2020 Florida Keys with Island Girl

6/28/20 The final Keys/Islands episode

June 28, 2020June 28, 2020karenstark

Sunday, and it’s time to go home tomorrow. We’ve had a really fun three weeks! And hey – technically, we’ve docked every night on an island! Cabbage Key, Marco Island, Marathon, Key West, and Estero Island!

We spent some time in the pool today, and it felt really nice. I think it was a little cooler than it has been. The sky was really hazy today, so no direct blistering hot sunshine. YAY! It looked like a few white caps out on the gulf. We sat facing west, hoping to get some of the breeze, but somehow we were pretty sheltered from it. There was definitely more time in the pool than in the chairs.

6/27/20: Just another day in paradise.

June 27, 2020June 28, 2020karenstark

Saturday – We stayed in the boat most of the day, enjoying the air conditioning as the temperature outside along with humidity hit a “feels like 110 degrees”. Long ago, we each adopted our own places to sit while we’re hangin out. Kenny sits on the aft couch, and I sit at the dinette couch.

6/26/20: Feels like 106?!

June 26, 2020June 27, 2020karenstark

Dude.

1:00 in the afternoon, 92 feels like 106. But hey – the good news is that it’ll drop below 80 degrees tonight… to 78! 😳🥵. Heat Advisory until 6pm tonight. Again.

6/25/20: Relaxin at Pink Shell

June 25, 2020June 26, 2020karenstark

To help you see where we are, here’s a little map. We are the blue dot in the lower right at the north tip of Estero Island. Sanibel Island is to the west of us. The town of Fort Myers is up the Caloosahatchee River from here.

6/24/20: Journey North across the Gulf

June 24, 2020June 25, 2020karenstark

We were up at 5:30am today, before the sunshine’s alarm clock even went off. It was 82 degrees outside. Seriously! And sticky-sweaty-humid. Perfect if you’re a tropical jungle plant. There was plenty enough light in the marina to see what we were doing, so we unplugged our power cord, untied our lines, and shoved away from the dock at 6:00. By then, the sun was starting to think about getting up. The water was calm, the air was calm, and we could see fine well-emough to go out the Key West Harbor channel.

6/23/20: The final Keys episode

June 23, 2020June 23, 2020karenstark

It’s our last day in the Keys for this trip. All four catamarans that were docked by us are gone, and nobody has come in their place. The dock seems so empty! I didn’t note this earlier, but there are still quite a few restaurants, bars, and stores that are not open yet in Key West. One popular restaurant right here at the marina called Turtle Kraals is still closed. The famous Sloppy Joe’s Bar on Duval is still closed. The drag queen shows are not happening. And of course, there are no cruise ships. Not everything in Key West is back to normal. Last night while we were walking through town, it was SOOO nice because nothing was crowded. But the town can’t survive forever at this reduced level of tourism. Hopefully Covid will ease up and our world can get back to a new normal before too long.

6/22/20: Monday projects

June 22, 2020June 23, 2020karenstark

One thing we haven’t done in the last two weeks, is watch the news on TV. This morning I thought that perhaps I should check on the Covid status in Florida. Sheesh! I guess cases are going up up up. Of course, the hotspot of the state (48% of the cases) is still the Miami/Ft Lauderdale/Palm Beach area. Hmmm. What if we don’t go that way after all, and head back up our own west coast from here? That depends on what the weather looks like for crossing the Gulf on Wednesday. So I pulled up all of my various marine weather apps, and … it looks great! The weather has been calm, and the Gulf has been calm for several days. Wednesday winds are forecasted to be 5-10 knots, with seas around 1 foot. It doesn’t get any better than that.

6/21/20 Happy Father’s Day

June 21, 2020June 22, 2020karenstark

It started with sunshine, coffee, and some fresh baked (out of a tube) cinnamon rolls for the dad/grampa/papa on this boat. But alas, he has had a headache all day. He spent the day really low key, hoping it would get better.

6/20/20 Saturday in Key West

June 20, 2020June 22, 2020karenstark

We woke up to a nice sunshiney morning! And toasty. But there was a bit of a breeze, so we actually sat out in the cockpit for a while to enjoy our coffee. It was fun to greet people walking by. The fella on the Aquila from Clearwater came over and chatted a bit about The Great Loop. He saw our Gold flag 😁. He said they’re contemplating doing the Loop, but thought their boat was too tall for THE bridge in Chicago. (19’6” is the clearance of the lowest fixed bridge on the entire Loop.) He knows of April & Larry on One Eye Dog, so I told him he needs to talk to them, because they’ve done it in their Aquila. Like many people we’ve talked to this year, they had planned to go to the Bahamas earlier this year…. like us…. and couldn’t go because of Covid. It’s really a common story among us Floridian boaters!

6/19/20: Time to paaaartay

June 19, 2020June 20, 2020karenstark

It’s Friday, and very cloudy. Everything outside is soaked to the bone. Time to pull up the carpets to dry out again. I guess we need to investigate a new kind of deck covering for out there; something that drains better! While I was out there, the dockmaster came over and said we could move back to our originally assigned spot, A-26. YAY! The center console boats would be gone by 11:00, and then we can have our spot back for the rest of our stay. That is great news! At around 12:30, we pulled our lines and tootled over. Here is our new view. Yes – we are right on top of Dante’s Pool and Restaurant. And it’s the weekend, so there will be some paarrrrtyin goin on. And lots of people watching from our viewpoint.