Magic of the Keys

It has been a while since our last post as we haven’t traveled that far and have been on vacation (vs. the Great Loop adventure)! We stayed in Marlin Bay Resort in Marathon for about 2 ½ weeks and had a wonderful time. Sister Tricia and boyfriend Michael were with us for just over a week there. We absolutely enjoyed the pool and hot tub every day at the resort. One day we all went on a charter fishing trip with SeaDog Charters and Captain Claudia. There were 13 people fishing on the boat, we caught about 150 fish and kept about 70 of them. Needless to say we were catching fish non-stop for 2 hours, 5 miles off shore, in about 35 feet of water. It was great fun and we had some great fish dinners (about 10 lbs of fillets). We also went to Key West for a day…walked around town and the marinas and enjoyed a beautiful sunset (one of so many on this trip!). Even had dinner at the legendary Sloppy Joes. A few days after they left, Pete and Kim Schmitz joined us for a couple of nights. We went to Key West with them as well, enjoying a great walk around town and a visit to the Truman Little White House – cool spot. We were able to extend our stay by 3 nights at Marlin Bay due to windy weather, which I was very thankful for. We got to enjoy the resort more and attend the 1st Annual Superbowl Party at the pool bar. A lot of people showed up and it was great fun- go Eagles! (wait, they lost…). While in Marathon, we were able to connect with many loopers we had met on our way down from Michigan, so had many dinners out with looper friends (and met some new ones). We then headed to Key Largo and stayed at Marina Del Mar. This marina was unique as it was surrounded by 3 different hotels so we had 3 pools and hots tubs we could visit. There were restaurants on site and lots of activity going on in the marina. While in Key Largo, we rented a car and headed up to the Miami Boat Show for a day. As John likes to say: “the boat show was inspiring and depressing, all at the same time”. We found a couple boats we really liked but were quickly reminded that we need to stay in the used boat market! We enjoyed dinghy rides in the canals near the marina and scootered around quite a bit. We also had some surprise visitors – Pete and Barbara VanBerlo from our church (Christ the King in Acme, MI) stop by to say hi. We enjoyed a nice dinner with them at Sharkey’s. Once we left Key Largo, we stopped at the John Pennekamp Reef to snorkel and found “Christ of the Deep”. Seeing that has been one of the highlights of the trip. We are now back in the intercoastal (ICW) heading up Florida’s east coast. We both really like the Keys – nice warm weather, sunny days with a breeze and no bugs. Changes in latitudes…..changes in attitudes!

A few additional tidbits from Captain John: we have now travelled approximately 3,200+- miles on this trip and have an estimated 2,800 to go. We are 171 days into the trip, have traveled (by boat) 68 of those days (averaging 47 miles per travel day) , and have been on anchor 22 nights so far. A friend (hey Tommy) recently reminded us that each year there are more people that climb Mount Everest than do the Great Loop. I’m not sure if that puts us in rare company, but the rare company of people we’ve met along the way has truly been the highlight of this trip. Many, I’m sure, will be friends for life.