2019: Gunkholing near Marathon Florida

1/13/2019
8.4 NM Dinghy Trip 
10:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

At the ice cream social held last night, in lieu of standard docktails, Jim from "Shell Belle" announced a planned dinghy "pub" crawl to be held today.  He and his daughter, Michelle, organized the outing. Jim's wife, Mandy, planned to stay at the marina to play with her grandson.

Ev, Dorothy, Mandy, Michelle, Jim and baby, and Mel
Docktail's Photo of dinghy ride planner (Jim)

When we gathered at 10:30 this morning, the designated start time for the pub crawl, we had six boats and twelve people attending the event.

Our leaders - Jim and Michelle
"Shell Belle"

Ev and Clark -  "Sunset Delight"

Robin and Charlie - "The Lower Place"

Karen and Mark - "Captain's Choice"

Chris and Mark

After a few minute's wait to make sure we had no late arrivals, we were underway!

Robin and Charlie

Jim and Michelle

Gail and Keith - "Southern Style"

Jim planned three stops - Burdine's, LazyDays, and Sunset Grill for the dinghy crawl.

Our first stop, Burdine's, up ahead

Having tied up the dinghy's and gotten a table at just after 11:00 a.m., we had to decide whether to eat lunch here or at a later stop. Clark decided to get a salad. I decided to steal some of the french fries Jim planned to order. He was right when he said that one order of fries served as many as four people. I agreed with someone at the table who said they were the best fries he had ever eaten! Delicious!

Since Michelle was visiting from Salt Lake City and would soon be going home, it was agreed that she had to order the deep-fried key lime pie for dessert.

Michelle and her deep-fried key lime pie

Looking at the above photo, the reader can see that I have my eyes on that dessert! Michelle kindly cut the "pie" into four pieces and shared her treat with three of us. The 1/4 piece I had was rich enough to be a full dessert serving! Amazing!! As Michelle said, "It was to die for!"

Next door to Burdine's, construction (or more accurately destruction) is underway to prepare for the rebuilding of the Faro Blanco Oceanside Marina. We could see the work site from inside the restaurant.

Clark took this picture a couple of days ago 

and this one as well

Today's picture of same location -
definite progress has been made

and another one taken today 

Having sampled the best of Burdine's (fries and deep-fried key lime pie), we were ready to be on the move to Lazy Days South.

Onward to Lazy Days South Restaurant

Ev watching the dinghies up ahead

Only beer and wine are available at Burdine's. At Lazy Days, folks decided to go for the Bloody Mary's. Clark got a Virgin Bloody Mary, i.e. pure tomato juice. Since I cannot stand tomato juice in any form, I had an iced tea.

Salut!
Toasting our gathering at Lazy Days with lots of celery!

Since we had already eaten some food at Burdine's, Clark and I decided to order one sandwich and share it. The grilled grouper we ate here was fabulous!

When it came time to leave and head on to Sunset Grill, Clark and I decided to bail out and do some exploring in our dinghy instead. Clark had heard of a place with a yellow submarine that was hidden in the mangroves somewhere. We went off to find it.

As we headed out into the Atlantic Ocean, Clark told me to keep my eyes open for channel markers heading off into the mangroves. I saw some typical Florida channel markers, i.e. some white PVC pipe sticking up in the water. As we traveled along the channel into the mangroves, we had to watch the depth carefully as we could easily see the bottom.

As the markers ended at the entrance to the mangroves, it became clear that we were going gunkholing!

Going Gunkholing in the mangroves

Given the depths we had seen coming in here, and the fact that we came in with the outboard on the dinghy tilted up, I wondered how large boats with deeper drafts managed to get into these waters. I could see some up ahead.

Boats up ahead!?

Clark had heard about the "yellow submarine" located in these waters. We found it, but it looked more like the "rusty submarine" to me.

Rusty Submarine in the mangroves!

At the submarine, we could turn left or right for more exploring. We went left first. The condition of the boats here - mostly sunk, and the docks - mostly wrecked, made me wonder who owned these properties. It seemed impossible that anyone could be living here while at the same time appeared that might just be the case. We saw no people around as we explored.

Mix of sailboats and powerboats in among sunken boats.

Is this someone's condo complex?

The docks looked rickety and uninviting. Looking through the mangroves we could see a parking lot with many rusty file cabinets standing side by side. Hmmm - storage area!?

One of many boats under water.

The engine on the dinghy kept cutting out as we checked out the various vessels above and below water. I kept worrying that it would not get started again or that we would drift into one of the lovely vessels surrounding us. Fortunately, every time it cut out Clark got it restarted.

When we got back to the submarine, we turned left to explore further. Seeing a nicer looking vessel ahead, I decided this must be the "high-rent" district. Upon closer inspection, I changed my mind.

Private Property - No Tresspassing
(as if I would want to!)

One of these properties, perhaps the one pictured above, had what looked like a still. Looking closer I saw that it was more like a cistern with a drainpipe connecting the eaves trough on a shed to the "still", located below, to collect drinking water.

I had to wonder as I saw these "sketchy" vessels who, if anyone, lived on them. We kept thinking we must be at the end of the "creek", and then we would find another bend and yet more area to explore with yet more boats.

"Martinique" looks good from afar
(not so the sailboat next door)

On the property connecting the vessels above with the vessel below, I saw a clothesline hanging with the wash put out to dry. Clearly, at least one of these vessels is home to someone. I could not tell who owned the laundry but clearly someone put it there!

End of the line - no way around this vessel!

Having reached the end of the line, we turned around and headed back out to open water. I felt like I had been spying on their neighborhood and breathed a sigh of relief to be back out in the open.

We headed back towards our marina. To get there we had to pass Sunset Grill, so we drove by slowly to see if we could see our friends. The place was quite busy. We saw dinghies tied to the dock and assumed they were still there but kept going. I was not precisely sure what Clark's thoughts were on "where to next" but given the amount of water and iced tea I had drunk, there was only one stop I wanted to make - a restroom!

He agreed to take me back to Faro Blanco. As we pulled into the marina, he started looking for a place to tie up where I could climb out. We could not find any ladders to get up onto the dock and the dinghy was too low in the water to get out without one. We ended up tying up next to "Sunset Delight" and getting off that way.

When we returned from our restroom stop, I discovered that Clark intended to go back out exploring again. He had one more place, a nearby marina, that he had heard about and wanted to check out. So, back into the dinghy we went for another outing. By the time we finally finished our dinghy excursions, we had been out for almost six hours and had traveled a total of 8.5 nautical miles.

With the north winds we currently have, the sea grass located around our boat and in the marina is very thick. Someone suggested that it is thick enough for the birds to walk on, and I can definitely belief they would have no trouble doing so. The sea grass is problematic for the boat engines. The outboard, for example, did not like it one bit. When we finally put the dinghy away, we had to clean a lot of sea grass off the bottom and out from around the engine.

It was almost time for docktails by the time we finished putting away the dinghy. Just before it was time to go, we got a surprise visit from folks we had met years ago while in Michigan doing the Great Loop. Karen and Mark have been following my blog all this time, saw our boat at the marina, and stopped by to get reacquainted.  We took them to docktails with us.

Karen and Mark made the trip to the Keys from Wisconsin to look at buying a used boat located in Key West. We spent a lot of time discussing the pros and cons as they were disappointed in the condition of the boat. The pictures from the broker hardly told the whole story.

Sunset at Faro Blanco

We left docktails after the sun set and went to dinner with our visitors from Wisconsin.

I am quite sure I have never eaten as many french fries in one day as I ate today nor as much grilled grouper! We walked to Barnacle Barney's for dinner since it was nearby and offered something other than pizza, which Clark and I had eaten relatively recently. Even though I had some of Clark's grilled grouper at lunch, I ordered it here. I decided it would be healthier than fried grouper.

Clark ordered a burger. We decided ahead of time to split our meals 50-50. I am glad we did because I enjoyed his burger a whole lot more than I did the grilled grouper! Now I know what to order next time I come to Barnacle Barney's.

When we were heading back to Faro Blanco after our gunkholing experience, Clark spied a Krogen Express heading towards Boot Key. I managed to catch the name "Blue Moon" and recognized the name from the Krogen Express rendezvous we attended last year. After saying our farewells to Karen and Mark, we headed back to "Sunset Delight" and Clark called Steve from "Blue Moon" on the phone and talked to him about KEs.

What an action-packed day we had today!!



1/14/2019
Maintenance Run on Sunset Delight

Today we did our weekly maintenance run with "Sunset Delight" to wash off the growth that forms on the boat's bottom when not in use. Our typical run is only about 45 to 60 minutes long. Today, being a bit on the chilly side, we did not stay out long. Most folks seem to stay put. We are one of the few that actually run our boat out to clean its bottom.

When we got back from our run, Clark set to washing off the salt spray and bird droppings we have collected over the past week. I had my own list of chores for today. Since I was sick for several days, I have not done much in the way of cleaning. Clark helped me drag two loads of laundry up to the washers. While that was going, I pulled out the vacuum cleaner and cleaned the boat from bow to stern. I worked on the inside while Clark worked on the outside - seemed fair!

Every time I went to sit down I thought of something else that needed to be done. We finally stopped for lunch at 3:00. (Since we had slept in until 10:00, this worked out about right.) After lunch, I had time for a shower before heading up to docktails. Folks did not stay long tonight as they complained about it being too cold. It was in the 60s.

At docktails, Clark took a sunset picture reflected in the window in the door of the lighthouse.

Sunset Reflection!

He took a similar picture two nights ago at docktails.

Reflection of docktails at sunset

Since we ate lunch at 3:00, we watched the news and then I made dinner for 8:00. Afterwards I worked on the blog update for the rest of the night.