January 13, 2013

We decided to hang here at Islamorada, in Upper Matecumbe Key for a couple of days or so.  It's a nice quiet anchorage, close to restaurants and shops, and we're not in a great hurry to get over to Miami - don't need to be there 'till the 24th, and it's only 70 miles or so from here.  Late at night, you can actually see the glow of the city off in the distance.  Last night was, uh. . . , interesting.  Hunkered down to catch some zzzzz's.  The wind was supposed to die down.  There was a cool breeze steadily blowing.  Hah!!!  Breeze My Butt!!!  It was blowing at least 20 knots all freakin' night!!!!  Had to tie down my burgees to shut them up, and tried to find a couple of annoying squeeks (only partially successful there!).  And the wind howling in the windows turned the shades into wind chimes!  ALL night!!!  Yuck!  Sunday turned into a beautiful day, however.  Still a "little breezy", but that was needed to offset the strong sun.  Went into shore and hit a little local grocery for a couple of things - and of course some more beer!  Later, brought Sailor in for an afternoon walk, and went over to check out the "Worldwide Sports" center nearby.  There's a marina there that let us tie up the dinghy and go check things out.  Toured up and down the nearby street, and found "Bob's Bunz" - read good things about this place, sounds like tomorrow's breakfast will be here!!  Back at the Sports center, went to the dog friendly bar for frozen drinks (yummy), a little bar conversation, and a little Sunday afternoon football.  Great place - will probably be back here again!  Back to the boat late afternoon, and Matt had to try out his (once again) new fishing lures.  Actually had a little success today (no keepers, but fun just the same!).  Dinner tonight wasn't exactlly "sucky boat food", rather just "peasant food".  Oh well - got to show some restraint now and then, huh?  So on came the Welsh Rarebit (served over homemade bread toast points) accompanied by a salad with fresh avocado and chilled blanched asparagus spears, topped with  a gingered terriyaki dressing.  Whew - did it again!!  Spent the evening hours watching a large trawler drag its anchor and almost collide with a sailboat anchored nearby.  Matt phoned the Lorelei restaurant and asked the manager to have the band make an announcement about the "Sea Gypsy's" predicament, and sure enough, a short while later a dinghy returns from the shore to up the anchor and move the boat.  Close call for them - an evening's entertainment for us!  Ain't got TV here, so had to find something different for the night!!

January 14, 2013

Last night's wind was half what it was the night before, but it still kept up all night long.  We consoled ourselves in the morning by making the trek into Bob's Bunz for an outrageous Cinnamon Bun for breakfast - so big, that we only got one and split it!  Got back to the boat, and I figured I had some time to spend updating this log, so I got to work.  Or tried to anyway. . .   Discovered that I had reached my maximum number of allowable pages - figured that would happen at some point, but never bothered checking what those limits were!!  So I've spent the last couple of hours consolidating stuff - also found that there's a limit on how many photos I can put in any given photo album page.  So my current stuff will continue as it has in the past, by date for both the log and photos.  If anyone bothers going back to earlier stuff, you'll see the consolidation.  2011 is done, and I guess 2012 will be a work in progress 'till I get it all finished.  Not sure how long that will take - 'till then, you will see the current week's postings getting updated probably a little more often than my normal once a week.  Hopefully it won't take too long to get it all caught up - I expect we'll be here at anchor for a least the next couple or three days, maybe that will give me the time to finish it up.  Otherwise - it'll be mostly seamless for my following, just a pain-in-the-butt for me!!  Ahhh. . . . the hardships one must endure while stuck indefinitely at sea. . . . .  Oh well, don't worry - I'm sure I'll get over it!!  OK - gotta pause here for a bit . . . time to go into shore back over to the Worldwide Sports Center to hit the bar up for some lunch.  I saw some fried alligator there yesterday that was calling to me!  Will continue later!!

Yep - that alligator was definitely calling me!  It was delish!  Turns out that lunchtime is also when they feed the tarpon there - always fun to watch.  Some of these guys were every bit of 5 feet long!!  Extra visitors at feeding time included the ever present pelicans, and today, a couple of nurse sharks!  Very cool!  Went strolling through the local shops - all kind of standard Florida Keys touristy stuff, but still neat to walk through.  Then back on home to putter around for the afternoon, catch up on some reading and relaxing.  Tough life, I gotta say!  Eventually got it together enough to throw meat on the grill and get thru dinner.  Then, of course, the obligatory movie before bed. 

January 15, 2013

Got up and had some breakfast before bringing Sailor in for a walk.  Got him squared away, then home to get a little laundry done (want to keep up with some little loads since we're at anchor all week and have no regular size machine available!).  Did a little housecleaning today too, in anticipation of having company for dinner - Heather from the S/V LaBamba is coming to join us tonight.  Some pasta with homemade sausage, cheesy-garlic bread (made out of my homemade bread), and salad, followed by creme` brulee` for dessert.   Outstanding once again!  Had a great visit with her - nice to break things up with new friends now and then. . . .  Only one slight mishap - clearing up after dinner, scraping plates into the water to feed the fishies, I managed to toss a fork overboard.  Rats!  Guess I'm going swimming tomorrow!!  At least I managed to hang on to all the plates!  After dinner, Matt delivered Heather back to her boat, then we settled in with our favorite musical, Smokey Joe's Cafe, for a little relaxation before bed.  Hmmmm. . . . seeing a trend here.

January 16, 2013

Got up and had coffee - walked the mutt.  Had some nourishment - had to prepare for my big swimming excursion.  Went into have lunch at the Shrimp Shack, directly across the road from the boat ramp where we dinghy into.  Found out they are closed on Wednesdays.  Figures.  Back on over to Worldwide Sports for more of their yummy food instead.  Back to the boat, and I changed into my swim suit.  Hung out for an hour or so in the sun reading my book, 'till I got hot enough to want to hop in the water.  Then spent the next half hour snorkeling around the boat in search of my wayward fork - unfortunately it has escaped.  Maybe one of the local tarpon took it to eat the food scrapings with.  I had mentioned the problem to my son Daniel in passing - he said it sounded like a very serious situation.  I had to agree with him - said that now I could not have 8 people for dinner unless I was only serving soup!!  Bummer.  Leftovers for dinner tonight - still yummy though!  Watched yet another movie (gotta say "thanks" once more to our friends on Bucket List for all the movies - we can only go thru our DVDs so many times before they start really getting old!!!).  Speaking of Bucket List - heard from them.  They are in Harbour Cay Club for a week, before heading on for Key West.  Hoping that maybe we can catch up with them before we start heading in opposite directions . . .

January 17, 2013

Expecting some not so friendly weather later today.  It's supposed to be hot (80's) today, with a cold front moving in tonight - hitting 50 degrees overnight!  That and the winds kicking up, only 10 knots today, but increasing up to 20-25 with stronger gusts tonight and tomorrow.  Oh Joy!  Took the dog for his walk, then went back in to find "Mangrove Mike's Cafe" for breakfast.  Definitely a great breakfast place - Eggs Benedict with crab meat?  Can't get better than that!!!  Stepped out of the Cafe into a light mist - uh oh, it's starting much earlier than we thought!  Plus, there was only a "chance" of rain, so we should be ok.  Right?  NOT!!!  It started really coming down before we made it back to the dinghy, and reached torrential levels before we got all the way back to the big boat!  We jumped aboard, and I scrambled up the ladder to help secure the dinghy.  By the time we were done, we were soaked completely thru to the skin - had to strip at the bridge and wring out the clothes to keep from flooding the salon!!!  Got dried off and fresh clothes, and got the inside of the boat mostly dried (of course, we had windows open!).  Think we're just gonna hunker down and stay on board today.  One last Sailor run later today and that's it!   

January 18, 2013

Got up and had breakfast - last night was a "cool" one. . .  Very thankful that we have heat on board!  Got a call from Heather aboard the "La Bamba", requesting assistance in launching a second anchor (since her boat dragged so bad the other day).  Matt went over to get things set up for her (she was quite grateful).  Later, went in a lunch time to the Shrimp Shack for lunch - I had a Shrimp "Po-Boy" that was great, Matt had a Cracked Conch basket that did him in (stomach wise) later. . . .  After we ate, I took a bike ride to the local Post Office, a mile up the road, to retrieve a package that our son Daniel sent down (thanks, Danny!!) - a prescription for Matt.  Danny is due to fly down here next week to join us, but we didn't think it would work OK for him to be bringing an Rx that wasn't his in his carry-on.  Much better this way!   Went into the Worldwide Sports place for a small dinner tonight - Heather said to ask for her ex-boyfriend, Tim, so we did.  Really nice guy!!  Had a couple of appetizers for dinner (guess we're getting old - just can't eat like we used to!!!).  Asked to cash out later, and the bartender asked me to just wait a few minutes  - turned out that Tim asked her to call him over when we checked out.  He took care of our food bill with a "Manager's Dinner" comp - very cool!  We'll be back here again!!!  Home to the boat - an early movie then bed.  (Continuing our normal pattern!!)

January 19, 2013

Got up and took the puppy to shore.  He's always so happy to see land!!  Came "home" and did some more relaxin' and stuff. . . .  Hard to endure!  Did lunch on board, and planned for dinner on board tonight.  Went back into shore late afternoon for Sailor's last run, and ended up over at the Worldwide Sports place again for a night cap before returning to to the boat for dinner.  Very cool  - had a pre-supper show of a sea plane coming in and taking back off.  Matt thinks 'cause it stayed so low on it's departure that it was a drug-runner. . . . hmmmm. . . ya never know!!  

1-19 Float Plane

Dinner was great - a steak accompanied by a lobster stew/bisque soup, outstanding!!! (Once more!)  Hung out on the stern with the lights on, throwing in some leftover french fries from lunch the other day . . . how cool is this?  Watching the fishies come over in the ever so clear water to munch on stuff?!  Very neat!!  Finishing up my boat log for the week, then probably a little movie stuff then night-night.  Another great day!!!