Great Loop & Beyond con't

January 23, 2019 Boot Key Harbor, Marathon. Well up to last night we were making out okay at the anchorage. When we came in 10 days ago we registered for a mooring ball. We were number 21 on the waiting list. As of today we are 13.   The problem is that because the weather is so bad and the Atlantic kicking up 6' waves... no one is going anywhere. We know there are several groups waiting for the weather to change so they can make the jump to Cuba, the Islands or the Bahamas.  Some of these boaters have been here a lot longer than they anticipated and making the most of this "usual" stop in paradise.Weather here has been fairly okay except for the high winds, in excess of 15 knots most days and night with gusts up to 25-30. Because the harbour is so crowded, all 226 moorings taken and about another 100 in the anchorage, there is not a lot of space around to anchor and throw out adequate chain to be safe. Typically we like a minimum of 50-60 feet of chain for 6-9' de...

Bear with me in this post, while I partake in bit of Indulgence. Many may think, what we are doing is in fact indulging, but let me remind you not all this adventure is a walk in the park.... After approximately 6000 miles (at about 6-8 miles an hour) Jo, I and Indulgence ( the boat) crossed our wake in Marathon, Florida. For those not versed in boating lingo, "crossing one's wake" in the cruising world refers to returning to the place you started and crossing over that imaginary starting place. In our case, officially it was any place we chose to cross over from the west shore ( Gulf of Mexico) to the Atlantic side ( Atlantic Ocean). In 2015, we sailed as south as Marathon, Florida and on Monday January 14, 2019 at 11pm, we returned. This blog is being written from Boot Key Harbor where we will be for about a month, To refresh everyone of this 6000 miles and the timelines involved, this is what it looked like. Aug 2014 -departed south from Barrie, Ontario., down the...

January 12,2019 I'm writing this segment from Fort Myers Beach. We arrived late afternoon and as is the case on Saturday, steak dinner and a (surprise, surprise) NFL football playoffs. I'm able to watch both playoff games having watched the early one in which the Chiefs beat the Colts, now I'm settling down to the Cowboys and Rams. We are anchored in Fort Myers Beach in San Carlos Bay, just off the Gulf. We have just arrived at Mile 0, where the Gulf Intercostal Waterway is finished.. This is the end of protected water travel for us.  Originally, it was our intent to travel up the Okeechobee Waterway through  a canal, lake and river system to the Atlantic side but... we are unable to get under a 49' bridge at Port Mayaka due to our 51' mast. We could have it dropped and re-stepped on the other side of the bridge but the cost of about $700 -$1000 (for taking down and putting up again) is a bit too much.  When we started, we were going to hire a fello...