NautiNell

NautiNell
NautiNell in all her glory
Showing posts with label Winter in Marathon 2014-15. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Winter in Marathon 2014-15. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

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 CafĂ© 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”

Saturday, March 28, 2015

Spring Has Sprung in the Keys!

Sunset at the Seven Mile Bridge
Happy Anniversary!
I love this picture!
Mikey (aka Pancho) enjoying fresh
lobster at the Seafood Festival!
Island Vibe - great reggae band
Myles Marcuso - love this blues guy!
The Color Guard at the festival
The girl in blue sang the National Anthem.
Amazing! 
This was the poster for the festival this year
I love it!
Happy St Paddy's Day!
Rick and Terese!
Celebrating being Irish!
Gotta have the bagpipes on
St Patrick's Day!
William and Judy - you're too cute!
Enjoying the party!
Dinghy ride to Gilligan's Island
Beautiful day!
Another dinghy ride in the harbor
I love it when it's calm -
 we can enjoy
the ride!
Great day for the beach!
William and Judy heading out
Safe travels!
Mikey is so proud!
Found this great grill - in the dumpster!
All the guys are jealous!
One last trip to No Name Pub!
Flying over the marina!
Here's our ride!
Getting ready to go!
Mike had to help start her!  HA!
Ready to go!  Looking like Snoopy!
Mike discussing our flight plan
with the Pilot (Evan)
Great pic of the harbor
Flying over the Seven Mile Bridge
Right after this shot - we saw a shark!
Out over the reef
Sombrero Lighthouse
Loving the ride!
Easy to see just how shallow the water is
near to shore!
Here's looking at you kid!
Another beautiful evening in the harbor
The sky is always beautiful
One of our last sunsets in the harbor
for the season
Spring has sprung and most of us are trying to decide where and when we are going!  March always seems to be a busy month for all of us.  We’ve played all this winter so now we must start charting our course, stocking the galley and “fixing” all the things that need to be “fixed”.  Mike has been busy “fixing” and I’ve been “stocking”.  If all works out like we planned, we will be leaving for the Bahamas sometime during the first week of April.  We’ll be leaving here in a few days and heading north so we can stage our crossing.  We’ll stay in the Bahamas 6-8 weeks and then cross back over to the USA near Stuart FL.  Then we’ll work our way north up the east coast to Norfolk VA where we’ll finally cross our wake and finish the Great Loop!  We started the Loop in May 2011 in Norfolk so that is where we’ll end it “officially”.  But who knows what we’ll do after that!

The month of March hasn’t been all work and no play!  So here are a few things we’ve managed to do!
We were able to enjoy the company of a couple of our friends from back home.  Steve Smith and Steve Mounce stopped by on their way to Key West.  They were on their motorcycles and had come to Florida to enjoy the weather and Daytona Bike Week.  They couldn’t let a chance to ride to Key West go by.  We had dinner with them at the Island Fish Company where they both tried hogfish for the first time.  It was so good to see them and catch up on everything back home. 
Our anniversary was March 13.  This year it fell on a Friday but we didn’t let that bother us!  We spent a beautiful evening at Sunset Bar & Grille where we saw the sun set over the Seven Mile Bridge.  It was a wonderful evening – we had a great meal and toasted ourselves with a few cocktails. 
That weekend was the 39th Annual Marathon Seafood Festival!  This is always a great event!  It’s second only to FantasyFest that is held in Key West in October.  There were lots of good food and great music!  We hung out most of the day with our boating buddies listening to music and watching the people.  We had so much fun that we even went back on Sunday for more!
Of course, March 17 was St Patrick’s Day so we had to celebrate!  Several of us went to one of our favorite watering holes – The Marathon Ale House.  They served up some great corned beef and cabbage and bangers and mash!  We even had a bagpiper come in to play for us.  He was a member of the Monroe County Sheriff’s Dept.  Very cool!
We managed to take another dinghy cruise.  The weather was perfect for a trip out to Gilligan’s Island.  This is just a small island about a mile out from the beach.   When the tide is low – it’s a great place to just drop an anchor and “bob” around in the water. The water was 85 degrees – the sun was shining bright - and the beer was cold!  What a fun day!
On Friday, March 20 we finally scratched off an item on our bucket list!  We took a bi-plane ride!  We had wanted to do it on our anniversary but it was too windy.  The weather was perfect and the ride was spectacular!  We went at low tide so we could really see the bottom.  We flew over the harbor, the Seven Mile Bridge and out to the Reef and over the Sombrero Lighthouse.  The water was crystal clear. We saw a bull shark, several barracuda and even a sea turtle.   I hugely recommend this ride to anyone that wants to see just how beautiful the Keys are.  It was amazing!
This past weekend we had another (and maybe our last) cookout.  Rick fired up the grill and we cooked ribs, butts and whatever else we could think of!  
 It’s been a great season here.  We’re going to miss everyone.  However, we’ll be seeing several again on the waterways, I’m sure!
The next time, if all goes well, I’ll be posting from the Bahamas!  We tried to make it last year but things didn’t work out that way.  So we’re keeping our fingers crossed!
Till next time!
Admiral “C”