Haulout at Oxford, MD

The following are pictures from our haulout for the Autumn Borne at Oxford, MD on the east side of the Chesapeake Bay. 

Sydney in her "tree House"...

Seems bigger when it's on land... and you're underneath sanding it... !!! Prop config.  New Zinc !!Note: the generator's "diesel butt" is gone...  hull is now waxed, and ready for launch...  What a lot of work (by hand).

 The Pacific Seacraft 34 is the s/v Myosotis (presently owned by Jeanette, and Bill Rice), but is now up for Sale at Oxford, MD (broker).

:(

Sombrero Reef Pics - Marathon Key

The following pics are from Winter 2010 at Marathon Key (and Key West).
I'll add some descriptions later...
Ruth and James met us in Key West... Ruth then joined us on the return sail to Marathon key...
Anyway...  some of these pics are from that time period...

The number of fish that immediately claimed the shade of the Autumn Borne at Sombrero Reef.    We did find that the clarity of the water at Sombrero, was totally dependent upon the state of the tide.  Clear at "flood" and murky at "ebb".  

The beach pic is from one of our trips out to Hawk Channel (dinghy ride) when Ruth sailed back to Marathon, from Key West with us... 

Sail to Key West, and Back to Marathon - Ruth and James visit

This certainly has been one of those weeks that goes by in a blurr !!!  Actually it was more like two weeks... as we sailed the AB down to Key West, and took a mooring north of Garrison Bight.  The weather was great when we arrived there..   (See Sunrise picture below).  But the weather turned very windy, by the time Ruth, and James arrived.
 

The plan was to include diving the Vandenberg (wreck)... but even the professionals wouldn't venture out.  So... The week in Key West consisted of variations on the Duval Street Crawl...

including Mallory Square activities, and vegging at the pool (Dante's).

The anchorage was a long dinghy ride from Garrison Bight or the Raw Bar dock at Key West Bight.  Sometimes this ride was quite the adventure!!!  

"The Best Ten Minutes" spent was spent by Ruth, James, and Susan when they "hit" a tourist info center... and garnered gobs of coupons for dinner and drink specials, all over Key West.  It saved tons of money, but more important got us to frequent places in KW we probably would have never gone, otherwise.   Nice !!!

  We had a wonderful show at Mallory Square the one night... The Sailfish Tournament was starting, and just as the band finished playing the national Anthem, the US Navy orchestrated a fly-by, so low that we were looking level at the pilots when we were standing on shore.  The the USCG took over, and put on one heck of a show about air sea rescue, (dumping off and retrieving rescue swimmers from helicopters, and patrol boats...).  The performers at Mallory Square hated the demonstrations, because it was taking people away from their shows (and money)...

James left on Friday, for Minnesota, and Ruth sailed back to Marathon Key with us for kiteboarding lessons, and scuba diving on Sombrero Reef.   If the weather would have cooperated just a little on the way back... we would have stopped at Loo key for diving.  But it blew 20 to 25 knots all the way from Key West to Marathon.   

We did end up diving at Sombrero Reef the day before Ruth left for home.  Full day at the reef; (pictures to follow).    '

Ruth got to meet a bunch of our cruising friends, both at Key West, and at Marathon's Boot Key Harbor.

Sombrero Reef and Marathon Key

We were invited to go sailing, and snorkeling out on Sombrero Reef with Earl, and Kathy on the S/V Seeker.
Nice to sail again... I think we've been sitting still too long...  Although being in a protected harbor, with lots of services available has been nice... I admit it.

The photo to the left has the Sombrero Light in the background. (hard to miss).

The second photo is of Earl and Kathy on the S/V Seeker. 

The water at the reef was a little murky (not as clear as the Bahamas water), but the reef was quite impressive... tons of fish, eels, and nice coral.

Last night we walked over to Hurricane's restaurant with Kathy, Earl, and a canadian gentleman, Michelle, for dinner, and to watch the semi-finals of the Final FOUR (especially the DUKE/WV game).

Yesterday afternoon there was a Seminar here in the Marina on DSC (Digital Select Calling) on VHF/SSB radios.  Very interesting. 

We've got about one more week here in Boot Key Harbor (Marathon Key). 
Then we move west to Key West...to pick up Ruth, and James for a mini-vacation with them... Diving, sailing, the Duvall Street Crawl, and relaxation. 

The last photo was taken at the American Legion Breakfast (for charity).  Attendees, more or less around the table (clockwise from the top left) are Joe Pooler [hardly visible] (s/v C-Note); Carrie (our neice); Carla and Rick Rister (s/v Euphoria); me and Susan.

One of the many activities here in the Marathon Community.

On Easter Sunday there's another charity event (cancer soc.); a dinner (5 PM)  at the Latitudes Resort. 

The only thing that is really bad about sitting so long in a secure harbor like this is the growth on the bottom of the vessels (AB, and dinghy).

So the scuba gear comes out shortly to remove this growth before we sail west to Key West. 

Mooring Ball B-12 - Boot Key Harbor

Today we pulled both anchors from the bottom of the west end anchorage, and motored down to B-12 mooring ball.  This will be our home for the next month, sort of....     
From the mooring ball we can leave anytime, for scuba diving the reefs at Sombrero,  or trips down to Key West, and be assured that we'll have a place to return to... (aka mooring B-12).    Pulling the anchors in the west end... and leaving... not knowing if there'd be room when we got back... just didn't seem like a good thing to do...  So we waited for the Mooring Ball.  

Anyway here's some pictures of Boot Key Harbor.... Sunsets, moonrises, parties, etc.   

Party on the Aft Deck with the Perkin's from the S/V Troubadour.

Moonrise over the anchorage.  Full and yellow.

Anchored in Boot Key Harbor (Marathon Key, FL)

We're anchored out in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon Key Florida  (Feb 27 into March 2010). 
We've purchaced a new laptop (by necessity)... so as soon as we figure out how to transfer some of the pictures (of late) to this HP laptop.... we'll post some... 
Until then this sunset picture, while moored at Dinner Key (Miami) will have to do....

Kelvin Jones was just here for two days...  visiting, and assisting us in our quest to purchase this replacement laptop...
I hope we didn't bore him to death...   He got a few tours of the harbor here, because it's about a mile or so dinghy ride to the City Marina office, and dinghy dock....  

Wind is still blowing about 12 to 18 knots.... but it's sunny, and nice outside...  the storm that as expected yesterday PM, while Kel was here, split as it came over Key West, and part went north, and part went south... and we ended up spending the day under mostly sunny skies...  COOL !!

Southbound - presently in Miami Beach- FEB-2010

We sailed (really motor/sailed) down from Fort Lauderdale on Sunday.  We're now anchored on the south side of the Venetian Causeway near Miami Beach.  We'll stay here for a while...

We've been traveling on and off with the two sailing vessels shown here (S/V catamaran Double Exposure; and during the last few weeks the S/V Bewitched) 
Photo taken in Peck Lake (near Hobe Sound) on the way south.  

The next photo is of the crews of these vessels; (Rick, Sue, Mike, Vickie, Susan, Dean) 

When we arrived in Miami, and entered through the Dodge Cut we saw the container ship "Intrepid" from Panama... with the Containers ajar.  It began to list near Key West, and 30 containers broke loose and fell into the Gulf Stream.  Most sank. The USCG is tracking (sort of) those that continue to move north in the Gulf Stream.

These containers are very dangerous for boaters, as they float nearly submerged (with tops barely awash)  ---  very hard to see....