Sea Monkeys to C-dock

Remember those ads about Sea-Monkeys all over comic books and MAD magazine?

"Own a bowlful of happiness---Instant Pets!"

"So eager to please.  They can even be trained"

"Always clowning around, these frolicsome pets swim, stunt and play games with each other."


Well, here's the fun fact truth about these critters (isn't google wonderful for explaining these childhood questions).

Frisky Sea Monkeys

They are actually brine shrimp.  That "frolicsome" activity is either the males fighting or a male/female having some "mommy & daddy" fun that can last for days.  Yep... days.  Males have beards; females do not. They don't have smiling human faces or cute little pot bellies. They don't even have crowns on their heads.  They are itty bitty shrimp. That's it.

They breathe through their feet and are born with one eye, but grow two more upon maturity.  The "train your pets" part is that they naturally gravitate towards your finger and/or a flashlight.  So, you're wondering what this all has to do with Tim and Leslie's great adventure?  

Another skunked metal detecting trip to the beach

We had arrived at the end of April back from the Bahamas to Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, Florida Keys.  It had gotten very....very....very warm the last two weeks, uncomfortably muggy and sticky.  Even a dinghy trip to the beach and a dip in the ocean was like bath water.  The sultry night air made for sweaty sleeping. Sweat and wet were the tropical look of the daily existence. 




After a month of sitting on a mooring ball in Boot Key Harbor, the growth on the bottom of the boat was ASTOUNDING; fuzzy, hairy things and small barnacles the size of thumbtacks. 

Typical Boot Key Harbor dinghy---our's wasn't this bad

In many cases, months of unchecked growth leads to very large, gnarly dreadlocked beards hanging underneath. Which actually resemble some of the salty-bearded boat owners of Boot Key Harbor life (love this laid-back harbor).  Anyway, two days before departing, we dove in the water with fins, mask and snorkels to shave the crud off. The water was murky, dense and dark green, opposite the Bahamian blue.

Bahamas waters---see anchor 12ft down

We went at it with plastic scrapers.  After an hour, we emerged to find some of that "crud" stuck on and inside our swimsuits and then I noticed some of the particles were itchy and wiggling. Yup, you guessed it... Sea Monkeys. Eeeuuuwww.  A shower rinse on the swim platform left a bunch of 'em dry and stuck dead everywhere.  Learn something new every day.

C-dock mates reunion in the Keys

On the fun side of things, we had a great time and rendezvoused in Boot Key Harbor with several of our C-dock friends from our marina, five other boats to be exact.  We're all on a life path of filling dreams and making memories.

Dingy-drift with the local dinghies

After checking several weather resources, we happily departed Marathon on Tuesday morning May 24th, with one of our C-dock friends, Kacy and Larry, on S/V Providence, heading 215nm north
back to Regatta Pointe Marina.  It would take 2-3 days traveling an average of 5mph.  We buddy-boated for a day and a night across the Florida Bay---notoriously known as crab-trap-hell---but easy now with the crab season over and further up the west coast of southern Florida.  It was a banner day with beautiful cloud formations, dolphins and flying fish.  A manageable rain shower followed a beautiful sunset as we sailed on through the pearl moon-lit darkness of the night off the Everglades. 
Tim loves and does better than me on these overnight sails. My beauty becomes the beast without sleep.  Nonetheless, we take shifts of 2-3 hours each.  All night long we watched a spectacular lightning storm dancing through the gigantic cumulus clouds to the south, as Scorpio chased Mars across the sky westward. 

Sailing with Providence--Kacy & Larry

About 3am, we communicated via VHF radio to our buddy boat, Providence, as they peeled off towards Ft. Myers anchorage for the next night, while we sailed Fiesta further north to stop in one of our favorite anchorages in Pelican Bay, near Charlotte Harbor, midway up Florida's west coast.  Dropped the hook and we were in bed and conked out by 8:30pm, up at 6am to start the final 70-mile leg of our six-month journey.  It was another picture-perfect day of sailing Fiesta. We were feeling confident and loving this life until the last seven miles up and around Anna Maria Island into Tampa Bay.  It became the three-hour jaunt from hell with 19kt winds on the nose and waves smashing and bashing us backwards.  Fiesta and our amazing Yanmar engine rode that wild hobby horse with determination. Welcome back to reality.  It's in these tough times that Tim takes the helm with strength and perseverance and I tend to whine and curl up in the cockpit corner, wishing it over (or wishing I was a dolphin underwater watching from another realm).   We joke about me being the "Captain" and he the "Admiral"; either way, it's really good to have back-ups and onboard support. 

Back home on C-dock in Regatta Pt Marina

It's been six months since we left the marina docks on the 28th of November, with 4.5 months of it spent wandering around the Bahamas. 

I'll repeat---it's all about the journey, not the destination and where one journey seems to end, another one begins, starting all over again; phases and stages.

We have decided to dock the boat in Regatta Pointe Marina in Palmetto, FL, instead of St. Petersburg City Marina (where we are still on a wait list anyway).  We will be fixing onboard projects for a month while plugged into the dock for air conditioning, thank god. Around the first of July, we will return to Taos for the next four months (or longer) to housesit for some friends leaving for Thailand.  We will also be looking for jobs (anyone got one?).  

Stay tuned... as we continue looking for "what's next?"

Happy sails and trails!