February 14-16, 2010 Marco Island and Key West

February 14 -16, 2010

FMB to Marco Island then Key West

It is approximately 30 nautical miles to Marco Island. We left FMB at 11:30 and arrived at Marco Island, Marina at Factory Bay, at 3:15. We had a few nervous moments as Capri Pass met the Marco River. The markers are confusing and just outside the channel the water was only 1 foot deep. The community at Factory Bay is beautiful and we have been told that Marco Island is another great place to stay.

Because the weather window for heading straight to Key West was only open on Monday, we were not able to explore.

Monday morning we were up before sunrise to prepare for our daylong cruise. I am writing this as we are on the move. It is noon and we left the sight of land a couple of hours ago. The gulf is relatively calm with 1-3 foot waves and gentle rolling waves. The remarkable thing is that we have not run out of crab pots!! Mark does an excellent job of spotting and missing them. No rest for him – although I think I will try to relieve him for awhile so he can get a small nap in – he calls it reading……

More once we land….

Back again. We made it to Galleon Marina in Key West at 5:15. We had a 10 hour trip today, and Mark drove all but 2.5 hours. I was able to relieve him so he got in a little bit of “reading”. While I was driving, a free-loader hitched a ride (and left a deposit). We saw crab pot boats and shrimp boats.

Already we have been entertained by life in Key West. I feel bad for Porter – the patch of land that he is supposed to go on is a 3 ft by 6 ft section off the boardwalk. It must smell pretty bad because Porter avoids the whole area. I’ll see if I can find more tomorrow.

What a difference a day makes. As beautiful as it was for cruising the gulf yesterday, it was windy and rough today. Tuesday morning we awoke to showers and very brisk north wind. We needed to add extra fenders to keep the bumping to a minimum. Even so, tourist cruises went out as well as fishing boats and ferryboats. Porter and I were out early and found a few more patches of ground. The town of Key West was waking up and I noticed homeless in doorways and young people walking to the public restrooms with a tent and cardboard. Mark and I were out a couple of times to do some shopping and sight seeing. I overheard someone say that they thought Key West “was a ghost town”. The streets were not terribly crowded.

We have run into another hitch in our plans. Seldom have we run into “no vacancy” as we have moved on. This happened when we were moving downriver with tropical storm, Ida. Now it seems to be happening with the unusual weather again. When we called for a place in Marathon for tomorrow, we could not find an opening. There might be a spot, but it is dependent on other boats moving on. Tomorrow looked like a day we could move, but so far no where to go….