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.