Author: equinoxgardens@gmail.com

We sailed back into cell range in the early hours of the morning, and we’re all longing for the quiet perfection of the Dry Tortugas already. What a wonderful week it’s been. As we have plenty of photos, many stories, and only a few brain cells left to rattle around in my head this late in the day, I’ll start with our adventures getting TO the Dry Tortugas.

Leaving the winds of Key West behind on one of the days of the week that ends in a cocktail (I’m too lazy and comfy in the cockpit right now to check the calendar), we headed out into 3-5′ seas on the port quarter and the wind still kicked up enough to make it an interesting departure. We knew that the weather was on the road to settling, but it was bumpy nonetheless, and we shortened our day’s plan to a easier sail to Boca Grande Key, a deserted isle that is part of the National Wildlife Refuge and only 15nm from our anchorage in Key West. Both girls got sick for the first time thanks to their dogged determination to play down below whenever we’re underway. Blessedly (says the cleaner-upper) only once, and then they proceeded to have miraculously quick turnarounds and started requesting snacks and entertainment at their usual pace, despite no change in sea conditions. It just goes to show that if you reaally want to play on your Kindle while curled up in a bouncy v-berth, you don’t need to let anything stop you. (We’ve since had similarly lurching rides and haven’t heard a peep, so we’re keeping the idea of sea sickness as a floating concept for them on the burner FARthest back.)

Boca Grande was a most pleasant surprise: after anchoring in a channel with a 2+ knot current (as recommended), we spent the afternoon ashore as spring breakers came in droves in large speedboats that they banked on the deep drop off of a beach.

Good people watching (again), a fun beach for playing, reading and kadima, and we were also tipped off about a great swing over the water in a mangrove; by 4pm the day trippers were all heading back to Key West and we had the place to ourselves.

The next morning we planned to meet our companion boat at Marquesa Key, which was a short and easy trip for us after a leisurely morning on board. Another gorgeous spot to anchor, this time with flat calm seas and water clear enough to see the lobsters poking out from their coral heads just under the swim platform (between snorkel-happy kids and a glass-bottomed bucket, we’re up on our daily ‘underneaths’) and another great beach.

Before playing between boats on kayaks and boogie boards the kids made a ‘crab sanctuary’ on the beach, where they gathered spider and hermit crabs, and tried to talk them into living in the sponge homes (with a washed up milk jug ‘annex’) they created for them, instead of the sweet crab freedom they were so accustomed to. Needless to say, the authorities from the Department of Moms and Dads boarded up those sponges and freed all of the ‘residents’.

Day three on our journey to the Dry Tortugas is the day we met… Rocky. More about him tomorrow, since, wow, what a cliffhanger, right?!

With plans to head out at 0700 tomorrow morning (apparently watching Navy Seals run exercises from helicopters not far off of our stern this morning got me in the ‘military way’), I’m happy to say we’re ready for the next journey boat-wise, and fully sated Key West sightseeing-wise.

Today’s town adventure included the usual soaking dinghy ride (are you tired of reading about it?! we’re sure tired of living it!), the now-organized steps that must follow in order to enter the walking tourist world desalinated, a great lunch, some shopping, an aquarium visit, meeting up with our friends, and subsequent happy hour at ‘our’ ‘Bond’ bar before returning home.

To expand upon the highlights, let me just say this:

1. Pepe’s is a great patio on which to dine on fresh oysters and cocktails made with freshly squeezed anything.
2. We met Judy Blume in her bookshop while looking for R-T, Margaret and the Rats of Nimh.
3. Nurse sharks are adorable but we’re in family agreement that a baby alligator would be fun to have as an alternative.
4. It was nice to find a place to stick our toes in beachy waters on our route to and from town. (Wish we’d figured it out days ago!)
5. Thai Island’s happy hour is as great as its claim to fame- it was a filming locale for License to Kill.
6. Did I mention meeting Judy Blume?!?!

It was just a day of surprises, big and small, lovely and more lovely. The bookshop on our ‘To Do’ list was a treat, but even more so was the realization that the woman lovingly helping the girls to find a suitable choice was none other than the writer who kick-started my own insatiable  reading appetite so many years ago. Tears came quickly when she so sweetly said “Yes!” to my gasping “Are YOU Judy Blume?”, and then I must admit I blubbered a bit and had to step back to take it all in. I’ll forever kick myself for not thanking her more profusely when I had the direct chance, but geez, I was stunned! (It’s somewhat disheartening to learn that I don’t gush completely appropriate and earnest praise under the veils of shock and awe, I must admit. I only hope the girls are around to carry on conversation for me if and when I bump into anyone else I hold in such high esteem.)

Walking off THAT high, we poked around downtown a bit more, had fun at the aquarium, and cooled our feet and watched boat traffic at the wee Simonton Beach before heading back to the barn.

 

A communication note: our time in the Dry Tortugas will be dry of more than just fresh water; we’ll be out of service, and therefore, updates.

We’ll let you know when we resurface!

Winds below 20kts! A joyous sight for a potentially dry dinghy ride today! It’s become amazing to see what the trek in and out means for our planning and overall attitude. Key West is amazing, but is a right pain in the butt to access if you’re a boater and it’s blowing over 5 kts.

Our crafting day for the kids on board quickly morphed into crafting/drawing/fishing/movie watching day, which was a welcomed respite from the go go go days we’ve had exploring onshore.

While the littles occupied themselves, I had a patient teacher who taught me to crochet, and pun fully intended, I am hooked (I hear, and appreciate your groan).

Andy is not sharing my enthusiasm for crocheting a sleeve to cover the mast (in need of a paint job) down below with crocheted gobs of ‘beauty’, but I’ll lure him into sense with an anchor or some other jaunty nautical image, I’m sure. Big crafting plans in the works, either way.

We’ve laundered, provisioned and filled tanks in preparation for heading west again tomorrow, so today we’ll have a last looksie at town.

More full days of exploring Key West, and we’re slowly honing our process for battling the wind and waves on the dinghy ride in, which is the only inhibiting force for our options. Dry bags, rain coats, trash bags and changes of clothing all apply; yesterday we really smartened up and wore our bathing suits in.

Today is laundry day, and tomorrow we’ll provision, so those should be interesting runs as well- cheers to eating salty food in salt-encrusted clothing!

On Monday we went to the Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservancy, which was a big hit.  Lots of butterflies and birds flying about, some even stopping on a finger or two to rest.

The museum was in the ‘Southernmost’ district- we went to the southernmost point in the continental United States, and passed on a photo thanks to the line winding around the block- we got these fine folks in our shot, instead!

We walked by the southernmost house, the southernmost beach bar, the southernmost hotel and the southernmost guest house, all the while cracking ourselves up at the possibility of Minnesota’s (?) northernmost hub. Northernmost seasonal effective disorder, northernmost frostbite, etc.

Yesterday we went to the beach, and the kids were gleefully pounded into the sand again and again by the big rollers coming in.

Hours later, fully tossed, we cleaned them up and went to explore Fort Taylor, an important   defense site for both the Civil and Spanish-American Wars. Once completely surrounded by water, it is now fully embedded into the coastline and made for a good afternoon stroll.

Today we will finish schoolwork and join forces with our neighbors for crafting clothes and accessories for stuffed animals. Remarkably, with all of the other activities afforded, it is this particular option that the kids have been counting down to do for days. Results to follow.

 

We’re slowly waking with aching legs and feet after our day of adventure yesterday; Mondays really DO have an air of ‘blerg’, don’t they?!

With northerlies gusting to the 20s yesterday, the anchorage was messy, so we stayed close (Lily went on a mini deserted island exploration with friends in the morning while we lounged) before spending the rest of the day ‘on the town’.

Step one is our dinghy ride, which is a fifteen minute affair on a calm day- add wind, and the ride gets good, but your things get wet. At least for the trip in we were running down wind.. Our trek from the dinghy dock is about a mile, but feels a bit longer when you have the two 8 year olds gathering trash along the way like it’s their only true purpose in life. Sweet, but slow, good Samaritans.

We wove our way into town on the docks, goggling at giant tarpon feeding, every kind of boat tour imaginable, and loads of spring breakers, starting early to make THEIR Mondays feel ‘amazing’.

With the only true goal to see Mallory Square at sunset, we passed the time by walking, people watching (which, in Key West also includes parrot, monkey, chicken, and dogs-in-sunglasses watching), eating, and drinking.

Sunset was all that that we were expecting, and then some. Fire eaters, knife jugglers, magicians, acrobats, and the inexplicable performance of a crazy Frenchman and his beleaguered coterie of cats. The cats themselves were definitely secondary to his bizarre ramblings and exclamations in vibrato.

We slooowly made our way back to the dinghy dock, where we covered ourselves in garbage bags (the Squatleys live on!) to stay dry for the long, spray-filled dinghy trek home. At 9:45pm. Wowza, tired family. So now, this Monday?! It’s a slow start.

After a wonderful beach day on beautiful Bahia Honda Key on Friday (I’m proud to say that I had to look at the calendar to figure out what day of the week we’re working with (va-caaa-toon!!)), we spent yesterday sailing, and arrived in Key West in the early afternoon.

Though we haven’t seen much of it yet, the glimpse we’ve had (cars! fast food! shiny things!) is a jarring contrast to Bahia Honda’s serene stillness. (Lily’s latest writing piece is about why its Sandspur Beach is the best so far- shallows forever made it seem like a giant bathtub, perfect  for kadima, tooling around on the boogie boards, and apparently, potion-making (?!).)

The sail was easy and uneventful, and our cohorts even got a shot of us underway! (Mind the laundry- we’re multi-taskers at our best.)

We did some schoolwork, but mainly just clowned around to pass the time.

IMG_0484

Now we sit, in 20kts of northerly breeze, bopping around on the mooring and planning our attack on Key West. A brief entry yesterday introduced us to the laundry facilities and a nearby happy hour (the best way to do laundry!), but today we’ll take on Mallory Square, Duval Street and possibly the Botanical Gardens. Until next time!

 

Since Elliot we’ve had two full days of motoring, leaving early enough each morning to get us into port with time to play. Stop one was Rodriguez Key, where we anchored our dinghies in the shallows and sat lazily while the kids played. It felt like a Corona commercial, minus actual beer (bummer).

Day Two of motoring brought us to Boot Key Harbor (Marathon), with lots of gaming on the way.

And, um, a little bit of this:

Marathon was for provisioning, stretching our legs, and a fun meal out.

After a shorter trip this morning we’ve just dropped the anchor at Bahia Honda Key, which looks more than promising for a beach picnic and play.

We’re steaming down the eastern side of Key Largo today, with 12 feet of clear water under us, sunny skies, no wind to speak of, and a complete catalog of Christmas humming going on onboard, for no identifiable reason. Uncle/brother James would be proud.

After a dreamy day and night on Boca Chita Key, where we toured the lighthouse, collected shells, played kadima until our feet were sore, and snorkeled for our first time on this trip, we shoved off yesterday to meet our MDI friends and their boat off of Elliot Key.

We anchored off of Elliot with a ‘comfortable’ 6″ under our keel at low tide. After kayaking and swimming back and forth between boats, we went ashore and found a trail with thousands of blood-thirsty mosquitoes that led us to a tiny beach on the eastern shore. The beach itself was nothing to speak of, but the remnants of four Cuban refugee boats were powerful.

The kids found gear and supplies in and around them, and it certainly opened up an interesting after-dinner discussion with the girls, most simply summed up by risks people take to escape impossible situations, and how lucky we are to not be able to identify with the feeling. While it made an impression on Lily, it was probably equally weighted by the impression that the can of cocktail weenies that they found and opened (still ‘good’!) did, if I’m being honest.

Before getting into the dinghy, I started to heave our tote bag in only to pull back when I saw the raccoon in the bottom of it, feasting on our trash. Fun afternoon of pests, flying and otherwise. (We didn’t keep the raccoon, if you’re wondering- our pet-cravings haven’t gotten that far yet.)

More swimming/kayaking for the kids, cocktails in the cockpit for the adults, and crash for all.

Today we’re headed to Rodriguez Key, motoring on the ocean side for a swifter trip south.

---

 

 

Hello everybody, This time I told you it is me so we can just get started. Yesterday morning we went to the beach.

It was cloudy but warm. We saw a sandcastle, a big turtle and a small turtle that both looked like real turtles.

At the end of the beach there was a lighthouse. We all looked at it.

Then we went to find a place to get out because it was a wall of plants behind the beach and small places to get in and out of the beach. Once we found a place to get out we kinda got lost and went to the keeper’s house.  For those who don’t know what a lighthouse keeper is, it is a person who lives next to the lighthouse and makes sure it has enough fuel in it to make sure it is always running at night. So that’s what a lighthouse keeper is.

When we were walking past the keeper’s house I heard my mom say “is that a real iguana?” and sure enough it was a real iguana on a warm brick on the keeper’s house.

Mom note:

Lily has been listing things she finds exciting, boring, educational and otherwise note-worthy in the afternoons to help prompt her writing the following morning. She has a choice between writing a journal entry (we’re keeping a family travelogue/journal that we’re all contributing to in our own way), a blog post, or she can work on her opinion writing to follow along with her classmates. I don’t really care how, I just want her to put pencil to paper as often as possible.  The list was the game-changer: the details pour out much easier (when Violet isn’t trying to crack her up and distract her!), and she is anxious to record her favorite experiences. Plus, less drama each day for ‘school’- definite bonus for all involved.

****Side note to teachers: You are all gods and goddesses of a patience that I do not, nor will ever have. I feel like a true champion after two solid hours (hour and a half-who am I kidding?) of schooling productivity. All day with ten times as many kids?! Nope. Couldn’t do it. (THANK YOU!!)****

Because she filled a page + without getting to list item no.s 2 through 8, she asked me to summarize so you all would know the things she loved about yesterday.

We were still in No Name Harbor, which they came to adore for its perfect protection for swimming (#2) and kayaking (#3). Number 4 is ‘making elevators for cars’, which I’m honestly at a loss to describe, except that my best guess is that it had something to do with the plastic storage basket she rigged up with thin bungee cord and knitting yarn which was swinging annoyingly in the middle of the companionway all day.

For a real live-action note to the day’s constantly shifting activities, number 5 is ‘more swimming’ and 6 is ‘more kayaking’. This was a combo rig they came up with:

Number 7 was a treat for all of us when a small pod of dolphins came into the harbor and swam around nearby (and close to Lily’s kayak (see no.s 3 & 6)). The picture certainly doesn’t do the experience justice, but they never do, do they?

Last but not least, #8 was fetching a soccer ball from the harbor cut when the three little boys who had been doggedly playing for hours accidentally kicked it in. Their parents didn’t pay attention to the one the group sent to send the message, but since Lily had been watching, and our dinghy was closest and easiest to save the day, she and Andy played fetch.

Eight great things! Today was even busier, hard to believe, and we’re settled into the perfectly picturesque harbor on Boca Chita Key. One of us will fill you in soon!

Another big step forward for all of us: swimming and playing from the boat itself- no bag-packing necessary! Yesterday afternoon’s first dip was a success all around- good swimming, happy girls, early and swift log-sawing.

The rest of our Miami pit stop was busy with the usual port needs: produce, pump out, dinghy fuel, water, etc., plus a few odds and ends that needed gathering. I Ubered for the first time to collect some goods, and found the ‘answer’ to our hanging storage woes. If this is the answer, I’m not sure what exactly the question was:

I spent some time on a fix, and since I know you’re on the edge of your seat to see where our limes and bread are, I’ll post it later. In the mean time, most of the fresh produce I just bought is now freshly bruised from its trip around the cabin this afternoon.

We met up with some friends from Bar Harbor in the marina, and the girls were so happy to see and play with their kids. Our next -hopefully longer- meet-up will be a true treat for kids and adults alike. We’re lucky that they have one another and make few complaints, but it’s a sigh of sweetness to see them so excited about new interactions.

We also made nice with the local manatees, who entertained us while we waited for the launches back to the boat. Little guys mostly, except for manatezilla, who took up an entire slip and was covered in algal growths. He/she looked old, but just Guinness-style huge.

Their bodies are so big compared to their heads all I can think of it ‘sea tick’ instead of sea cow, but apparently they just eat a lot of vegetables and aren’t known for transmitting too many cases of Lyme.

Two fun and chore-filled days in Dinner Cay, and our escape led us to the biggest oceanfront party we’ve seen so far: Saturday night in No Name Harbor. It’s a great, protected harbor that was busy when we got here, but since midday we’ve watched boats pack this place, rafting up on the bulkheads and pinching together to anchor. Lots of good people watching once more, and yet a great place to play off the boat.

Our kayaks got their first run! Both girls hit the ‘ground’ running. Aaaand, they’re off…

Lily taught us to play Mexican Train tonight (I always think of you, Seesaw!), and now Andy and I are listening to the ‘soothing’ sounds of the cabin cruiser showdown: My Stereo is Louder Than Yours (and even if it isn’t my underwater lights are better). We’re envisioning a nearly-empty anchorage when we wake up, or at the very least a lot of hungover people that the girls can practice their Disney song collection for first thing in the morning. Either way- win win!