howard Tibbals more than 50 years to handcraft nearly 1 million pieces to make up his miniature circus, including 1500 performers, 152 wagons, 7000 folding chairs, 500 circus animals,  tiny pots and pans, circus tents, and train cars. He was inspired to create this, after he watched the circus come to his town during his childhood.  The model takes up almost half of an entire building and it was truly amazing to see!



   
   

Marina Jacks

Sarasota 1/11/2019

We left Clearwater in the morning and traveled about 50 miles on the ICW to Sarasota. It was a beautiful, sunny day.  It took about 5 hours.  We had to go under many bridges, so Karl took down our antennas, so we did not have to ask for a bridge opening.  If you need a bridge opening, you need to call the bridge operator on the radio and ask for an opening.  Sometimes, they will open it “on demand,” but usually they open it on the hour or half hour.

We arrived at Marina Jack’s in the afternoon.  It is always a flurry of activity to get into a new marina and into a slip, especially if we are not familiar with the marina.  Karl contacts them on the radio, getting instructions on which slip we are in.  I get the lines ready.  Karl backs into the slip, which sometimes is challenging if the weather is bad or windy!  Everything seems to happen at once.  We have headphones, so we can communicate with each other.  Before we had the headphones, it was difficult to hear him and we ended up shouting at each other!  This led to miscommunications and sometimes unpleasant exchanges!  We now call the headphones our “marriage savers!”

Marina Jack’s is a top notch marina with “floating concrete docks.”  Downtown Sarasota is just across the street with plenty of shopping and restaurants!  There is a very nice waterfront park next to us with many people walking their dogs and playing with their children. Salty loved it!

We arrived on the weekend, so the marina was busy!  There is an open air restaurant on site, with live music playing.  We enjoyed a drink there and listening to the band.

On Saturday, we discovered an Art Festival in downtown Sarasota, literally across the street from us! It was a lot of fun to walk through the exhibits.  We ate lunch at an outside cafe and enjoyed people watching!  It has been a while since we have done that, just living in the moment and enjoying life!

We returned to the boat and watched a heartbreaking basketball game between Florida State and # 1 Duke.  The score was back and forth, we really thought FSU was going to upset Duke, it came down to the final 2.5 seconds!  But Duke landed that last 3 pointer!

This shows how calm the gulf was on our 155 NM trip from Carrabelle to Clearwater! Absolutely amazing!

Being Grateful

1/10/2019 Thursday
     We stayed in Clearwater for the day.  I am so grateful that Karl has his USCG Captain’s license!  He completed the certified course many years ago, attending classes at Tallahassee Community College at night. It was a complicated curriculum: learning the international rules of the road, chart plotting, safety regulations, basic weather, boat systems,  tidal calculations, anchoring, docking, passage planning, navigation, etc!  He had to document his sea time experience on our boat, pass a physical exam and drug screening and apply for the license.  He took the rigorous exam in Panama City and passed with flying colors! As with any kind of license, he has kept up the certification throughout the years.
     I am grateful that he had the initiative to put in the studying that this required, not only because I knew we were safer at sea, but because I know this gave him confidence on the water.  It has also been helpful when we chartered sailboats in the British Virgin Islands, which we have done about a dozen times.  That has been wonderful experience and so much fun!  We have chartered boats in the San Juan Islands in the Pacific Northwest,  various locations in the  Caribbean,  and sailed in the Bay of Islands in New Zealand!  We even chartered a sailboat in Tahiti and Bora Bora for 2 weeks, Just the two of us and it was a dream come true!  I have taken basic safety courses, sailing and motoring courses as well.  We have also taken our own boat to the Bahamas about ten times.  We have been boating for at least 30 years, have owned 10 boats, enjoyed fishing and cruising on the Gulf of Mexico.  Every time we take the boat out, we learn new things.   That is what keeps boating interesting!
     Karl spent some time today charting and plotting our course to our next destination, which will be Sarasota.  He of course knows paper charts, which we used to use many years ago, spreading out the paper chart on the table, using a parallel ruler, compass headings and protractor, but now times have changed! He can use the IPad!  He uses Navionics and Aquamap.  We have a chart plotter on the helm and GPS.  For me, it is still complicated, so again I am so grateful for my husband’s love of learning and passion for boating!  I can usually just enjoy the ride! I must say though, in reality we both put in the work it takes to operate our boat safely.

Beautiful day in Clearwater Beach!

Last night sunset from Clearwater Marina

1/9/2019
    We stayed in port in beautiful Clearwater Beach Marina.  Karl ran and I took a nice leisurely walk on the beach side, searching out a good place to eat lunch!  Karl got on the Internet and found a mechanic in the area who could order a new solenoid and starter.  He said he could have it by the next day and will install it for us.  We ate lunch at  “Frenchy’s Restaurant,”  which is famous for their grouper burger. We ordered it, and it lived up to it’s name!  Excellent!
     As usual, Karl found some projects to work on, he fixed one of the navigation lights, which had rusted, and got the anchor light working again. He changed the water filters inside the boat, which needs to be done about every 3 months.
      We met a couple who are next to us who are doing the loop.  They are from Kentucky.  Karl and I grew up and went to school in Lexington  and we have a lot of family living in that area!

The Next Day

1/7/2019  Monday
    We stayed in port today.  We met several people who are traveling on the route, all starting at different places, at various times.  Most are heading for south Florida to spend time for the winter.  We spent the day, staying busy with chores.  We exercised, then Karl had to fix the water intake on the boat, which had broken.  People often ask, “What do you do all day on a boat?”  It turns out there are lots of things to keep us busy.  Now, we don’t have a car, so we have to walk or bike to places.  We walked to the Post Office, walked to a restaurant for lunch, walked to the ACE hardware (one of Karl’s favorite places)!  And walked to the IGA.  Karl stayed busy washing the anchor chain, which had gotten muddy when we anchored.  He is very handy at fixing things, thank goodness or we just could not do this.  Things break all the time on a boat.  I went to the laundromat to wash clothes. We talked with our new “looper” friends and discussed the next day’s crossing of the Gulf of Mexico to Clearwater.  We will do the crossing, along with the family in the boat Have Another Day.
    We ate dinner on the boat and enjoyed the big football win of Clemson beating Alabama for the national championship!

1/8/2019. Tuesday
     We woke up bright and early (5:30am), getting everything prepared on the boat for the 150 nautical mile trip across the open ocean, which will take about 8 hours.  We can travel at about 19-20 knots. This includes turning on the generator, unhooking the shore power, getting the fenders off and secured.  Karl checks the engine oil and coolant levels and checks for water in the fuel.  He does this every time before he starts the engines.  We have two Cummins 540 horsepower engines.  Our boat is a 50 foot Mikelson sport fisherman.  I always secure everything inside the boat for the trip.  We walk Salty.
     We planned  to leave at 7:00 am with Have Another Day.  We wiped the windows down, turned the heat on the fly bridge and cranked the engines. The starboard engine did not crank.  We spoke to our new friends who were crossing with us and fortunately they had some ideas of what it could be.  He suggested that it could be the starter or the solenoid.  Karl took a mallot and tapped the solenoid pretty hard, after a few tries, it turned over!  Thank goodness, I had visions of having to miss this wonderful “good weather window” and the opportunity to cross along with another experienced boater!
     We enjoyed a perfectly beautiful smooth crossing, could not have been any better!  Saw lots of dolphins! We stayed in touch with Have Another Day and ended up staying in the Clearwater Beach Municipal marina right next to them.  They have been so helpful and a wealth of information, having done the loop before.  As always, very thankful to have arrived at our destination safe and sound!
    We fueled up and got into our slip for the night, hooking up to power and water.  Salty was so happy to take a nice long walk and find grass!

Start of the Great American Loop on Endorphin Voyager

David Bellamy took this picture as we were leaving the dock for one year!

12/31/2019
    We celebrated New Years Eve on our boat in Baytown Marina, Sandestin, Florida, toasting to the beginning of a new year and new adventures!  Last details to fix this week include: getting the new AIS system to work, this will provide our boat to identify other boats on the water, and just as importantly, for other boats to be able to “see” and identify us! This will be very important on the river systems, especially when we will encounter big ships and barges. We changed the lighting on the fly bridge, to include mult-colors, which is very pretty.  We had the oil changed, the bottom cleaned, we bought a new oil pump, grocery shopping, one more trip to West Marine and took our golf cart over to Terry and Cliff’s new condo!

1/05/2019
     Finally ready to go!  We left the marina around 11:00 am, feeling mixed emotions of excitement and nervousness!  Are we going to be able to do this? Complete the journey? Are we going to like this new lifestyle?  Is Karl really going to be able to relax a little, after keeping a very heavy load of work, meetings, schedules and responsibilities for the last 41years?  We know that the boating life will be challenging and enjoyable as well!
     We decided to travel on the ICW, due to windy conditions on the ocean.  We were merely 10 miles into the trip when our first “challenge” began.  The high water alarm went off, indicating there was some sort of leakage in the bilge!  This could potentially sink our boat! Karl went down in the engine room and found that the starboard engine’s dripless shaft was spraying water all over the engines. Karl could not fix it at the time, but  we found that if we continued on a slow speed of 8 knots, it did not leak, so we decided to press on, hoping that maybe it would reseal itself as we go.  We anchored for the night in a beautiful little cove, Pearl Bayou, in St.Andrews Bay outside of Panama City.  Most all of the marinas in Panama City were still closed, due to the destruction of hurricane Michael, which hit the panhandle in mid-October.
     Karl immediately got to work in the engine room and managed to tighten the dripless shaft, just a few millimeters would hopefully make the difference!  We would not know until the next day if it would work.  We finally settled in for the night, but the anchor light did not work! We had to ducktape a lantern to it! The lantern was one of our many thoughtful gifts that our co-workers gave us  for a send-off.  It really did light us up that night!
     The challenges were not over for the first day, because during the middle of the night, the carbon monoxide detector went off, sending a very loud obnoxious beeping sound to wake us up!  The phone rang, telling us about the warning to seek fresh air!  We jumped out of bed, grabbed Salty, our dog, and opened all the windows and got outside.  We had kept our generator on, so we immediately turned it off.  We have Diesel engines, which are not as hazardous for carbon monoxide buildup as gasoline engines, but still knew that the potential was there, because it has actually happened before when the elbow on the generator leaked.  Eventually things settled down, the alarm quieted, and we tried to go back to sleep with windows open, etc.
     The next morning, Karl worked on the generator, looking for signs of leakage.  He couldn’t find any indications of a leak.  After debating about what the next step would be, we decided to keep going, hoping that the leakage was detected because it was such a calm, still night and the carbon monoxide did escape under the boat, causing the alarm to go off.  Nevertheless, the alarm may have saved our lives, so we learned another valuable lesson, we will not sleep with the generator on!
     1/6/2019
     We had a great trip over to Carrabelle on the ICW.  The dripless shafts were not leaking, so Karl’s fix worked and we could return to normal speed.  We decided to go slow, because we were so amazed at the destruction that the hurricane had upon this area.  It was so evident in the trees being down, cut down like they were toothpicks.  We saw so many blue tarps on houses, still waiting to get new roofs.
The storm was devastating to this area.
     The Moorings marina in Carrabelle is operational and has fuel, but suffered a lot of damage to the docks.  Several boats were damaged as well.