We headed back across the sound just in time to see our dock neighbors from Marathon, "Jeremiah" and "Nauti Nell" coming to join us at Shell Key. Once they set their anchors, we dinghied over to "Jeremiah" with the intention of just saying hello and then explore the Shell Key shore line, especially since we did not want to pass the Marathon dock crud sickness we got once we departed, back to them. Well, they insisted, so we all went aboard for Happy Hour. Even Mike and Twyla from "Nauti Nell" after Mike got back from Worldwide Sportsman to buy a new radio once they discovered theirs was not working after getting underway.
Good Friday we all got underway together at about 8:30 in the morning. As Twyla likes to say, we were like a herd of turtles taking three and a half hours to go 20 miles. There were a few dolphins that played in our bow wake. We all dropped anchor in Sunset Cove, very close to the same spot we stopped back in 2009. Back then we went to Snook's restaurant for a really good time. Research now found that the restaurant was back after being destroyed by fire three years ago. Sounded like we should check it out. We pulled our dinghies up to the dock, but could not find anyone to tell us if we had permission to do that or if we could get ice. We decided to just pull the dinghies up to shore at their parking lot instead.
We walked to US 1 to see what was around. CVS and Walgreens were right there. Perfect for getting ice. Before all that work though we decided we needed a cold beverage. The place next door looked like it would be great fun, but the downstairs didn't open until 4:00 p.m., but we could get a drink upstairs and bring it downstairs. They did not allow pets though. So we went back to our dinghies so Jeff and Linda from "Jeremiah" could leave the dogs, Molly and Snickers in the dinghy at this dock. Yes, they would put the bimini top up for them.
When we got back to our dinghies at shore of Snook's, a very rude woman informed us that we could not park our dinghies there. Jeff said, "Well then I guess we can't eat at your restaurant either." Ha! Good one!
We had one kind of expensive beverage, then Mike and Twyla dinghied over, so we got another. Now Mike is a regular patron of places like the American Legion and the VFW, so he does not like paying these prices for beers. We all decided the best option would be to fill our own coolers and dinghy around at least until Happy Hour when prices would be cheaper.
We had so much fun dinking and drinking as we call it, that we never made it back in time for Happy Hour. Just as we were returning to our mother ships though, we found out that a man on the derelict trawler/fishing boat, that we saw tow a red tagged (deemed derelict by the state) sailboat over to it via dinghy and tie it to the trawler, was psychotically upset with himself because the sailboat broke away from the string he tied it with and was now adrift. Mike and Twyla got back to their boat next to him sooner than the rest of us, so they filled us in. It seems the guy borrowed a dinghy to tow it there in the first place, now all he had was a canoe. So obviously nothing in his fleet had a running motor. This was a fairly large sound and the wind was pushing it out into the most open water. Good for the rest of us, bad for him. Now we would normally be a good Samaritan and help with such a situation, but thankfully Mike warned us that he was obviously tweeked out on something.
We did all talk about eating back at the cool restaurant, but Linda and Jeff were the only one's that made it. Those of us who went aboard "Nauti Nell" seemed to have gotten stuck in a vortex.
On Saturday we departed Sunset Cove at about 10:00 a.m. We thought we could spot the run away sailboat way over in the mangroves. We traveled only seven miles to drop our anchors in Blackwater Sound, near the Marriot in Key Largo. We immediately jumped in our dinghy to get more gas for it and to get ice from The Marina Club. They were very nice there and said we could all tie up our dinghies there. The other two got gas also, but by that time, we had already ventured off to find this cut canal through limestone to John Pennekamp State Park. The current through that canal was unbelievable. Our 3.5 horsepower engine barely got us through in some spots. It was like white water rafting in the dinghy. By the time we came back, the rest of the crew was ready to go check it out.
By the time we returned, the west winds were really picking up. We decided to go back four miles to Tarpon Basin which is much smaller and easier to get wind protection from the predicted west to north west winds.
After we took another dinghy tour to scout the place out for tomorrow, we came back to find "Nauti Nell" drug anchor a little bit. Then we drug anchor a little bit. We moved a little closer to the western shore and reset. After a couple of unsuccessful resets for "Nauti Nell", they decided to go over more towards the northern shore since the winds were shifting anyway, and they were hoping to find a different bottom besides this grassy one that obviously wasn't holding them.
After dinner Jeff called us on the VHF radio to ask if we had heard from Mike. We had not heard from him, but did notice he was pointing in the opposite direction than the wind. How could that be? Well, that's because his anchor chain broke. So Ray put the dinghy back in the water after bringing it up earlier just so we wouldn't have to worry about it tonight. He headed over to "Jeremiah" right behind us to go bring Mike his spare anchor. It was a wet and dark, but successful
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| "Nauti Nell" and the newly named (thought of by Linda) dinghy "Lil Nauti" |
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| Funny dolphin tour boat near John Pennekamp |
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| Helicopter (1 of 2) landing right behind us at the Marriot |
Now, we find all of this extremely ironic because Jeff is the nervous nelly who worries about dragging and almost losing the clevis pin on his anchor chain the other day. He has been one of only two boats around us that did not drag. Even the sailboat behind him drug anchor earlier.
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| "Jeremiah" |
We do it for the stories we can tell - can't wait to have some beers and hear about this cruising adventure!!!
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