Hi Ho Hi Ho, It's Off To Home We Go!

Bill and I have spent the last five winters enjoying the warmth and the many interesting sights of southern Florida and the Bahamas.  We could continue to do this for the rest of our boating life, but we promised ourselves that we would make another trip to the Canadian waters again.  This area, particularly the Georgian Bay, made a lasting impression on us.  The scenery is largely rocks, water, and windblown trees.  There are not as many boaters in the anchorages and marinas, and all the people we encountered were super friendly and more than willing to share local knowledge with us.  We are looking forward to spending more time in the Canadian waters over the next few years, starting next summer.  Unfortunately we will only be on the water in the summers.  Winters are too cold for boating and the Great Lakes may freeze over in the winter.  In the winter of 2013-2014 all of the Great Lakes had large amounts of ice most of the winter.  We haven’t decided if we can stand the winter cold of Rhode Island yet, but we can always drive south if our blood has become “too thin” for freezing temperatures.

This last winter in Marathon we retraced all of our favorite spots to hold us over for our next few winters up north.  Our bike riding and walking was great exercise and the bike riding even gave me a big surprise.  One of the last few bike rides we took, I almost fell off my bike when I spotted a fifty dollar bill lying in the grass.

We left Marathon on Saturday, April 5th, the day there was a runners race across the Seven Mile Bridge.  We hadn’t thought about it ahead of time, and just left as soon as we were ready.  It was quite a sight to see the first of several hundred people running across the bridge as we went under it.  The news helicopter added to the excitement.  This picture of the bridges is the west end of the old one and the new one.  The old bridge was lower than the new, so they just knocked down one section of the old bridge to allow boats to cross from one side to the other.  The east side of the old bridge is a favorite walking, running, and biking trail, two miles each way.  The scenery is ever changing.  Dolphin, eagle rays, tarpon, sharks, and many fishing boats can be seen when the weather is right.  At the end of the bridge section is the historical railway workers camp, built when Flagler was constructing the railway to Key West.  Historically it is said that the last rail connection was from this camp on Pigeon Key to Marathon, thus preventing the workers to leave the work site and go back home before the railway was completed.

The Seven Mile Bridge Race

After leaving Marathon, we spent a few hours walking the beach at Cape Sable before going on to our first night’s anchorage in Little Shark River.  

Lily Marie at anchor in Little Shark River

  We met cruising friends there and traveled with them for several days.  It was fun to have traveling buddies on the next boat.  Sharing favorite anchorages, making ice cream stops, and exploring the nearby towns added to the fun.  One of our next stops was by Marco Island. 

We had never stopped in the downtown area before and enjoyed walking around the busy stores and luxurious homes.  It is amazing how many new sights one sees when traveling slow and exploring the area on foot.  There was a large farmers market near where we anchored and a busy shopping center.

Will he fit?

Harbour Reach at anchor in Smokehouse Bay at Marco Island

 Both boats traveled on to Ft Myers Beach, which is one of our favorite stops on the west coast.  There is a very busy beach, great shopping market, and several buses to take non-driving tourists to town, markets, local attractions, and more.  We spent several days walking the beach, enjoying watching different water sports, and partaking of the local restaurants and ice cream shops.

An early visit to Ft Myers Beach

A little later at the beach

 

Boats anchored while people eat, swim, or enjoy the beach

 

Para sailors

Charter sailboat

Kite sailors

 

Boys and their toys

 

Sunset at ft Myers Beach

The following picture is of the full red lunar eclipse on April 15, 2014.  We viewed it from Pelican Bay anchorage by Cayo Costa, Florida.  There were no bright lights to hide the moon and it really did appear red for most of the night.

Full red lunar eclipse on April 15, 2014.  The red color lasted about 3.5 hours

Blue Heron by bike path

St Petersburg was next on our" must do places".  We wanted to have a few more visits and game nights with our friends, Bill and Polly Higgins.  There were also a few places that our boat painter from last year had to touch up.  It took about three weeks before moving on.  While there we biked along the Sunshine Bridge.  There is a well maintained bike path that leads along the bridge in a section divided off from bridge traffic.  Friends in a boat just arriving to St Petersburg boated right under us.  We saw many colorful water birds along the shore.
  

We have often heard about drug boats, but have never seen one until we pulled into the marina.  There was nobody we could question about the boat, but these pictures seem to indicate that there was definitely a problem.

Not a friendly sign

One was not enough

The color of it was a southern version of camouflage which would have made us question whose choice the color was.
 

Not our favorite colors

Venice is a great place to visit.  It has an interesting mural on one of the first buildings you see when entering from the southern waterway.   Each picture portrays part of the history of Venice.
 

Flagler's railroad along the west coast of Florida and once winter quarters of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

 This is always a stopping off place for us because many good friends live in or near Venice.  This year the weather was perfect except for possible late afternoon showers.  We decided that it wouldn’t rain and eight of us went on a picnic cruise to near Boca Grande, one of the Gulf Islands. 

 It was a perfect day, only about two minutes of showers when we were waiting for a bridge opening on our way in, and a never ending supply of food.

While waiting for the bridge opening on the way out, we saw another Pacific Trawler of the newer type.  Only about twenty-three were built in the 1970’s when ours was and another twenty to thirty in the late nineties and early two thousands.  The owners of this boat happened to be a couple we had met in the Bahamas about three years ago.  At that time they were on a sailboat, but liked the living comforts of our boat so much that they came back to the US and searched for a Pacific Trawler.  What a small world!
 

Our Pacific Trawler from the 1970's (lots of exterior wood)

A Pacific Trawler from the 1990's (no exterior wood)

As we approached Ft Myers, our good friend, Colin, gave us a heart-warming welcome as he rowed out in his dinghy to lead us to our slip at the dock.  

Colin rowing out to welcome us to the dock

The town has many interesting historic buildings.  The main street is lined with Royal Poinciana palms that were donated by Henry Ford, the world’s first billionaire.  Henry Ford and Thomas Edison both had winter residences in Ft Myers and these homes are now rated as a Gem attraction by AAA.
 

Henry Ford's winter residence

 

1917 Ford Model TT truck

 

1929 Ford Model A

 

Thomas Edison's winter residence

Inside Edison's house (similar to a  New England home interior)

Bougainvillea bush

We had never visited them before and ended up spending most of the day there.  The homes are well maintained and the yards are exquisite.

Light orchids

Waterlilies

Waterlilies

Lake Okeechobee Waterway is a collection of old Florida memories interspersed with swampland wildlife.  Each time we travel it there is always something new.  The next few pictures will give you a taste of what we saw along the waterway.

An alligator waiting on the bank

Grandma, what big eyes you have

A bald eagle communicating through phone lines

A recently burned boat with divers checking the damage

Some people have boats, others have float planes at their dock

 

One of many boats we saw that had gone aground

Vero Beach is one of many cities on the east coast of Florida that we enjoyed.  There are boats of all sizes there.

A charter boat at Vero Beach Marina

The road from the marina was picturesque.

A street by the marina

One of the driveways had a sight we had never seen before.

The nose of a plane in a driveway ?????

The trip home is proving to be very enjoyable.  Knowing that we will not be making this trip north along the east coast of the US again for many more years, we are stopping to enjoy many of the towns and sites that friends have recommended.  Most days end with a breath taking sunset over the water.  As usual we’ll end this blog with one of the many sunsets we have enjoyed.

Sunset in Sarasota, FL

Another Winter of Fun in the Keys

A smiling manatee, how can you not love them?

Happy summertime!  Time goes by so quickly that we have a hard time keeping up with blogs, email, and phone calls.  We’re sorry that we haven’t been in more timely contact lately, but we are really taking advantage of our retirement.  This past winter we decided that we should go back to Canada and the Georgian Bay for the next few summers since we enjoyed that part of our cruising trip so much.  With this in mind we spent lots of the winter enjoying the warmth and the fun of the Keys.  Bill was more studious than me, and he studied and passed two "ham radio" tests and is now a licensed ham operator.  On the radio he has talked to people from all over the United States and several countries in Europe and Asia.  He is even able to email people over the radio.  What fun!

Last Fall we were late leaving for the Keys because of our late return from our cruise on the Rhine River with  Viking River Cruises.  Just before leaving Bay Springs Marina, we met a very nice man from Finland. 

Lasse

Lasse's boat, "Sixteen Tons"

He has recently moved to the States, but felt his accent would prove to be a problem trying to talk to the Southern lock masters.  We suggested he follow us and we would do the necessary lock opening requests.  It was fun to travel with such an interesting and adventuresome person.  We shared dinners with him and commiserated about the night when there was frost on the boat and the temperature went down to thirty-two degrees F.  We all had a good time together.  He and Bill shared information about web sites and the use of Active Captain, an excellent source for marinas and anchorages.

Bill and Lasse using Active Captain

 We traveled through Florida rather quickly.  One night we stopped at the Gulfport Marina in a suburb of St Petersburg.  A man who lives by the marina loves to feed the birds at his house at 5:00 pm.  They obviously expect to see him every night.  It is fun to watch them arrive and fill up his porch trying to get food.

He gets them all ...

Egrets,

Snowy Egrets,

And Wood Storks

White pelicans are much larger than the brown pelican which is common in most of Florida.  Both types tend to congregate in groups.  We have seen lots of white pelicans on the upper Mississippi and in a few places in Florida.  They are very white and have yellow/orange bills and feet.

White Pelicans

 I am always impressed when we pass them.  We anchored in several of the rivers in the Everglades and saw quite a few.

A flock of white pelicans on a small sandbar

Dolphins always get our attention.  We have seen a lot while cruising.  The one thing we've noticed is that if we get their attention by tapping on the boat side, they will stay with us longer.  Unbelievably, if I sing they even stay longer and with my voice that is amazing.

He even looked up at me as we moved on

Our daughter, Beth, came down in January and we all went on a cruise ship to the Bahamas for five days. 

 

Cruise Port in Miami

Our first stop was at the cruise line’s private island.

The Norwegian Sky, our cruise ship waiting at the beach for the beach goers

Next we stopped at Freeport for a few hours of shopping and to enjoy the local activities.

Freeport Harbour

Freeport's Straw Market

 

More Straw Market vendors

The snappy local band

Our final stop was in Nassau where Beth and I spent time at the big straw market.

The cruise was enjoyable, but we decided that cruising with 2000 people was not nearly as much fun as cruising on our boat with no more than four people.  A smaller boat that you control provides an opportunity to stop whenever you want, for as long as you want, and doesn’t involve long lines of people waiting for meals.  The Rhine River cruise we did in the fall only had 195 people and the boat stopped and the guides took us on tours at most of the interesting places.  That we will do again.  I'm not sure we'll try the large cruises again.

After talking to lots of friends and listening to weather reports from around the States, we decided that Marathon, Florida was the perfect place to be for this past winter.  I don’t think it even got below sixty degrees at night.  We spent many nights enjoying pot luck dinners, progressive dinners, watching movies at the marina, and socializing with all the people who were avoiding the northern cold.

 

A progressive dinner group - each course on a different boat

The heated swimming pool was one of our hangouts almost every day.  It felt good and the scenery was spectacular.

A beach swimming pool  (just walk in, no steps to go in at this end)

Many evenings we joined the sunset watchers, waiting to see the sunset and to see if the green flash appeared that night.  We all started gathering on the dock fifteen minutes before sunset and stayed talking for long after.

Sunset will be in fifteen minutes, the crowd has started to gather

 It is amazing how different the sunsets can be and how rarely there is a green flash.  The green flash is not just a myth, as some believe, and the loud cheering that we all did when it happened proved that more than one person saw it.

Another enjoyable past time is watching the wildlife.  The marina has manatee and dolphins in the water and many different birds fly by or stop to add to the entertainment.

An adult manatee with a Nov. 2013 baby and a 2012 baby, taken right beside our boat

Dolphin love to chase the fish in the marina waters

 

A regal pelican watching by the pool

The green heron that sat on our stern line nearly every night, catching fish

Once spring came, most people prepared to leave for the Bahamas, for home, or for some other interesting cruising grounds.  We are surprised at how many retired people live aboard their own boat, some having sold their home and some like us renting their home until they are ready to go back to “dirt living as “boat people” refer to land dwellers.  Many mornings were spent saying good bye to friends leaving earlier than us.

Two friends leaving Marathon for the winter

We are heading back to Rhode Island for the winter (if we can weather the cold) and then will spend part of next year cruising to and in Canada.  We are as far as New Bern, NC and will share some of those pictures with you in the next blog, which I promise will be soon!

Another beautiful sunset in Marathon