Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, FL - Feb.9-14

One last beautiful Keys sunset

We've been sitting on the back deck, saying goodbye to our last sunset in Boot Key Harbor in Marathon, FL.  It was a beauty in flaming orange and a fitting end to our lovely, relaxing time here in this friendly, laid back, tropical community.  Tomorrow morning we plan to pull out of the harbor and begin our trip back to North Carolina - not a fast trip, though.  We'll be traveling at our usual 8-10 miles/hour and expect to stop several times along the way.  The idea is to make it back to Charlotte by March 15th.  We will turn 10 days of travel into 30 days including stops for bad weather and stops for family and friends.  We plan to visit Howard and Donna in Vero Beach and Marcy & Roger and Marla & Al in Cocoa Beach  for extended stops on the way back.  Also, we want to make time for our old boating buddies of the Central Florida Cruise Club, Jim and Shaula from our hometown of Orlando at one of the CFC club events in Cocoa Vilage on Feb. 26 thru the 28th.  What a great coincidence to meet up with the club that we belonged to for 22 years in Orlando.  We were very active in the cruise club along with our boys for those many years with Wayne being commodore (president) 5 times.

This  past weekend was great fun as we welcomed our friends Roger and Marcy onto the boat.  They tolerated the not-so-spacious forward cabin and a sudden cold snap that brought serious winds with it.  Wayne and I have gotten used to the boat swaying back and forth on its mooring ball and the constant slap of waves on the hull.  We wish we could have shared some of the warm, calm weather we've enjoyed here but it was not to be.  The chill and winds showed up on Friday afternoon, just as Roger and Marcy arrived and departed on Sunday after lunch, right after we bid them goodbye.  Is it possible THEY brought the icky weather?  They will claim I fed them beans all weekend in revenge.  While they were here we all got together with Marla and Al and Marla's big brother, Bob, and her sister-in-law, BJ, for lunch one day and we also managed to watch a total of four movies in less than 48 hours.  Yeah for the inverter!  Roger assisted in the original survey of Cool Change when it was only a prospective new boat and then he piloted about half of the 505 mile trip to our home port of Little River, SC last July for a week.


Wane ready for Sunday morning in the Fl Keys!



No, Marcy has not put on 200 pounds.  The trip in on the dinghy was a windy one and inflated her jacket. She looked like the Michelin woman!



Roger and Marcy at Sunday breakfast on Cool Change

We attended the Pigeon Key Art Festival on Sunday afternoon and even bought a little art for our master cabin.  A photo of two old chairs sitting at the edge of the ocean made us think of ourselves and this trip and seemed a wonderful memento of our winter voyage.  The art festival featured lots of art, good music and food.

Our recent art acquisition




Pigeon Key Art festival, Feb. 13

Wayne and I both reached the point of haircut desperation last week.  My gray roots and constant windblown state meant there could be no more waiting.  Jann, my neighbor, kindly acted as a guinea pig, finding a salon and putting her locks under the scissors.  The results looked so good that I went today for a cut and color from the same hairdresser and I'm quite satisfied.  To Christine, my hometown hairdresser - I do miss you but seem to have survived our separation intact.  You get to do my next haircut. 

Many of you followers have been waiting on information on the inverter charger blowout that occurred several weeks ago.  Boy, did we miss that inverter.  While it was gone we were havng to run the generator to do anything 120 volt A/C.  We even bought a temporary inverter from West Marine for $99 to power Colleen's sewing machine and the cabin lights in quiet.  We will keep that inverter as a backup in the event of a future failure.   Xantrex, the inverter/charger manufacturer, repaired the inverter in one day upon receipt.  Overall downtime was only 9 days.  Xantrex recommended that I limit the battery cables to 10 feet to prevent a future failure.  My cables were 14 feet including connecting cables for the 300 amp fuse and the cutoff switch.  These cables are 3/4 inch in diameter and Xantrex wants them twisted.  Good luck.  I re-routed the battery cables across a new aluminum angle that I installed in front of the engine and under the floor panels.  The result was an 8 foot cable run.  Even better to prevent the ripple effect that failed the inverter.  Hopefully we will never see another failure.  All seems to be working well after more than a week.

Inverter / charger installed in original TV cabinet




New cable routing.  Note the 3/4 inch cables.

Next time we write we'll be officially underway, heading toward home.  We're both just about ready to get back to our tree house and watch spring come to the Carolinas.