The boat's in the barn now for the hurricane season, and she has been a great boat that has completed the original mission of the Great Loop and made us happy for 3 extra years. We're going to sell her this year so we can spend more vacation time doing other things, but we still love cruising. We're back home in Illinois now to enjoy the Spring and Summer seasons here.

We're in Key West, FL after a 100 mile cruise over the Gulf of Mexico from Marco Island.

Yesterday, we went down to the Everglades and took an airboat tour. It was fun, but mostly just an airboat ride, not an everglades tour because the airboat is so noisy that all you see is birds flying away and an alligator or two. The airboat had 4 passengers and the driver for the tour.


We went through a maze of mangrove islands and waterways, where it would be easy to get lost if you didn't know your way around. However, it's a huge area names Big Cypress National Refuge and we only saw the teeny part where the airboats usually go. The mangrove island channels were sometimes only as wide as the boat.

We also went through the "river of grass" areas. The airboat would run in an inch of water or even over just plain mud.









There was also a trail through the swamps where you could get a feel for the oppressive, closed in, watery jungle of the area. In the freshwater swamps there are lots of cypress trees, covered with ferns, epiphytes, and moss. This huge staghorn fern is the biggest one I have ever seen.


Today, we left early because it's a 9 hour cruise to Key West and said goodby to Marco Island in the sunrise.










It was a fairly uneventful ride to Key West, in somewhat lumpy seas because there were 3 foot waves straight abeam for most of the trip. We only saw the Key West fast ferry and this shrimp boat during the crossing.






It was nice to arrive at Key West where the islands blocked the waves as we passed by on our way to the marina on the Atlantic ocean side of the island.









We're docked there now and will be leaving the boat in the hurricane rated dry storage facility here for the hurricane season.

We're at Marco Island after a nice cruise in the gulf yesterday.

Today, we went and got our car from Sarasota and I fished off the aft deck when the tide was running to carry my bait away behind the boat in the tidal current. I caught this one nice sheepshead (we didn't eat this one) and three saltwater catfish.










It seems like there's always something interesting going on with sealife. While I was fishing, I was surprised to see this nudibranch (mollusk with no shell) swimming by in the tidal current. It's about 1 ft. long and it "flys" through the water easily with it's muscular wings. I have no idea what it eats or why it was swimming by here. It looks like a deep sea creature.

At the end of the block where our dock is located, there is a very nice corner lot that would be very expensive for a home, except it is already occupied by endangered burrowing owls. During the day, they are frequently sitting on this low perch or standing with their heads showing out of the burrow. There is a sign explaining about them and a warning not to molest them. They're only about 8 inches tall... not much for an owl. When we go by at night, they're not sitting there. Maybe they're out hunting at night.

The wave forecast for Saturday looks excellent, so we'll stay here Friday and make the 100 mile cruise to Key West on Saturday to arrive at our new marina where the boat will be during hurricane season.

We visited the Edison-Ford Complex today in Fort Myers, just a nice walk from the marina here and a nice sunny day. Thomas Edison and Henry Ford both had winter estates here in Ft. Myers. Ford actually worked for Edison before he invented his first car and started Ford Motor Co. They remained lifelong friends. Almost everything here was about Edison except Ford's estate next door and a couple Model T cars.

Edison's estate is a beautiful large property on the big saltwater river through Fort Myers, leading to the gulf 20 miles away at Sanibel Island. His house looks like two houses in a row because he designed a living area in one house with their bedrooms upstairs, and a second house with an eating and entertaining area and more bedrooms upstairs there. If they had company stay over, they usually stayed in the second house bedrooms. The houses are close together with wide double doors opening to the warm climate, so it's a little like the island living homes in tropical areas that have open floorplans with multiple buildings to comprise one home.

There was an excellent museum with lots of Thomas Edison's original lab equipment (the lab is gone now) and many early inventions. Of course, he invented the familiar Edison Cylinder Phonograph like this and there were dozens of patented versions.







He also invented the first regular record player phonograph.













And the first motion picture camera and projector....

and on and on. He was an extremely prolific inventor.










On the way back, we passed this boat on our dock. Cute boat name.

Obviously, this guy owned a Luhrs before this boat and didn't like it.










Tomorrow we're going to Marco Island.

We cruised South to Fort, Myers today. We plan to stay an extra day here to go see the Edison-Ford Complex... more about that tomorrow. Our marina is right to the left of these huge downtown condos before the bridge.




We passed a beautiful bald eagle sitting on a piling in the ICW looking for a fish dinner. It didn't seem to mind us when we cruised by so I could get a picture of it









On the way down, dolphins surfed our wake merrily and jumped for us.

Once, there were five surfing our starboard wake with two were baby dolphins.
They stayed very close to the big ones and didn't jump very high, but you can see them jump a little right before the end of the video clip.

We're heading back south because we have decided to leave the boat in Key West this summer for the hurricane season. There is a CAT5 hurricane rated indoor dry storage facility in Key West and they will keep Nonchalance on stands in the warehouse for the hurricane season. That took a special rider from our insurance provider, but it's OK. We and the Stones also arranged storage there for Loose Stones, the boat of Bill & Jane Stone, our prior cruising buddies. It'll be nice to see them again, although they may come later than we do.

We had nice visitors over the weekend. My sister, Beth and her husband, Paul, and my brother Jim and his wife Laurie all came to visit us on the boat.

They arrived on Friday and we went to the Selby Botanical Gardens nearby. The gardens have a beautiful orchid greenhouse.













We also walked the large outdoor botanical gardens, which are right on Sarasota bay.














Beth is really in her favorite element in any garden... in a state of complete eufloria.













The Selby Gardens also had a display of jungle masks carved by the Murales brothers from Costa Rica.













On Saturday we cruised down the ICW to Cayo Costa where there is an anchorage at a state park.
We took the dinghy in to a nearby beach, accessible only by boat. We picked up nice shells on the beach and found a very nice conch, but couldn't keep it because it was still occupied by the conch.


Then we dinghied in to the park dock where they have a ferry landing for the mainland visitors. That's Nonchalance anchored out in the background.








We walked the trail through the heavy jungle-like island palm forest.












On Sunday we cruised back to Sarasota. The dolphins cooperated nicely by surfing and jumping in our wake. Paul got good pictures of one jumping, which is hard to do. Then everybody flew back home to the winter weather in Illinois and upper New York State.

Just enjoying Sarasota and not much else here... taking Daisy to get her nails clipped today, painted a few spots on the door that had chipped paint. It's still cool with temps in the 60s, but nice and sunny. The forecast is for it to be warmer this weekend when we have family visiting for a cruise.


This big pelican sometimes sits on the piling right outside our aft deck window, just 2 feet from us. He can't see us inside because of the dark tinted windows there, so he's fun to watch. Hw will sit and look for unsuspecting fish and dive down from his perch to catch them, but I couldn't get a video of him doing that.