August 27-30, 2011, Saturday - Wednesday
Dinner Key Marina, Miami - One last time!
Our adventure began with the rental of a Dodge Ram truck for our last trip down to Miami. After packing it as full as we possibly could, we headed south. Our first stop was our usual, good old Mickey D's off exit 101.Ah, half way there, we hope to get there before dark so we can unload the truck. That did not happen since we didn't leave Tampa until 4pm.
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We arrived to our boat in Dinner Key Marina around 9:30pm. Even though Irene curved and missed our state, we couldn't help be wonder how our boat weathered this latest storm. We are happy to say that Miami was spared and that there was no apparent damage to any boat in the marina.
We did however find that the tides were extremely high which made getting on and off the boat a challenge at times. At high tide, our boat was sitting up about 5 feet higher from the dock than normal. I felt like I was mountain climbing each time I got on and off the boat!These high tides lasted for the next four days. The weather was sunny the first day, then rainy up until we decided to leave on Sept. 1.
During the next few days, Tom and a friend worked on getting the boat ready for our journey. Our friend Geoff changed out our fuel filter. What should have taken just an hour or two turned out to be a whole day's process.
We spent the other days getting supplies and testing out the operations of the boat and getting groceries and other necessities.
We kind of look like the Clampets don't you think?
Day 4 - The final preparations!
First thing this morning, we checked the weather. Last night, we decided that it looked like there was still some bad weather predicted for today, so we decided to spend the day taking care of any last minute things for our trip. Tom is testing our dinghy motor. It appears to be working great! As it turned out, the weather was beautiful today. We will definitely leave tomorrow! Originally Tom hoped that our course would take us through the Atlantic side of the Keys, but that would have to be for another time. No snorkeling or hunting for lobster this time!September 1, 2011, Thursday - Our adventure begins!
What a beautiful morning. Seas are calm and the weather shows no rain in sight. Time to fill the fuel tanks and leave our Miami home. After fueling up, we left at 11:00am.
Good Bye Miami!
These two buildings with the green roofs are what we would use to navigate back to our channel when we were playing out in Biscayne Bay.
Oh, did I say we saw no rain in sight??? Well, this is Florida! As Tom carefully watched the clouds build, I stayed our course. No sooner had we left when we turned tail back for Miami! Tom spotted a waterspout! That was the first one that I have ever seen. Pretty cool! It wasn't long after that it started raining. 
We were now heading back to Miami! We waited for the weather to pass and then continued on our way. We were now officially on our way to our next port - Gilbert's in Key Largo.
Our course takes us through Biscayne Bay and just off in the distance are these stilt homes that are built in the shallows of Biscayne National Park! It is pretty amazing to be out on the ocean and see these homes out in the ocean! The history of these homes is very interesting. If you are interested in learning more about them, here is a link to that information: http://www.key-biscayne.com/kb/stiltsville/index.shtml
Hello Gilbert's! We're back!
We passed through mangroves on the way to Gilbert's on Key Largo. There is an abundance of wild life to be found in here along with mosquitoes.The mosquitoes were very thick through here. Yuk!
We stayed at the same place when we actually brought the boat around to Miami from Marco Island back in October 2010. As I recall, the mosquitoes were just as hungry then!
Just through this bridge is our first stop, Gilbert's. We arrived here at 6pm. The mosquitoes won the battle. We decided to spend the night in a hotel room!
Somewhere along the way, we lost our prop to our dinghy motor. Everything here was closed for the evening. We will have to see about replacing it during our stay at our next stop.
Of course our trip would not be complete with out a re-visit to the tiki bar.
September 2, 2011, Friday
Adios Gilbert's, until next time!
We are off to Isla Morada!
The weather was perfect! Just a few puffy clouds scattered about. The water looked so inviting! As we made our way through Card Sound, we came across some very playful dolphins. This video shows Card Sound Bridge as we passed through as well as some of the dolphins that we saw.
The Dolphins were playing in our wake. At one point, one of the dolphins was swimming along side of the boat when it turned on its side and looked up at Tom! I couldn't believe how many of them were around our boat!
We can see our next harbor in the distance. Now all we have to do is navigate through all of the crab traps to get there. There are so many, it is like a minefield! 
We dropped our anchor and settled in for the evening. We wanted to dinghy in and go to the tiki bar/restaurant on the island. While the water appears very calm in this photo, the current was actually rather strong and receding from the island. Since we didn't have a prop for our dinghy motor, we felt it better to stay on board, cook our meal on our grill, sip some delicious wine and listen to the live music coming from Loralie's.
We had a couple of unexpected guests! Two manatees circled around our boat. We heard them as they surfaced to get air. Tom spotted them as he was grilling burgers! 
During our sunset, we witnessed a strange thing! While there were no boats entering or leaving the bay, we noticed a tiny wave that appeared to have originated from the land. It was as wide as the eye could see. It slowly came upon our boat and the proceeded to slowly go out to sea. The only thing that we could guess it to be was the tide receding. If anyone has ever seen or heard of such a thing, please let us know. It truly was amazing to watch.September 3, 2011, Saturday
The sunrise put on a show for us as well! How beautiful it was. After a quick breakfast, we pulled up our anchor and headed back out to the Inter coastal Waterway. Onward to Marathon Key where hopefully we can pick up a prop for the dinghy.
We will stay at Boot Key Marina, which is located on the Atlantic side. If the weather would have been better, our course would have taken us around the islands on the Atlantic side where we were looking forward to some snorkeling, Tom really wanted to have a go at lobstering. Maybe next time, the waters were not calm enough this trip.
We will have to pass through Seven Mile Bridge. But first, more and more crab traps!!!!!! 
Ah. . . I do believe that boating life agrees with me!
We are now through the Seven Mile bridge and on the Atlantic side. This side is even more polluted with crab traps than Florida Bay! We carefully navigate through them, so far, so good!
As we made our way to the Boot Key entrance, we made certain to stay inside the channel. There were very shallow shoals immediately outside the channel. The dock master guided us to our mooring ball. This was our very time hooking up to a mooring. 
This was our home for the night! We took the dinghy to the marina and got our showers. Later we walked around the town a bit to stretch our legs. As we made our way back to our dinghy, we saw someone poking around the rocks near the marina. So far, he caught one good-sized lobster! September 4, 2011, Sunday
Well, just as suspected, 5:30 came excessively early! Here we are in our dinghy, rowing into the marina for our wake up showers!
Today we set off for the longest leg of our journey! Depending on the weather, we will either stop at Little Shark River, or if the winds and weather are in our favor, we may just continue onto Marco River Marina at Marco Island.
The crab traps were much more difficult to spot today. They sometimes were covered up by the swell of the waves! Again, we made it through them with out snagging any.
As we made our way into Florida bay, the wind decreased drastically. It was now gently coming from directly behind us. This will not allow us to sail.
Occasionally a yacht or fishing vessel would pass in the distance. We were making about 4.7 - 5.0 knots. At this pace, we would get to Marco around 8:30pm.
Around 11:00am, Tom asked me to take the wheel for a bit so that he could put a hook in the water. He had been wanting to fish all week and now just before I took the wheel, old Mr. Murphy steps in!
Our engine started to overheat and then it just stopped. So here were are, 3 miles off of the coast and 30 miles from Marathon when our engine just quits. Tom quickly dropped anchor and proceeded to go below to check the engine. He could find nothing wrong. We decided to raised the main sail to see if we could harness some wind. Again, no luck.
Even our cell phones were out of range! Eventually we sailed in an area that had a bit of cell phone coverage.
We phoned our friend at Marco as well as Miami and told them our dilemma. After about an hour, Tom decided to try and start the engine again. She started right up and we were back on our way. This delay set up back an hour.
We continued to motor along, careful not to run the engine too hard. We kept it at around 1500 RPM's and made a consistent 4.9-5.2 knots per hour.
At 2:30pm we were as far as Little Shark River. We had not seen a single boat since noon! Over towards land we could see the thunder clouds building. If we headed over to Little Shark River, we would be heading into bad weather. We had no choice at this point but to push on to Marco.
That means we will not get there until around 2:30am! The waves started to pick up a bit. Since we were not making any more time with our main sail up, Tom lowered it and secured it.
The weather so far has been nice, not a dark cloud in the sky and the wave 1-2 feet. Tom and I took turns at the wheel. It was a beautiful sunset!
Even after the sun set, the moon offered up a bit of it's light. We continued slowly along. One mile seemed to take forever!
Some time during the evening, the moon disappeared and the ocean became black and inky. Tom and I were getting very tired. The wind had increased and the swells were now about 4 feet.
Tom and I took turns navigating. As the night progressed we grew more tired, taking turns sleeping. The wind continued to increase and the waves got bigger. Just 25 more miles to go. Another 5.5 hours left before we would be in Marco Marina!
With just 10 long miles left, we could finally see the lights of Marco. Off in the distance, we were looking for 3 white flashing beacons that would mark some very sandy, shallow shoals that we needed to avoid. As we approached slowly closer, we could only see one of the three white markers. We would have to rely on our GPS to get us safely through this area. It's funny how miles back I was trying to spot these beacons. The ocean played tricks with my eyes several times. What I thought to be the white flashing lights, were in fact the moon reflecting off of the rising and falling waves.
Once we made it through this area, we were now in search of our channel marker that would lead us into Marco River Marina. I can see it, Tom is resting for a short time, but I see it. I am continuing towards it, but it doesn't appear to be getting closer. It is almost like one of those crazy dreams where you are running towards something, but you never can get close enough to it.
Finally, I can see we are approaching the flashing red marker. I wake Tom so that he can be my second set of eyes. As I steer us closer, I start to feel some relief. Relief that we will finally be at our destination and can finally shut our eyes.
In order to enter this channel from our approach, I must come around it and make a very sharp turn. As I do this, the wind and the water slap our boat hard. The boat becomes very intimidating to control at this point. It feels like gail winds have developed!
I asked Tom to bring the boat in the rest of the way. It then became my job to find our channel markers and keep us in the channel.
Finally, at 3:30am, we found an empty dock to secure the boat. Tired and exhausted from our 21 hour trip, we finally closed our eyes sometime after 4 am.
In the late morning, our friend phoned us and had us move our boat back to his place. Funny, she is now docked at her origination.
Her next stop, St. Petersburg Municipal Marina.
