Bahia Honda

Hi, Folks! Patrick and I have had 2 great days so far, sailing down from the Blackfin Marina and
Resort ( a little '50's style motor court with a marina in its back yard) which turned out to be the coolest place! It has a nice little beach with a tiki hut (see photo) and a community of liveaboards who get together every evening to watch the sunset. Pat and I left there on Thursday and sailed down to 7 Mile bridge to go through to the South then sailed down to Bahia Honda state Park, which turns out to be a wonderful place! Yesterday, we just chilled, went snorkeling around the island, and took our time making dinner and enjoying the stars afterwards. Today, we slept in, and then took the commercial excursion boat out to Looe Reef to snorkel--it was nice, but I think I like Molasses Reef better.We took pictures with our disposable underwater cameras that I will hopefully have developed and posted later. Tomorrow, the plan is to sail Harvey out to Looe Reef again, then proceed to an anchorage in Newfound Harbor. Photos of Blackfin Marina and Bahia Honda park attached, if I'm lucky!

another try to post photos

OK, lets try this one more time!

Photos for Marathon

Marathon

Hi, Folks! I've had a great 3 days of sailing without setting foot on land. Left Friday and went through Snake Creek, south of Key Largo. I stayed in the Cowpens Anchorage, went for a swim, and generally took it easy. The next day I went down to Matacumbe Bight, which had all the jet ski and powerboat traffic you'd expect on a pretty saturday, then last night I anchored on Long key, a shallow spot that had " Harvey Only" written all over it. A pretty and quiet spot.

Saw a couple of neat things--like a motorized hang glider mounted on an inflatable dinghy! Also, I put together the Elwood P. Dowd (my dinghy) and paddled up into a mangrove swamp--very pretty. I'm posting photos of these, and a couple of the wonderful sunsets also.

Tonight I'm in the Blackfin Marina and Motel in Marathon--a nice change with hot showers, etc.

Key Largo, Again

This has been a wonderful trip. I got down to Key Largo Sunday night, and midday Monday Chase and I had Harvey provisioned and ready to go. We sailed out to Molasses Key to snorkel in beautifully clear water, and we were lucky enough to have a Spotted Eagle Ray swim right under us! It was an extraordinarily beautiful thing, and had to be 6 feet across.

When we were done snorkeling we put out Harvey's headsail and had a delightful downwind sail all the way to Rodreguiz Key--Lou was especially tickled that we were able to go all that way without burning a drop of fuel--we anchored out and had a great steak dinner after watching a beautiful sunset.

The next morning we got up to heavy winds, and had a good sail for a couple of hours--Harvey even bumped up against 7 knots a couple of times. The most notable thing was sailing alongside an old wooden boat, a double ender made in Rotterdam in 1937 named Dutch Maid. A gorgeous thing, that sailed like a witch!

On the way back in I managed to let Harvey get caught by a gust and caved in one of my stantion bases--Lou and I went over to his friend John's house and he was nice enough to cut a piece of Teak so I could effect a fix--its now stronger than any of the others--before and after photos attached.

Today I'm going shopping for provisions and heading south--Lou may be able to join me the end of next week as I get closer to Key West.