The following morning we pulled up anchor from Johnston Bay and headed to Marathon in Boot Key Harbor. What a fabulous time. I finally was able to share my pool with a friend. It was a very hot day. I believe it reached 84 degrees.

Our group photo Mike, Miranda and us at Johnston Key.  It doesn’t get much better.

Heading out into the Gulf of Mexico.. Snack time with wine…  Miranda soaking up the sun in the perch seat.  Mike is veg’ing in the shade.

I finally have a friend to share my pool with…LOL  Miranda and I enjoyed the pool.

With little wind and 84 degrees, it is girl time with feet in pool…  We motored through the Gulf to our short cut to Marathon.

If you look towards the center of the photo you’ll see a turtle.  My really smart husband decided to take a short cut across the bay. Without a doubt he took us though shallow waters. Beauty drafts 5’6” feet and we saw 6.5 feet it was a scary moment.  Mike and Miranda and myself were up on the bow looking for areas that might be trouble some.  We saw numerous sea turtles and fish.

OM…The moon was shining early in the day.

Mike and Miranda in a Titanic moment.  Bays were very calm due to no wind.

Finally, we made it through Bryce’s shallowest section of the short cut.

Just off “Bryce’s Channel”, the birds rested lazy on a tree branch.

After coming out of the short cut, our keel snagged a crab pot.  Fortunately, it did not get in the prop and we only dragged it a short distance.  No crabs were harmed in this production.  Bryce dove down and removed the line from the keel.  It was a very long line for the depth, probably 50 feet for 10 feet of water.  This long line made it easy to snag on a keel.

Bryce had a refreshing swim for the day.

Finally, we are at the 7 Mile Bridge.  Named for its 7 mile length that connects Marathon to the lower Keys.

We slowly drifted past the 7 Mile Bridge.  We passed from the Gulf Of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean as we came through the bridge.

Some leftover destruction from ERMA 2017.. Although truth be told, this marina was in poor shape prior to Irma.  It was in disrepair from hurricanes prior to 2016 when we first saw it.  Irma skillfully removed the second story of this building.

At one time it still looked like a marina that could be rebuilt.  But Irma finished it off.

This boat is off the channel just before you reach the Sister Creek.  Looks like a 28 Bayliner.  One of the boats yet to be cleaned up.

Not sure about this one.  Looks like it took a beating.  But it is floating!!

Fortunately for us, Bootkey Harbor has rebounded remarkably well.  Unless you looked carefully, you would not notice this area was devastated by Irma.  Something like 75% of the boats were lost.  This is a favorite restaurant called Burdines.

Buildings were being rebuilt.

This is the mooring field in BootKey Harbor.  We stayed on one of these mooring balls for a week.

Well, we had to say our goodbyes to Mike and Miranda. This is our dinner the night before they left.  It was a great trip.  BTW.. they have their own sailboat at St Petersburg. Even though they were with us for a week, they didn’t even smell like fish…LOL

What an amazing job everyone did at putting Boot Key Harbor back together again.   The dingy dock was now totally inside the small marina basin.  The Marina Buildings looked normal as usual.  Bootkey Harbor is back in business!!!

Other boaters donated topsoil,plants, stones to help but the garden back together… What a traffic job!

Everything is growing well….

This is the biggest pineapple I have ever seen!   Just kidding it’s a palm tree. LOL

I like this big fish & coral sculpture.

Friday, We made it to the beach. Pat ducked tape her umbrella to her chair then went swimming. Dirk had to sit in it to keep it from flying across the beach.

Were were joined Raymona and Paul from a 340 Searay.  When we found out it was Pat’s birthday we made dinner plans. 

Waiting on a table. It was a good night to celebrate Pat’s birthday.  Paul, Pat, Dirk, Romona, Jane and Bryce.

On Sunday we met up with another great couple Gwyn and Mark. We met these two on our last journey here. They sail on a 40 Leopard. We all wanted to go to Sunset Grill and listen to Ty.

Ty is the lead singer in front with is guitar. Ty retired from the Boot Key Harbor Marina.

Pat and Dirk reserved a table for the 6 of us at Sunset Grill.

Here we are at Sunset Grille with Mark and Gwen.  Bryce bought a “Drink for two” called a Tsunami.. It came with this special “Mug”.  It was the only thing we drank that night!!  I think it was a drink for four based on the amount of alcohol in it!!

My honey holding me tight on the dance floor.  As usual, we took advantage of the dance floor.

Okay maybe I enjoyed this drink a bit to much.

We saw this guy (iguana) leisurely swimming just in front of our boat.  It tried to get up on the catamaran in front of us.  Bryce yelled at the couple (Ronald and Diane) on the boat asking them if they wanted a pet. 

After failing to get on the boat, he swam away.

Easter Sunday

We had a few friends over for a delicious get together. Ronald and Diane in the foreground are a couple next door on a catamaran from Quebec Canada.  Raymona came over to enjoy our last night in Marathon with us. 

We said our good byes to Pat and Dirk. Bryce and I are saying our goodbyes till next year. Dirk and Pat left too to get up to Key Largo where they will sell there boat and start traveling in many other different ways.

As always thanks for following our blog!