"O the places we go" with Discovery

Jim and Loree

The Jolly Roger is at mile 59.25, just east of Marathon. On Grassy Key. We are launching today (Monday) and plan to be on he water about a month. The RVs and Trailers will be in storage on Knights Key. Follow this thread, we will try to update our location as we can. We would like to get together with you (or any other C-Brats) that make it to the Keys while we are here.

Brent
 
We are basking in the sun at Bahia Honda State Park. Yesterday was a terrific day. We got launched at Dodge Lake and Joann and I took the RVs to Knights Key to put them in storage for the next month. The only even little issue was that Jeff forgot to turn his gas on--again. Those motors run good, but not without fuel!
We made the trip uneventfully as did Brent and Jeff bringing the boats down the island to pick us up.
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Wild Blue will appreciate this--we parked our RV's right next to Eric Stone. Yep the real guy! He is performing at the restaurant at Knights Key Resort every tuesday. He was so nice. He lives in this big bus and has a couple of parrots that live in cages outside. I was wishing Jim was there to jam with him.

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We stopped on the way down to Bahia Honda and rafted for lunch. The guys fished and caught one hog fish and couple grouper. Enough for a yummy dinner. We anchored in the harbor and had a bouncy night on the hook. This morning the sea had flattened and we headed out to catch a big guy--tuna or dorado past the the reef in the 200 ft. water. It was fairly smooth-as ocean water goes--but no luck with a big catch. We'll try again another day.

The park here is just as beautiful as I remembered, however the launch ramp is all torn up--under construction and the price for moorage is $2/foot. The rate goes to $1.50/foot in January.

That's all for now-

Dixie
 
Hi guys,

Good to hear you're back on the water. Don't forget the good ice cream there at Bahia Honda! :D (Man does not live by fish alone.)

You'll have to time your travels so you can make it to Knight's Key on a Tuesday. Does Eric still have Kyle playing? Eric is often on The World of Boating radio show/podcast, telling about where he's playing. Buy a CD, keep a musician afloat. :wink:

Best wishes,
Jim
 
Hi, Jim

Kyle went back to school to finish college, at his parents insistence. Eric said Kyle will come back to the band when He's through.

We will try out the ice cream stand tomorrow

Brent
 
We had a great time in Bahia Honda-- we stayed two days. There is lots of wildlife there. This particular guy dove into the water by our boat, swam across the harbor and climbed back out to enjoy the sun.
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When we left, we stopped to fish in the current under the bridge. I wanted you to see the superb equipment on "Kurbit" Jeff said Jo was his anchor wench.
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We spent another day out in the big water with still no great luck. We were anchoring on the hook in the Spanish Channel, up Doctors Arm when a gentleman started waving at us from his dock. We motored over and he offered to let us tie to his dock for the night. We gladly accepted his hospitality. He gave a tour of his acreage including his small wild herd of Keys deer. They were very cute--about the size of a large dog, but the babies were the size of a large rabbit. It was neat to see them. He also told us that the No Name Pub was about a block down the road--if we were interested. Oh yea! It is one of the oldest pubs in the keys and has great food. We enjoyed ourselves there having Shrimp Pizza and Beer. It really doesn't get any better than that.
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Those are dollar bills stapled on the walls and ceilings--there had to be a million!

This morning we bid our generous host goodby and headed out for another day on the water. Nightime found us in the Niles Channel. It was another terrific day, even if we didn't have turkey dinner. We have lots to be thankful for and even though I miss our kids and grandkids, it was still a nice Thanksgiving that we will remember for many years. We ended the day with a typical Keys sunset.
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Happy Thanksgiving everyone--we're thankful for all our C-Dory friends.

Dixie
 
Friday, Nov 29th. We left our anchorage west of Ramrod Key and went offshore. Determined to catch more fish, after a Thanksgiving dinner of leftover lasagna. We cruised out past the reef, and Kurbit decided to troll for Dorado or Sail Fish. Discovery deep dropped for Grouper, or whatever bottom fish would bite. The trolling resulted in lots of gas consumed, and the bottom fishing resulted in lost tackle. Fish two, anglers nothing. We continued west and settled on Cudjoe Bay as the nights anchorage. The channel in is long and narrow, but well marked. The best protection from the persistent NW winds was in Pirates Cove-- just East of the Highway 1 bridge. We anchored next to the Mangroves and fixed a sundowner.
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The water was shallow, three feet or less, and the bottom was mud over rock. We set two anchors and went to bed early. Good thing, when the tide changed we began to drag anchor. From 2 AM until 4 AM we watched as we moved closer to Kurbit and the mangroves. Finally we pulled the anchors and moved to deeper water and re-anchored. At least a few hours of uninterupted sleep.

With the sun came the wind. Exiting Cudjoe Bay we were faced with 2' to 4' seas inside the reef. Outside it was 3' to 5'. We stayed in close and went west toward Key West. We called ahead and found slips at the Key West City Marina at Garrison Bight. The distance traveled was 21 miles, it took us two hours.
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Kurbit off the end of Key West.
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Mallory Square from the bay.

We took a look in Key West Bight to show Kurbit the $4/foot slips. We watched a Coast Guard Cutter come in and dock. They come in fast and have real good brakes. We proceeded on to Garrison Bight and took our slips. The cost here is $1.90/ft. The weather is expected to be continued rain and blow for the next few days, so we're here for four nights.
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Garrison Bight.

We started to explore the town on foot and Jeff decided that was too slow. He soon showed up with deluxe transportation.
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We had lunch at a Mexican place on Duval street, then walked to Mallory Square for the sunset festivities (crazys)
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We got some well-deserved sleep, with a gentle rainstorm while tied in our marina slip.

Brent
 
This is a great tread the information about the marinas is great I look forward to your next post and hope to follow in your wake in January. Thanks for psting your adventure.
 
I agree with marvin4239. I'm stuck in the cold/snowy winter, so it is nice to read about warmth, fun, and what I plan on doing in the future.

Enjoy your trip and we'll be waiting for the latest posts!!
 
After hearing the tales of the shenanigans on the "world wide web" of Dixie, I'm wondering if there is any significance to the presence of a Police Car stopped behind the yellow "get away" card that Dixie and JoAnn are next to?
 
At first glance of the musician at Mallory Square, I thought it was our multi-talented Jim of Wild Blue......then I remembered that he was basking in the sun in Texas.
 
Have been enjoying this thread and accompanying photos. Not to divert from the topic but consistent with the mentioned launching dilemma we've thought of trailering to Flamingo, exploring the Keys from there. I haven't looked at the ramp specifically with C-Dory launch in mind (it wasn't even a twinkle in my eye when there last) but it's modern and wide. There's a $5 fee for a 7 day launch permit which in the absence of additional posted fees may (?) cover parking for tow vehicle and trailer. The information I had on free slips and discontinued gasoline sales is likely outdated; my uncorroborated guess is that slip fees have been reinstated and gas sales resumed.

It sounds as though you voyagers won't be afloat in the vicinity of Punta Gorda but if you are there's a dock available if needed in Alligator Creek as mentioned in the Dock Space topic.
 
I just visited with Dixie on the phone. Without us there to report on what she is actually doing, you'll just have to go with the "filtered" version. :wink

Yes, Dave, we are basking in the sun in the Tropical Tip. Our weather has been absolutely lovely. We miss our cruising buddies on Discovery, but are enjoying their posts here along with everyone else.

Keep the posts coming, Brent and Dixie.

Best wishes,
Jim & Joan
 
We are still hanging loose in Key West—What a place! Dave, it was purely accidental that we were parked by the police car. You have to remember that I’m two years older than when we were here before and I’m trying to stay out of trouble. We have been back down on Duval street several times and this picture gives a whole new meaning to doing the Duval Crawl. For those of you that haven’t visited Key West, the Duval Crawl is what you do when you start at one end of the street and have a drink in every bar that you come to. I promise you most people wouldn’t make it very far. This dude made it into the ambulance with a police escort to the Stock Island Stockade (Jail). One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor!
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We traded in the electric car for a real car—weather necessity. We had another tornado watch with several inches of rain and high winds on Sunday night. Glad we were in the harbor tied in a slip.

They really have lots of great restaurants here. We’ve been to Finnigan’s Wake (pub) for Irish food and beer and Dockside Bar and Grill for fish and chips and beer. We made a healthy donation to the economy buying t-shirts for those we left home. We also found an XM receiver to replace our old Roady that bit the dust on the bumpy ride here. Now we are back to Margaritaville on XM 55. You just shouldn’t be in Key West without Jimmy Buffet.

We will be leaving here Wednesday—weather permitting and working our way back to Marathon. Kurbit’s crew have decided they prefer the creature comforts of their motorhome to the CD22—I tell you it’s the porta-potty that is the deciding factor. They haven’t decided exactly what they are going to do. They want to get some more fishing in if we can work out the logistics. Discovery will continue “doing the keys” anyway.
 
Wednesday came and we're still in Key West. The NOAA forcast was still for small craft advisorys this morning so we bagged the idea of leaving. Small craft advisorys are for winds from 20 to 33 kts. and seas 2-4 inside the reef and up to 7 feet offshore. Kurbits crew decided to drive the rental car back up to Marathon and pick up their motorhome and boat trailer and then bring them back down to Key West and take the boat out of the water here. They are off finding a campground-probably back in Marathon-- and we will catch up to them in a few days. We had a wonderful afternoon at the laundry. Much like other laundromats we've experienced-- about 50% of both the washers and dryers actually work. The funny part about here is that there were kids taking off most of their clothes to wash everything they owned. Lots of street people here but they say they aren't homeless, they just don't have a roof over their heads.

We'll probably leave tomorrow-- still got lots of places to see.

Brent and Dixie
 
We enjoyed Key West. Saw the Truman House, etc. Watched a couple walking down the street, the honey in a tight dress Oops, those are two guys holding hands. Touched the gold bar, had a drink in Hemmingway's saloon, the one with the tree. Took our picture at the furthest south point in the US.

And watched the fronts come through, and watched the fronts come through, etc. etc. A lot of weather in Florida.

Fun place
 
On December 4th, we left Key West heading east in the Hawk Channel. The wind was still fairly stiff and the water lumpy. After an hour of travel, I expressed my feeling that “if it ain’t fun, we should change something”. Consequently we pulled into SaddleBunch Harbor by Pelican Key. We had only traveled about 10 miles. We got a very protected mooring on the hook and spent a lazy afternoon reading and enjoying the warm weather. We had sundowners and dinner and listened to our buddy Jimmy on the XM.

Next morning we continued our move towards Marathon but found conditions to be still windy. We pulled into the Bahia Honda Channel and anchored under the old railroad bridge and fished for a few hours. We caught plenty of fish for dinner. The wind was still out of the east so we went to the bay side of Bahia Honda Key to anchor. This was not as good of protection as the previous night and we sloshed and bobbed all night. We had two anchors out and stayed put, but didn’t get much sleep.

On Saturday morning we ran at good speed in the ICW channel and crossed under the 7 mile bridge at the Mosher Channel. The Kurbit crew had rented a slip and RV space at the Knights Key RV Park. Knight’s Key is at the east end of the 7 mile bridge. The whole island (key) is an RV park with a small harbor and just a few private homes. People from all over come here to spend the winter because of the excellent fishing accessibility for both the Atlantic and Florida Bay, and the terrific weather. You can moor your boat 10 feet away from your RV. However, as a sign at one of the guest’s RVs says, “Living in Paradise Ain’t Cheap.” An RV space and boat slip runs about $2000 per month, with the discount.

We pick up Jeff and Jo and headed out past the Sombrero Key Light into the gulf stream. The gulf stream actually varies it’s course and that day it was only three miles south of the light. We trolled and caught dorado and king mackerel.
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We used the side tie slip at Knights Key Harbor and spent the night. We had fresh fish tacos for dinner and Key Lime Pie. Life just doesn’t get any better! The next day we headed back out to the big water to fish but didn’t have the same luck. Brent fought a four foot wahoo for a few jumps before it threw the hook and got off. It was still a good day. We came back in through Sister’s Creek and gave the Kurbit crew a tour through Boot Key Harbor. It brought back lots of memories of our last trip here.
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We stayed again in the Knight’s Key Harbor. After another delicious fish dinner, we watched the newly released DVD "Step Brothers" with Will Ferrell. It was the worst, most stupid movie I have ever seen. It was so bad that Jeff played Frisbee with the DVD. Don’t waste your time with this one.

Sunday was a day of boat switching. We launched Kurbit and retrieved Discovery. We need to do a good wash down to get rid of the barnacles that are starting to form. I sure wish we had bottom paint—it just doesn’t seem that important for a Utah boat.

We are having a great time and we love our boat! Life is good.

Dixie
 
We have had gorgeous weather in the Tropical Tip of Texas: yesterday was in the 80s, sunny, breezy. I sat out on the deck for a while in just shorts, taking in the sunshine. Then Dixie publicly announces they are heading to Texas... today, the temp is in the 40s :shock: , the wind is out of the north at about a million miles per hour, and it's spitting drizzle. :crook

We look forward to seeing our friends again... but could you keep it under wraps so Mother Nature doesn't find out about it? :wink:

Travel safe.

Best wishes,
Jim & Joan
 
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