TSR032 Cruising the Middle Florida Keys

In this episode, we cover our week long trip sailing the middle Florida Keys from Marathon to the Content Keys.  We have some more sailing / cruising news and our featured product will help you deal with smells from the head. Intro Chat We had such great plans to get some more shows out this summer, but work and other responsibilities continue to eat up our time.  Steve has been dealing with lots of rental property challenges, good for future cruising kitty, but these hands on investments take a lot of time. Hopefully, we will be good for a while after September 1st and we can go somewhere on the boat for the labor day holiday weekend. We have been able to get out on two trips since our last podcast.  We spent a weekend in West Palm Beach that we will cover in a future show and we joined all our friends at a local lake event called Adult Summer Games, check out the video here of the 2016 event. Steve has been working on lots of boat projects, we got behind from buying and setting up the house.  Most of the work in standard maintenance like changing the gear and motor oil in our Honda 50 outboard.   We did have a mildew problem on the boat that is likely due to the new location at the house.  It is up against our shed and the circulation is not as good as it was in storage.  We also discovered a leak in the deck fitting for the mast light attachment and replaced the fitting, so hopefully we fixed it.  Since our MacGregor 26M has a deck stepped mast , we plug the mast light into a deck fitting and the old one that came with the boat was missing the cap.  We cleaned the inside of the boat with vinegar and placed a fan that runs continually. Cruising the Middle Florida Keys We left on Saturday 10/29 and trailered the boat from Orlando down to Homestead, FL.  The drive drown to Marathon is about 350 miles from Orlando, so we decided to stay at a Southern Comfort RV Resort in Homestead to break up the trip.   We had never taken the boat to a campground and it was a fun stop.  They have a Tiki Bar in the campground and we went to their Halloween party that night. On Sunday, stopped at the Lorelei Cabana Bar to meet  up with some listeners, Stefan and Andrea.  That afternoon we launched from a private boat ramp off on Avenue I off Coco Plum in the Key Colony area.    It was storming, so we anchored nearby in Coco Plum bay. Monday the weather cleared up but it was still blowing 15-20kn.  We headed eight miles down to Boot Key Harbor.   We entered through Sisters Creek.   We grabbed a mooring ball from the Marathon City Marina for $22 a night. Tuesday morning we rowed a few boats over and met with with Carolyn Shearlock from the Boat Galley cookbook and website.   Her and her husband Dave live on a Gemini 105 catamaran and it was great to chat with them about the cruising life. Tuesday afternoon we had a great sail 12 miles to Bahia Honda State Park.  We planned to anchor between the bridges just south of the park but it was rolly so we went into their harbor and tied up to the seawall for the night.  $2/ft includes water and electric.   We also used their outdoor showers to rinse off.   The only other boat in the harbor was another trailer sailor, a West Rite Potter 19 owned by Don and Carmen who end up living just twenty minutes from us near Orlando.  We met up for a couple drinks sitting their cockpit that night.  Wednesday morning we dropped the mast to get under the US1 bridge and motored 4 miles to Little Pine key.   We anchored just offshore and had a great day relaxing the sun and snorkeling around the boat.   Thursday we sailed over to the Content Keys,  it is a shallow area everywhere except the channel, but the water is beautiful.   It was too shallow to anchor at the Content Keys so we moved over Crane Key for the night. Friday we started to head back to Marathon.  We sailed the 12 miles down through the Niles channel between Summerland Key and Ramrod Key.  We also stopped at a great snorkeling spot off Newfound Harbor Key.  They have several mooring balls on the reef. We decided to grab a slip in Marathon so we could sit see around town.  We found a spot at Burdines Marina for $3.50/ft  They have nice facilities and a great restaurant on site. We spent Saturday and Sunday touring Marathon's site, Tiki Bars and live music.  We had a great tour at the Turtle Hospital.   Great meals, drinks and music at Castaways, Porkys Bayside, Sunset Grill (drinks in the pool!), Faro Blanco Resort (Fancy!), and the Brass Monkey (not so fancy, but great live late night music by Freddie Dye and his band. Monday we motored back to the ramp into the wind through really rough seas and made the 350 mile drive home. Total trip cost about $1000 for 10 days, eight nights on water, one camping on land.  Truck and boat gas was $260, Docking, Campground and truck/trailer storage was $600.  $25 in Ice and $120 for trailer and tire storage. Sailing & Cruising News Cruiser discovers she is pregnant while sailing across the Pacific - She has to deal with finding medical care in remote places and does just fine.  Her boyfriend also finds a creative way to propose. UK island brewery ships beer to mainland by sailboat - Ales of Scilly on St Mary's island started shipping their beer to the mainland by 18th century privateer sail boat.  Check out the sailboat it is beautiful! 70 year old sets record for oldest to sail around the world via the five great capes.  Congratulations Jeff Heartjoy!  Showing us all that we are never to old to follow your dreams. Pen Hadow is leading a team that is attempting the be the first to sail all the way to the North Pole.  The ice pack may melt enough for them to get close this year. Featured Product Bathroom / Head odors on the boat can be overwhelming in such a small space.  We found this great odor eliminator that makes the smell much more bearable.   Brandy says it reminds her of a nursing home, but the fresh scent really does quickly eliminate the odors.  We liked it so much that we also bought a bottle for home.  It only takes one spray to cover the odor so the bottle will last a long time.  With only monthly use on our boat, it will probably last for years! Medi-aire Fresh Air Scent Biological Odor Eliminator 8 oz. 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Remember to tag your Instagram sailing related pictures with #thesailingrode Send us your feedback on the show and any show topic ideas to Crew@TheSailingRode.com Patreon If you enjoy the podcast, you can support us on our Patreon site and get some special rewards. Check it out at this link: https://www.patreon.com/TheSailingRode How it works:  Patreon is designed for you to support your favorite content creators.  You can support our podcast creations by signing up for various levels of support.  You can set a maximum monthly amount so if we release a lot of podcasts in one month, you still only pay your maximum amount.  In return, you get some rewards for your support.  It is kind of like giving us a tip or buying us a drink after a good show. Thanks for listening and all your support!  We wish you fair winds and hope to see you on the water soon. –  Steve & Brandy The Sailing Rode / The Sailing Road