Archive for April, 2013

Always Learning

The prudent captain never wants to arrive at an anchorage after dark, which means that we had to leave our anchorage this morning around 3:30-4:00 AM. Since we were planning on leaving early, I set up our route on the chart plotter before going to bed last night. This morning I activated the route on […]


Key Largo to Bimini

Tomorrow (Sunday) we leave Key Largo, headed for Bimini (approximately 65 miles). Conditions look great for a fast and comfortable crossing of the Gulf Stream. We will leave KL around 3:30 AM and hope to be anchored off Gunn Kay by 5:00 PM. Tug, Michelle, and I will send our regards from the Bahamas as […]


Marathon Moorings

Marathon Florida is one of those places that cruisers fall in to and never seem to be able to get beyond. The city has done a great job managing the crowds by creating a mooring field that seems to go on forever. At $22 per night and at least 400-500 mooring spots, they’ve found the […]


Take THAT, West Marine!

After our rough crossing last week, we had several repairs to make and Key West was the first opportunity to go ashore and purchase needed items. There are two options in Key West (that I know of) for purchasing marine parts: West Marine and El Cubanito Marine Hardware. I love doing business with locally owned […]


Goodbye Key West!

Three days after arriving, we’re leaving Key West and heading for Marathon (about 40 miles up the keys). Key West is a great stop over point after crossing the gulf. Here, we were able to decompress a bit in the local bars and restaurants.  Tug, Michelle, and I enjoyed walking around the city and taking […]


Tug Boat – The Ultimate Boat Dog

After we lost our beloved “Buddy” last May, we said that we’d NEVER get another dog. It just didn’t make sense because we want to spend more time cruising on our boat and big, hairy dogs are just too much trouble. About 6 months after Buddy died, Michelle and I realized that we are “Dog […]


Two Days in Heaven (er, I mean Dry Tortugas)

The Dry Tortugas is the last of the Florida Keys and is approximately 50 miles west of Key West. It is a national park and includes the infamous Fort Jefferson (where Doctor Mudd served his sentence for setting the leg of John Wilkes Booth after Booth assassinated President Lincoln). Very few people visit because you can […]


It’s Alan’s Birthday!

4/7/13 10:30 PM We arrived at the Dry Tortugas just in time to meet our great friends Alan and Kit Bryant. The surprise birthday plan was hatched by Kit more than a month ago. Kit gave Alan a wonderful trip to the Florida Keys, including a Sea Plane flight from Key West to Fort Jefferson […]


Rookie Mistake

Latitude 24.70 N Longitude 84.96 W 4/6/13 1:00 AM When I came on watch this morning, my fellow crew member, Tom, let me know that the GPS had quit working. No problem. A quick flick of a switch and the on board navigation system is using our backup GPS unit. But that wasn’t good enough […]


Update: 4/5/13 @ 8:45 PM EDT

Current position 24.4900N, -85.5600W. 155 n/m from the Dry Tortugas. ETA is tomorrow evening, hopefully before dark. We made up for lost time today with favorable winds and current. Winds came from the NW blowing 25-30 knots with 8-12 foot seas. Now currently blowing 20 knots and seas have subsided to 3-6 feet. All is […]