Wednesday, May 13, 2015

One more adventure.....

But wait, it's not all over yet.....we last left our story with Fiesta still floating in Boot Key Harbor, tethered to a ball like a patient horse to a post.
Waiting for a fresh water bath





We still had one more long adventure...north...back up the west coast to our marina home in Palmetto, FL.







But first, Malia arrived from the cold northern NM mountains of over +7000ft down to the Florida Keys sea level and humidity......can one suffer from lower altitude sickness?  Maybe.....but not this mountain girl.....she took it in stride.









A few days waiting for the weather window in Marathon allowed us to visit the beach and Crane Point Nature Museum.....where we found a multitude of these Golden Orb Weaving spiders.....up to 5 inches long.....hanging everywhere....whoa, not for the arachnophobic, needless to say.
Spider sisters :)

On Tuesday May 5, with small craft advisories still lingering, we cast off mooring lines,  motored under the Seven Mile bridge and headed north across the shallow Florida Bay....not as many crab pots as when we had sailed here over 2 months ago.  But this time, with double reefed sails and an impending dark horizon, we sailed in steady 18-20 knot (20-23mph) NE winds with 24 knot (27mph) gusts......Tim, Leslie and Fiesta said "yippee!".......and first time sailor, Malia,  said "oh shit".  The rails weren't in the water, but the heeling over can be daunting for the first timers.  But like the true adventurer that she is, 
she hung on and rode that horse all the way back to the barn. 



At 3:30pm that first day, we pulled into a wonderful cove on the Little Shark River in Everglades National Park on the mainland Florida peninsula and dropped the hook.  My research on ActiveCaptain.com told me it was good anchor holding with great sunsets and wildlife, but to be aware at dusk of the gazillion no-see-ums and skeeters....it was all true.  We were thankful for screens on all our portals and hatches as we dove inside with only a few bites.
Up early the next morning with fair skies and light to moderate winds, we decided to run the whole enchilada back to the Manatee River....no unnecessary halts.   The winds came and went as they do, and we motor-sailed most of it.  
We sailors sometimes feel like we've bought a motorboat with sails (because we motor more than we like to)....but when the wind is on the nose or too wimpy.....we're all grateful for the engine.   Out of the 50 hours underway of moving back up the west coast of Florida,  we got to experience 18 hours of no-motor-pure sailing....here's a video clip sailing pass Sarasota at sunset.




Cute story.....on our way past Sarasota, we were sailing along about 6 miles offshore, when we noticed a small yellow songbird following us.  Poor things get blown out to sea sometimes and get exhausted trying to get back.  This brave lil' fellow boldly perched on our lifeline and closed his eyes for about 20 minutes.  We kept still and quiet to let him rest, hoping he wasn't gonna keel over and die on our deck.   Pretty soon, his eyes open....he preens a couple of feathers and proceeds to explore our vessel for the next 45 minutes.  He found the little dish of fresh water I put out, ignoring the bread crumbs but delighted in a squashed bug instead.  He visited the salon below deck a couple of times, and even checked out Tim's grey-haired chest. Just when I began to wonder if we had a new live-aboard buddy, he took off from the bow of the boat towards land with a series of thankful chirps.....we were all happy :)


It took 3 days and 2 1/2 nights to meander back up the west coast to our home at Regatta Point Marina in Palmetto, FL.  You could drive it in 6 hours.....but when you're averaging less than 5mph...ya gotta have patience.....and time.  


Coming back to our marina in Palmetto, was like coming home....our neighborhood/village of friendly faces....it felt right.  It's here we'll leave Fiesta amongst our dock buddies for the hot summer months of May thru October.  Then we'll return refreshed and prepare for our next big adventure into unknown turquoise waters.....thar be dragons!  Until then dear blog followers, we'll return to New Mexico (via Vermont first)......so stay tuned, there will be more! Thanks for reading and encouraging us to pursue our dreams!  
Viva la Fiesta!!




Sunday, May 10, 2015

Plundering PIrate

And as promised.....here's a link to Tim's latest fun video titled "Plundering Pirate"
He always has way to much fun with his active imagination in the creation of all his videos....but this one is possibly the craziest yet.  He also wanted to show the interior of our boat and the large brick fortress on the Dry Tortugas.....enjoy!