Marathon, Florida

On Thursday, July 7th we left Marco Island and headed south and east to Marathon.  We are members of the Marathon Yacht Club and enjoy hanging at our home club.  They have a nice new pool and great food.  What more could you ask for.  The cruise was bumpy for the first hour then it just got worse.  Three to four foot waves with short intervals on the bow, this went on for two hours.  The weather people said slight chop, but forgot to tell us about the white capped waves!  Just sayin...they lied!  Unfortunately, we were half way there.  Then as we were a one hour out of Marathon the waves settled right down and it was smooth cruising.  After we arrived I noticed my fitbit had logged 6 miles.  And I'm sure I walked way less than a mile as I was on the boat the whole time. This is a new way to log miles.  By this time we were pretty beaten up so Friday we just hung out at the boat and relaxed.   By Saturday we were ready to head out for some snorkeling at one of favorite spots Sombrero Reef.  There were tons of fish on the reefs.  I was able to get tons of great photos with my new underwater camera.   We tried to go out again on Monday and the weather just wasn't cooperative.  We looked at the weather over the next week and for the forseeable future and Tuesday was the only good day to head home.  So we left Marathon and headed home.  We had a great ride home. 

Shark surrounded by Sargeant Major fish 

Another view of the nurse shark

Sombrero Reef

Marathon sunset

Marathon sunset

Let's try going to the keys again!

Now that both Dream Chaser and I are healed a boat trip was calling us.  We woke up this morning and the weather was right so we packed up and headed out again toward the keys.  Our first stop was supposed to be Naples Yacht Club but as we turned and cruised into the channel I said to Gordon, "This looks like Marco."  That is exactly where we are.  Luckily, Elmer the dockmaster at the Marco Island Yacht Club had enough space for us.  We all got a good chuckle out of our mistake.  We enjoy staying at Marco as they have a nice quiet marina, good shower facilities and a nice pool.   All pluses for us!

Dream Chaser hanging at Marco

Marco Island Yacht Club behind Dream Chaser.

New fender covers I made to spruce Dream Chaser up.  :)

Not Everyday is a Good Boating Day

A little over a week ago Gordon and I left our home with the hope of going to Bimini Island in the Bahamas.  Well, we didn't quite make it there.  We got up the morning of June 16th and as we always do before a boat trip we checked the weather.  The waves were suppose to be 1 to 2 feet so we thought that's not too bad.  So we got ready, cast off our lines, and headed out.  We decided to travel out on the Gulf rather than the ICW since this would have been the quickest route to Naples, FL, our first stop.  The seas were choppy at first, then the swells became bigger at about 4 to 5 feet and we were being bounced around pretty heavily with the sea spray coming over the top of the bow of the boat and through the eisenglass.  We got to Redfish pass (around North Captiva) and decided to tuck in and run on the ICW.  The charts for Redfish Pass are wrong (just saying) and we headed into shallow water.  We didn't run aground but decided this was too shallow for comfort and turned around heading south on the gulf with the waves still beating on Dream Chaser.  Shortly after, the engine sensor started beeping, warning us that our starboard engine is overheating.  Apparently, we were in shallow enough water at Redfish Pass that we sucked some bits of shells into the strainers.  Gordon, the brave captain, shut off the engines and went into the HOT engine room to pull out the strainers while the first mate (me) waited nearby to empty them.  This was all done in 4 to 5 foot swells 200 yards off the coast of Sanibel with us heading toward land.   We managed to get the shells out of the strainers and not washed ashore, whew!  At this point we headed around Sanibel Island slowing down periodically because of the engines continuing to overheat. We decided to backtrack on the ICW and limped into Ft. Myers to spend the night at St. Charles Yacht Club.  Once on the dock with the boat rinsed we took a nap.  We weren't the only visitors to the yacht club that night.  Our next door boat neighbors, Bob and Sandy were from St. Petersburg.  They invited us for docktails at 5pm.  We happily accepted!  They are both very seasoned boaters (both are licensed captains) and were very helpful.  It was decided that we needed to check our impellers.  We got back to the boat and decided to stay another day at the yacht club.  In the meantime, I have had vertigo on and off for about a month...well with the rocking boat vertigo was back.  The next day we got up, and decided to make home our destination to get the boat back in shape and a doctor's visit for me.  Since then we have been working on cleaning out the engines strainers, detailing the boat and have a new diesel mechanic coming out to look at the impellers.  The doctor's visit determined that I have a sinus infection and ear infection in both ears.  :(  Both Dream Chaser and I are on the mend.  :)

Where we take the boat from here we don't know...A neighbor/friend of ours said, "I don't make plans.  I get up in the morning and say I think I'll go for a boat trip.  Now where should I go."  We might need to adjust our boating attitude.  :)

Leaving Home on the 16th of June

Another view of home.

Next up Cruising the Bahamas in Dream Chaser

We have had a busy couple of months.  Came back from the Keys trip and started preparations for our upcoming trip to the Bahamas.  Dream Chaser needed some maintenance items taken care of.  She was hauled out for new bottom paint and some simple repairs which took a week.  Then we were off to see our son graduate from University of Wisconsin in Madison with his MBA in Finance.  Yay!!!  While we were up north we visited family and friends which made for a really nice trip.  Then back home to Florida and Dream Chaser's 1000 hour diesel engine maintenance.  While waiting for parts to come in I spent a couple of weeks preparing our itinerary and food lists.  Whew!  That was a lot of work!  And finally Thursday, June 16th we will be leaving and heading off on our first leg of our journey, Naples Yacht Club.  It will be great to be out on the water again.

Dream Chaser with her new bottom paint

Another view of Dream Chaser

Jake the new Graduate

Graduation Ceremonies for MBA Students

Keys Disease

We have been in the Florida Keys for 10 days and keys disease has set in.  Keys disease is where you get up in the morning and just do not feel like doing anything productive.  The weather just hasn't been good enough to snorkel and has been very windy creating choppy seas and cloudy water visibility.  Gordon and I have been walking, swimming in the pool, doing a few boat projects, napping and reading.  A lot of reading!

Yesterday we attempted to snorkel at Sombrero Reef but the visibility was so poor that when I got into the water I couldn't even see the bottom of the boat when it was 4 feet in front of me.  We did get to swim and float in the ocean by the boat.  The ride out and back to the yacht club was very pretty,  I love the blue water.

Manatee that has been hanging around the docks at the Yacht Club

Marathon Yacht Club

Love the blue water!  The tower is Sombrero Reef.

On the way back to the yacht club.

 Marathon Yacht Club 

Snorkeling Looe Key Reef in Marathon, FL

One of my all time favorite snorkeling spots in Florida has to be Looe Key.  There is an abundance of coral, fish and even sharks.  That same Saturday that we went to Sombrero Reef we decided to head south to Looe Key also.  The water visibility was not that clear so the pictures are a little grainy.  The Keys have had a really windy winter and the water has been stirred up.  We still saw lots of fish, coral and even 4 sharks!  My shark expert and daughter, Jenni, thinks that they were Reef Sharks or maybe Lemon Sharks.  Last time we snorkeled here we saw a Goliath Grouper (named Jerry) and Bull Shark.  Yikes!  Before we left the wind kicked up the waves and it was a challenge to get on the boat and then to cast off from the mooring ball well let's just say I had a bit of a wild ride on the bow of the boat!

It was a great day snorkeling!  We are going to try to get out to the reefs again before we have to head back and I can't wait!

The water was a beautiful turquoise blue

Sergeant Major Fish

Little reef fish

If you look in the cracks of the coral there are a tons of fish hiding

Yellowtail snapper

Gordon sitting on the back of the boat while I'm still snorkeling

Blue Parrotfish

Parrotfish amongst the sea fans

Reef shark about 15 feet below me

A second reef shark also about 15 feet below me

I'm not quite sure what kind of fish they are but they are grey with a blue stripe...really pretty

Shark #3

Shark #4

Another Shark pic

Yellowtail snapper

More reef fish

Snorkeling around Sombrero Reef Marathon, FL

One of favorite activities when we are out boating is snorkeling.  While we are in Marathon we try to get out to the nearby reefs as much as possible.  Saturday, April 16, 2016 we took our boat out two reefs to snorkel.  First we went to the Sombrero Reef,  which is just east of Marathon.  There is a tall tower that signifies the location of the reef.  It's the smaller of the 2 reefs but still is a good spot to see coral, sea fans and fish.  Below are a few pics I took with my new underwater camera.

Dream Chaser at Sombrero Reef

Dream Chaser

Sergeant Major Fish

Sergeant Major Fish hanging out in the sea fans

More Fish Pics

Coral with reef swimming around

Gordon snorkeling

Cruising from Marco Island to Marathon, Florida

April 14, 2016 

It's 7:30am and the fuel truck has just finished fueling up Dream Chaser with 100 gallons of diesel fuel.   By 7:50 we are casting off lines and heading to Marathon.  The Gulf of Mexico is choppy with waves around 2 feet at close intervals causing the boat to bounce around and sea spray to hit the windshield.   We round the bend of Florida and head into Florida Bay dodging crab pots which are hard to see because of the chop.  A few miles into Florida Bay the water starts to calm down but there are still crab pots to be dodged, at least now they are more visible.  Crab pots are round floats that are attached to a rope that have crab traps on the end.  The key is to run between them so the rope from the traps does not wrap around your propellers.  When I drive I feel like I'm on a slalom course weaving in and out of the crab buoys.  About half way to Marathon the water changes from green to blue, a darker blue as the water is 23 feet.  At this point there has been no land in site and no communications either with cell service or radio.  We are on our own.  There are a few boats heading towards Marathon and even less going toward Marco.  Two of the boats that slowly passed us were at the Marco Island Yacht Club last night.  We met them on the dock.  One of the 2 couples were from Wichita, KS (we lived in Kansas City for 25 years).  While we were talking I kept thinking that I had met this gal before.  During our conversation she told me that she was the Kansas Attorney General during 1995 to 2002.  I told her I had met her at a fundraiser years ago.  We laughed and each said, small world. 

We entered the Marathon Yacht Club marina at 12:30pm.   A 4 1/2 hour trip that would have normally been a 4 hour trip but we slowed down to eat lunch and use the restroom.  It was another beautiful day with blue skies, 2 huge sea turtle, and a couple of dolphin sightings.  The evening ended with docktails and a cloudy sunset relaxing on the boat.

Leaving Marco Island Yacht Club

Heading out of Marco Island 

Gorgeous Florida Bay water

Cruising Florida Bay there are no signs of land

 

View from Marathon Yacht Club

Punta Gorda, FL to Marco Island

It's 7am, the sun is beginning to rise over the palm trees while we cast off our dock lines and head out of the marina.  As we go through the channel markers on this clear cloudless day 2 dolphins are swimming alongside Dream Chaser (our boat) I always consider dolphins a sign of good luck.  The water is slightly choppy, but we are crossing Charlotte Harbor fairly alone, except for a few fishermen.  We reach Boca Grande Pass and head out in the Gulf of Mexico then turn left to run down the Gulf Coast headed for Marco Island.  Beautiful weather, sunny and warm.  We pull into Marco Island Yacht Club about 11:30am secured the docklines and washed the salt spray off the boat.  A quick lunch and we are off in separate directions.  Gordon checking us into the marina and I'm off to check out the yacht club.  They are having a ladies lunch so I could hear the chatter of voices as I tour the 1st floor of the building and grounds snapping pictures.  The club is immaculate and the grounds perfectly manicured. 

It was a great day on the water!  Looking forward to some docktails and dinner before starting it all again tomorrow as we head to Marathon in the Florida Keys.

Sunrise in the Marina

Leaving the Channel

Sunrise

Boca Grande Pass

Captain while Gordon is reading below

Marco Island

Marco Island Yacht Club from our slip

Dream Chaser snug in her slip B72

Yacht Club