TRAVELS of "HELIOPAUSE"

Our posts will be about our excursions and daily comings and goings while we stay here in Marathon for 5 weeks. Scott’s sister and hubs are coming into town and long time friends later on in the month.

As we get acclamated to the new life of not moving around we find ourselves tired and relaxed. The thing about doing the loop is that it is a great endeavour but it is work. Planning routes, stays, groceries, even fuel and pump out stops and not knowing the areea make the task quite cumbersome. Research of things to do, where to visit also play into the equation. Not always is a marina available so always having a 2nd back up plan is needed. Having a break for this time is well appreciated.

Pickleball. Yes, pickleball. We have found at least 2 places to play. One is right across the street from the marina and the other is an Uber ride. Uber charges double the fees here in the Keys so keep that in mind if traveling here. We have found a post office close to the place to Uber to but the winds have kept us from using that ability. We have only been once. The closest one is about a 3.0 level or lower. Key Colony the Uber ride one, is 3.5+ ability. It’s still fun to have the option to play everyday if we wish.

Valentine’s Day was a big surprise for me. Scott picked up some teak chairs and had them delivered just in time for a bevy on the back deck. We had been talking about replacing our weather beaten aluminum chairs for some time. Love the new look.

We had another visitor from our marina back in Ontario. PattiJo and Doug visited us for a couple days as they trailer south for the winter. They like to stop at State Parks and enjoy the hikes, trails and wildlife. They came down to Marathon on their way just to see us. We are so happy to see them.

While they are here the winds were fairly strong still. We decided on dinner the first night while they set up their camp for the day and made their way down here from their Long Key campsite. Great tales of both our trips as we spent the evening chatting and remininscing.

We planned to bike to Pigeon Key together the next day, stop for a lunch and play pickleball. Pigeon Key is a small island containing the historic district of Pigeon Key, Florida. The 5-acre (2.0-hectare) island is home to 8 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places, some of which remain from its earliest incarnation as a work camp for the Florida East Coast Railway. Today these buildings serve a variety of purposes, ranging from housing for educational groups to administrative offices for the non-profit Pigeon Key Foundation.  The new 7 mile bridge links the south of the Keys to Marathon. The original 7 mile bridge was due to be demolished once the new one was built however instead of demolishing it sections were taken out so that the land portions could be used as pedestrian and cycle paths to Pigeon Key. We wondered around Pidgeon Key for about an hour and then started back. By now we are craving lunch but the amazing views we see on the bridge take our breath away and it takes us awhile to get to lunch. We decide on authentic tacos from a taco truck. Amazing tacos at La Palapa. If you love Mexican food this place has the best tacos around.

It was then biking to pickleball to begin the first lesson for PJ and Doug. It is always a blast teaching this sport to new folks. Hopefully we will be seeing them on the courts this summer. Thank you so much Patti Jo and Doug for visiting us and enjoying the sights of Marathon. Will we see you on the water next Fall?

We are happy to have had 2 days in Naples. We enjoyed the stay but are really happy to leave. We enjoy the laid back style of life without our every whim met. That is Naples. Beautiful with an Italian flair, stunning homes, shopping til you drop at any designer you may choose to visit. For us we long for the relaxed atmosphere with birds, dolphins, nature. We are heading to Marco Island to a recommended anchorage.

As we meander through the jetty at Naples the Gulf meets us with flat, open water. With only 16 miles to go it is still a welcome sight. Flat waters, calm winds and boats everywhere. We will only be off the coastline by about 4 miles all the way to Marco Island. The waters are a turquoise blue and dolphins play but didn’t visit us today. We are running about 8 knts.

The jetty to Marco Island is busy with boats. Lots of sizes and types. The island was a brainstorm by a couple of brothers decades ago. They saw the vision of water passages with homes lining the passage, some inland homes, marinas. Their dream is shown in the landscape of the amount of the water passages, homes, restaurants, etc.

The island is a staging for boats like us waiting to head to the keys. Smokehouse Anchorage is lined with large homes, apt, condos. The waterway into the anchorage is a well marked channel with mostly 10 ft depths. The current can rush at the entrance to the channel at low tide and high tide. Watch for the standing waves if you encounter a westerly wind content. There is plenty of room for boats but I’m sure there are times when this anchorage is very full. It is so protected that many consider this a hurricane hole to hold out. The temps today finally reached over 80 degrees and the nights dropped to 57.

Scott has seen an ingress of water into the pod oil. He changed the port side, or left side, while in Clearwater. He changed the starboard side, or right side while on anchorage. A haulout is in our future to replace the seals on the drives. Boat maintenance in exotic places. We drop “Otter” and head to the grocery store to pick up provisions. The store has built a dock specifically for this purpose. The Winn Dixie is not far away. On our way we meet up with another boat that we have met a few times along the route. Indigo is anchored not far from us. We pop over on the way to groceries and decide to have docktails and share stories. It was such a beautiful night as we chatted on the patio before heading back to the boat for dinner. We are off to Marathon in the morning crossing our fingers that the weather maintains the calm seas for our 100 mile journey.

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We leave behind our wonderful friends aboard Corkscrew. We will miss them and know our props will be together again as they stay in Ft Myers and head back to Nashville for the summer. Next year we hope to see them on the water when we stay somewhere for several months instead of traveling.

We are only traveling a few miles down the Cal River toward Pine Island to anchor for a couple nights. We want to test out the new bridle as the winds are expected at 20 knts and see if our current anchor can handle it. As the wind is predicted to come during daylight we feel this is a great opportunity before we start to head south toward Marco Island where we will be anchoring until we can cross to either Shark River, for a night’s stay, or directly head to Marathon, in the keys. It is all weather dependent but knowing our anchoring can handle a storm makes one sleep better at night.

We anchor just off St. James City on Pine Island in 13 ft of water. When we arrive there are 7 other sailboats setting up for the storm too. We feel confident in this large area with a north or easternly wind, which are the predicted directions. The cooler temps are returning, in the high 60s, and with the winds, it’s chilly but we have a pretty sunset, a glass of warm and full bellies. Tomorrow the storms roll in.

Just as I was making dinner with the generator running, it quit. Scott went and did his usual check. It is overheating. Clogged with seagrass. He tried to clear it but it is stuck. Now he really wants to get the hookah system so he can dive at times like this and take care of whatever the bottom of our girl needs. It won’t be clear until we can get it out. Heading to Naples to a marina to hopefully spray water down the throughull. We shut down everything we can until we leave tomorrow.