Archives February 2024

Day 267 – 275; 2/10 – 218

Saturday, 2/10 we said goodbye to Jane and Luther as they headed back to Connecticut and the snow! Had a great time in the Keys with them! After they left (after breakfast) we took a little dinghy ride to check out the area and found lots of derelict boats…. Seems to be a FL problem.

Right around lunch time we received word that the Ocean Reef Club, a reciprocal club to AYC could in fact accommodate us for 2-3 nights so we cast off our lines from the Anchorage Resort and Marina in Key Largo and headed north, retracing our steps from the day before and crossing out of Blackwater Sound in to the open ocean north of North Key Largo. Of course we had some amazing dolphins escorts along the way (where were they when Jane and Luther were on the boat?). This never gets old!

On our way into the cove, we passed a huge mega yacht with their jet skis and kite boarding equipment deployed. WOW! Serious toys! We arrived around 3:00, feeling quite small compared to the mega yachts that were docked there!

Ocean Reef Club is a beautiful private club with a marina, homes and condos as well as a beautiful pool right on the beach, beach access with kayaks, sailing and SUPs, multiple restaurants, hotels, and amenities available to members. We were excited to have been extended some of the membership privileges for a couple days, enjoying the pool, an Italian restaurant and Super Bowl Party. Carol had several meetings while there, some that took almost an entire day so Gary toughed it out and went golfing! Someone has to do it!

Alas at $9.00/foot plus power (most transient slip prices range between $3.00 – $6.00 and we saw as lows as $1.00 – $2.00 prior to hitting the Florida coast), we said goodbye to Ocean Reef after having an amazing 3 nights there, heading to an anchorage in Miami on Tuesday, 2/13. Carol had more calls on 2/13, so Ocean Reef granted us a late departure that we were super appreciative of, and we headed out around 2:00 pm, arriving at the Marine Stadium Anchorage around 5:45 pm – a 3.5 hour mostly open ocean run. Seas were calm so it was a pleasant run, and of course we saw more dolphins!

Upon arrival, we weaved our way through the anchorage around other boats that were anchored – some just there for the day and some that had been there for years, looking totally abandoned. It was a beautiful night to watch the sunset over the old stadium and take in the lights of the city. Gary made an amazing shrimp stir fry with the varied ingredients we had on board and of course looper midnight came early!

A little history of the Marine Stadium… it is an interesting structure that looks like a huge set of bleachers under a large roof, only facing the water. What on earth were they watching? The Miami Marine Stadium was completed in 1963 as the first stadium purpose-built for power boat racing in the United States.  The venue on Virginia Key, located just south of Downtown Miami, was revered for its scenic views of Downtown and Miami Beach.

In 1979, Miami Rowing Club relocated next door and has been hosting the Miami International Regatta since 1973 with the basin providing a 1,500 meter 7 lane course for practice, training and racing.

From its opening for nearly 30 years, the stadium was used for its intended water sports as well as concerts, sporting events such as boxing (which began in 1972), and even figured prominently in the 1967 Elvis Presley film Clambake, serving as the scene of Elvis’ climactic speedboat race.  In the wake of Hurricane Andrew, it was declared an unsafe building in 1992 and sits abandoned, a canvas for graffiti artists and much debate in local politics about its possible restoration and use.  The well protected anchorage is a popular weekend spot for day boaters and has clearly also become the home of many derelict boats that have not moved in years!

We enjoyed watching the sun go down behind the stadium, gazing on the lights of the city and imagining this location in its glory days.

On Wednesday, 2/14 we left our anchorage around 9:40 am heading north on the ICW through Miami and Fort Lauderdale headed to another anchorage in Pompano Beach (Lake Santa Barbara). It was a long day with lots of draw bridges (which we didn’t time very well) so had quite a bit of wait time, arriving around 4:00 pm. Each bridge required our attention as to it’s stated clearance on our charts vs. the “staff gauge” which is a large measuring stick in the water that shows the actual clearance. We need 23’ of clearance (also called air draft) to avoid collision of our radar domes with the underside of the bridge (that would be a bad day!) and that is if we have the antennas folded down. Some bridges showed 25’ of clearance on the charts, but their staff gauges only showed 21 or 22’. One bridge operator told us we’d have enough clearance, so we didn’t need to wait until his opening, so come on up and go through now….but we could tell from the staff gauge we didn’t. We respectfully told him we’d wait for the opening! YIKES!

The ride up the ICW was very scenic with Miami and Fort Lauderdale’s beautiful homes, boats ranging from center consoles to mega yachts to cruise ships and everything in between. I don’t know why I didn’t take many pictures… let’s just say there was a lot of wealth on display! It was a beautiful and scenic ride. Gary took dinner duty again as Carol got ready for an evening BOD meeting. It wasn’t our typical Valentine’s Day celebration at Cafe Mezzanotte (Annapolitans know where that is!) but these aren’t typical days! All good!

Thursday, 2/15 we were up and out early again (8:30 am) for our last push to get to Palm Beach on time….’on time’ meaning we were pushing to get to Palm Beach Yacht Club (PBYC) to join other AYC-ers for a Cruising Fleet Snowbird’s Happy Hour. Carol had yet another BOD meeting from 12-2:30, so she took that one underway. We arrived around 2:15 and Gary just circled the marina for a while until Carol was done and we were ready to don our headsets and dock Legacy.

PBYC was another lovely club with reciprocal privileges to AYC – apparently, there are a few members at AYC are also members at PBYC. PBYC is a lovely and very traditional club requiring jackets for men while in the building and appropriate dress for women. If you know Gary, you know how much he LOVED having to wear his jacket for both Happy Hour on Wednesday and again for dinner on Thursday. Regardless, we met many of the PBYC members as well as visiting AYC members, enjoying the beautiful facilities and surrounding area. Quite a few of the members there have captains to run their boats. We enjoyed chatting with the owners and captains, getting their insights re: places to go and things to do in the Bahamas.

Friday we broke out our bikes, rode into town for lunch and found the local grocery store for a few provisions. The weather was finally warm and sunny, making it a glorious day! It was an early dinner at the club and then more meetings for Carol. The good news is we are hopefully seeing the light at the end of the tunnel for the need for all these meetings!

PBYC has a very small footprint and we thought it was so cool how they used “office/house boats” to satisfy their need for office space with their land space so limited.

Saturday, 2/10 arrived and it was time for Legacy to move north again, working our way to Burr Yacht Sales in Stuart, where we will leave Legacy for a week of scheduled maintenance and tune ups. Next stop along the way: Jupiter, FL. We took our time in the morning, leaving around 11:00 am (Carol had a turkey in the oven!)

Why a turkey in the oven in February? Deli meats are so full of sodium and unhealthy, we’ve been doing our own roasted turkeys, roast beef or chicken as our lunches instead of processed foods from the deli packed with blood pressure elevating sodium. Did you know that sodium and potassium are electrolytes that help your body function normally by maintaining fluid and blood volume? Consuming too much sodium (which is highly prevalent in processed food like luncheon meats) and too little potassium can elevate your blood pressure? Potassium can help lower your blood pressure because it relaxes the walls of the blood vessels whereas sodium provokes water retention which can increase the fluid volume of your blood and raise blood pressure. Potassium is naturally found in foods like bananas, spinach, avocados and potatoes. We now use a potassium substitute for regular table salt. Hey – a little effort, like roasting your own turkey, and you can stay more healthy!

Back to the loop!

Reed Burke took these awesome photos of us on our way to Jupiter and posted them on a Fleming FB group; pics are from Sand Mountain in Jupiter, just south of JIB club. Thank our Reed! People have asked why are our antennas down? Because we were going under bridges that otherwise we would have been too tall and they would have hit.

It was another very easy cruise up the ICW, navigating under lots of drawbridges and enjoying the sights. We arrived to a very fun marina in Jupiter around 1:30 pm where we docked right at the pool and outdoor bar. It’s not a bar that sells drinks, but you can buy a single or a 6 pack inside the ships store or bring your own. We enjoyed hanging out with the regulars, again gaining insights into their experiences in the Bahamas.

The highlight of the night though, wasn’t Carol’s turkey soup….even though it was good….. it was the Baltimore Blast (5th place) win over Utica (2nd place) by a score of 13-6! It also wasn’t just the win, it was Michael scoring 3 goals as a goal keeper – a new Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) record. NEVER before has a goal keeper recorded 3 goals in one game (a hat trick) achieving it with his arm, meaning he threw the ball the full length of the field into the opposing net. Arena soccer is unique where, like ice hockey, you can pull the goal keeper and add an extra player on offense. In the MASL, this is known as the 6th attacker. The risk of this strategy is that you leave the goal unattended and exposed. Utica did this and 3 times with the 6th attacker on the field, Michael made a save, was able to keep control of the ball and launched the ball down field to score. Congratulations Michael for making MASL history!

Hope these embedded links works!

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/wzMx4is4DSy1kJ3q/?mibextid=K35XfP

https://www.facebook.com/100063592719052/posts/pfbid0izUZUiebMyugj21Gkr9EAAzgSAzarzUVcpiyw3MhpfvT1pscjHC1oh71LGQifMKel/?

Needless to say, the fans in the arena in Baltimore went wild, but so did Mom and Dad on Legacy. What a night for Michael – so proud of him and his journey from Broadneck High School soccer to Clemson Collegiate soccer and now to the MASL Baltimore Blast. He’s been patiently learning the arena game for 4 years and gaining experience as the number 2 guy behind an amazingly talented goalkeeper, but this has been his year. Just wish we had been there in person to see it and celebrate with him….The ups and downs of the loop!

Sunday, 2/18 is forecast to be rain, rain and more rain…. So we will stay in Jupiter and have a good cleaning day of the boat. Then it is off to Stuart.

Day 258 – 267; 2/1 – 2/10: 1/31 we said goodbye to Sarah and Richard on Wednesday, 1/31 after a few fun days with them. On Thursday, 2/1 we departed St. Charles Yacht Club in Fort Myers to head back to Marco Island (Smokehouse Bay) to anchor and reprovision. Running without stabilizers on this 4.5 hour run proved to be just fine, despite a bit of following sea off the starboard side. Friday, 2/2 we ran for another 7.5 hours to Shark River Inlet – an uneventful run with a little more breeze but favorable seas. We were out of Starlink (Wi-Fi) range for several hours on that run, so were forced to talk to each other….horror of horrors! Just kidding! We found a great well protected anchorage to watch the Blast Game on Twitch – it was a great 7-5 win in front of the home crowd.

Saturday, 2/3 would be our final push to get to the Keys – our destination was the Marlin Resort and Marina in Marathon where we would meet up with Jane and Luther who were flying from Connecticut into Fort Lauderdale and driving out. It was about a 5 hour run for us, arriving around 1:45 pm. We reunited with Steve and Barbara on Coda, Tony and Shirley on Puffin and Mayli and Boris on Saga. We felt like we finally found the sun and enjoyed some time in the heated pool and spa as we awaited Jane and Luther’s arrival around 3:45 pm. It was a long day of travel for them, so Coda’s gracious offer to make enchiladas for everyone (12 of us in total) was gladly accepted. Everyone opened their refrigerators and contributed ingredients to make it a reality, but it was Steve’s amazing cooking, recipe and smoked paprika combined with red wine that made it great! We took over all the high top tables and chairs by the pool and had a wonderful evening!

High winds (+40mph gusts) kept all of us in the marina on Sunday, 2/4. We started our day with our traditional lattes on Coda to plan the day, so of course we introduced Luther and Jane to our tradition! Winds being very strong, we all decided to make the most of it in the pool and spa and decided we’d have a Baltimore Blast watch party up in the lounge for the 3:00 pm game. Unfortunately, Blast lost that one 8-5. We had heard great things about the Steak and Lobster restaurant just a block or two away, so the 10 of us trekked over and it did not disappoint!

On Monday, 2/5 Saga left early to try to catch a decent weather window to get to Key Largo before a heavy rainstorm came in. They made it but did get a bit bounced around and quite wet! We opted to stay in Marathon and visited the Turtle Hospital nearby – quite fascinating and educational. Did you know that throughout the entire ocean, there are only 7 living species of sea turtles? 5 of those 7 are found in Florida: Green, Loggerhead, Leatherback, Hawksbill and Kemp’s Ridley. The green sea turtle is by far the most common in the area and also the largest represented at the Hospital. They aren’t called green because their shells are green…. It’s their insides! They eat so much seagrass their tissue and fat in their bodies turns green!

Sea turtles are at the hospital for a variety of reasons including ‘impaction’ – they’ve ingested some sort of synthetic material and can’t eliminate it causing intestinal blockage. Bottom line – don’t throw your trash in the water and do not release balloons into the air…. They do come back to land – often in the water and get ingested because they look like jelly fish! Another reason is ‘entanglement’ where they get tangled up in fishing lines, abandoned netting or more trash. This can result in cutting off the circulation in one of their flippers and death of that appendage or drowning since they can’t swim to the surface to breathe. Another reason they are there is ‘boat hits’. Boats inadvertently hit a sea turtle causing damage to their shells. This can result in internal infections or deformities to their shells that makes swimming and surfacing impossible. Often, an air pocket will get formed in the damaged shell causing the turtle to permanently float to the surface, unable to submerge to get food. This condition is affectionately known as ‘bubble butt’. The staff use marine epoxy to attach weights to the turtle shell to counter balance the bubble, but this isn’t a permanent solution since they will eventually fall off. These turtles can’t be released and become permanent residents or “ambassadors for their breed”. The final reason is ‘fibropapillomatosis’… say that 3 times! This is an aggressive herpes like virus that causes growth in soft tissue, particularly around the eyes.

We learned a lot about sea turtles and enjoyed our visit!

With strong winds and high seas still in the area, we opted to drive to Key West on Tuesday, 2/6 since we had to accept the fact that we’d not be able to get the boat there after all. Gary stayed behind since the mechanic to fix the stabilizers was able to come that day. What was supposed to be about a 1.5 hour drive took 2, but that didn’t dampen our spirits. We enjoyed a fabulous lunch at Garbos, a little airstream trailer that serves as a food truck with outdoor seating that was featured on Diners, Drive-in and Dives….our tacos were yummy!!! Then we were off to see the sights in Key West including the end of Route 1, Duval Street, Sloppy Joe’s, Captains Tony’s, and the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum.

A little history: Hemingway first arrived in Key West in 1928. He was married to Pauline at the time (which would be one of his 4 wives) and her wealthy Uncle Gus was the one who gave them the home they would update and live in for many years. Originally built in 1851, it was in a state of great disrepair but showed tremendous potential. Updated through the 1930’s and adding a swimming pool in 1937-38 (the first in ground pool in Key West), it was (and still is) a stately home complete with a writers studio behind the house where Hemingway wrote some of his finest works. The house is still filled with the furniture they collected in Europe and Africa and descendants of their cats! The story goes that Hemingway made the acquaintance of a sea captain who owned an unusual six-toed tomcat, which captured Ernest’s fancy, so the sea captain gave one to Hemingway. Today many of the numerous cats that inhabit the grounds still possess the unusual six toes.

Ernest’s friends Charles Thompson, Joe Russell (also known as Sloppy Joe), and Capt. Eddie “Bra” Saunders, together with his old Paris friends became known in Key West as “The Mob.” The Mob would go fishing in the Dry Tortugas, Bimini, and Cuba for days and weeks at a time in pursuit of giant tuna and marlin. Everyone in The Mob had a nickname, and Hemingway’s was “Papa.” Hemingway’s Key West was a town unlike any place he ever experienced. It was filled with interesting people, ranging from well-to-do businessmen and lawyers, to down-on-their-luck fishermen, to shipwreck salvagers. Throughout his career, Hemingway freely used the people and places he encountered in his literary works, and many Key Westers appear as characters in his novel “To Have and Have Not,” which is about Key West during the Great Depression.

Ernest and Pauline divorced in 1940, Hemingway took up residence in Cuba with his third wife, Martha Gellhorn. He continued to visit Key West during the 40’s and 50’s until his death in 1961. Having suffered from mental health issues his entire life, he committed suicide. Throughout the years, Key West has been home to many writers and artists, but none whose presence and influence is as profound as Ernest Hemingway’s. While in Key West, he wrote “ A Farewell to Arms”, “Death in the Afternoon” and “For Whom the Bell Tolls” to name a few.

Back to our day in Key West…..the winds were howling so we were glad we came by car and not boat! We still ventured to the waterfront and enjoyed happy hour drinks and half price plates for dinner at the Boat House. Of course we also found huge cookies at $11.00 each – worth every cent and Key Lime Ice cream complete with graham cracker crust topping! Coda and Puffin took good care of Gary, inviting him over for burgers. As a consolation prize, we brought him a huge cookie and Tshirt since he missed out on Key West.

Wednesday, 2/7 the winds were still very strong so we stayed an extra day in Marathon enjoying the pool and spa. Carol and Jane did a little shopping and the boys hung by the pool. We enjoyed dinner at a local place called the Fishery that had stone crab claws – a real delicacy only available at certain times a year. When the crabbers catch them, they don’t keep the whole crab. They rip off one claw and throw the crab back to regrow a new claw. If their catch only has one claw, he/she goes back as is.

Thursday, 2/8 was our final morning coffee with Puffin and Coda. We said our goodbyes to Steve and Barbara who have completed their loop and will ship Coda back to Seattle in the next month or so. Puffin will hang out in Marathon a bit longer, then head around the horn of Florida and back home to North Carolina, skipping the Bahamas option. There may be a plan that comes together for all of us to do a boat trip from Seattle to Alaska… we’ll see! We look forward to seeing Puffin in NC when we go by and Steve in Annapolis when he comes for the boat show.

After coffee, Legacy was off the Metucumbe Bite in Islamorada to anchor – about a 3 hour run. Gary and Luther took the boat while Carol and Jane took the car. We found a great free parking spot with access to a pier at the Tidewater Resort. Okay so they thought we were staying at the resort …..a minor detail! It was a great anchorage where we enjoyed a traditional Portuguese dinner of green beans, linguica and chorizo as well as a few passing dolphins and a beautiful sunset.

Friday, 2/9 took us to Key Largo and the Anchorage Marina Resort. Luther took a turn driving the car, with a stop for a 2 hour kayak tour in the Mangroves and a visit to the Dive Museum. The 6 hour run had us out on the ocean side most of the way (ICW was too shallow for us) so it was a little bouncy with a few big waves bringing spray over the bow. We hoped for a few dolphins to join us and show Jane how they jump, but none were to be found. Anchorage Marina Resort was a lovely older time share resort right across from a beachside restaurant called Gilberts where Jane and Luther stopped for lunch on the way out. Instead of Gilberts, we took the managers advice and opted for dinner at Buzzards Roost which was excellent! We had never heard of hogfish, but highly recommend it – food was phenomenal. Our night was capped off by a Baltimore Blast win at home against the Empire Strykers where Michael even scored a goal by throwing the ball the full length of the court. Empire had pulled their goalie to add a 6th attacker (like you would see in hockey), giving Michael the opportunity to score on the open net.

Alas all good things must come to an end. Luther and Jane were off to the airport at 7:30 am on Saturday, 2/10 to return to CT, where snow was in the forecast. We decided to drop the dinghy and take a little ride to check out the area, searching for manatees. None were found but we did find a lot of derelict boats. It’s a real problem in Florida. Soon after our tour, we heard back from Ocean Reef Club that they could actually accommodate us that day for 3 days, so we tossed lines just after lunch to make the 2 hour run there. We arrived mid afternoon to enjoy some time by the pool. Ocean Reef Club is quite the swanky, fancy place! More on that next time!