Underway

The internet connection in the middle of Biscayne Bay is not great. A short note. We are underway, anchored tonight within sight of smog ridden Miami. Still in doubt how far we will get tomorrow.

A Day's Delay

As noted in the plaque shown here, boat plans are transitory. The weather forecast for today was not quite what we wanted so we will leave tomorrow. Should be three or four good days. Stay tuned.

Sea horses too small to ride

Some litttle sea horses came around the other day. Apparently they found a good meal on the bottom of a nearby houseboat. On a more serious note we plan on getting underway tomorrow, assuming the weather is what the weatherman says it will be. Position reports will be posted on the blog as we move along. Time to go home.

John & Bonnie's Visit/Day trip to Key West

John and Bonnie visited for the last time before we leave in a week. The have graciously agreed to take our car back to Ft Lauderdale. I'll fly down to get it when we get home. Two pictures: John and Bonnie in front of the Half Shell Restaurant and a milage sign that gives as the crow flys milage to lots of places. A nice visit.

The Marathon Seafood Festival

The 33rd Marathon Seafood Festival was held this weedend. Very well organized, very well attended, and a lot of fun. Some pictures: A shot of the event T shirt; a hawk that is permanently maintained at the Marthon Wild Bird Sanctuary, it was electocuted on a power line and lost its left wing-well behaved and drew a lot of attention. A piece of bird trivia, by being in "captivity" or rehab its life expectancy is 20 years versus 3 in the wild.; a shot of the bandstand with constant (loud) music; a dock sign we can hang on the dock to introduce ourselves; and last a dolphin model to be mounted on our poach in New Bern. A nice day.

Membership Event at Dolphin Research Center

The Dolphin Research Center held a membership event last night. Drinks, appetizers and dinner including special dophin shows and the special of the evening a look at the two new sea lion additions. Poor Kilo, the male in residence has been alone for a year since his female companion died; now he has two new female companions. Kilo is barking in joy all the time. Kilo put on a show, as seen in the first photo. The second photo is the two females becoming aclimated before being let loose with Kilo. If you look closely you can see a female on the side of the pool and another in the water while Kilo keeps barking at them in anticipation. There were hundreds of people there having a nice evening.

Manatee do get hurt

We had a manatee float by us for a long time testerday. Manatees are slow and not very bright. The result in many cases is injury from boat props, as can be seen from this photo. Happens every day.

The Turtle Hospital

We took a tour of the Turtle Hospital today. Now we know more about Sea Turtles than we thought there was to know. The Sea Turtle Hospital is the only state certified treatment center for sea turtles. There are 7 different species of sea turtles and they are entirely different from land turtles.All the species are on the endangered list except the loggerhead which in "at risk". They have fins not feet, hardly ever leave the water once hatched,except females when laying eggs on the beach, and cannot retract their heads and fins. The Turtle Hospital has treated and released over 1100 turtles over the years. There are a number of bad things: fish hooks, fish filiment line, garbage mistaken for food, a form of cancer that has developed in the last 100 years (that I won't even try to spell), and the most unbelievable, a condition they call bubblebutt that is caused by a sudden inward gasp of air that is trapped in the turtles body and results in a bubble that distorts the shell and that will not allow the turtle to dive and cannot be relieved. These turtles are kept permanently in the hospital since they cannot survive in the sea. The survial rate to adulthood, which takes about 25 years to reach, is not high. Only 1 in 100 hatchlings make it to sixty miles offshore and only 1 in 1000 survive to adulthood. Some pictures: first the Ambulance, next a group of bubblebutts in the 100,000 gallon saltwater pool, third a closer shot of a bubblebutt (look closely and see the bubble in the middle of the shell), fourth a shot of the large seawater pool, and fifth a loggerhead in a treatment pool who has a internal virus that requires an antibiotic. There are a number of treatment pools there they recover from cancer and internal illnesses. The tour and lecture is 90 minutes long and very interesting.

A Walk on the Bridge

The original 7 mile bridge was built in 1908-1912 as a railroad bridge. The railroad ran from Miami to Key West; there was no road down the Keys. The Labor Day hurricane of 1935 killed hundreds of people and destroyed the railroad including the 7 mile bridge. The bridge was rebuilt as part of the Overseas Highway and remained the longest bridge in the world until it was replaced by a new bridge that opened in 1982. Most of the bridge has been allowed to rust away but the first two miles has been preserved as a non vehicle exercise trail. The preserved portion runs out to Pigeon Key, a research and camp foundation. Its a good walk/run/bike trail. Some pictures: The first is a photo of the historic marker; the second was taken from the one mile marker toward Pigeon Key, off in the distance in the upper left corner can be seen the high rise portion of the new bridge. This is the last high rise bridge on the way to Key West by water. The last picture is taken from the one mile marker toward Marathon and catches a beautiful sunrise. The bridge is very popular and the parking lot is full every morning.

An Unusual Day

This has been an unusual day. The folks who have the houseboat three slips away from us took off to Aruba for five weeks and invited a sequence of friends to come to Marathon and use the houseboat. The last guest arrived with his girlfriend last Saturday; on Sunday she fell and broke her wrist and we helped them and sent them to the hospital. Not a good start. About 1130 this morning she came over asking for help; while packing to leave he suddenly lost his short term memory. He did not know where he was or why he was here. He had no memory of the trip down here, why his girlfriend had a cast on her arm, etc. We of course feared a stroke and Dixie and I rushed them to the Emergency Room. After five hours of endless tests including a CAT and MRI, while Dixie stayed with them, the doctors could find no reason for it. The "guess" diagnois was "untypical migraine", whatever that is. Anyway he was released from the hospital and is back at the houseboat still with no memory. She can't drive and neither can he. All reservations back home have been cancelled. The hope is that his memory will come back over the next day or so. The owners are coming back on Wednesday; be interesting to see if their guests are still here. A little excitement on the dock.

Happy Birthday to Samson & Delilah

On Saturday, Feb 28, Samson and Delilah turned 16. Following the formula of 21 the first year and 7 each following year they are 126 years old in human terms. They sleep a lot but cats do that. Every year at their annual vet visit Dr Knowles always says "whatever you are doing, keep doing it." Its amazing that the life expectancy of a feral cat is 3 to 4 years but well cared for indoor house cats can live 20 years or more. Samson and Delilah have sailed with us their whole life. In the photo Samson is on the left and Delilah on the right. Happy Birthday, kitties!