Day 55 - Homestead to Chicago - From Paradise to the Polar Vortex

This was the day we had to leave our paradise and go back to Chicago for several weeks.  We have gone 1975 miles so far.  As usual, we cleaned up the boat and reluctantly packed our bags.  It was cloudy and the coolest day we could remember since Apalachicola, a few weeks earlier.  There were 2 men on Trident, working on the steering.  They told us that they had already seen mama raccoon twice that day, looking for her babies.  They had first seen her last August, and from time to time when they came to work on the boat.  Why the owner had not done something to chase mama raccoon away sooner was a mystery.  Finally, the guys told the owner that they would not work on the boat unless he got rid of the raccoons, thus the appearance of raccoon man.  We wondered how mama raccoon got onto the dock in the first place.  Evidently she climbed a Mangrove on shore and managed to step through the barbed wire at the side of the gate.  Sure enough, we saw bits of raccoon fur on the barbed wire as we left.

Chuck picked us up again and we went back to his house for some snacks and a cocktail.  Then he and Pam took us to the Miami Airport for an 8 p.m. flight.  Before we even left their house, the flight was delayed an hour.  Once at the gate, there were more delays until finally at 11 p.m., the flight was cancelled until the next morning.  It seemed that the bad weather throughout the rest of the country had backed everything up and now the captain we were waiting for had too many flight hours to fly any more that day.  Of course now it was midnight and we had to find a hotel to stay in for a few hours.  Maybe it was not so bad though, because we missed the -50 degree wind chills of January 6^th and 7^th.
 

 It was sunny and all of 10 degrees when we got home on the 8^th.  I think we can manage for a few weeks until we fly back to Florida on February 13^th for more adventures.

Day 54 - Key Largo to Homestead - Critters on Board

We wanted to stay one more day at Marina Del Mar to bask by the pool but Captain Randy, who is always attentive to the weather, announced a change in plans due to the gale force winds predicted for the next day.  It was a calm, radiant day, promising a smooth trip to our final destination for this leg of our journey, Homestead.  What a contrast to the -50 degree wind chill going on in Chicago, a fact we tried to push out of our minds. 

On our way at 11:10 a.m. (after finishing up the laundry - the next marina does not have laundry facilities) and announcing our exit via “crash corner.”  There was almost no wind and the Atlantic was almost flat.  The humidity was high though and it was murky on the ocean.  The visible shoreline was mostly trees and other vegetation, breaking now and then for homes, low condominium properties, and perhaps a few small businesses.  We could not see any beaches, although there were likely small ones sprinkled in.

We reached Angelfish Creek, our passage from the Atlantic to the intracostal and then to the marina inlet, at 12:20 p.m., close to high tide as was our plan.  Our local friends had told us about the shallow water here and at the inlet, and we watched the depth gauge very closely. 

 

 

 Just outside the inlet were 4 Coast Guard boats with 50 caliber guns mounted on the bows that appeared to be doing some type of drill.  I did not want to get in their way!  We crept cautiously through the channel markers, watching the depth go as low as 4 feet before coming back up to about 7 feet.  The Coast Guard followed us in a few minutes later to pull their boats out of the water at the marina's launch ramp. 

 

As we glided into Herbert Hoover Marina at Bayfront Park, we saw our friend Chuck waiting to help us in.

After helping us tie in Kristin Says, Chuck told us he was leaving.  As Chuck and Captain Randy were standing on the dock discussing our plans for the evening, we heard a voice calling from the locked entrance to the dock, “Can someone please let me in?  The marina gave me the wrong key and I have to get some raccoons off a boat before it starts to rain.”  Raccoons?  On a boat?  This was a scenario none of us had heard of before.  Chuck let the young man in and decided to stay for the show.  The man walked to a large bridge boat docked a few slips away from us named Trident.  The three of us moved closer, but not too close, to watch.  I asked how many raccoons were on board and where were they?  The man answered that he didn’t know.  We asked where they were on the boat and he again answered he did not know.  Armed only with gloves and protective eyewear, he started opening hatches on the back deck.  Suddenly he got very quite.  We stepped closer.  He then laid down on his stomach and reached into one of the hatches.  We heard squealing and hissing as he pulled out 4 baby raccoons.  The raccoon man had placed a cage on the deck before starting to look for the critters and he now placed the babies, one by one, into the cage.  He told us they were only about 2-3 months old.  The obvious question now was where is the mother?  Raccoon man placed a paper “cover” behind the vent where it appeared that “mam raccoon” was using to get in and out.  If the paper is disturbed, then mama raccoon has been back.  He told us that the babies would be well cared for and then released back into the wild when they were big enough.  We were not fully convinced of this, but they sure could not be left on the boat.

 

The show was over so Chuck left with a promise to return in a few hours with his wife Pam to take us to dinner.  When we walked down the dock to the car later, we noticed that the paper was moved; mama raccoon had been back.  The four of us went to Portofino’s for wood-fired pizza. After we returned from dinner, Captain Randy and I cautiously walked down the dock to our boat on the lookout for a very mad mama raccoon.  Thankfully we did not run into her.  Captain Randy went below to watch some TV and check the weather reports for tomorrow, and I sat on the upper helm area, talking to my Dad on the phone.  It was not long before I was startled by the sight of a panicked mama raccoon racing down the dock past our boat, then turning around and running back.  I let Captain Randy know and he saw her tail as she climbed up the stairs of Trident, to the bridge.  He then zipped our rear canvas door shut.  We did not want to see mama raccoon on our boat, that’s for sure.  The stowaway tree frog back on the Tombigbee Waterway we could handle, but a large angry raccoon was another story!

Day 53 - Islamorada to Key Largo - The Party Boat

The plan for this morning was to take down the Christmas tree and we got some help from the wind that picked up overnight.  We found the tree down and several ornaments broken, thankfully not the new Snook Inn ornament. 

Dan and Ellen and our friends from Homestead, Chuck and Pam, met us at 11:30 a.m. to make the journey from Islamorada to Key Largo on the boat.  The wind was dying and the sky was clearing and we merrily made our way down the Snake Creek to the Atlantic.  Dan and Ellen have a home on a canal just off the Snake Creek and we could see it from the boat.  More beautiful homes sit on the canals and the river. 
 

 

The ride was pretty smooth and we enjoy the company.  The channel used approach to the Marina Del Mar in Key Largo is narrow and has a 90 degree in it – “crash corner” - so it is customary to announce your presence on the radio when entering or exiting the channel.  Several dive and fishing boats were exiting as we got there, so we waited for them and made our way in. 

 

 

 

Of course because it was just about time to dock, the skies open up and it poured rain.  Those of us assisting with the lines pulled on our rain jackets to prepare.  A second problem was that no one answered the marina radio or telephone and the slip we were previously told to dock in has a boat in it already.  We floated around in the rain for a bit until someone finally answered the phone and gave us a new slip assignment.

After tying up we relax with drinks on the boat until the rain stopped and the sun came out.  This marina has a pool and a hot tub, so we changed into bathing suits and partook of both until sunset.  Later we walked to Sharkey’s for dinner – good grouper and hogfish – capping off a fun day with friends on and in the water.

Day 52 - Marathon to Islamorada - The Turtle Hospital

We arrived at the Turtle Hospital around 8:40 a.m. and paid the admission fee.  While we waited for the tour to start, we read the wall boards and displays that educated us about sea turtles and told the story of the hospital.  It began in the 1980s when the founder owned a small hotel on the site.  He used a pool as an aquarium and had it filled with local fish for viewing.  One of the visiting children asked where the turtles were (turtles were big in the 80s due to the popular Ninja Turtle series and movie).  Good question, thought the owner.  He began researching sea turtles and how to obtain one.  It turns out that the only way to legally have one is to rescue a sick or injured turtle.  Thus the hospital was born.  The motel was destroyed in a hurricane and now the site is dedicated to the hospital buildings, complete with emergency and operating rooms, and several outdoor pools for recovering turtles.  When sea turtles are injured or sick, they absorb air bubbles and float.  Anyone noticing a floating turtle can contact the hospital, who will come and pick it up with one of their turtle ambulances if the caller can get it to shore.  The day we were there, they had 35 sea turtles, 11 of which are permanent residents as they will never recover enough to be released back into the wild.  Very interesting and worthwhile visit if you go to the Keys.

 

We walked back to the boat in a light drizzle and left the dock at 11:30 a.m. on our way to Islamorada.  For our route today, we decided to take the Florida Bay side of the Keys, after going under the 7 Mile Bridge, to avoid the rougher water on the Atlantic.  The ever present crab pots greeted us but we are getting very used to them.  Small, low buildings lined the shore and we couldn't distinguish much as we were pretty far out.  Even so, the water is shallow, just over 7 feet – we are getting used to this too.  We passed a few small islands off the Keys to our port and then the Everglades National Park, a protected area in which no crab pots are allowed – hooray! 

 

We arrived at Plantation Yacht Harbor at 3:15 p.m.  Our friends Dan and Ellen Downes met us later and took us to dinner at an Irish Pub and then to the grocery store – bonus!  

Day 51 - Marathon - A Dinghy Adventure around Boot Key

The morning began cloudy and cooler than it had been, so we did laundry and worked on the blog before launching the dinghy for the first time on the trip.  The sun broke through around 10:30 a.m. and we pushed off at noon.  We took a channel to the Marathon City Marina where tons of boats, mostly sailboats, were moored.  The homes and few hotels on this bay are smaller and more modest than what we saw on the west coast of Florida. 

As we moved through another channel to the Atlantic however, the difference in the houses was striking – much larger, some with huge boats tied up in front.  This dichotomy is characteristic of the Keys, where there is a mix of old and new, trailer parks and estates, tiny California style motels and mid-rise Marriott hotels.

 

 

According to Captain Randy’s calculations, the water near shore on the Atlantic would be close to flat and he thought we would be fine taking the dinghy out for the short ride back to the marina, rather than retracing our route back.  So out we went, with the scenic Sombrero Beach and a tiny island to our port.  The water started out fine, but was quite shallow and we noticed a man out of his small craft pushing and pulling it off a sand bar.  To avoid a similar fate, Captain Randy took us out further and it began to get a little rougher, splashing us as we got up on plane.  I was beginning to wonder if it was such a good idea to be out on the Atlantic in a dinghy!  The Kristin Says would barely notice these waves, but it was a different story in the dinghy.  The Captain managed to get us back safely, although a little wet.  Quite the adventure!

After drying off, we walked about a mile to the Sea Turtle Hospital for a tour.  It was completely booked for the rest of the day, and we made a reservation for the next morning.  On the walk back, we stopped in a few retail businesses including Captain Randy’s favorite, West Marine, where we picked up a few supplies.

From there we walked to a seafood market to pick up some fresh seafood to eat on the boat, but they were already closed.  Castaways Restaurant was next door and we sat down in their outdoor section and had our seafood there.  We noticed a table of 4 who were wearing South Haven (MI), Grand Haven (MI), and Michigan State shirts and we greeted them as they passed us.  They were 2 couples from Holland and Grand Haven, Michigan who started their Loop in July.  One of the couples had sold everything they owned and were living full time on the boat.

Back to the boat for another spectacular sunset, this one punctuated with a pod of dolphin frolicking behind the boats.  A perfect end to a day of adventure in Marathon.