" When Pigs Fly"

Well once again Mother Nature and King Neptune have conspired against us.  The Captain and I were both set to pull out of Marathon this morning starting the next phase of our travels.  We jumped out of bed at 7am.  I was in the shower even before coffee, but by the time I got out Frank was looking at the weather and he wasn’t smiling. 

The winds for the next few days weren’t looking good.  We were planning to anchor out the next two nights and 20-25mph winds just didn’t seem like they fit with the plan.  If there’s one thing we’ve learned so far on this trip it’s that we only want to boat when it’s fun.  The forecast didn’t look like fun.  So we opted to stay in Marathon a few more days and wait for the wind to calm down a little.  I’m not sure which of us was more disappointed. We really had been excited to get going but safety and a smoother ride won out. 

The Captain and me on our Key West jet ski tour

The ferry ride out to the Dry Tortugas was pretty rough.  Frank and I were fine but  several of the passengers needed these handy little bags.  

On Saturday we took the ferry to the Dry Tortugas

The chains on the bench were there for prisoners and/or slaves

Inscription over cell occupied by  Dr. Samuel Mudd

Moat around Ft Jefferson

In spite of the change it turned out to be a pretty good day.  We finally got to see some manatees up close, right here in the marina lagoon.   There were 10 of them moving slowly through the water. 

Manatees!

Then we toured the Turtle Hospital and rehabilitation center.  Learned a few things about turtles and enjoyed seeing the work done by staff and volunteers.

Some of the patients at the Turtle Hospital

So, another day in paradise.  The forecast looks better for the end of the week so our start date has been moved tentatively to Friday.  We’ll see.

See ya on the water