ERRANDS February 17, 2009

Catrina was very quiet this morning. The Captain and First Mate sleep in. Catrina rocked on the line and wind howled around us. It felt like Sunday!

Tom relaxed with his morning news.

About 11 we dropped Tigger (lowered her into the water) and went up to MCM office. We paid our bill of $2.50 for yesterday’s water to fill our boat tank. What a deal!

Next we headed up Boot Key passing a number of our friends and stopping for a chat.

Brian and Lynn on Midori (PDQ 32)
Anice and Tom on ThomKat (PDQ Trawler)
Colin and Pat on Lady Margaret (Trawler built by Colin’s Father)
Rose and Gary on Rose’s Pick (Carver Trawler)
Peggy and Bob on Baby Grand (A Grand Banks Trawler)
Ted and Pat on South Shore III (Trawler)

We tied up at Baby Grand, borrowed Peggy’s grocery cart and hoofed it to Publix. Tom enjoyed a Wendy Brunch while Debbie hunted for Teva’s unsuccessfully.

On the way back to Baby Grand, Bob came riding up missing one bike pedal. He had been to a marine certification course and lost a bolt in his port pedal.

After such an exhausting day, we took an afternoon nap!

Our goal for dinner was to finish the dolphin fish. Debbie tossed the warm fish in a salad along with the left over rice and ranch dressing. The fish was better the second day! Tom is our hero. He then ate a fish sandwich which ended the leftovers! Peaches for dessert and a quiet evening watching the internet news

KERI'S LEDGE February 16, 2009

Cliff, Carson and Coleman joined us at 10 and we headed out to Keri's Ledge. It is about 6 miles out into the Gulf from Boot Key. We put up the sails but were right at the jib point and soon changed to motors. Tom and Cliff worked with the GPS, Charts and Computer Map to locate Keri's. When we found it, we were fairly close to Sombrero Reef, our destination yesterday.

Looking over to the Sombrero Reef Marker, we saw a couple catamarans, one of which we thought was the 42 foot PDQ.

We moved Catrina's anchor a couple times until we found a spot with fish. It was about 45 feet deep and the boat rolled over the passing waves.

Carson found a spot on the starboard steps to fish.

Soon small Grunts were nibbling the lures. The boys started pulling them in and throwing them back. Too Small to Keep!

Now here is a picture you don't often see - Our GPS wearing a hat!

Coleman assists Cliff from the Port Side of Catrina.

They also catch lots of small Grunts.

Someone caught a small Yellow Tail Snapper but Debbie was napping and no picture was taken before it was thrown back to grow bigger!

Pam was visiting a good friend today and mid afternoon her men departed to join her and then return home.

It was showers at MCM for Tom and Debbie and then a trip by dingy to Walgreen's. Fortunately, Tom called first and found the drug store was not open today. We returned to Catrina. Tom warmed up the Grill and cooked the Dolphin Fish while Debbie made vegetable Rice and Spinach.

CARSON & COLEMAN February 15, 2009

Carson 9 and Coleman 7 and their parents Pam and Cliff joined us today at Sombrero Reef. It all started with the boys, of course, awaking first and having to wait for the lazy Adults to get up and going!

After breakfast we headed south toward the 7 Mile Bridge. We passed Burdines.

A dock or two south we passed a very large expensive boat with lots of equipment.

We decided to pass up buying this yacht and continue on. Oh, Look! A 42 foot PDQ Sailboat!

Finally we reached the Sombrero Reef which was easy to find because of the large marker.

In case you cannot make out the snorkeler, it is Tom! We all enjoyed the 77 degree water both in the morning and afternoon. The area was littered with boats scattered along the balls. The waters were full of yellow tails, parrot fish, barracudas, grunts, octupus, rasps, flounder and a whole lot more.
Fishing lines were nibbled but no good catch. Coleman is checking the area.

Tom, Carson and Cliff take a break before we head back to our home ball. U-6.


It is showers for all and then we deposit Cliff and family on the dock. By 8:30 Debbie and Tom are watching the news on the computer and eating tuna sandwiches, baked beans and peaches. That is the closest we could come to a fish dinner!

NEIGHBORS February 14, 2009

Tom is up before the sun. He stows everything in preparation for the arrival of our first guests. About 11 Cliff calls to let us know they will be arriving later than planned.




Portside Cockpit

To use time constructively, Tom removes the TV set from the mount on the Mast Column in the Settee. The area appears much larger without TV! We try it in many different places and decide we like it on the divider between the Galley and Settee. For the next few weeks it will be stowed under the front seat in a bed of life preservers. This will allow us to sit six adults around the table.

Starboard Cockpit

As we are eating Cheese and Turkey Sandwiches, a kayak passes for a lady and her dog. The dog is the only one wearing a life preserver!

The fog has lifted and we can see to the far end of the harbor.

Cliff calls to let us know he standing on the MCM dock! Catrina sails up to greet our guests, board their gear, restock boat and drinking water and empty trash. A five purpose mission!

It is such a beautiful afternoon that we head for the Atlantic by the Fish Canal. At the distant reef marker, we drop anchor and snorkel a while. Both Carson 9 and Coleman 7 are good swimmers and avid fishermen.

Later Cliff and Tom trail two lines as we cruise along. Within 15 minutes, Cliff has hooked a fish! Coleman and Carson attempt to pull it in. We know it is good sized because we can see it jump completely out of the water 4 or 5 times. Finally, Cliff takes over and reels it in but must gaff it. It is too big for our net! Tom gets out the measuring tape and records 32 inch dolphin fish!

First Carson and Cliff hold up the fish and then Coleman and Cliff.


The Gentlemen ask their sweethearts to dinner at Key Industries. Pam and Cliff are pictured below

Our biggest problem was after sunset. We motored slowly back up Fish Canal because it was low tide and dark. When we got to the harbor, it took us a number of laps to find our mooring ball in the dark. We finally found it by locating a boat moored near us! Next project was to zip the bimini back on. It took four adult a very long time to figure out where each of the seven pieces fit! What we needed was a good puzzle solver!

GETTING READY February 13, 2009

It is now 2:30 p.m. and the fog has lifted, the sun is out and the temperature dropped 15 degrees!

The Settee/Queen Bed

Debbie made good use of the morning. She got out the Awesome Orange, a sponge and the vacuum cleaner and polished up the inside of Catrina in less three hours.

The Galley (Note Fresh Bread)

Tom worked on the outside besides changing the generator oil, filling the dingy gas tank and working on Debbie's To Do List! We are almost ready for our first visitors.

The Guestroom

About noon we took Tigger to MCM. Tom dumped the trash and walked to Wendy's while Debbie made a loaf of Cinnamon Bread.

The Head

While cleaning the master bedroom, Debbie discovered a smell. After extensive shiffing, she found her new tennis shoes in the shoe box were the guilty parties! Presently, they are out of the box and on the deck taking a refreshing sunbath!

The Other Sink of the Bathroom

Next we attacked the cockpit with Debbie Vacuuming and Tom Scrubbing. When it sparkled, Tom moved outside with a bucket and brush and took on the decks. We added to our To Buy List a water pump for drawing lake water up to wash down the deck and a good scrub brush!

As Tom headed out to buy gasoline, a dingy motored up. That's when we met the owners of the third PDQ in residence - Bill and Anna Marie from New Jersey. We chatted with them for a while before they left for West Marine.

The Master Bedroom

As the PDQ owners left, Ted and Trish from Crystal Lake and Texas pulled up. We had last seen Ted in Chicago! They had just arrived and gotten a ball in Q row.

We were beginning to feel popular. We now knew five couples at Boot Key!

When Tom actually did go for gasoline, Debbie checked her e-mail and found the part we needed to fix the head (toilet). When Tom checked it out, he decided it was the wrong part. Who cares? Debbie was making progress gettng Tom to admit the toilet had a problem and it wasn't her incorrect use of levers that was the cause!

Starving Tom took off for West Marine with a bag of almonds and a promise that they had the part that he needed. It is wise he bought gas on the first trip and too bad he did not do both errands at the same time.

After a fantastic dinner of leftovers (we cleared the refrigerator out), a shower at MCM (we were down to 6 gallons of water), going aground in Tigger two times on the way to the shower but not on the way home (it was low tide after dark), Tom put the new Joker in the Toilet. I am not kidding. It is called a Joker Value and that is probably because it is no joke if it does not work!

PDQ's, CUBA & LAUNDRY February 12, 2009

At 8 a.m. our anchors were pulled and we had motored over to our new "Ball". No longer do we believe the person who told us anchors did not hold on this bottom. We spent 30 minutes working both anchors free from the mucky bottom.

S-10 was still occupied! The boat John Ray who was supposed to leave yesterday and then at 7 a.m. today was still here. We found another unoccupied ball and sat waiting for him to leave. An hour later we called the office and they suggested we stay at U-6 because they were not sure when John Ray might actually leave S-10. Good Plan. He finally left as we ate lunch! Here is our new neighbor.

One day each week a boat comes around to pump the holding tank on a row of boats. Today he told us that there was another PDQ at the other end of the harbor.

At 10 we met with the canvas lady and laid out the spinnaker. She said she could sew it but we asked her to wait for Tom to check the price of a new spinnaker. Debbie went to the laundry and after sitting for an hour waiting for a vacant machine, gave up. There are days like this!

We decided to go hunt for the PDQ. We found Brian from Canada and he gave us a tour of Midori, the 33th one built. Catrina is the 3rd. Structurally, the boats are the same but they have refined many features, changed to a 12v refrigerator and moved all lines inside including halyards and outhaul. Brian told us that Sunrise, a 36 foot PDQ, was also in port.

We travel back and forth by dingy. Here is a picture of a dingy passing our boat.

After a quick lunch and search, we discovered the Cuba talk was at the Episcopal Church but Debbie wasn't sure of the street. We missed connecting with Colin and Pat who told us about it. We walked around for a while stopping at the Senior Citizens Center (not a good place for information) and the hospital where we learned the church was at 53 street not 35 street. Some people just aren't perfect! We headed back to the MCM and ran into Pat and Colin. They were hiking up to the church which was beyond Publix. Tom was happy to volunteer to do the laundry and Debbie joined Pat, Colin and another Canadian couple.

Larry Benvenuti, a photographer from Marathon, showed us his slides of Cuba taken last year on the 50th Anniversary of the Castro Revolution which was also New Years. He has traveled to Cuba 20 times. He then showed us pictures the people, buildings, agriculture and land and discussed their political/socialist structure. Afterwards was a question and answer session. The Cuban people like the Americans but not our government because we are not allowed to trade or visit their country. But they do like Obama and avidly followed our elections.

For dinner we joined fellow loopers Bob and Peggy from Baby Grand at Key Industries.

We all had different fish and they was delicious. Dinners were ordered at a take out window and you were called by a tree to pick up your order! We picked a table and could stay there as long as we wished. We sat there a long time right next to the Gulf and got caught up. We walked and dingy-ed home and they rode bikes with backpacking lights on their heads!

EXPLORING MARATHON KEY February 11, 2009

Another day in Paradise! We decide to explore the area. During the night our friends from Texas Don and Kathy on Flight arrived with another sailboat and moored adjacent to us. What a surprise to look out and see them.

After tying up Tigger at the Marina dock, we dropped by the MCM office and discovered that they were getting ready to call us to give us a Ball. Another surprise. We decided to check out S-10 and found another boat on it. Tom checked with the skipper and found he was leaving at 7 a.m. tomorrow not today. We were happy to be given this ball as it is located next door to S-11, the location of our Canadian friends Colin and Pat. Surprises come in threes!

Back at the Marina we headed over to Oceanside Highway, the main route through the Keys, The Stuffed Pig is located directly across from MCM and serves breakfasts and lunches 6 days a week. So this morning Tom had his eggs, biscuits and gravy, finished them and did not appear to be stuffed! While Tom ate, Debbie explored 35th Street running toward the Gulf. Key Industries is located at the end of 35th and that is where Peggy and Bob suggested we eat tomorrow evening. After passing many traps, Debbie found the restaurant overlooking the Gulf.

The Key Industries Bar was a story up above more tables. A great view of the Sailboats.

At the Stuffed Pig, the waitress told us where we could get our spinnaker stitched. We strolled NE along Oceanside, first visiting a Dive store for Debbie to get a Beanie. The waters are much cooler this year and we are snorkeling three months early than last year.

Home Depot came next. We did pass a lot of other stores along the way but a hardware store is a good store to locate. We also stopped in at Boater’s World and found they had no sailboat items. They referred us to West Marine in the other direction. Debbie dropped an envelope at the Post Office.
Publix is a healthy walk from MCM but it is a full service grocery store. Tom got milk and Debbie salad materials. We decided not to check out K-Mart and the Canvas Store behind it.
Another item on our search was to find a marina where we could dock Catrina the week our IN crew is here. We did not find one but decided to make calls when we got back to the boat.

Our walk covered a lot of time. We found a number of places along the way where we could sit down and rest Tom’s leg. His new brace is very helpful but still not super comfortable and it was hot! At last! We were sweating!!!

On the return trip we took a shortcut through a very large municipal sports complex next to MCM. It was a surprise to find a large flat area of such valuable land used for this purpose.

In the afternoon we worked around Catrina and made phone calls to follow up leads. Late afternoon we set out to find West Marine. We search the banks on both sides of the drawbridge south of our mooring and even asked a couple people. Finally one man told us to look for a dingy dock down a long canal. We tied Tigger up and went exploring the backside of buildings in the middle of the Marathon Sailboat Marina. On the side of one building we found a little sign that said West Marine. There was no back door and a fence blocked our way on both sides. Finally, we found a gate, the front door and many expensive items we could buy. On the way back to Tigger we found a new use for a catamaran - a garage. Note the motorcycle behind the car!

Tom also instructed Debbie in driving Tigger. He did not know he was taking his life in her hands but all turned out okay and we made it back to Catrina.

Later we decided to check out the local MCM showers. MCM just built a new shower building. It needs to be hooked up to city water. We were concerned about the shape of the old showers. There were only three for a community of over 200 boats. We found one open and lots of lukewarm water!

Debbie whipped up a fresh salad, Red Beans and Rice and grapefruit. We tried to watch TV as the boat swung back and forth and cool breezes flowed through Catrina.