Goodbye Florida Keys....Hello Fort Lauderdale

They say the third time is the charm and that turned out to be true as we finally left Marathon after nearly two months. Back to the third time business later. A brief update is in order since last posting. We traveled back to Tennessee in late Feburuary and returned to Here and Now in Marathon on March 8 along with our Hoosier friends Al and Linda Rudolph who had planned to travel with us to Fort Lauderdale. The weather did not cooperate so we rented a car and went to Key West again, visited the turtle hospital in Marathon, went to the annual seafood festival in Marthon, and finally drove Al and Linda to Fort Lauderdale to catch their plane back home. It was great having them stay with us on the boat...only wish Linda and Carolyn could improve their Eucher game somewhat. We will miss the great people we have met at Marathon and the ribs at Dockside on Thursday night listening to Joe Mama sing about Henry's Railroad. There are too many folks we have met to single out each one but we do appreciate the help and hospitality we recieved by the great group of loopers who were there.

We tried to leave Marathon twice without success. Once we never made it past the pilings as the engines would not run long enough. As it turned out , I had not properly primed the fuel filters after changing them a few days before. That coupled with marginal weather kept us in dock. Next day we tried again and got all the way out of Boot Key Harbor and the starboard engine started heating up and we had to return to Dockside again to diagnose the problem. With the help of Louis and Robert (Looper friends form NC) we got the problem taken care of about 2 pm and lost another day. After a frustrating couple of days we decided to invite Louis and Diane and Robert and Kay out for a St Pats day dinner and had a great meal and good time. We finally got away from Boot Key on the 18th of March and ran outside in Hawk Channel about 115 miles to Key Biscayne. It was a great day on the water and seas were good, not great, but good. We now have a little clay cat called Coleman who sits up on the helm station and is supposed to be looking out for the safety of the boat and for good weather...we will see (Thanks Jamey!!).
We pulled into Crandon Park marina arouund four in the afternoon after entering Biscayne Bay and traveling throught Stiltsville in a storm that came up on the Bay just as we arrived. This is a good marina with floating docks and they offer a Boat US discount. We got a good nights sleep and left around 10 yesterday morning after pump out and refuel.

Yesterday was a fun day as we traveled up the ICW from Biscayne Bay through Miami to Fort Lauderdale and then five miles up the New River to our current marina, Marina Bay. The weather was cool but sunny and it was neat seeing the sights starting with the big cruise ships in Miami and then on through the highrises and beautiful homes along the waterway. We had to go slow most of the day due to no wake and manatee zones. Finally it was a wild trip up the New River with all the tour boats coming down the river which has winding turns and very narrow with marinas, boats, and beautiful houses all along the banks. The Jungle Queen came around a bend and almost hit us. But we made it safely into dock around 4 yesterday and will be here a week or so as Matt and Susan are coming down to visit us next week. We plan to get the boat cleaned up today and go shopping  for food and some new toys for Willi.

Later.....Be Safe.