Marathon, Key Largo, Biscayne Bay, Miami, Fort Lauderdale!
We did get to ride our bikes cross the bike trail on the 7 mile bridge! It was quite awsome! After that long ride we needed a break and had a great lunch at Porky’s!
Downtime at Skip Jack Marina!
A group of Loopers got together for a social hour one evening!
It was fun going on a fishing excursion! I caught 5 fish and Mike caught more!! We gave our fish to the gentleman sitting by Mike! Proof men should not be allowed to shop alone!!!
Below: Sombreo Beach, Marathon
While out fishing our captain came across a Cuban migrant chug boat. No one was on board. She suspected the migrants were close enough to shore to swim and released the boat. Over 6000 Cuban migrants have been intercepted at sea in 2022. Almost all were returned to Cuba. Chug boats making landfall without interdiction on the water draw response from the U.S. customs and Border Protection.
The Cubans are putting their lives into handmade boats due to a food shortage, rising inflation, power outages, and many years of political repression. It was a sombering experience to see such human tragedy so close!
We left Skip Jack Marina on Monday, January 9, 2022. A manatee was sleeping under our neighbors boat! We traveled on the Atlantic side for 3 hours and crossed into the Gulf side at the channel 5 bridge. We followed the ICW from this point. Some sections of the ICW are very shallow, if one left the narrow channel one might end up in 2 foot of water. We anchored the first night near Key Largo at Buttonwood Big Boat anchorage. We had a good night and beautiful sunset. The next day we continued up the ICW to Biscayne Bay and Miami! Our first night going through Miami we had planned to anchor at Oleta State Park. When we arrived the area was full of all kinds of boats and festivities. Mike did not feel comfortable anchoring so close to other boats so we moved on and ended up anchoring at Maule Lake. Our neighbors from Skip Jack, Barbara and Bill had recommended this spot and it was fabulous. January 11, we left Maule Lake and are anchoring at Hillsboro Inlet. There are several boats here at anchor and a beautiful light house! We had a bonus Goodyear blimp fly by!! Tomorrow we have a marina planned and hope to catch up with some Ste. Genevieve friends on Friday!
