Yes.............."Dumb Luck Charters" is open for business!

We are still in Marathon.......just to clear up any questions as to what is going on.  We have been taking care of a bunch of things and then we decided it was time for a change and before we could blink an eye our first, inaugural guest have arrived!  Yes there are suckers born every day!

Finally, a sunset!

Last week Jim & Jo arrived in the Keys for a week of sun & fun.  In spite of having to change our original plans 180 degrees because of the high winds blowing for a good portion of the week we still pulled off some very good times.  So just what did Anne & I give our guest for a taste of the Keys??

Since sailing will have to wait we decided to head down to Key West via auto and check out the town.  We haven't been there for a long time and the Perks have never been there.  We saw "Petey"of Pete's Meats, a very nice sunset and a good meal at Pepe's.

Pepe's Pub

Jo's new vehicle

Mallory Square at sunset

The gang

How about fishing?  Big game fishing is big down here so we went and found a pole for Jim, purchased the first shrimp either of us has ever bought and went out for two days.  The big ones escaped our expertise but we still had a appetizer for one night and actually had some good fish which ended up to be more than we could eat for dinner the next.  We now know a lot more about mangrove fishing in the Keys.......

Rigged for bear

round one for an app

The Jack was at least 5 feet long!!!!

Jim is fighting our fish to the bitter end!

How about an afternoon in the Turtle Hospital?  Well we did that too and Anne and Jo got a chance to see many injured turtles from Leatherback, Green, Loggerhead and others.

"Charlie"

Then it was time for a sail.  We had a good 35nm sail up the Keys to Islamorada and spent a couple of days hanging out up there.  Nice weather and then when it was time to come back south we actually had another good sail.  Captain Jim drove the whole way and he didn't pick up one crab pot.  That in itself required an "expert" to be driving Nati.

Hanging out at the Lore-a-lei

The "doctor" keeping an eye out for pirates

Overall we had a great week......just how "lucky" are you?

Alive and well in Florida!

Its been a few weeks since the last update but..........

• When we are hanging out in Marathon taking care of "stuff" it just is not the most exciting time in the world and there is no need to write about it.
• The weather has been status quo until just recently.  Still basically the temp is too low to swim and the water is cold!

Now though, we have moved Nati and put together some nice days of action in the tropics........OK not tropics but I'm going to be optimistic.

Last Sunday we traveled to Miami as Bob, Steph & Teagan were coming south to escape the really cold weather up north.  They sure timed it well as the cold was really COLD!  With that in mind we departed Marathon with the hope we would be able to get north with some sailing.  Well, we did get more sailing than we thought and only ended up motoring a short part of the way.  We pulled into South Beach on Friday and got Nati ready for the gang.  As a side note.....Miami Yacht Club could not have been better!  We met Dave, the club manager and Teagan was in Miami for less than 15 minutes before she was swimming.  Note, I said "she" and not "us".  For the rest of us it was much too cold!  We also were able to run into Kenny & Dana at the club and had some good laughs.

yes, plenty of wind and clouds!

Captain Teagan

over 40 flowers this year!

One of the reasons B,S & T came down was to attend the Miami Boat Show.  The weather really didn't cooperate but we pulled through and perhaps the show was even better since the wind, cold and rain kept many people away.  We got to see plenty of boats, equipment and I think we all had fun.  It did however feel good to get back on board and away from the chill.

Taking the water taxi

On Tuesday we talked about sailing south but it was cold and "T" wanted to do the pool at the club again.  OK.......no problem!  We had a lay-day and we all ended up in the pool.  The pool is heated..........Yeehaw!

Teagan & Mom

Teagan & Dad

Teagan & Granny

On Wednesday we tried sailing south but the wind gods were not being too friendly so at the end we took the gang over to No Name Harbor in Key Biscayne.  The harbor is pretty cool, has a restaurant adjacent to it and one can easily make it to the ocean and nice beaches.  We all had a chance to check out the park, ride around on a rented buggy like the "Griswold's", bury Teagan in the sand and relax.  Fun was had by all and we ate like Kings & Queens.  Our biggest challenge was keeping fruit on the table as the "fruit mouse" was being very active!

Nati in No Name Harbor

95" high and 109 steps

Too high??!!

The beach looks way down.

It sure seemed higher........

Captain Teagan telling what is next on the agenda

The "boys" taking the buggy back......cute, huh?

The "salty" crew

The last breakfast....steak & eggs!

After we said our goodbyes we headed back south the next day and had a really good sail down Biscayne Bay.  Anne saw 9+kts of boat speed and it was one of our better sails in a long time.  We dropped anchor in Tarpon Basin, had a quiet night and headed south the next day.  This time we only sailed 15nm as we decided to rendezvous with sv Celest out in front of the Ocean View Hotel and Grill.  We had a lot of laughs while having a late lunch.  This place may be one our frequent stopovers!  Good food, reasonable prices and good holding at anchor.  In the morning Celest continued thei trip north and we elected to have a lay-day.  It is Sunday anyways!

Robie & Patsy

sv Celest......a Bristol 355 centerboard

We are going back to Marathon as we have a few more things to address.  The weather has to warm up sometime.......March is right around the corner!!

Yes, we are hanging out in Marathon

Last weekend was the Tradewinds Regatta but with the weather as crazy as it is we only had a chance to drive up and see the gang on Saturday.  They had two days of racing as Sunday it was blowing the dogs off the chain and nobody left the beach. Tom & Herb did really well.  There were plenty of "top shelf" sailors in all fleets so those who finished in the upper echelon deserve an "attaboy".

It has been a while since we have seen this.

Right now we are in the middle of the latest of many cold fronts passing through the Keys.  With the jet stream so far south we are getting lows forming in the Gulf of Mexico and barreling across the Florida peninsula at full speed.  It seems we are getting one every third day and it's getting a little old.  At least the latest one came through in the daylight and we could see who was dragging and who was behaving.  We thought we would be up all night last night but for some reason the winds behaved.  Key West had plenty of wind, Long Key Bight had wind but Boot Key (in the middle) didn't have anything over 18kts.  So......we hung around until midnight and then hit the sack.  Thank you wind gods!

This has been the norm lately!

Today the winds have returned to the upper 20's and we are having an occasional squall but again, its during the day.  No going to shore for us but maybe tomorrow we can catch a playoff game.

If we ever get a sunset again I'll post it...........right now its all clouds, wind and rain....just your average vacation weather......Not!

Anybody want to guess where we are?

I'll give it away in a few days.  All is well but it's blowing the dog-off-the-chain!

Toaster supreme!

Happy New Year!

No, we haven't disappeared!  But we also haven't done a whole lot since the holidays......just move further south in order to find warmer weather.  Now that we made it to the Keys, we have now found some of the coolest weather we have had in a long time.  A sub-tropical low is forming over the Bahamas right now and we are just hanging out in front of Gilbert's, down in Blackwater Sound.  Its raining and blowing but all is just fine on Nati.

After Melbourne we moved south on the ICW, first to our favorite anchorage near Vero and then to W. Palm Beach.  We tested a new anchorage there, close to the Mega-yacht marina, Rybovitch Yacht Yard and they sure do have some biggies hanging out there.  We didn't plan on being in the middle of the activity but you can see..........yep, they were that close going into the marina!

M/v Pioneer 

Note the quantine flag as it just crossed the Atlantic

We call this boat "Ben's brothers boats!

Since Christmas we have done a little sailing, put 60 hours on our engines so now they are broken in and had some good times with little or no agenda.  New Years Eve was in Lake Boca, a beautiful night and some of the best fireworks we have ever seen.  It was close, loud and beautiful!

Then you have Miami Beach.........yuck, yuck, and more yuck!  How can one city have so many weird, arrogant, "its all about me" humans in one place?  Our old anchorage is now infested with day charter mega-yachts full of party animals.  They in turn play the worse, loudest and disgusting music (you can't call it music really) you can ever imagine.  I did find out however that there is a direct relationship with the size of a thong......the smaller it is, the worse a woman dances!  So we got out of there in two days.......

Hope everyone is staying warm up north.......we are trying to stay warm also.

Merry Christmas - Everybody!

The end of 2015 is about here and frankly we are really looking forward to 2016 right now.  We have been at docks way too long but all in all we have Nati about as good as we can do right now.  Tomorrow we depart Melbourne.  Over the last week or so we have had a lot of laughs with Jean, Tom, the Chief and Millie, of course we can't forget Jumbo, Shrimp, Scampi and Mickie.  If you don't know.........don't ask!

Last sunset at Camachee Cove

Christmas lights everywhere

Camachee Cove

To recap......we pulled out of St Augustine 10 days ago and made it to Melbourne.  We are having Christmas with the gang here and last weekend my parents came over from Largo.  Some good laughs were had by all.

The "gang" was all there!

Christmas Eve was put on by Jean & Tom......steak tapas and shrimp went down the hatch very nicely....

Tom with his apple pie

This morning was gift opening and we did quite well.....thank you everyone!  My highlight was my very own rendition of "Rudolph the red nose reindeer" by no other than ....EVAN!  It was great!

Our gifts from under the tree

So....to recap, we have had quite a year and we are looking forward to heading further south.  We  both want blue, clean water off our stern.

  Nati is being let out of the pasture to run!! 

Take 2!!

As they say in the film industry.......take 2, as in lets do everything again, and again and again.  The last couple of weeks has been insanely busy but after today's test run proved, it's all been worth while from our standpoint.

The prior post had us getting ready to head south to make Jean & Tom's Thanksgiving party.  Well, we made it as far as Daytona and ended up turning around.  Our engine woes continued and we were beginning to think we may have to buy oil by the barrel.  So back to St Augustine and Camachee Cove Marina for more work.  To fast forward.......we are now the proud owners of 2 brand new Yanmar 3YM30 diesels!

It's a good thing the Camachee Cove and 1st Mate Marine Services are first rate companies.  While nothing is free in this world we are satisfied with all of the service and the engines are great.  Quiet, a little more power and supposedly 8 lbs lighter.  We will take all that we can get.

Our new instrument panel

3YM30 diesel

getting lowered in place

Besides spending a bunch of $$ we did get to be in St Augustine for the turning on of the Christmas lights.  It's pretty spectacular when the Schooner comes up to the Bridge of Lions and when the horn sounded all the lights switched on.  We had a perfect view and it made for a good night on the mooring ball.  It was too cold to go to town but we were happy to be right there.

The lighting of St Augustine

Downtown

More of downtown

Once the engine work was finished we had a couple of days to wrap up our new wind generator installation.  Now we figure we won't see a lick of wind for weeks on end.  It seems to be working well, even if the amount of wind we have seen is 5kts or less.

Too high to climb

Finishing touches

Tomorrow is the marina Christmas party and we have decided to head south on Sunday.  We are crossing our fingers that all will go as planned.  It's starting to get a little too cold up here in north Florida.  Time to put the pedal to the metal........