A Post By Dad

Well I have been instructed by my daughter that I have an obligation to contribute to the blog as I am unhappy with her tardy newsletters.

So carrying on where she left off….

We spent another 5 days in Marathon waiting for the cold front to go through. We had a couple of horrendous thunderstorms and were glad to be on a mooring ball surrounded by boats that had higher masts than us. Two boats close by us got hit by lightning and lost all their electronics. I think Kerry’s estimation of the boats in the harbour is a bit low, I figure between the mooring balls and the anchorage, there are at least 400 boats of all shapes and sizes.

(Our boats rafted together)

Willie went to Yoga classes and I nearly got press ganged into a game of softball. My excuse being I didn’t have the right footwear. Willie and I got our daily exercise walking at least 2-3 miles a day. Kerry and Sal went running two days under the pretense of trying to get back into shape but rumour has it that it was just an excuse to visit McDonalds guilt free.

We finally left Marathon on Friday the 28^th with a good 15 knot NW wind, making a 40 mile run up to Cotton Key, where we anchored for the night. Chautauqua was just 5 miles out of Marathon when a sudden bang occurred and the engine quit. I was in panic mode, what’s wrong now? Has the engine or the transmission seized? And to make matters worse I couldn’t turn the steering wheel. So we doused the sails and dropped the anchor. The skipper and the mate put their wet suits on and over the side to see what was going on down there. Lo and behold a crab pot was entangled around the propeller shaft with 15 feet of rope wrapped tightly around it. So armed with a serrated bread knife and 45 minutes later we removed the line. Enough trauma for one day.

(Cutting the line around the propeller)

So our next leg was back to Sunset cove where we had previously spent 4 nights a few weeks ago. It’s a beautiful, quiet and protected anchorage away from the hustle and bustle of the traffic and humanoids. This morning I heard a pssshhht sound, which I presumed was a ‘porkie’ (our nickname for a porpoise). Much to my surprise I saw a manatee and then another one. And then they proceeded to swim right under the boat eating the grass (remember we are anchored in 6 feet of water so we had a real close up encounter). I screamed for Willie to get the camera, which she did and then instead of taking a picture she accidently turned it off meanwhile the manatees quietly swam away. This is the same spot we had our previous manatee encounter.

(Doing a little cleaning)

The plans are to try a crossing on Thursday. But things can change so we are going to head north to check out our departure anchorage. The plan is to leave at 4am arriving at 5pm at Bimini. We’ll keep you posted.

Fred.