2020 Was a Bust (or Was It?)

(This is an article written by Heidi for our LNVT group quarterly magazine.)

No cruise to Maine--restricted by their governor-- for the first time in many years. No visits with good friends on their boats, rafted up and enjoying cocktail hour together. No showing off VICTORIOUS to new acquaintances we meet at our vacation anchorage. It was a grim summer unfolding as we contemplated what we could do. 

BRENDAN'S LUCK in the distance                        Close up of LUCY's cockpit and upper deck

                                            LUCY passing by the bike trail in the Cape Cod Canal

So we stayed close to home, in our case Massachusetts waters and the nearby islands. Not so bad. Multiple short trips to some favorite places, and even returning to small harbors that we went to when we had young children aboard and hadn't visited recently. That was sort of fun. On our first day, as we arrived at our first stop at a small beachy island, there was one other boat already anchored there -- wait, it is a Lord Nelson Victory Tug. How likely is that? And one that we don't recognize.  John and Susan rowed over in their dinghy to say "Hi" and it turns out they have recently bought BRENDAN'S LUCK (to be renamed EDWARD S. MARVIN)  and are on their first cruise on it. They are from New Hampshire so it seems very coincidental that we would find them at this Cape Cod spot. They talked to us from their dinghy for 20 minutes, distancing nicely. 

We repeated the dinghy-to-boat routine whenever we wanted to chat with other boaters. It usually made for a shorter conversation, but enjoyable. Later in the summer, on our 4th or 5th short cruise we picked Marblehead for a 3-day stay. We had lived in Marblehead back in the 70s and 80s and love stopping there. To be sure we had a mooring in this crowded harbor we rented one in advance from the harbormaster. We got advance notice from a friend we phoned that there was another LNVT visiting the harbor. Our lookout was posted and we were very pleased to see the larger 49' Tug LUCY, which we had recently read about in Tuggers (Summer issue #83). We also had spotted this Tug at it's New York City dock a few year's back as we transitted the East River. It was definitely on our bucket list to check out LUCY!

Our mooring was in the same vicinity as the harbormaster's dock that LUCY was at. Unfortunately we didn't meet the owners but they had hired crew members onboard that we did get to talk to and they answered quite a few of our questions. We took lots of pictures and we got to view LUCY from several public vantage points ashore as well as from the water.

As luck would have it, about 5 days after our return to Cohasset on VICTORIOUS, on a bike ride  40 miles south of our home port, LUCY was spotted once again. The bike trail alongside the Cape Cod Canal is great for boat watching, and LUCY was presumably headed back to New York via the Canal.

The cruising season extended until late September and included a week "marooned" in Marion --Sippican Harbor -- during a wild windy stretch of weather. But even that experience was interesting and most days the students from the town's Tabor Academy came out to their nearby schooner for activities, and  we could make it to shore for a late day walk. Our wedding anniversary day wasn't good for dinghying ashore but 2 days later friends from a nearby boat encouraged us to eat outside with them at a favorite Marion restaurant. All-in-all the summer that wasn't meant to be fun turned out to be memorable after all.

One way to raft up, stern-to-stern, and maintain distance for a chat; this is Jean and Tom in Hull

                                            

                    VICTORIOUS at the town dock in Marion after the stormy weather cleared out

The Final Miles in the Northeast

In Deltaville Boatyard (Virginia) on a hot day Ken gets some shade for the fiber-glassing and painting project at the stern.

A young man we met was unexpectedly caught in bad weather, towed to this boatyard by the Coast Guard and now trucking his boat to the original destination near Baltimore.

Ken and Julie on the left, with friends, at one of the nightly cookouts at the boatyard.

Heidi and Mark at a cookout on a hot night.

Ken is on stage 10 of 14 (there were a lot of stages) of the project.

Next door to the boatyard is the Deltaville Maritime Museum with some great models of local crabbing boats.

Ed and Ken coincidentally both wearing their Lord Nelson t-shirts

Launching day, showing the finished painted bulwarks, while Ken touches up the bottom paint.

Going under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge at the entrance to New York Harbor.

Clouds lit by the sunset in Rowayton Connecticut at the Norwalk Islands

John (with Ken) has come to pick us up at the docks in Cohasset after we secure our dinghy

Near the end of our trip we painted our boat bottom while hauled out of the water in Deltaville Virginia. There were a few other chores that we attended to and then we tackled the gelcoat problem in the bulwarks, the area between the rubrail at the fattest part of the boat side and the top of the boat side. This area is about 40 feet long on each side and not more than 20" wide. Still, it presented a challenge. In the end we downgraded the project to working on only the port side at this time. Ken sanded everything down, ground out some old filler where the cracks in the gelcoat were, re-filled the cracks, added two layers of fiberglass cloth to the whole length where the cracks were, sanded between each layer, and then added two coats of primer paint, and two coats of final topcoat Awlgrip paint. Of course there was more sanding between all the paint coats.  The weather cooperated for the most part and the projects were done in 2 1/2 weeks.
In the meantime a French boat became our neighbor only one day into our project. The owners put up with our sanding and got their boat cleaned up for storage until next fall.  This boat had been built by the owners and sailed from France to the U.S.  three years ago. Other boats in the yard were from England, Spain, Canada and Sweden.
We had friends (Julie and Mark) join us in Deltaville to work on their boat and other people we know visited for a day or two on their way by.  We met Julie and Mark eight years ago; now they have bought a catamaran. It will need some work so they are there for a while and they organized a cookout almost every night. Other boaters they knew were getting their boats ready for storage and joined us. Our catamaran friends also have a car and we joined them on shopping trips.
Another couple who own a Lord Nelson Victory tug, Ed and Maryann, live nearby and  picked us up one night to join them for a restaurant dinner, followed by dessert on their boat THISTLE. They had recently completed some nice renovations to their boat and it gleamed!
We were launched on May 11, and left the next day for home. Unfortunately the next 2 days were terrible for boating, too windy and rough. Twice we left our anchorage only to return part way and duck for cover. After 12 miles total forward progress on those two days we did better, getting to Galesville, MD on day 3. Another day of waiting out the wind in Galesville led to 7  straight days of good traveling weather, and while in Galesville we were able to treat ourselves to a lot of walking as well as eating out lunch and dinner.
So, 7 days of good weather, and we wanted to make the best of it! We did not put the dinghy back in the water and we stayed on anchor or on moorings, so all our ports were viewed from the water, but we stayed in New Jersey at Cohansey River, Atlantic City, and Atlantic Highlands near New York City, then Connecticut at the Norwalk Islands, Fishers Island off the coast but technically in New York, then Onset in Massachusetts, then back to our homeport Cohasset. Highlights were seeing a whale surface right near our bow and twist around to avoid us off of New Jersey, and when we went through the East River in NYC we saw one of the bigger (49 ft.) Lord Nelson Victory Tugs at its dock. The boat is LUCY and is the only big one on the east coast north of Florida. We have found Long Island Sound to be fairly easy to cruise in, with a protected shore on the north or the south depending on the wind. Our food supplies held up through the week and we remained good friends, who just needed a "little" break from each other at the end!
Adding up the mileage we went almost 4000 nautical miles on this trip. We get about 4 miles to a gallon so that is 1000 gallons of fuel. There were no breakdowns, and only a few incidents that you might call "mishaps".  Not bad for 7 1/2 months on the water.
Our good friend John Campbell picked us up and drove us back to our house in Duxbury with a few of our things (and three bags of laundry!). Now we can focus on seeing our grandkids, catching up with lawn work, and visiting with friends. We feel it was a successful trip and VICTORIOUS is a very comfortable boat to travel on. We'd like to send Big Thanks to those of you who contributed to our comfort, sheltering us when it was windy, feeding us, visiting us, planning social activities for us, watching our house, forwarding our mail, etc.

Finishing up our Trip, Almost

 

Pictures: One of our evening distractions while cruising is Mexican Train dominoes; Jean and Doug from Maine (their cruising boat is MIM); one of the monkeys we saw on a South Carolina island--strange but true; entrance to Windmill Harbor on Hilton Head Island, through a private lock; Ken at a fish market in Georgetown SC; several college sailing teams were in Oriental NC for a regatta when we were there; The Bean, at the town dock in Oriental

Pictures: Two Coast Guard officers checking out our safety equipment in Norfo;k VA; our boat with a ferry next to us, and a Navy ship in the background in Portsmouth VA; Heidi trying to blend in with the street mural in Hampton VA; the Travelift is moving VICTORIOUS at Deltaville Boatyard--there is another boat like ours on the right; Sienna showing off her moves; Kenny with Harold in his backyard; almost everyone from our extended family, at Easter.

From Florida to Virginia we had a very interesting series of small cities (or large towns): St. Augustine, Fernandina Beach (FL), Hilton Head, Beaufort (SC), Charleston, Georgetown (SC), Wrightsville Beach, Oriental (NC), Portsmouth (VA) and Hampton. In each of these towns we either got fuel, food, beer, or all three. We also hid from strong winds in Swansboro SC and Great Bridge VA, two days at each place. Any one of these towns would be a great destination for a long weekend or a week. Of these towns, the only one that we just passed and did not stop at was Charleston. They suffered damage from the hurricane in the fall and the marina that we prefer was still not open for business yet.
There was not much boat traffic, a combination of the winds, and the cooler weather. Some days we only see two or three other cruisers' boats, and only a handful of local fishing boats. However, in Kilkenny GA we anchored next to another cruising couple from Maine, on a trawler of similar size to ours. We had seen them coming out of a small creek not on the official ICW route earlier in the day and asked them where they had come from. It turns out that they had diverted to a small island in the string of Georgia Sea Islands because there are lemurs on the island, imported from Madagascar. It is otherwise uninhabited. They seem to be there for a research project. A few days later we stopped with our new Maine friends and checked out another island, this time in South Carolina, named Morgan Island. You can't go ashore, another research project, but this time there were rhesus monkeys that had the run of the island. We watched a few of them near the shore, and in the trees.
In Hilton Head we stayed at an unusual marina, part of a gated community, and the access to the marina was through a private small lock. Inside the harbor there was no tide, hardly any wind (and it was very gusty during our stay there) and the marina staff was very friendly and helpful. This part of Hilton Head is separate from the bike trails that wind through the rest of the island, and a big bridge and highway keeps you from accessing any of the roads suitable for walking or biking. During our 48 hours there we did get an Uber ride to a great lunch place. We also got to watch college sailboat race teams each day as they left through the lock and practiced during their spring break.
We had a visitor to our boat in Beaufort SC that really made us grin! Peter Mahoney and his crew steamed through our mooring area in their Hull lobster boat, headed straight for us. They had just brought the boat back from the Bahamas and up the coast this far, and it was so good to see them. We exchanged news that evening with Peter, and the next morning he was off before we got up.
Being back in The South (for some reason Florida is not as "South" as Georgia, S. Carolina, N.Carolina and Virginia) means that most music we can find on the radio is Country. We are back to having more opportunities to eat fresh shrimp, crab, grits, biscuits with gravy, and hush puppies. There are some days with long trips through the marshes on the ICW but there we usually see osprey, eagles, loons, pelicans, dolphins, and one day an alligator.
Our stay in Oriental NC was at a free dock that the town provides. It is next to some nice stores and a great coffee shop with ice cream, too. We watched some of the NCAA basketball tournaments at a pub there, both womens and mens. Teams from South Carolina  and North Carolina were victors.
In Virginia, near Norfolk and Portsmouth, we were chosen for a Coast Guard Safety boarding. It was a gray, cold day and there were no other cruising boats around so its not surprising they picked us. They launched an inflatable chase boat from a larger boat, and three "Coasties" came alongside of our boat, telling us not to slow down and to let two of them board while the third piloted the inflatable parallel to us.  The boarding party, one male and one female, checked a few items off of a safety list (we passed) and then asked us questions about our boat as they were curious about its design.
Later that day we walked around the area of Portsmouth that is near to their complimentary city dock. We took in a gallery opening at one of the museums (there were at least 5 museums within 4 blocks) and a free jazz concert with refreshments at another part of the same museum. In Hampton, our stop the next day, we found a new brewery right at the dinghy dock near our anchorage. It is called Bull Island Beer and they make some delicious brews.
The reason we are not home yet is that we stopped at Deltaville VA, had our boat hauled out so that the bottom can be painted (it is important to do this at least once each year). We will do the painting ourselves, but first we rented a car and drove home to visit our family back in Massachusetts. In addition to a few casual visits, we got to be part of a very nice Easter dinner at Jamie and Justin's house and to visit with Pete and Eri several times. Of course this means that we got reacquainted with grandchildren Kenny and Sienna after too long away from them. This was a 13 day detour that we both agreed worked out well.  Today is the first day we are back at Deltaville. We will fill you in on the rest of the trip in a few weeks.

"I love your boat!"

Pictures: The view from our pilot house where we steer from , probably in the small islands near Pine Island Sound, west coast of Florida; window art in Naples; Naples Pier at sunset (we had a seat on the beach); in the middle of this photo is a pink roseate spoonbill (50" wing span) flying; our small boats on a sandbar near Sanibel Island; Ken on the Cayo Coata beach; the Cayo Costa State Park shuttle to the beach; one of two pigs we saw in the last few weeks, this one at Cape Haze Marina; four of the competitors in the Watertribe Everglades Challenge (the two women were in a double kayak, the two men in a small wooden sailboat)

More Pictures: Barb MacLeod and Heidi (Barb is a mean card player, even with a new game she has just learned); the Honey Building in LaBelle on the route we used to cut across central Florida; VICTORIOUS at a dock provided by the city of LaBelle for free; cattle on the side of the canal near Lake Ocheechobee; tied up to "dolphins" in Clewiston on the south rim of Lake Ocheechobee; Heidi with Barry and Susan Perkins in Vero Beach; white pelicans (108" wingspan!) on a sandbar with cormorants. Nature note: white pelicans migrate to the northern great plains of the U.S. in summer.

"I love your boat!" We get this comment all the time--either that or someone holding up a camera to take a picture. Ken often sends back a toot on our Kahlenberg whistle, a very tug-like response. A sheriff's boat pulled up to us at our anchorage in Marco Island, we looked at each other wondering what we did wrong, but he just wanted to ask a questions about our boat. It's nice to be noticed; there are a lot of white look-alike boats out there. Of course, there can be other comments too. One we have gotten a few times is "It looks like Popeye's boat."
The best part about our boat, though, is the layout with three separate indoor areas and a roofdeck over the main cabin. We love to show it off and during this month we have gotten to see a lot of old friends and most of them have not seen VICTORIOUS yet.
We saw Josie in Naples, and after a nice lunch out, we sat in the pilot house and talked for quite a while, enjoying the view while we caught up. We visited with Barb and Dick who are renting a house for a month in Placida (north of Ft. Myers Beach) and we spent some time on our boat and some on their trailered outboard boat during the 4 days we stayed in this area. They took us on their faster boat to two great lunch spots, one in Boca Grande, and one on Don Pedro Island. Heidi's cousin Connie had a sprained ankle but admired our boat from the beach in Cape Coral where she winters. Then we crossed the central area of Florida on a canal and through Lake Ocheechobee and saw Lynn and Ray at Indiantown Marina. Back on the east coast after leaving the St. Lucie Canal we saw Susan and Barry -- they also helped us get groceries -- and Judy and Chuck who we first met last November in Brunswick, Georgia. Heidi's brother Jim couldn't get time off from work in Cape Canaveral but we had a long phone conversation. We were starting to forget who told us what story after this string of fun encounters.
At Don Pedro Island on the west coast we had a chance to walk this beautiful beach and search for fossil shark's teeth. Our collection now has about 100, but they are small and wouldn't quite fill a 1/2 measuring cup. We had some great home-cooked meals with Barb and Dick, and we got to try the BBQ at "JRs"in Indiantown--it's a locals hangout and the locals are mostly immigrants from Guatamala and Mexico although Linn and Ray are regulars there too. Our kayak came out at the backside of Sanibel Island and in Placida. At Marineland on the east coast we happened to arrive at the town marina just when a speaker from Duke Univ. was giving an evening talk next door at the U. of Florida Marine Lab, about the mantis shrimp she studies and their extreme speed.
Ken is always vigilant and helps us catch glimpses of roseate spoonbills, eagles, dolphins, manatees, white pelicans, many herons and egrets on the coasts. We watched cattle grazing canalside and in the canal, while crossing central Florida. The canals also had some very large alligators that often started thrashing about as we passed.
With all of this to fill our time, we just were lucky to be in the right place during a windy spell to meet a group of boat race participants who were diverted to the area we were in, Englewood (west coast). The race is a Watertribe event, with small boats like kayaks, hobie cats, small single hull sailboats and even paddleboards. By diverting the start, they shortened the total race distance from 300 miles to 240. The 70 or so participants (already there were dropouts from 91 registered) had 7 days to complete the race, ending in Key Largo and going around or through the Everglades National Park. It was extremely interesting to see the many different classes of boats, to see how each participant had provisioned, and planned for propulsion -- foot pedals, paddles, sails, an experimental class for solar-powered motors, and combinations of these. Small craft warnings due to the wind were causing withdrawals and DNFs, but we followed the race on the "Spot" GPS transponders each boat carried and about 50 singles/teams finished.
Those are the highlights for the past month. We hope to be home by the time the next blog is written, maybe in 4-6 weeks. Temperatures have dropped a lot in northern Florida, but it may just be a blip, we hope, due to strong north winds for the past 3 days. The good news is that wind and colder temps keep the bugs away.

In The Keys for Mid-Winter

Pictures: Heidi at the hair salon in Key Biscayne; panorama of Boca Chita harbor, our boat on the left; community band concert in Key Largo park; Ken's new slogan, from Florida Keys Brewing; new boating friends (from Rhode Island) we met in the Islamorada anchorage; two fishing guides waiting for the results of the Swamp Guides' Tournament and Banquet at Lorelai -- they are last year's winners; our weekend visitor Ray putting his kayaks back on his van at the Lorelai parking lot; part of the crew watching the Superbowl on Feb. 5, including Ray and Linn; the resort in Islamarada that is featured on "Bloodlines" on Netflix; VICTORIOUS at Lorelai docks; one of the turtles at the Turtle Hospital in Marathon (they are all named); pool and tour group at the Turtle Hospital; Ken, Roy and Bertha on our dinghy going out to see our boat in Marathon; bubble-blowers at Bahia Honda putting on a great show, and really just enjoying it for themselves; one of the many sunsets, this one under the old railroad bridge at Bahia Honda; the side-creek view from the kayak in Little Shark River; the dock at high tide at the Rod & Gun Club in Everglades City; panorama of Little Shark River at our anchorage; our Valentine's Day grand-daughter Sienna

There are a few more days in Biscayne Bay to spend before we leave for the Florida Keys.  Day one, we are back at No Name Harbor in Key Biscayne. Heidi got a haircut; all the stylists spoke Spanish, but English as well. We are meeting a few other boaters just to talk with for 20 minutes or so. Everyone seems to be heading in different directions. There is a couple from Salem, Mass. that we have talked with before, in Vero Beach, and a couple who used to live in Cohasset, before we did, but we have some acquaintances in common. Another sailor is in the area, from Marblehead. We missed him this week, but caught up with him a few weeks later. On day two we move back to a mooring at Dinner Key in Miami so that we can get groceries more easily before we cruise to the Keys. We also got our bikes ashore to do some riding on the bike trail there and another trip to the hardware store. The Sail World Cup Miami has started and the harbor is full of the small sailboat and sailboard classes that are competing this week, from all over the world. One two-person boat heading back at a fast clip after it's race passes our dinghy and the captain smiles as he is so close that he has to raise his tiller up to miss knocking us out of our boat!
We'll miss the finals of the World Cup but we head for Boca Chita, still in Biscayne Bay and part of the Biscayne Bay National Park. This island has no causeway or bridge so all visitors come by boat. We tied up to a concrete seawall there and chatted with the owners of a few of the boats that arrived before us. There is a beautiful beach here, a replica lighthouse, and not much else. We're not sure if we want to stay one or two nights, but the next morning when we see that some critter (a rat?) has chewed through our cockpit door screen and helped itself to some of our small snacks we left out in baggies (and it left droppings all over) we are sure we will be leaving. Thank goodness it does not appear that it stayed on the boat and hid.
Our first Florida Keys destination was Key Largo. We are taking the bayside route which is on the north side of the Keys, as the Keys run roughly east to west. This stop is primarily for shopping, as we have access to a KMart, a Publix (groceries), a fresh vegetable market and a flea market. We had a great lunch out at The Conch House. The we hit it just right to sit and listen to an early evening community band concert held at the park closest to our anchorage. We had fairly cold weather, 58 degrees one morning when we got up. We also got time here to just stay aboard and read the Sunday paper, talk to our family members on the phone, and "Tango" (a video phone call) with our new granddaughter Sienna. A partial day of rain here was the only rain we've had in a while and it won't rain again until the end of this blog.
Our next major stop is Islamorada. Traveling in the Bay, the water is  6-8 ft. deep maximum; however we only need 3 1/2 ft. so we are good. We broke up the trip to Islamorada by stopping in a small bay off of Windley Key. Sometime in the night our anchor dragged, and we learned that our danforth anchor is not good in grassy bottoms. We were far enough from other boats in the bay to not have hit anyone, but from now on we will have to be more choosy about our anchoring spots. The next night we used our bigger danforth anchor and picked a sheltered corner of the north side of Islamorada. It was windy but we were secure. This area is great for sunsets--the last two nights have been especially beautiful! We were in this anchorage for 4 nights; it is about a mile to dinghy to shore but we like the peacefulness and safety. Heidi used the kayak along the shore quite a bit; another boat near to us, from Rhode Island, is also kayaking and dinghying to shore and we eventually had a drink with them and discussed boating subjects we have in common.
For two nights we are going to treat ourselves and stay at the dock near to the Lorelai Restaurant in Islamorada. We have been to Lorelai almost every day, for happy hour or for lunch. Now we are positioning ourselves to be close to a TV for the SuperBowl and in a convenient place when our friends Linn and Ray drive down to visit for the weekend. (Linn and Ray have a boat in Indiantown Florida, where we met them; they live most of the year in Rhode Island and we have visited them there. We have never actually boated with them because, so far, each time we see them we haven't had our boat, or they are working on their boat.) The weekend is lots of fun! We ended up eating all our meals at Lorelai or other restaurants in Islamorada, we walked,  took bike rides and kayak trips, and we watched the best SuperBowl ever!! We don't have a TV so we picked a bar and randomly our companions watching the game were a young couple on vacation from the Canadian army and a Swiss mother of 3 children on a getaway vacation. Linn and Ray were great guests, partially living out of their van which resulted in our not bumping into them too much on VICTORIOUS, and we all seemed to enjoy the same activities.
Highlights of Islamorada not yet mentioned: they are filming a Netflix TV series that we have watched,  Bloodline, and we enjoy the stories of the actors and locations that we hear; there are two beer breweries--Islamorada Beer Co and Florida Keys Brewing--and we sip tastings at both; a young waitress who has served us several times is just down from Maine where she served as innkeeper, at Squire Tarbox, from last summer until Christmas.
Our next major destination is Marathon, further west, but we stopped to check out Lignumvitae Key first. It is a Botanical State Park, can only be visited by boat, and has two rangers. It's not one of their scheduled tour days but one ranger unlocked the main house and informally showed us around. There is a guest mooring that looks a bit worn but we use it overnight and it is good. From there it is 35 miles to Boot Key Harbor in Marathon. The City Marina has 225 moorings there but the most recent 50 boats have had to anchor and go on the waiting list. They aren't even going to put us on the waiting list, as we would be so far down on the list and only plan to stay for a week.  We got a phone call while we were looking for a good spot to anchor in and it was friends from Massachusetts who were having lunch at a waterside restaurant and saw us enter the harbor. We met with them briefly and will see them later in the week; they are staying 25 miles away, toward Key West.
Our stay in Marathon extended to 10 days and included finding our Marblehead friend that we had missed in Miami and checking out his sailboat that was designed and built by the same people that designed and built our boat, along with sunset cocktails several times at Honchy Conch, and lots of kayaking for Heidi in the mangrove trails near to our anchorage. We had other happy hours, and lunches, one picnic on the beach and a "drift" in our dinghy with our beach umbrella for shade and beers for refreshment (it was Valentaines Day!). We spent one morning cleaning the bottom of our dinghy of grass and barnacles, another morning we hired a diver to replace zincs on the bottom of VICTORIOUS and also clean the bottom. We got groceries, borrowing the Marblehead friend's car, and got our mail forwarded by Pete and Eri. Heidi went to the Turtle Hospital and learned about how the 49  sea turtles in residence were injured or sickened and how they are being treated. The most recent turtle brought is weighs over 300 lbs.! Most will be released when they are better.
Roy and Bertha, who saw us on the first day in Marathon, drove back and visited with us,  lunched with us at Porky's, toured our boat and helped us run an errand. This was our last day before leaving for Bahia Honda Key. The weather during the 10 days was very hot. There are no bugs though, and there has been no rain. At Bahia Honda we can anchor close to shore between an old railroad bridge and a new(er) highway causeway. It is close enough to swim ashore. The key  has a camp store (this is another state park) with a luncheonette, clothing and souveniers. There are two nice beaches on this end of the key. On Saturday night, a ranger led a dark-sky walk to view the stars -- following a trail that goes up on the top of the old railroad trestle! Another treat is a sunset bubble-show put on by three adults in a small outboard, circling around the four boats that are anchored off of the beach. We very much enjoyed our visit to Bahia Honda.
From here we are leaving the Florida Keys after 3 1/2 weeks and heading to the western part of Everglades National Park. No towns or settlements are in that area, just fishermen, cruising boats and some canoeists and kayakers who travel on a backcountry wilderness paddling trail (a 10-day route before you come out in the south of the park). We came here one other time, 5 years ago, and enjoyed it although it can get very buggy. Once again this time we are able to watch sea turtles (loggerheads) swimming and feeding, along with birds, fish and dolphins. Our anchorage in Little Shark River is 5 miles inland from the open ocean. The river is fairly wide, no other boats are in sight. There is also an oportunity to kayak from our boat and sneak down into some side-creeks, as far as the mosquitos will let you!
In the ocean approach Ken found a school of tarpon, maybe 15 or so, that seemed to be cavorting as they swam, with tail-flips every once and a while, weaving in and out of each other, maybe feeding but not afraid of us as we got closer and closer. In one of the side creeks of the Little Shark Heidi found a single tarpon, maybe snoozing on the surface, that was startled (so was I!) and sudddenly twisted around and swam off. Small numbers of osprey, herons, hawks, and vultures also were seen.
Just yesterday we were in Everglades City at the Rod and Gun Club dock for a night. Back to civilization but this town is like an outpost, southernmost on the Florida westcoast mainland, and wild-west-like, in a Florida sort of way. Lunch at the Club was slow and gracious, and they don't take credit cards. Moms were picking their kids up at the end of the school day in golf carts. Lots of crab boats dock here and line the riverside. The former 1920s bank building is a B&B. We met up with Heidi's friend Alicia, who is the one that sent us here 5 years ago but our boat broke down then and we never made it. Alicia is camping at Big Cypress Preserve and drove over for breakfast and a walk around town in the rain. We plan to spend two or three more weeks on the Florida west coast before we cross the state by canal to get back to the east, and then head north.