2020: Marathon to Miami FL

1 May 2020

Depart: Faro Blanco Resort and Yacht Club, Marathon, FL 9:20 a.m.

Arrive: Card Sound, Pumpkin Key Anchorage, 5:30 p.m.

Distance: 64 nm

Hurray hurray! We are underway!!

We woke to gusty north winds and 71 degrees Fahrenheit that felt much chillier!  Clark and I had on shorts and t-shirts, but folks on the neighboring boats had on long sleeves! After those hot, humid near 90-degree days, 70 with the north wind did indeed feel cold.

We planned to depart at 9:00, but we had two complications that slowed us down. First, when Clark went up to use the marina head, he found the stall had no toilet paper. He checked again a bit later and still no luck. After he told me the issue, I suggested he take paper with him. He only agreed once I told him that the toilet paper I offered was not marine grade and could not be used on the boat anyway. Problem one solved – he went to the head armed with his own roll! The second delay was related to equipment as one of the navigation software packages decided it was time for an update, and Clark had to wait until it completed to begin our travels. Typical boating ... hurry up and wait!

As mentioned in my last Blog post, folks are leaving the marina here daily. Yesterday, Sand Dollar left. I heard from Ann that they got caught near Marco Island by the heavy storm that passed through in the afternoon. I gather that the inside of their boat got pretty trashed from being tossed around. We have certainly experienced that on our prior boat, Sea Moss.

At least one boat that planned to leave today canceled their plans. Before we left today, I took a look to see if Slow Lane had departed as planned, and sure enough their boat was gone from the docks. Clearly, we are not the only ones willing to leave the dock in 20-knot winds.

Ann came over to say goodbye at 9:00 since that was our planned departure time. After we talked for a couple of minutes, she decided to go get warm and come back later. I suggested 20 minutes which turned out to be about right. When we did leave, Bill and Sandy L’Attitude Adjustment helped us with our lines, and Ann took phone videos of our departure while standing by our slip. Folks on Zoey’s Adventure, Fins,  and Nauti Girl took photos of us leaving from near their boats. Yasmine walked over to the Lighthouse to capture close-up pictures of us leaving the marina. Still other folks waved as we sailed away giving us a fine farewell from all!

Goodbye Pigeons - not sorry to leave you here

Goodbye Faro Blanco Marina

The trip along the ICW towards Miami is not terribly interesting. I contacted my friend, Janet, in New Jersey, and we spend almost two hours on the phone catching up. I even managed to make Clark lunch while we talked. Eventually, though, Janet and I had to eat as well, so I finally dropped the call for some sustenance.

As we neared Key Largo, the channel passed through a section of mangroves. At one point where we needed to turn right to make our way, it looked like it would come to a dead end.

Channel through the mangroves

From the height of our upper helm, I could see over the channel edge to get a good view of the surrounding area.

Peeking over the mangroves along the channel

To pass time and keep us awake, Clark turned on the radio for some music. As we sat there listening to oldies, all of a sudden, we heard a sound we hoped not to hear again for a vey long time … a pigeon cooing. What the heck!? Did we bring one along with us from Faro Blanco?

We both heard it. Neither of us could believe that the song on the radio had a pigeon cooing. Clark stepped up on the seatback to get a view of the hard top and could not find any hitchhikers up there. We only heard it that once and hope not to hear it again. Odd!

As we motored along, Clark kept talking about a bridge coming up, and I wondered the significance. It turned out just to be a milestone for him to judge our progress.

Bridge near Key Largo

 As we passed near the Anchorage Resort & Yacht Club, we could see that all the places that were hopping with boats and people last November were now devoid of both.

Where are the boats at the Key Largo Resorts ...?

Key Largo Resort missing people and boats

Oh, here's one!

Although Clark had estimated an arrival time of around 6:30 at our anchorage of choice, we got there a faster than anticipated – a good thing. I had planned to heat up our dinner before we dropped anchor to use the engine power for electric. However, given that we had a somewhat late lunch, and it was just going on 5:00, I decided to hold off on dinner. I figured I could always warm it up via the propane stove instead of microwave, so no big deal.

Since we dropped anchor at 5:30 and I had told Clark I wanted to wait on putting dinner on the table, he decided to give our anchor line a much-needed “hair cut”. The "fuzzies" were getting caught in the windlass mechanism when we lowered the anchor. We attached a heat gun of sorts to an extension cord so he could reach the anchor pulpit. I gave him some old cardboard to catch hot hairs from the line, and he went to work.

Anchor Line getting a “hair cut”

Anchor Line getting a “hair cut”

Some of the fuzzies
that got trimmed away

After he tidied up the anchor line, I started to reheat dinner. As that was happening, we noticed Slow Lane coming into the anchorage to drop their hook behind us. It’s always nice to have friends for company! We heard them on the radio with another vessel earlier as we approached the anchorage area, so we knew they were in the vicinity.

About 2 miles out from the anchorage, having heard Eric on the radio earlier calling Bob423, Clark called Eric to check on their progress. Where we traveled on the inside route, Slow Lane navigated the outside / ocean path. When we called, they were about 1.5 miles from the anchorage.  They are slower than us and took a while longer to arrive.

Slow Lane getting ready to drop anchor

After they got settled, Clark and Eric chatted via text messages for a while.  As I cooked and Clark texted, we noticed a boat pass between Eric’s boat and ours and thought nothing of it. Then, we saw it make a complete circle around us yet again. Huh?? As they went by, I could see the woman on board was acting like paparazzi and taking pictures of our boat like mad. Clark grabbed the camera, went out, and took a picture of her boat. Fair is fair after all!

Paparazzi Boat?

After the "excitement", we sat down to a beautiful sunset with our dinner that finally managed to find its way to the table.

 Sunset at Pumpkin Key near Miami, Florida

Later, Eric sent us a picture showing he had been busy at sunset fishing. He caught his first ever Spanish Mackerel, and it was a beauty! Congratulations to Eric!!

Eric’s Spanish Mackerel
caught at sunset off Pumpkin Key