Praise for our little slice of Paradise

  In our travels down the coast we have fallen in love with, if not at least become smitten with, most of the locales in which we have made land.  Charleston gets first nod seeing as we originally planned to be there for a month, maybe a month and a half... & we stayed for about 5 months (also, I wrote countless blogs posts about the area)!  St. Augustine stole my heart, I wholeheartedly believe I am meant to live there for a few months during a summer (some summer, not sure when we'll be heading back up the coast... there's a whole lotta traveling south and adventuring we need to embark upon before we head back where we've already been).  Fort Pierce gets a mention because of the crazy kiteboarders & one lovely blonde lady we had the pleasure of hanging with while enjoying some of the world's best kiteboarding talents.  But Marathon... in Marathon we've encountered a keys-y culture inculcated with misfits and characters who have made this little island town home for us.  So to all our new friends, we love y'all & feel so blessed to have fallen into your lives.

"It' strange/ how I'm taken and guided/ where I end up right I'm needed to be"
(that really is how the lyric is written, I know it sounds a bit lacking in the grammar department, but it's the sentiment I enjoy) - "Quiet Your Mind"  Zac Brown Band

mimosas & fishing... I heart the keys

   We are fishing in our backyard today. Yes, we are fishing from our backyard, in our backyard, soaking up the rays & enjoying the best mimosas we've ever had.  Another perk of living on a boat; your backyard isn't just a playground, it's a marine wonderland of fun. 

  Recently, I have come to understand my favorite thing about living on the hook. Out here with the gentle rocking, the peace & quiet I am not just fond of but completely dependent on for a good night's sleep, we are a boat ride away from land.  Every day we wish to go to land (or have to go to land depending on the reason, for example, say we are out of wine...), we take a boat ride on one of our dinghies (oh yeah, we got a new addition to Miss Betty's fleet, but more on that at a later date, when I can upload a pic of the 24' walk around, cuddy cabin Jay bought me!).  See, we love boating, not just living on a boat.  The whole appeal really, for us, is going on a ride, not just sitting at the dock, or hanging on the hook.  We wanna ride, man!  Pack a cooler & let's crank that engine, I've already got a bikini on, you know it!  So we are good to go! And we get to go, every single day, on a boat ride... twice in fact, because we come home to the big girl every night (well, usually... that cuddy cabin is awfully comfy & we've been enjoying the apartment away from home, we named her Apartment Sea).  I love boating... on damn near all boats (even that time Jay & our new friend had to gondola style paddle our new friend's dinghy to his other friend's boat, so we could borrow his RIB to get to the big boat... at like 2 am! Still, loved it!)  Boating is in our blood, I do believe.

   Gotta go, we got a fish on the line & our mimosas need refilling!  Life in the keys at it's finest.

Bikini birthday in December?! Yes, I think that'll work!

   This is my first warm weather birthday, ever (December birthdays tend to have that effect)!  It's 80 degrees here in Marathon, & we are loving it!  Birthday in paradise, I could get used to this!
Cheers, friends!

Hooked on Boot Key

   Living on the hook (as in on an anchor, as opposed to a dock) means we don't have power unless we run our generator... which we don't do everyday, because let's face it, that costs money & we enjoy being frugal.  So at night we open up our doors and enjoy this incredible breeze out here on the mouth of the harbor; nature's air conditioning.  It is cool enough all night long & well into the morning that we have to bundle up under two sheets, not just one (no blanket required so far)! 
   When we want to go up on the hill (go to land, just fyi, so you can become accustom to the mariner jargon), we take our dinghy to the city marina & use their dinghy dock.  We keep our bikes up on the hill, there at the marina's bike rack all locked up safe and sound for the night.  I love my new beach cruiser!  A few years ago, I used to rather not enjoy biking, but now find I do not much want to disengage myself from Harold, my bike (we named Jay's bike Gerald, both are men's bikes).  We tool around the island day and night stopping when we see a cool new tiki bar we have yet to try and of course sticking by our favorite for happy hour, Porky's (from 3-6 $1.25 domestic drafts and some killer $5 dishes... but since we've been adopted by the happy hour crew as locals, we get an extended happy hour to 7!).
   Yesterday, while we were disembarking from the dink, we were told by another man on the dock to look to our starboard (our right)... and directly beside us was this huge, adorable blob of a manatee, as long and almost as wide as our dink!  "She's an old gal, been around for awhile" the guy mused.  Though I, myself, don't quite know how to distinquish this information yet... except that she was a mountain of a manatee, so old enough to get that big!  Earlier we saw some of the most active dolphins either of us had ever seen (they were jumping and rolling around on their backs, it was wild)! So all in all, another amazing day we enjoyed together on Boot Key. 

   Today has started out pretty spectacularly as well, but I must depart from you all now.  The sunshine is calling my name, and who am I to ignore such a calling!  And it's $1 tacos today down at Sombrero Reef... catch y'all later!

Me too!

   I've got 2 jobs now as well!  We are working together on sunset cruises & afternoon sails on a schooner! For as much boating as I've done, I've only sailed a hand full of times... & just enjoying the ride at that, not as a deckhand.  I am quite excited to learn the ins & outs firsthand on the Pirate's Lady, a 71' Gaff-rigged Trade Rover Schooner! 
   We are toasting our good fortune with a bottle of avocado wine. Just another day in paradise!

The Conch Republic

   So we now reside in Marathon, FL, Boot Key ... it is gorgeous, sunny & warm! We've made new friends with the local salties & some local manatees... & we both have jobs already! Jay has two places of employment- both boating type jobs of course!  & we just ate a conch pizza.... life is good!

Life on the hook

Living on the hook means a lack of battery charge for my computer... hence the lack of updates about our wily adventure.  We don't run the generator everyday, so we don't get to charge the computer much... because I sure don't want to transfer the comp to the dinghy & hope for the best along the often wet ride to shore. Best to just wait to unleash my more indepth thoughts til I recharge the battery... good things come to those who wait, so they say! Patience, grasshopper-son!