The Backcountry

 I finally have the sweet combination of time to blog and power to run the Starlink and computer so getting caught up on what we've been up to on Blue Moon.  Years ago when we sailed up the East Coast, we went up Florida Bay from Marathon to Miami.  We always wanted to explore more of the area and this was the trip we made it happen.  We went to Lignumvitae State Park.  This is a unique island covered with all the hard wood trees that used to cover the keys before some were logged almost to extinction.   The park can only be reached by water and there are many restrictions to keep it protected.  Despite this, it was worth the visit.  The park has several mooring balls for staying overnight and we took advantage of the hospitality.  After visiting the park, we went farther north and visited a  restaurant we had been to years ago by road and made it back by boat.  Lorelei's is mainly a tourist spot during the season but still fun.

The park had several stands of cactus.  We saw new blooms just

in the few hours we were visiting.

The caretakers cottage from 1919.  It has withstood many hurricanes.

No source of fresh water so all water was stored in this

cistern for the inhabitants and the animals.  Those are drain pipes leading 

from the massive rain gutters on the eaves of the house.

A Gumbo Limbo tree.  So pretty with its distinctive

red bark.  There is another red barked tree called

Poison Wood.  We're careful to know the difference!

This is a hurricane shelter.  It was dank and dark

inside but looked safe.

The vast front lawn.

The leaves of the Lignum Vitae tree.  It is a very

slow growing but has extremely hard wood.  It

was a favorite of sailors for making the wooden blocks

and other fittings.

An old saw.

Just in case you didn't recognize the tree,

they kindly labeled it.

The park has no idea what or who these ruins 

belonged to or when.  There have been teams of

archeologists over the decades trying to determine just

who made them but nothing definitive, yet.

A really old pickup truck.  Salt air has not been kind.

The anchorage off of Islamorada.

The entrance from the road to the restaurant.

And Lorelei herself.

This sunset was just unreal.  There were fires burning

in Miami and the particulates made the sky a very eerie

hue.  The sun seemed as if from another planet.

Just cats and dogs pictures here.  This is the

old bridge to Boot Key.  It once was a drawbridge

but the span was taken away years ago and so was

the cable the sign warns about.

A sunrise I was up to see.

Showoff David just had to climb this tree.

Sadly, his good shorts were ruined by the sap

from the tree.  Oh well, he had fun and it is a good picture.

Maintenance

 Just like a house or a car or a trailer or, really anything, you have to take care of it if you want to keep it as a nice place to live or use.  In a boat, the challenge is space.  There is never enough room to put things while you work on the area the stuff usually sits.  Plus, some task just are nasty and dirty.  The worst are when you have something wrong and the culprit is not easily apparent.  All part of cruising.  You deal with the grunge to enjoy the fun.

This is obviously a very large storage locker.  Everything

had to come out to reach a fitting.  He also had to disassemble 

a cover over an area to reach the fitting.  It was big job.  I stood 

by to hand in tools so he wouldn't have to keep climbing out.

This is just some of the stuff that came out of that locker.

Look closely and you'll see the ultimate culprit.  The one screw

is missing the nut and this tiny piece of metal was clogging

the propane locker vent.  That could have been a potentially

fatal flaw if a tank had a leak and it didn't vent to outside

the boat.  Propane sinks into bilges creating explosive dangers.

app

I have my own grunt chores too like defrosting 

our fridge and freezer.  I am extremely grateful to have

these two appliances but I have to stand on a stool to reach

down into one and it's just a yucky job.

Some of the stuff out of them.  When you have

to pile stuff in one area, it makes the non-worker crew confined 

to the non piled up part of the boat.

And Even More Boot Key

 The community here is so unique.  While the Snowbirds, like us, or other transients mix in with the boaters who spend all year on a mooring, it is always fun.  The permanent party folks don't hold it against us part-timers and we all get together for seminars, full moon dinghy drifts, pot lucks and games like Mexican Train dominoes, bocce ball, cornhole, pickleball and a plethora of other activities.  It is an easy place to enjoy.

One great thing about cruising is running into

people you know.  Mary and Jim have the slip down

from us back in Fort Walton Beach.  We also ran into Chuck and his 

crew on Freedom from the Navarre Yacht Club.

The March full moon dinghy drift almost set a record

of most participants.  We had 47 boats join the crowd.   We

started at the mouth of a creek feeding into the ocean and

let the incoming tide push us back into the harbor.  Sometimes we needed 

the outboards to keep us from going into the mangroves or other boats.

Aerial photo of the most recent dinghy drift.

Everyone brought something to share either food

or drink.  Lots of laughs and stories told.

One of the locals works at a tourist place and

was able to borrow this massive trampoline.

The kids had a blast and it was fun to watch them.

And even more drifting.

Blue Moon at night.

I never get tired of sunsets.  I'm always up for 

them but now always up for sunrise!

We like to help make things better for the harbor

and volunteered to help with a general cleanup .  

Quite a few boats joined in and a large area was cleaned.

David wore boots so he could get up in places our dinghy

wouldn't go. He pulled a lot of big pieces out of the mangroves.

On our way to the next cleanup spot.

The group filled this commercial dumpster in 

only a few hours.  We found a huge dump of 

take out boxes, bottle and cans near a homeless

encampment.  We left their stuff alone but cleaned 

up their dump.

This large schooner is anchored in Sister's Creek.

The creek in wide and winding from the ocean to the harbor.

Many boats choose to anchor here rather than come into

the harbor.  It has a lot of boats so they're not there for 

privacy!

The next several pictures are from a local waterfront restaurant.

It is a montage of local sights taking up most of a wall. 

If you click on this vessel, you'll see it's named

the "Love Shack".  It's up in the creek.

We still make it out for a sail every once in a while.

Kayak Trip

 We are moored in Boot Key Harbor.  Marathon is on Vaca Key to one side with a largish, uninhabited island called Boot Key on the other.  Once upon a time there was some type of installation over there with a bridge connecting the two keys.  We have been coming down for over 15 years and never saw the bridge as anything other than defunct.  Boot Key is mostly mangroves with numerous water pathways, a large creek and a few ponds on the interior.  We have taken the dinghy up the creeks and explored the ponds but never did any of the smaller trails.  Some very nice people off of a nearby boat loaned us their kayaks and a super knowledgeable lady who kayaks as her major form of transportation, allowed us to go on our first kayak adventure.  Donna, the knowledgeable lady, is on a motor vessel named Blue Moon so this was obviously meant to be.  She led us down a trail that wound through a good chunk of the island and ended up in a pond that emptied into the creek and that emptied into the bigger creek and that led us back to our Blue Moon.  It was such a great time. We saw fish, birds, a small gator, lizards and some things we weren't sure of.  We plan to do it again in the future.

The sides of the trail at this section were wide.

This is some of what we saw all along the route.

David had the camera so no pictures of him.

I am negotiating a turn in the trail in this shot.

The trail narrowed considerably in some spots.

I had to take my hat off to get under the branch.

Long limbs loved to snag us.

Key West

 I was given the gift of luxury for a weekend for my birthday.  When we're cruising, luxury means a steady source of power from a dock and a rental car.  This time I had both.  We sailed down to Boca Chica, part of NAS Key West, and took a slip for three day.  I arranged a rental car to get around and do some serious shopping of items too heavy to get back to the boat via bikes.  Best of all, two couples that we were friends with during our first tour on Okinawa were able to join us.  A great time was had by all, I hope.  Demaris and Kelly spend their winters in Key West so they know the best spots to visit that aren't on the regular tourist route and overcrowded.

This eclectic bit of whimsy is from this marina's 

resident lounging area.  The table is made of old machine parts.

The tall sculpture is just art.

On the second level of the landing is an old

bank vault.  Supposedly the owner's hurricane

shelter.  The pillars holding up the porch are unique too.

Bananas in the making.

This guy is old car/truck parts.

This Chinese style junk is amazing.  We have also

seen it up in the Pensacola area too.

Another view of the boat owner's area.