1/28 Thursday: Now for some low key days just hangin out in Key West. Shannon fixed us some breakfast, and Captain is really liking having a chef aboard. 😉 (I don’t often fix breakfast). I gave her a tank top with our Island Girl logo on the front. She commented that she wants one that says CREW on the back, like the big yachts have.
Read moreMonth: January 2021
1/27/21 – Scuba diving the Keys
1/27 Wednesday: Last night we got out all of the scuba gear to make sure the BCD’s and everything would fit our two visitors. Everything looked good, so our plan was to leave this morning and go out to Sombrero Reef for a bit of swimmin with the fishies. Today looked calm – just some one-foot waves out on the reef. I looked at the weather forecast again, and Thursday (tomorrow) just doesn’t look good out in Hawk Channel for going to Key West. So, I called Key West Bight Marina, and asked if there was ANY way that they could squeeze us in today. By golly, they worked some magic, and said YES! They’d put us on the fuel dock for two nights, then into our assigned slip on Friday. Woo-Hoo! Our assigned slip is A-15, which is just across the fairway from the fuel dock. A few days ago, I looked on NEBO and saw that a Looper boat named Blue Barnacle looked like they were in A-15, so I texted them. Yep – they are, and they’re reserved in that spot until Tuesday, Feb. 2. 🤷♀️ Hmmm…. Oh well, that’s OK – as long as the marina puts us SOMEWHERE that we can get off the SIDE of our boat, right?!
Read more1/25/21 – More Marathon fun
1/25/21 Monday: There wasn’t much going on in the morning. I keep checking the weather for our trip to Key West. Our plan for the seven nights the kids will be here was to spend four nights here, and three nights there. However, the weather on Friday looks like it’s going to blow 15-25 with waves up to 5 feet. Not this crew! So I called Key West Bight Marina and asked if we could come one night early. Yep – they can get us into a different slip, and then we’ll have to move on Friday into our assigned slip. Great! We can deal with moving in some wind, but don’t want to travel the 55 miles in big nasty wavey water. Thank you KWBM!
We got ‘Speedy’ down off of the upper deck. Speedy is one of our new electric Lectric bikes.
1/23/21 – Enjoying Marathon
1/23/21 Saturday: Marlin Bay Resort & Marina in Marathon. What a beautiful place! What is not to love about this?! The weather is still beautiful, sunny, and calm.
1/21/21 – Making our way down the Gulf
1/21/21 Thursday: We had about 40 miles to travel out on the Gulf today, to get from Ft Myers Beach to Marco Island. We left the dock around 9:30, and it was splat flat out there! This is looking back at Pink Shell as we tootled out into the Gulf.
1/17/21 – On our way to the Florida Keys!
1/17/21 Sunday: At just 2256 hours in 20 years, Island Girl got a rebuilt starboard engine. That’s a long drawn out story. Short story is this: She now has only about eleven hours on the new engine, so it’s time for a break-in trip. We plan to do the Great Loop again this year (6000+ miles) but we need to get about 50 hours on the new motor before we set out on that journey. This trip ought to accomplish that goal. Plus, our daughter and her husband are parents to 20 month-old triplets, (seriously!) and could use a vacation break away from the babies. We invited them to meet us in the Florida Keys and spend a week with us on Island Girl. They said YES! 😃
We planned more than a week of lee-way to get to Marathon before they do, so we can mosey our way down and take advantage of good weather days. It is January in Florida, and that means unpredictable temperatures, wind and waves. When we left the dock today at about 8:00am, it was cloudy and only 55 degrees outside. Brrr! 🥶 Yes – that is Brrr temperature for us!
