2025 April: Arrive Pompano Beach

 2 April 2025
Depart: Pumpkin Key anchorage 8:15
Arrive: Pompano Beach, FL Private Dock 3:45
Distance: ~ 63 nm

When we pull up anchor, Clark is on the bow with the raw-water washdown  giving me hand signals on where to steer the boat to assist with bringing the anchor in. When the anchor is up, I start the boat moving. Today, I struggled to get going. I tried reading the display to get the proper heading for our waypoint target to have the navigation equipment "track" to the waypoint. However, for all the numbers on the display, I could not find one that told me which heading I needed. I finally gave up and just pointed the boat in the general direction of the waypoint. 

When Clark finally came to the upper helm, he told me I was looking for the BTW number as "Bearing to Way". I told him it was like trying to understand a foreign language. So many numbers and none of them what I was looking for! I found SOG and COG and DTW but BTW was well hidden. I knew where to look with the old equipment!

As we started to get underway, Clark noticed two boats on the chart via AIS that he recognized -- "Our Turn" and "Golden Ours". Shortly thereafter, we heard "Our Turn" (Dave, Tina, and dog Maggie) haling us on the VHF radio. They had stayed at a marina last night near where we anchored. They called to say hello and compare traveling speeds to determine who was traveling at the faster speed to decide who should go first through the next cut. We had them beat by just a tad so we went first.

Later, with the helm in Clark's hands, I decided to find something on the radio to listen to. As I sat there looking around, I decided that I needed to do more cleaning of the upper helm. Yesterday, the woodwork covered in pollen motivated me to clean. Today, the grimy vinyl of the full enclosure bugged me, so I got a bucket of water and a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and went to work. Clark had too many things in the way for me to complete the job, but the parts I could reach (about 75%)  look a whole lot better now.

After about 3 hours of travel we could see Miami off to our port side. It was a bit hazy.

Miami, FL - coming up

Off to the starboard side we could see what remains of Stiltsville. 

The building on the left in the picture shown below appears to have a new dock with a raised platform.

Although there are still remains of houses here, the place has truly gone to the birds.

As we passed through Biscayne Bay, No Name Harbor and the Cape Florida Lighthouse, Clark got a text from our friends Robin and Dell on "Avalon" saying they were on their bikes riding past Cape Florida Lighthouse and they could see our boat! They left yesterday from Marlin Bay and decided to spend a night atNoname harbor to bike around the Biscayne Bay area! With boating, we never know where we might encounter someone we know. Fun!

Cape Florida Lighthouse

Clark pushed to get us to the Atlantic Ocean today because he said the forecast for tomorrow did not look good. Well, today was not great either! Once again it was one of those days where we were practically the only ones out on the ocean given the "Small Craft Advisory". I, for one, was not prepared for the wave action we encountered today, and apparently, the stabilizers were not prepared either! 

Even with the stabilizers working hard, we were rolling this way and that. Several times we heard something crash down below and wondered what had fallen over. Getting down the steps to look for the culprits was challenging. Usually when I found something that had fallen over, I left it there so it would not fall again. 

I forgot that I removed the non-skid material from the countertop in our state room. Everything on there (and there is a lot of stuff right now) was sliding from one side to the other and is now a jumbled up mess that needs to be reorganized. Thankfully there was nothing there that could break or spill. I will have to sort that all out later when I put non-skid back in place!

Near shore the waves were breaking causing us to be tossed about. Clark headed further out into the ocean for deeper water. When he got in the Gulfstream, the waves were not as bad and we picked up speed to 11 knots. 

Since we were now more than four miles offshore with water depths of around 500 feet plus or minus, Clark decided he would empty the holding tank. It did not take him long, but when he came back to the helm he said he was feeling "a little green" from being down below. I could sympathize as I am sure I would not be sticking my head in the bilge compartment under rough seas!

Finally, just after 3:00 we turned to head towards the Hillsboro Inlet. Entering that inlet is challenging as we had heavy waves on our stern due to the 20 knot winds. The current was flowing out at the inlet. Wind against sea - yay! (not)  Needless to say we had a wild ride on the inlet.

As we entered the inlet, we could see some folks taking advantage of the winds to do kite surfing. We could see one of the surfers heading straight into our path. Clark groaned!

Fortunately, he decided he did not feel suicidal today and diverted to head in an alternate direction. The other kite surfer I was watching cut it close with another boat coming in the inlet.

We can be sure to see two things when we come into Hillsboro - the first is the Sea Tow boat waiting to be called to someone's aid 

Sea Tow - ready and waiting

and the second is the dredging equipment that is perpetually located there.

We reached the Hillsboro Inlet Bridge about 10 minutes before the next opening so had to "station keep" until the bridge opened. 

Waiting for the bridge ...

We noticed some folks enjoying a small beach here on this sunny day.

When the bridge opened at 3:30, we were waiting on the inbound side and a dive boat was waiting on the outbound side of the bridge. He had the current, so we needed to wait for him to pass first.  All well and good until a small boat that did not even need the bridge to be opened decided he would go first. 

Dive boat far side (red), us inbound side waiting,
and small boat clogging up the bridge opening!

Needless to say the dive boat captain was not happy. We heard him mutter over the radio, "you should learn the rules of the road!" The small boat should have waited his turn (he passed us to jump in front) or gone through the opening to the side to be out of the way.

Coming out from under the bridge on the land side, I spied yet another Sea Tow boat at dock. They must get a lot of business from here.

I waited until we were through the bridge to go down and start setting up fenders and lines to tie up at our friend's dock. Luckily, when we arrived, Steve was on his boat and could catch our lines. He was expecting us tomorrow, and we could not tie up easily without his help since we were tying our lines to his boat. 

We got the boat secured and then went up to the house. On the way we spied something we had not seen here before - a water taxi. Steve said this is new to the area. We have seen them in Fort Lauderdale but not here.

We also spied some other activity going on. A jet ski was tied to a boat while his buddy jet skier waited off to the side. I did not realize right away that the boat belonged to the county sheriff. I am not sure why they (2 people on jet ski) got stopped, but we heard them being told they were being let off with a warning.

Jet ski with county sheriff and
buddy jet skier standing by

With all the water excitement over for the day, we headed inside to chat. Eventually we decided we needed food and ordered takeout form P.F. Chang's in Boca Raton. By the time we ordered the food, collected the food from the restaurant, and sat down to eat, I was starving!

We eventually called it a night and headed back to the boat where I sat down to do the blog update for the day.

2025 April: Exhaust Hose Smoking

 1 April 2025
Depart: Marlin Bay Marina, Marathon, FL 9:00

Arrive: Pumpkin Key, Card Sound, FL (near Key Largo)  5:00

Distance: ~ 61 nm

As we prepared to leave our winter home at Marlin Bay Marina, we had a hazy view of the horizon given a morning fog. Given the windy conditions in Marathon in the winter and the fact that we were docked there for four months, we had extra lines on the boat that needed to be removed. We had two bow lines, three stern lines, and three lines on the starboard side of the boat. In addition, we had the power cord to pull in. Clark topped up the water tank and brought the hose in last night or that would have added to this morning's departure procedures.

We saw some more staff members to say goodbye to as well as a couple of boaters we know, but the marina in general was awfully quiet. Another boat left just shortly before we pulled out. Other than that, things were quiet. 

As we made our way out of our slip, Clark told me that Jean on "Jean Marie" was out and waving. We yelled goodbyes across the basin. Anyone who was still sleeping as we exited the marina basin was probably very rudely woken as Clark blasted the boat horn as a warning to other boaters that we were coming out. It is a safety necessity as visibility is minimal for boats coming in as others go out. 

After we got going (the fog was not an issue), I went to the cockpit (in the stern of the boat) to clean up the pile of lines we had pulled in. I like everything shipshape and ready to be used when we come into the next port. I had a lot of cleanup to do and a lot of reorganizing of lines. I have favorites depending on the job to be done. 

Some lines are extra long. Some are working lines and much much shorter and lighter in weight. I have the lines organized by weight, length, and purpose, so the ones I need are where I expect them to be. As I worked on sorting and hanging my lines, I started to smell a strong odor. 

I thought man something is burning! When I went to hang up one of the lines, I found out that the odor was coming from our boat!! Looking over the stern of the boat, I could see thick, dark gray smoke pouring out of the starboard exhaust. Yikes!

I dropped everything and ran to tell Clark what I was seeing. He gave me the helm with a warning to watch out for crab pots and went to investigate. Over the summer, we put in new instruments. I am not as familiar with them as I was with the older setup. I struggled to find the depth display on the new Simrad display. Then I wanted to have the boat track to the next waypoint and could not remember how to make that happen. It added some stress to the situation. 

First, he checked out the view in the stern and it was definitely excessive smoke and smelled like burning rubber. Then he ran to the engine room to see if there was water flowing out somewhere unexpected instead of cooling the exhaust pipe.

Everything smelled and looked right in the engine room, but he noticed that the starboard engine had the water intake valve in the off position. He had cleaned the strainers last week in preparation for departure and neglected to turn the water back on for that one engine. He immediately turned the water flow to the on position. The water had been off for about 15 minutes or so.

Although the engine overheat alarm did not sound, there is a separate alarm for the exhaust pipe in the event of loss of cooling water. That one started to sound about the same time he exited the engine room. He silenced the alarm, but the indicator light still indicated an overheat situation. 

After that, the temperature alarm for the stabilizer hydraulic fluid sounded - the stabilizer cooling operates off that engine as well.  So he turned off the stabilizers.

Next, he returned to the upper helm and put the starboard engine in neutral, so he could run the engine up to full RPM. This would provide maximum flow of water to cool down the upper surface of the exhaust hose. He let this run for 30 seconds or so. Then, he put it back into gear, so that I could use both engines to continue to steer through the crab pots more efficiently.

Afterwards, he went to the lower helm to view the overheat alarm light and found that the light had gone out indicating a good flow of water had cooled the hose. This exhaust hose alarm is one that Clark installed after taking ownership of the boat. He had one on our prior boat so knew he wanted one on this boat as well. 

Clark had the helm and asked me to go down and check the exhaust. All was clear with no indication there had ever been an issue, so by 9:30 we had everything under control. We later noticed that Clark had failed to turn the stabilizer back on. The water was so calm today that we did not rock at all until a boat went by and caused a wake.

If we had not found this quickly, either with my smelling the issue or the alarm sounding, the exhaust hose could have melted rendering that engine unusable. We have one thing left to do. When this type of incident occurs, it can damage the impellor. Clark will need to examine this when the engine room is cooler for viewing.

After the excitement, I went back to work stowing my lines. Once that was done, we had just over 7 hours of travel to get to our selected anchorage for the night. As we traveled, Clark made the following comment, "I forgot how much fun we have dodging crab traps!" We had to watch out for them the entire trip.

To keep from getting bored, I did some cleaning of the upper helm. I took a rag and wiped all the pollen off the helm and surrounding woodwork and trim. Then I noticed the steering wheel had rust spots, so I took a rag and worked on removing the spots. After I ran out of things to clean, I set up my wireless speaker connected via Bluetooth to my phone and used Spotify to listen to stories on NPR followed by music. 

Finally around 4:30, we could see our destination of Pumpkin Key on the chart! 

Pumpkin Key is a pretty small island, but it makes a good anchorage. We can choose our spot to drop anchor based on the conditions. Today we were looking for a breeze and chose a spot on the south side pointing into the easterly  wind. 

As we were lowering our anchor a boater in a small boat came by to tell us that we had good anchoring all the way up close to the island. We yelled back that we wanted breeze. He said, "Oh yeah! Free air conditioning!" and left with a big smile and a wave.

After dinner, I sent Clark out to get a sunset picture. He said it was not an impressive one but took a picture for me anyway. 

Afterwards, he did something he has not done in four months - he turned on the anchor light! 

2025 March: Prep to leave Marathon

 19 March 2025

After we waved goodbye to family, it was time to put the boat back in non-guest mode such as beds stripped and converted back to non-bed positions. Clark had signed up for an AGLCA (American Great Loop Assoc.) virtual meeting from 7:00 until 8:30. Consequently, we had (for us) a very late dinner after the meeting concluded. 

20 March 2025

Unfortunately, Clark was not feeling well today. I took all the laundry I had gathered up yesterday (sheets, towels, etc) and headed up to the washer / dryer. Knowing I would have a bundle of laundry, I signed up for 2 time slots equaling 3 hours of washer / dryer time - 9:30 to 12:30. Afterwards, before I could make lunch, I needed to bike to the grocery store to buy some provisions. We had not a single slice of bread on the boat, and Clark was looking for chicken noodle soup for his irritated throat.

Although I had considered attending a jewelry session for making a charm bracelet this afternoon, I did not make it there. After lunch I laid down and closed my eyes for just a few minutes and work up 3 hours later. The session was from 2:00 to 4:00. I woke up at 3:30. Oh well - maybe next season!

Even though Clark was feeling "under the weather", we attended a dinner at St. Columba church recognizing the church musicians. Of course, since he plays guitar on Sunday services, he was one of the guests of honor. We biked there, and Clark kept his distance from other attendees so as not to share his germs. Dinner was at 6:00. We were back on the boat by 7:30. 

After catching a glimpse of the sunset, we relaxed on the boat while watching a movie.

21 March 2025

Like last Friday a group of women I met as a result of art at the library gathered together to be creative. Last week we met at Irie Eats. This week the group met at Mr. Bean's Books and Beans coffee shop. I have biked or walked past this establishment for the past 8 years. Since I do not drink coffee, this is the first time I ever went inside. We grabbed some tables with two giant stuffed bears looking on as we worked on our artwork.

Picture from the internet

A lot of the women do watercolor. Today I decided to draw a miniature schnauzer that is owned by my friend Nancy's dog named Diesel. 

"Diesel" - where's my dinner???

With Clark taking it easy while he gets better, we continued to have quiet days and movies at night. 

23 March 2025

Feeling somewhat better Clark played in the church band today. After service, we joined folks afterwards to help consume the leftover lasagna from the Musicians supper on Thursday evening. 

24 March 2025

Today was a nice sunny day with a light breeze. At 4:00 the marina offered bingo at the pool bar. I decided to join the fun. The first contest was a traditional straight line. The second required the card to show two parallel lines. The last contest was the most interesting as we had to get the squares required to depict a turtle on the card.

Required bingo design for last prize of the day

Prizes included free drinks, a baseball cap advertising Marlin Bay, a wine tote bag, and a snack coupon. I did not win any of the prizes.

Amanda, who usually sits at the Concierge desk, called the numbers for bingo. She has taken a summer job in Colorado, so we said goodbye until next season at the marina. Amanda and I share an interest in art though her collage creations are way different from what I do.

Ev and Amanda

After dinner tonight, we had a video chat with our son and his family in Idaho. As per usual, the call latest about 90 minutes. With 3 granddaughters, we have a lot to talk about and then towards the end of the call, they always get silly and start changing the screen to depict themselves as various cartoon-looking characters with a lot of giggling going on.

25 March 2025

As today was Tuesday, I had a busy day at the library planned. The instructor for art decided that attendees would make their own tempura paint using egg yoke. I decided I wanted no part of that exercise and worked on drawings for greeting cards.

My cards ...

The pictures below were done in homemade tempura paint by some folks I know in the art class.

My friend, Pat, had to drive her friend, JoAnne, home, so I went with her for the car ride. At 1:00 it was time for crafts. Today's session was beading to make pens, bracelets, and key chains. I made all three.

Angela, the instructor, asked me if I liked blue. I wonder why?

I got back to the boat around 1:30 to find Clark already gone to guitar practice at the church. Although it was supposed to start at 2:30, he went early. He planned to go directly from the church practice to the MTOA meeting (Marine Trawlers Owners Assoc.) being held at the Marine Park in Marathon. Since this is the last meeting of the season, I decided to attend as well.

When I got there at 5:00, I found Clark playing his guitar in the park waiting for the meeting to begin.

Only a handful of people came to this meeting as many people have already left the Keys to head for their next destination - some heading north and others to the Bahamas. 

26 March 2025

Being Wednesday, I had a reservation for laundry at 9:30. After lunch, Clark and I had errands to run. We stopped by the church where we dropped off some food. Afterwards, I headed to Walgreens and Publix while Clark went to get the Sojourner's Permit renewed for the boat. 

Clark is back to jumping from boat to boat looking into other boaters' battery issues. Our departure date is coming up fast, so he is hurrying to fit it all in. 

27 March 2025

We had 20 knot winds all day today. Even so, the weather today looked perfect for the pool. As soon as we get off the dock, the sun takes over. I was disappointed to learn that Clark would be making house / boat calls today, so I was on my own for the pool. Fortunately I found several boat friends there enjoying the warm water. Unfortunately, the high winds were blowing palm tree debris into the pool. Tree bark and palm seeds floated around us. 

We are scheduled to have three straight days of high winds from the east. At least when the winds come from that direction we do not have the rocking we get with north winds. 

28 March 2025

The wind continues unabated. I decided to head up to the club house to work on the current jigsaw puzzle that my friend Marcy brought with her to work on. She does not pick easy puzzles!

Turtle-shaped jigsaw puzzle

When I walked up to work on the puzzle, I took the garbage and recycle out. The wind nearly ripped it out of my hands.

29 March 2025

The high winds stopped and today we had cloudy skies and light rain. Marathon got 0.08 inches of rain while Key West received almost 4 inches of rain in the same time period. 

Clark went off this morning, before the rain started, to check on someone's electrical panel. Of course he found a lot more issues than anticipated. 

When the rain finally stopped, we walked up to see what progress had been made on the puzzle. I found Marcy and Jeff working on it and found they had managed to make it into the shape of the turtle it's supposed to be.

When we walked back to the boat, we found our dockmaster and her dog. I asked if it was "bring your puppy to work day". 

Dockmaster Kiya and Luna

30 March 2025

Today, being Sunday , started with our weekly bike ride to St. Columba church where Clark plays in the band. Since we leave on Tuesday, today was his last "gig" until next season. 

We stayed for a brief while after services to grab a cookie and talk with folks. Pastor Deb gave me a hug as we said goodbye until next season. She said this is a sad time of the year, and I agreed. During the announcements portion of the service, she had said farewell to Clark and Bob in the band. Then, she had those of us in the congregation leaving, and therefore not attending any more services this season, stand and said a group farewell to us. I was close to tears.

Knowing we had early dinner plans, we headed back to the boat to grab lunch. Afterwards, we walked up to the pool area to see who was around to say goodbye to. In truth, we never got to talk to any of the folks in the pool. 

We decided to take a look at the latest jigsaw puzzle, and I got engaged in trying to solve it. Clark sat to one side looking at his  phone. A short while later he was lying down on the settee with his eyes closed. Suddenly 90 minutes had passed and my phone notified me it was time to go out to dinner. We rushed back to the boat to get ready and then rush back to the street to meet up with Nancy and Steve who were driving us to the restaurant. It is a quarter mile from the building to the boat, so to go to the boat and then meet up with Nancy and Steve, we covered almost a mile's distance.

As we walked out of the marina, we saw this tiny guy hiding in the leaves. He was no bigger than one of the leaves on the bush.

We ate dinner at Castaways. I ordered the crab cakes and the plate came with 3 of them on it. I ate one; I gave one to Clark; and I took one home for another day - so much food! Clark requested the Lionfish, but they were out. The waitress suggested he try the "Golden Tilefish". Neither of us had ever eaten that before, and he decided to give it a try. Delicious!

After dinner we drove back to the marina. Steve works there some days and wanted to see what the marina looked like at night. We strolled over to the west side of the inner basin to sit and watch the sunset.

Steve, Nancy, and Ev

At sunset someone at a nearby table blew the conch horn. It was so loud, I confused it with a boat horn!

After the sun dropped below the horizon, we got a good view of the moon. Using the table as a tripod, Clark was able to get a couple of good pictures.

After watching the sun set, we took the long way back to their car walking around the marina to view the docks, etc. As we walked past the sunset viewing group on the east side of the inner basin, we stopped to chat with fellow boaters including Robin and Dell on Avalon. 

From there we walked Nancy and Steve back to their car to say goodbye. On our way back to our boat, we stopped to chat once again with the folks on the east side. This time, I mostly talked with Tiffney and Jim from "Soul Mates". After an hour, we finally said goodnight and made our way back to the boat. Afterwards, we watched a movie before calling it a night.

31 March 2025

Today, with this being our last day in Marathon, we had a busy schedule planned. We had a lot of people to say farewell to.

I started the day by doing two loads of laundry where I said "until next season" to members of the marina staff.  While I was off doing laundry, Clark spent some time sorting his guitar music and storing his guitar for travel instead of weekly play.

After a quick lunch on board, our singer friend "Johnny Live" came to our boat for a short visit before he went to perform at Docksides for the evening. Clark and John immediately dove into talking music and discussing a bit of a mix up that happened during the playing at the church yesterday. Something to do with misplaced capos. 

I had to leave earlier than John. I left John and Clark talking music theory as I ran off to meet Nancy who was coming by in her car to take me to the food store to provision for our voyage.

By the time I got back from the food store and put everything away, it was getting late in the afternoon. With the weather being hot with very little wind, Clark suggested we go for a last swim in the pool. Since I was still hoping to get to say goodbye to a few more folks, I agreed. 

Yesterday, when we walked past the pool, the "boater's corner" was so full of boaters it looked like there was no room for one more. Today when we arrived, we found the pool basically empty except for our friends Bill, Roxanne and Ed. Bill and Clark immediately started talking about alternators, so I quickly headed for the other end of the pool!

We hoped the water would be refreshing; however, it turned out to be quite warm. A slight breeze developed, so I would dunk down to get wet then stand up to let the breeze cool me. We are hoping that we can find some breeze when we anchor tomorrow night, or it's going to be more than a bit "sticky".

We briefly spoke with Jeff and Marcy at the pool who informed us that they finished the jigsaw puzzle yesterday. At some point they became obsessed with getting it done and worked on it to the end. Clark had seen the finished puzzle when we was in the Club House and took a picture. It was a tricky one.

There are some foods that we don't generally eat on the boat as we make our wake along the coast to New Jersey. Pizza is one of those foods, so I bought a frozen one today at the store, and that is what we had for dinner. 

Afterwards, we watched a Jack Ryan movie before calling it a night. We need to get back into travel mode with earlier starts to our mornings.

2025 March: CT Grandkids Visit

 15 March 2025

As we anticipated our son and his family arriving this evening, we took care of some chores, relaxed a bit, and prepared the boat for our visitors. I worked on the Blog to get it up to date knowing I would be busy for the next few days having more fun to write about in the next update. Clark took out his guitar and played non-church songs just for fun. 

We planned to meet our friend, John aka "Johnny Live", for lunch today. On our way walking out of the marina, we came across some boating friends by the pool. Tomorrow would be Clark's birthday, and today turned out to be Roxanne's birthday. They are the same age just one day apart. We grabbed a couple of birthday photos before continuing on our way.

Ev & Clark

Roxanne & Clark

John and I left it to Clark to decide where we should eat today. He picked the 7-Mile Grill. I had never eaten there, and John had not eaten there this season, so it turned out to be a win-win for all. The restaurant is close enough to bike to, but John very kindly picked us up and drove us there to save us the time and effort.

Murals at the 7-Mile Grill ..

Decorations in the restaurant ..

The bar ..

An uninvited guest in the restaurant ..

Clark & John

After John dropped us off back at the marina, we headed back to the boat to begin prepping the boat for the family. Linens needed to be pulled out, and sofas needed to be converted into beds. The piece parts for these activities had to be dug out of storage. Space had to be made for suitcases, etc. With that activity completed, we decided to walk up to the pool bar to check out tonight's entertainment.

Lady A Blues Band

Decoration for Full Moon Party at Pool Bar

Sunset at Marlin Bay

On the way, our son, Chris, texted that the GPS ETA read 8:30. As we walked out the gate to look for them, they were just pulling up in the car at 8:33! Great timing! With hugs all around for Chris, Heather, Lillian aka Lil, and Jack, we were ready to enjoy some family fun over the next few days.

16 March 2025 - Sunday - Clark's Birthday

While the family got themselves settled in, Clark and I jumped on our bikes and went to church as per usual. Clark was playing in the band. Before the services got underway, Pastor Debra announced that it was his birthday and everyone sang Happy Birthday to him (much to his dismay). We later learned that another member of the church, Janet, shares the same day birthday with him. She made sure to remain quiet until after services so as not to bring attention to herself.

Church Band
Nancy (Mandolin), Tom (leader), John (singer), Steve (banjo), Clark (Guitar)
(Bob who plays drums cannot be seen in photo)

After we returned back to the boat following church, we quickly grabbed lunch and headed over to Sombrero Beach. The grandkids love going to the beach. They were disappointed in Sombrero Beach for two reasons. First, we were greeted by a sign saying that a no-swim advisory was in effect due to bacteria in the water. Secondly, the beach had a large quantity of Man-o-War Jellyfish in the water and scattered across the beach.

These poisonous jellyfish look like small, inflated, blue balloons! Many people do not even know what they are. We passed a very nice sand castle as we looked for a place to sit on the beach. The top of the sand castle had a Man-o-War jellyfish sitting on top of it as a decoration. Someone had to have picked it up to put it there!

Even with the health advisory, we saw quite a few folks in the water. They were not "swimming" per se so maybe it was okay. 

Sombrero Beach, Marathon, FL

We found an empty spot on the beach to put down towels, etc. All but I decided to go for a walk down the beach. Chris, Clark and the kids walked over to Sisters Creek and waded into the water. They dug a well into the sand that filled with water before walking back through the park.

Lillian, Chris, Jack, and Clark
(Heather not in picture)

As I sat roasting in the sun, I continued to think they would be back soon. That turned out to be a bad assumption. Eventually, when I was "well done", I decided to go in search of the crew. 

I did not immediately find them, but in my search, I did come across the pastor of our church in a pavilion holding a "Celebration of Life" service for one of their long-time parishioners. Debra said she had not seen Clark, so I continued on my hunt. Eventually I saw them in the distance heading for the playground equipment.

Sometimes Clark makes me wonder exactly how old he is ...

Besides riding on the merry-go-round, Clark helped Chris push it!

Clark said that we would have been better off had we gone to the beach at Sister's Creek instead of the one on the ocean. We should remember that for next time. 

After the beach, we decided to go to Sweet Savannah's for ice cream & cookie treats as I had a gift card burning a hole in my pocket! 

Chris & Heather at Sweet Savannah's

Jack and Lillian found the arcades located there.

Lillian found an interesting way to play the game though I don't think it helped her score.

The ice cream shop had a ring toss game. No one managed to get the ring on the metal loop on the wall.

Since it was a nice sunny day, folks were still wearing their swimsuits from the trip to the beach, and we still had time before dinner, everyone decided to take a dip in the pool. We had some dive sticks to drop in the pool to add to the fun. 

For dinner tonight, we dried off, got changed, and went to Lazy Days. 

After dinner, we took some sunset pictures at the marina as we walked back to the boat.

Heather, Lil, Chris, Jack, Clark, Ev

Lil, Chris, Jack

17 March 2025 - St. Patrick's Day

Unfortunately, a front came through bringing with it high winds of around 24 knots. As such we looked for things to do where the wind would not be a factor. We started the day playing pool / billiards and an indoor shuffleboard game in the Marlin Room at the Club House. 

After lunch we headed to the library to see what mischief we could get into there. 

We found various activity kits including ones to make graduation caps which turned out to be a bit on the large size!

Then we got goofy.

Jack also made one - his in green.

Next we found some word search puzzles and pictures to color.

Clark and Lillian had a "Draw Lillian" contest. The tables are made to be drawn on with markers and towels for erasing provided.

Jack and Ev played a game of chess. Jack is new to the game, and I have not played in years (and was never good at the game). Jack lost too many pieces, and I could not figure out how to get him into  checkmate although I had him in check multiple times. We gave up before finishing the game. 

The highlight of the day was a trip to the Turtle Hospital that Chris scheduled for 4:00 - the last show of the day. I decided to stay home on the boat. I really have no interest in observing injured turtles especially at $35 per person.

A turtle in the doctor's office for eye cleaning

Turtle tank

Lil

Looking in the turtle tank

I prefer to go to Sombrero Beach when they have a "Turtle Release". Once a turtle has recovered and deemed fit, they are released back into the ocean at the beach. Many people turn out for the event.

Heather and Chris left the rest of us for the night and went to the Butterfly Café for dinner. The rest of us ate on the boat and watched Moana on Disney+. The grandkids had chicken nuggets, broccoli, and fries while Clark and I had frozen pizza for dinner.

18 March 2025 - Tuesday

We had some spare time in the morning before heading off for today's big adventure at Aquarium Encounters, so we went back to the Club House to shoot some pool. While we were there, some a brother and sister came in and wanted to play. I worked on this week's jigsaw puzzle while the four of them played pool. 

I was very impressed by the young boy who took time to instruct Jack on the proper way to hold the cue. Where he would not follow my instructions, he was careful to listen to this young man. The visitors were not boaters, but were instead, staying in one of the condos.

 

Before heading off to the aquarium, we packed some sandwiches to eat later. We arrived around 12:30 and stayed for about three hours exploring the grounds and checking out the aquatic life living there.

Heading in ...

We decided to join the tour that started at 12:50 to get the lay of the land. Zach was our tour guide.

He showed us the various exhibits and explained about feeding and touching the wildlife there.

We walked by the parrotfish area, and Zach threw in a bunch of pellets to bring them around for viewing.

Parrotfish

He told us about the touch tank.

Sea Urchin and Starfish Touch Tank

He said we could feed the turtles (later) 

Turtles!

and told us to beware the Pig-nose turtles and alligators that bite!

Pignose Turtle

American Alligators

Lobster

Look very closely to see
miniature seahorses

Zach told us about ways we are trying to reduce the invasive Lionfish population by eating them and teaching aquatic predators that they are a tasty treat for them as well.

Lionfish

Chris bought a punch card so the kids had fun opportunities for feeding fish and turtles.

Lettuce for the turtles 

and cut up fish for the rays.

The rays practically climbed out of the tank to get the fish morsels being fed to them.

Shark

Hermit Crab

Today was a bit on the chilly side for some of the critters. The turtles had their own heat lamps to stay warm.

Lettuce for these guys too

Clark got a nice picture of the larger-sized seahorses.

The aquarium is directly next to Vaca Cut. We walked down to take a look!

Boats traveling through the cut

Pelicans hanging around hoping for food from
aquarium visitors
(bridge over Vaca Cut in background)

We found a place selling food at the aquarium, but since we brought sandwiches and snacks, we just grabbed one of the picnic tables to have our lunch.

As we wandered around, we found a woman giving a lecture on American Alligators. She had a 6-month old gator in her hands.

After three hours of seeing the aquarium exhibits, we were ready to call it quits and head back to the boat. With the family here for only a few days, we had to pack in as much as possible in the time allocated. When we got back to the boat, we rolled out the paint and the coconuts we had collected to do some coconut decorating. We ended up with rainbow and patriotic designs.

Since these works of art would not fit in suitcases, we have been asked to transport them back to NJ on the boat. Yay!?

Having seen a lot of fish today, we naturally decided to go to the Island Fish Co. restaurant to eat some! We looked into eating at the Steak and Lobster House but the wait was too long, so we went to a bigger restaurant and got a table right away.

We managed to get some sunset pictures from the west side of the marina tonight.

We played some card games and Cats Cradle before time for bed.

19 March 2025 

Lillian and Jack had a list of things they wanted to do, but as today was our last day together, we had to "cherry pick" from that list. We started the day, once again, playing pool up at the Club House. We made good use of the swimming pool one more time, and we ended the visit with a trip to play Miniature Golf.

On our way to the Club House, we spied a manatee floating in the inner basin. It did not move at all for so long, I feared it was deceased. Eventually, it put its head up for a sip of air. We decided it must be napping.

At the Marlin Room, we found that the Salvador Dali jigsaw puzzle had been completed! When I left it the other day, only white pieces remained. I was happy to see it finished.

The grandkids played pool. Since playing with the other children, they now play 8 Ball (solid vs. stripes) where before they aimed at random balls. Jack remembered the instructions he had received from the young lad the other day!

The water in the swimming pool was quite cool today compared to a couple of days ago when it felt too warm. Before getting dried off, we all took a dip in the hot tub to warm up! Brrr!

Heather had everything packed ready for departure. Before they left, however, Heather said the kids could cross one more thing off their list. We went to Porky's to play Miniature Golf on the new course they have there. 

The course was well designed and had interesting decorations scattered about.

Tropical theme ...

Fountain ..

Flora ..

Water hazard ..

The results were erratic. 5 hits was the maximum stroke count for a hole. Some holes the kids went over the max (the course was basically empty when we played with no one behind us), and some came out as a hole in one! Only Chris, Jack, and Lillian signed up to play. Chris let me play out the last 3 of the 18 holes for him.

When we left Porky's, Clark told Chris to pull into the Fishermen's Hospital lot to drop us off. With a traffic light there, it is safe to cross Route 1 and an easy, short walk back to the marina. This way Chris did not have to fight with Route 1 traffic to make a second left-hand turn back onto the highway - one is more than enough! 

As soon as we got back on the boat, I dove in to start putting the boat back together - stripped beds, turned beds into sofas, gathered up laundry, emptied trash, etc. I  signed up for two time slots for laundry tomorrow to wash all the clothes, sheets, and towels used over the past few days.

Once that was done, we relaxed by the tv until it was time for bed.