Today we will go to the Boat show (another part oPf it) at the convention center. This boat show is power boats, fishing supplies, huge engines with drug runner horsepower and plenty of product booths. We met our friends in their dinghy, although his has 30 horsepower to our two LOL. They went down the canal to check out the stores and places to dock while Steve and I hit the boat show, we tied off the dinghy to a tree and locked it. The show was unreal with all the boats inside and outside. It took us all day to get through it with its 4 dollar drinks and 9 dollar personal pizzas. We had a great time and enjoyed all the exhibits and finally headed home with three bags of freebies and one new device to climb the mast and put sail back on. I cooked Tacos and we watched some TV before going to bed. Steve contacted his friend from childhood and they are going to come see us tomorrow. I cant wait. Everyone have a good night.

Steve and I woke up early got breakfast cooked, waited on the guy to bring our head sail back from being repaired. We went to the dock at the yacht club to get sail and take a shower. When i came back to the dinghy to meet Steve i was advised by to men that we were at a private dock and not allowed there. I am telling you Miami is not a friendly place due to overcrowding or what i dont care. people dont have to be so -well you know. So Steve and i took our dinghy and went to the next marina dock across the bay. They told us it was 10 dollars for 2 hours and that they didnt have dinghy room due to the part of the boat show at the marina. Well we just drove our dinghy over to the sailboat show and parked at the wall next to the personal yachts and climbed up on the wall the show. Yeah we finally found a  place to park. Where there is a will there is a way. The sailboat show was unreal, all the beautiful boats. We saw our friend Clay there who we met at Clearwater when we were there. He has a pit bull named Nelda and she is so sweet! He showed us all the Hunter sailboats, he works for Hunter.

Got up early cooked breakfast, and got ready to go ashore to find a person to fix our headsail. We dinghied over to a dock and called several places and found one that would come and get the sail fix it and bring it back. WOW a friendly person in Miami, i thought i would faint. After that Steve and I took a 30 minute dinghy ride to find Publix and the laundromat. We crossed in front of the small islands with all the huge houses over to a small canal opening between the condos and headed down to the dock we were told was in front of the Publix. Going down a small canal we saw crab pot buoys. That was funny actually in the canal. So we went under small overpasses that almost touched our heads and found a small dock across the street from the Publix. We asked directions to the laundromat and proceeded to walk down the street toward South Beach to find it.We found it finally with plenty of cute places to eat lunch beside it. The laundromat was clean and the dryers were so very hot. Steve had to go back to the big dock to meet the guy picking up our sail back and I stayed to do laundry and eat lunch at a cute bagel place. The staff was OK not really friendly at all. I really cant wait to get out of Miami. I got the clothes washed headed back the 4 blocks to the Publix to call Steve and do the shopping. The sail guy was late so i had to wait an hour on Steve before shopping. He arrived and we got our grocery shopping done without realizing how the wind had kicked up. The waves got some of the cardboard wet and i had to throw away the cardboard boxes and save the packs of food on the inside. Needless to say we were also soaked, luckily the clothes were tied up in bags tight and didnt get wet. We dried off and ate a spaghetti supper and fell asleep. The boats are nonstop around here and so is the auto traffic. I love the wind rocking us to sleep though. Good night evreyone.

Steve and i sailed today with just the mainsail and it worked really well. Loving the breezes and the beautiful ocean. It is a wonderful day to be on the water. Getting close to Biscayne Bay Floyd called us we changed direction to go through Angelfish Creek. That was a nice little cut thru to Biscayne Bay and on to Miami. Just a little sail and we were in sight of the city. Working hard with the lines for the boom tacking back and forth until we reached the bridge. Learning so much about sailing these days and getting used to all the waves and heeling over to the rub rail. Sailing is not boring at all! And it is actually only for the strong and confident. I will never underestimate sailors. Going in to Miiami under the bridges we found the water is very shallow in the beginning of the water way to the anchorage we were going to. Passed the marina where the sailboats were for the boat show. The cruise ships are all in the harbor awaiting their departures for the islands.Hopefully the other Carnival ships make it. We found a spot to anchor behind the Miami Yacht club. On the other side of the yacht club are a lot of beautiful houses.One of them has those green glowing lights under their dock, looks like a Stephen King movie effect. 🙂 The city has a beautiful skyline. We got ready to go over to Floyd and Elaines for a few minutes, they had to anchor their boat in another place because it would not hold where We had a great time hanging out with them and talking sailing and boats. Afterwards we went to our boat and enjoyed the beautiful sky and lights of Miami. Will spend time tomorrow washing clothes and buying groceries. Should be an adventure. Goodnight everyone!

Headed out to Miami with our friends Floyd and Elaine; and Dan and Alley. Started out with a great wind and a beautiful day to sail. Floyd is a seasoned captain and took off at a fast sail toward Rodriguez key. We stayed with Dan and Alley in their boat “HIATUS”. Headed out into the wind with the boat heeled over on the port side sun in our faces perfect weather and wind no problems, that should have been my first clue! Looking at the headsail it seemed something was just not right when about that time the headsail decided to fall detaching itself from the halyard, we had to move quick to wrap it up before it fell all the way down at which point it would have been a god awful mess. We got her wrapped and Steve had to bungie cord it in the middle to prevent it flapping in the wind. We sailed in with just a reefed sail and motor running. I had the helm and almost missed the entrance to Rodriguez Key. Steve took the helm and we went into the key and anchored close to our friends boats. Instead of having to get the dinghy off the bow we split up and rode one with Floyd and one with Dan into the restaurant to eat. We had to walk up a rikkrty ramp to the dock and then into the restaurant. The restaurant had plastic drop walls with a bar area and tables overlooking the ocean. The food was great and the company was even more so. We enjoyed our meal and headed back to the boat with Dan and Alley to watch a movie with the Rock in it. We loved it and had a wonderful time. Dan and Alley have a wonderful boat with so much character and beautiful on the inside with a lot of room to be comfortable. Plus it is the only boat i have been on with a widescreen TV. 🙂 After the movie Dan took us back to the boat and we fell asleep to the sound of the waves lapping against the boat.

Listening to the morning Marathon radio show just for boats in harbor on boat radio channel we heard a couple from Chattanooga wanted to meet us because they heard us introduce ourselves on the radio. The radio program asked for newcomers to the Marathon mooring area and Steve introduced us on the radio. The belonged to the Sailing club that my bosses girlfriend belongs to. WOW what a coincidence it is a small world. We really enjoyed our visit to their boat and meeting some more people from TN.

Still in Marathon enjoying it here. This is a nice place. We went to see our friends and ask if we could leave our dinghy with them and they said no problem. We told them we were going to walk around Marathon and our friends said we could ride their folding bikes around town. We loved it, we rode to the turtle hospital and around town for a while. Marathon is a quiet small town with a lot of friendly people. We thoroughly enjoyed the turtle museum with all the turtles injured by boats, people throwing trash into the water, and fishing hooks. I did not realize that a turtle cannot dive back into the water if they are injured. Most injuries cause micro bubbles which cause the turtle to float. Turtles have to be able to dive down to feed, and if they cant they just digest what is on the top of the water which causes even more problems for the turtles. Steve and i see so many of them on the ocean. These creatures have been around for so many years and it only takes a few bad actions on our part to almost make the leatherback extinct . this turtle gets up to 2000 pounds and is huge. It is not coming back in numbers due to line fishing. It gets caught on the hooks and drowns. Just an example of how we change the course of nature with our greed. We loved it and had a ball riding those bikes around town. We took the bikes back locked them up at our friends boat and took off into the sunset back to the boat. Another great day for us!

Made it into Marathon got some gas at gas station. Funny i got onto the dock to help untie the boat and due to the wind and current boat left me and Steve had to turn around and pick me up while the guys at the dock said well is he leaving you, they said i could stay there if i wanted if he was not coming back, lol. We went into the mooring field and anchored out behind it due to the fact that all the mooring balls were taken and we put ourselves on the waiting list with 12 people in front of us. I got my exercise putting out anchor and pulling up anchor until we found a place to anchor for the night. We took our dinghy into the marina to just explore. To use the dingy dock was 22.50 per day and so was a mooring ball. To use the washers and dryers or showers was 22.50 per day. No matter what the city of Marathon gets your money. We found out that that was to keep out the trash and only keep the better class of people at the marina. A lot of people take advantage of the cheaper prices and they were coming in stealing and trashing up the place so i see the reasoning. It still stinks though. We found out our friends Rik and Nancy were docked not far from us in the channel at Sombrero marina. I was so excited we went to see them in our dinghy and Sadie (the dog) was so excited to see us she just wiggled and wiggled. Not to mention we were glad to see Rik and Nance too! They were glad to see us we had not seen them since Clearwater and they were happy to see us safe. They took us on a tour of Marathon we ate at a wonderful little second story restaurant by the water. They served huge hamburgers and baskets of fries that fed four of us. 🙂

Off to Marathon from Key West. We left before daylight and made it out into the channel and in to the ocean. It is a beautiful day for sailing and I am not up to par today.The waves are minimal and the sea is so pretty. I slept most of the trip, giving Steve a break from sailing when he needed it made lunch for Steve. We made it into Marathon and found a place to anchor and i dropped the anchor 2x due to getting too close to our neighbor. This place looks nice there are over a hundred sailboats I can see.! We anchored sat on the boat for a while to make sure we are anchored cooked dinner and sat on deck some more to enjoy the stars. Stay .tuned fans more of our adventure coming up