Celebrating April in the Keys!

One of the last sunsets for us here in Marathon
Leaving soon!

Red Sky at Night........

Ray was bottom cleaning (diving) Jeff's
boat and this fish swam up to him with
a hook in its mouth!
Too bad it wasn't a keeper!
Jack Creville - not good for eating

View from Old No Seven

A beautiful day for a walk

View from Old Seven Mile Bridge

I love spending time out here

The girls having dinner before we attended the
Community play "The Producers"

Salt Mills brought up from the Atocha

Gold bullion

Silver treasure

Another treasure from the deep

Parts of crossbows were found

Hard to tell from picture -
but this was really beautiful

Key West Sunset
Never gets old

Attending Sunrise Services at Sombrero Beach

A beautiful morning to worship

Coen, our little "imp" on the dock
brought us Easter treats from the
bunny himself!

Easter Dinner on the dock

Sunset from Coco Plum while in the sling
Key Colony

At least we had a nice view of the canal

Playing "Heads Up"
Great fun!
BTW  - Girls won!

Jeff and his son, Scott taking Jeremiah
home for the summer
Bittersweet

Jeremiah standing proud

Easter Dinner gathering

Celebrating April in the Keys!

Well I had hoped that the next time I posted it would be from the Bahamas but here we are still in Marathon.  There are about 8 boats here that are wanting to leave but the winds and the waves just won’t cooperate.  However, it shouldn’t be long now – it looks like we’ll be leaving toward the end of the week and maybe cross over to Bimini this next weekend (April 11-12).  We’ll see!

So here are a few things that’s been happening the last few weeks.  Between several trips to the grocery store, liquor store, Home Depot and the local hardware store to stock up for our adventure – we have managed to have some fun! 

The other night some of the girls here had a “Girls Night Out”.  We went to the Cracked Conch Café for dinner and then on to the Marathon Theater for the production “The Producers”.  It was amazing!  Most of us now have been to several of these community plays – and they all have been enjoyable but this one was quite a production!  I haven’t laughed so much in a long time!

Mike and I made another trek to Key West.  We had a good excuse (as if we needed one).  We needed to get the Silver Bullet’s tires rotated and we can get that done free at Sears.  So we piled our foldable bicycles in the car along with a cooler and off we went.  Well, let me tell you how it really went – we took off and forgot the bikes first – we were practically over the Seven Mile Bridge before we remembered so we had to turn around once we got over the bridge and go back to Marathon.  THEN we picked up the bikes and off we went.  We stopped at Boondocks for a snack because we were starving!  I love their Bang Bang Shrimp!  Then we finally made it to Key West and to Sears where we dropped off the car and rode the bikes to Duval Street.  The guy told us that it would be about 4 hours before it would be ready.  So we had plenty of time.  We hit our favs – Sloppy Joes, Ricks, oysters at Hogs Breath etc.  We finally decided to go to the Mel Fisher Museum.  We had wanted to do this for a long time.  It was really quite interesting.  Thanks to the Atocha – Mel became one of the richest treasure hunters of all time.  Finally we got our call from Sears – BUT they were closing in about 45 minutes.  We didn’t feel like riding our bikes all the way back to Sears and it took us almost an hour to get to Duval Street from there earlier SO we decided we’d leave our bikes and take a cab back to Sears.  Why we didn’t get a cab that transports bikes I don’t know…..  Anyway – we picked the first cab that came by – turned out our cabbie was tweaking.  At least he really acted like it – I’m sure he was high on something.  Anyway – he got us to Sears safely and in plenty of time.  We then got our car and drove back to where we left our bikes – picked them up and then checked out the sunset over Mallory Square  - then hit another favorite “The Green Parrot”.  We stayed a little too long maybe but we had a great time.  All of this just to get a free tire rotation - value $15.00.  Trip to Key West priceless!

We had a beautiful Easter here in the Keys.  Several of us attended Sunrise Services on the beach.  After that we had breakfast on the dock.  Several took a dinghy ride.  AND then we had a wonderful Easter Dinner on the dock.  We do like to eat! 

Last year we had NautiNell pulled out and got her bottom painted.  Well they put on a boot stripe tape rather than paint which is usually fine.  But within two months one side of the boat had lost its stripe.  So the guy told us to bring it back and he’d fix it.  Luckily we were coming back to Marathon this year.  SO ANYWAY, we took her back to the marina in Coco Plum about 10 miles away from Sombrero.  It took us about an hour or so to get there.  It was pretty bumpy out there too!  Anyway he took her out and applied another new tape.  I could tell he really felt bad and was very accommodating.  We spent the night in the sling.  The next morning Ray came over to help change out the through hull – eazy pezy! He rode back with us in NautiNell.  Now when we got back and tied up in the slip – guess what!  The boot stripe was gone!  Yep!  All that for nothing!  At least we got the through hull changed out………….!

Later that night we had a pizza party and played “Heads Up”!  What a crazy night that was!  I don’t think I’ve laughed that hard in a very long time.  It can get very exciting especially when alcohol is involved!  J

We spent today loading the scooters, stocking up on the last few items we forgot, and fixing a leak.  It looks like we’re finally leaving tomorrow (April 9).  We’ll be heading up the east coast to the Miami area (Biscayne Bay) where we’ll hang out until there’s a good day to cross over to Bimini.  There are a couple of boats leaving with us and several that will be following in a few days.  Finally, we’ll be on the move.

Now this should be the last post until we get to the Bahamas.  We’ll be on the move and once we get there my WIFI connections will be few and far between. So stayed tuned!

Till Next Time!

Admiral “C”