December 16, 2013

We were scheduled to be put back in the water Monday, December 2nd at 10:00, so we were standing by ready to help with the launch.  The travel lift finally had us in the water at 11:30,  Alex and Jesse, the 2 guys who operate the Travel lift, did such a great job we just stood by and watched till they had Time 2 Go tied to the dock.  In the afternoon we started some of the in-water work...we got the jib on, the dinghy in the water and tied to the boat, and test ran the engine.  

Tuesday Dave found out the raw water pump had oil leaking from the seal and he arranged to order a new pump.  We managed to get the main sail on and Dave did an oil change, before our day ended early.  Today was the date that one of the Thanksgiving week parties was rescheduled to, due to last week’s weather.  Tonight was the Wine Tasting Party, which besides for more wine then anybody really needed, there was a great meal and a really good band that played all the songs that we all could dance to.  The night ended with a grape stomping competition that neither of us had enough wine in us to want to participate in but was fun to watch.

The next morning we went into town for last minute errands and checked over the van prior to taking it to the storage yard.  In the afternoon the new raw water pump arrived and Dave installed it.  Today ended early as well because it was the second postponed party from Thanksgiving week.  Tonight was Reggae night, complete with a Caribbean meal, a keg of beer, a steel drum band, and later limbo dancing.  We made this an early night, as we were planning to leave in the morning.  

We took a bit of a ribbing about our destination as we were only going about 10 miles down the St.Lucie Canal to a campground and marina run by the Army Corp of Engineers.  This marina is similar to the one we stayed at last spring at the Franklin Lock, very quiet and peaceful.  We are still finding Tree Frogs on the boat at night, gave 4 the heave ho last night.  After one night we headed east again to Stuart and their mooring field.

Sunset Bay Marina and Anchorage is a popular spot for people to stop and wait for a weather window to cross to the Bahamas.  There are good facilities at the marina for anyone staying there including laundry,  showers and a boaters lounge with decent WiFi.  Nearby there is a good selection of shopping, including a Publix grocery store within a short walk from the mooring field.   We were fortunate to be able to get a mooring ball.  Waiting for a weather window here isn’t as boring as it sounds at first.  The new outboard motor we brought down is a real treat... not having to wonder if it will start when we climb into the dinghy to go someplace, is wonderful.  There are quite a few of the people that we had met a Indiantown Marina here and we have been getting loads of suggestions about places to see when we get to the Abacos in the Bahamas.  On one of our trips in the dinghy, Dave spotted a large Wharram catamaran and when he told the people that we had a small 17’ Wharram cat at home, we were invited on board to tour their boat.  Their boat  was the prototype for the 46’ Tiki model and they knew James Wharram personally.   Ann and Neville were a neat couple!  Ann has sailed over 50,000 miles, including a solo crossing of the Atlantic and Neville at 78, had similar experiences.  We had a wonderful afternoon having British tea and hearing of different places and getting advice as to when to cross the Gulf stream and where to stop over there.

There was a possible weather window coming up on Sunday December 15th so we decided to leave Stuart on Friday and go south to the Lake Worth anchorage to be closer if it happened.  Six hours and eight bridges later we dropped the anchor in the north end of Lake Worth in West Palm Beach.  Saturday the weather window closed, the forecast was for 14+ knots of wind and 4’-6’ of waves on Sunday.  We took a slip at nearby Old Port Cove Marina, to give our batteries a good charging.  The dockmaster told us about a 72’ Sportfishing boat that had tried to go out and had to turn back due to the waves at the inlet.  While we were checking out the boaters lounge we met Ed, who drove the marina’s courtesy van and he offered to take us to any spots we needed to go.  So we took him up on his offer and picked up some supplies.

Monday we moved Time 2 Go back to the anchorage to wait for the next weather window.

Alex & Jesse make launching a breeze

Grape stomping At Wine Tasting Party

Calipso band at Reggae Night Party

St.Lucie Campground and Marina, real quiet spot

Mooring field at Sunset Bay Marina, Stuart, Florida

Sunset Bay Marina and dinghy dock

Dinghy beach at Lake Worth anchorage

December 1, 2013

We left Port Elgin November 12 with an inch of slush on the road and started our trip south by visiting with family in Niagara for a few days.  On Friday we crossed over at Buffalo and started heading south.  Our plan was to take a week and see the sights on the way down, as we have never done the drive before.  The first day we just drove until we didn’t see any snow on the hills on the side of the road, stopping at Summersville, West Virginia for the night. 

 Saturday was a short day, as we stopped to tour Mount Airy, North Carolina.  This was the childhood home of Andy Griffith and is believed to be the inspiration for Mayberry, the town in the Andy Griffith Show on TV.  We toured some of the attractions and had an awesome pork chop sandwich at Snappy Lunch, next door to Floyd’s Barber Shop, before moving on again.  Stopping a couple of hours later for gas, we accidentally found the North Carolina Auto Racing Hall of Fame Museum.  We had a quick tour, as they were about to close.  The museum is run by volunteers and all proceeds are used for local charities.  Our second day ended in Rock Hill, South Carolina.  

Sunday we were starting to see some fall colours and a lot of small deer feeding at the side of the road.  We visited the Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens at the Historic Bamboo Farm (near Savannah).  It was in between their seasons, but we did see some beautiful and different orchids in their Orchid House.  We spent the night in Fernandina Beach, Florida, where we had been last year, during Hurricane Sandy.  

Monday we arrived in Titusville at noon and called Ron and Mary, friends from Glammis to invite them  out for supper.   Mary told us that there was going to be a space launch in about an hour, so we went over to their house and went with them down to the river to watch.  The launch site was about 6 miles away on the other side of the river.  We saw a little bright light going up in the sky.  It seemed a long while after, we heard the roar of the Titan rocket.  Had a nice visit with Ron and Mary in the afternoon and then to the Dixie Crossroads Restaurant to get Dave his Rock Shrimp.  

We decided to stay another day in Titusville to start buying supplies for the boat.  

Our plan was to take a day and go to the beach, but the weather was cold, so we drove south and got a campsite nearer to Indiantown.  

Time 2 Go was scheduled to be moved to the work yard Friday morning, so we travelled to Indiantown Marina Thursday afternoon with the hope of getting a ‘look over’ the boat.  That wasn’t to be, as it poured rain all afternoon.  

Friday, the work started, we were in the work yard and settled by 9 am. and finally able to inspect the boat.  The topsides were covered with a green slime and tree frogs.  The inside was dusty, musty, gooey and sticky everywhere, but not as bad as we’d feared.  The outside had to be scrubbed with Spray 9 cleaner to remove the green and the inside was vacuumed and then washed EVERYWHERE.  All our clothes and bedding had to be washed...8 loads!  

Down here Thanksgiving is a really big deal and we arrived the weekend before it.  Indiantown Marina has things planned for the three days before, as well as Thanksgiving Day.  All these events included free suppers and free drinks.  They were a lot of fun and a great way to get to meet the other boaters.  It did slow down the work a little bit, but we got a lot of good tips from people who have been doing this for years.  

Nine days after being moved to the work yard, Time 2 Go is cleaned from top to bottom, new bottom paint, new lifting arm, solar panel, and solar vent installed, and is ready to be lifted into the water. 

Mount Airy, North Carolina birthplace of Andy Griffiths

North Carolina Auto Racing Hall of Fame Museum

Orchids at Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens 

Alex is ready to serve Thanksgiving Dinner

Time 2 Go in the work yard

It was not all work

April 2, 2013

Monday morning we left Franklin Lock Campground and started heading east again.  The scenery on the Caloosahatchee River was really pretty.  We saw large homes, orange groves, wilderness, large horse and cattle farms along the shore.   All this with 23 to 27 feet of water depth made it a relaxing run to our next stop La Belle.  

We arrived around noon at La Belle and found a space on the town’s free dock.  To dock here you have to use a Mediterranean mooring, which involves dropping the anchor and backing the stern up to the dock.  This was a new experience for us and after 3 tries, some local knowledge, and some local help, we were able to get the anchor to set.  The holding was very poor and the only way to get this to work was to drop the anchor in the dredged channel and hook it in the side of the channel.  This, combined with the wind blowing hard on our port side made for an interesting hour!  

La Belle is a small town and most of the larger businesses have moved out to the highways.  We explored the few shops that were still in the downtown core.  Over the next couple of days, and a couple of very  long walks we made it to the grocery store and the hardware store.  

There is a 3 day limit to stay at the free dock in La Belle, so Thursday morning we pointed the boat east again.  This stretch of the river was different again...no boats, no houses, no people, just all leaves, trees and some pastureland.  Around 11 am. we arrived at the Ortona Lock, which raised us 8 feet back into fresh water.  We have been fortunate going through these locks, that we were the only boat.  They raise and lower the water level by opening the gates, which would make it very interesting to hold onto if you were situated close to the gate during the opening.  Just past lock we stopped for the night and a much needed pump out at River Forest Marina.  This is a fairly new marina (5 years old) that is mainly a work yard for large motor boats so there was not much in the way of facilities for transient boaters like us.  We took this opportunity to dinghy about a mile east to an anchorage we had read about called the Lollipop.  

The next day we moved to the Lollipop.  This is an old quarry that had a channel dug into it, so on the charts, it was shaped like a lollipop.  It was a quiet, peaceful anchorage and we were the only ones there.  We dropped the anchor off the bow and tied the stern to a palm tree and sat in 8 feet of water 8 feet off shore.  It would have been a perfect spot except we saw an alligator in the river just as we turned up the channel, so no swimming again!  

The weather forecast has been changing a lot for the next week so we decided to start moving closer to Lake Okeechobee, in preparation for crossing to Indiantown.  We left Lollipop Easter Sunday and went to Moore Haven.  

They installed a 55 foot high bridge over the Caloosahatchee River several years ago, totally bypassing the downtown.  This has left the old downtown near the docks with nothing but boarded up and abandoned buildings, it was sad to see it and imagine what once had been.   A powerboat arrived later in the afternoon and tied up behind us.  The owners Paul and Karen, were from Texas and we had a nice visit with them that evening.  

We decided Monday to try going to Clewiston and see if there was more there.  We first had to pass through the lock at Moore Haven which was really easy as the river was at the same level as the lake.  So we just drove through after the Lockmaster opened the gates.  This is the start of Lake Okeechobee but is just a channel that has been dredged around the edge of a high bank that surrounds the lake.  We saw a lot of alligators and shorebirds along this stretch of waterway.  At Clewiston we had to go through another lock and a Hurricane Gate which were both open because of the lake level.  We tied up at Roland Martin Marina and after paying, we looked around at the nautical clothing store and checked out the menu at the Tiki Bar.  We were told the dockmaster wasn’t there but would return shortly.  Meeting the dockmaster, ‘Little Man’ alone was worth the price of the dock fee.  Watching him direct boats onto the dock as if they were a 747 and then lassoing the cleats with the dock lines, was a sight to behold.  He is a one-of-a-kind character who was very friendly and went out of his way to help everyone.  Paul and Karen, the couple we met last night, came in there too and we all had a nice lunch together.  The Tiki Bar had such good food, we ended up going back there for supper.  

The weather forecast continues to change, sometimes twice in one day.  Tuesday seems to be the only good day for crossing Lake Okeechobee.  With rain and winds forecast for the rest of the week, we decided to cross the lake Tuesday morning.  The first third of the trip is a narrow dredged channel through marsh grass that takes you out to the deeper part of the lake (12 feet).  We tried to put up the sails, but the wind swung around onto our nose so we motored all the way across.  While crossing the lake we looked at some of the anchorages in the guide books on the east side of the lake.  There were no really good options so we decided to go directly to Indiantown, if they had a slip available and they did.    This left only one challenge on the trip -  the Port Mayaca railroad bridge with only 49 feet of clearance, the lowest fixed bridge we’ve had to deal with on our trip.  It doesn’t matter how many times you add a cabin roof that is 5 feet above the water, a 40 foot mast, and a 3 foot antenna, you still wonder if you’ll make it under that bridge.  The numbers did add up, we made it through, but it sure didn’t look like we were going to.  The St Lucie Canal from Fort Mayaca to Indiantown seemed long, straight, hot, airless (high berms on both sides) and just plain boring , so it was really nice to see the turn off to Indiantown Marina.  

This is our last stop.  We will be leaving Time 2 Go on land here until the end of Hurricane season.  Our arriving here early is kind of sad because it means the end of our trip for this season, but the extra time will be helpful in preparing the boat for storage.  The mind set around storing the boat here is exactly opposite to what we were concerned with in Port Elgin - cold temperatures & snow.  Here, we have high temperatures, high humidity, bugs, mold and mildew!  

This will be our last posting to our Blog for this season.  This trip has been a great learning experience with many new challenges that we learned how to deal with together.  We have seen some incredible scenery, and met some wonderful, interesting, and fun people.  Time 2 Go has worked well in all the conditions we have encountered.  These things have made it more than just a road trip on a boat.

Our first Med mooring at La Belle

Free dock at La Belle

Small falcon near our boat at River Forest Marina

Lollipop anchorage

Moore Haven Municipal Marina on Caloosahatchee  River

Time 2 Go at Roland Martin Marina

Heading east onto Lake Okeechobee 

Port Mayaca railroad bridge 49' fully open

The Port Mayaca railroad bridge up close

The St. Lucie Canal to Indiantown

March 24, 2013

Monday morning we left the City of Fort Myers Yacht Basin and headed east up the Caloosahatchee River towards the Franklin Lock.  The river starts to narrow and become less populated as we got closer to the Franklin Lock.  The locks on the Okeechobee Waterway are operated differently from the locks we have experienced on our trip so far.  They raise or lower the water level in these locks by just opening the gate and letting the water in or out.  We have been told that it can be a tough to deal with the current if you are the boat nearest the gate when it opens.  Today we are the only boat that is in the lock, the Lockmaster left us well back on the wall away from the opening gate and with only going up 2 feet, it was a comfortable ride.

Since we left Marathon our trip has been dictated by the weather.  There has been a lot of cold fronts moving down from the north and with them high winds and waves from the north through northwest. This has forced us to move north faster then we had planned, this is about to change.  At the west end of the Franklin lock is the W.P. Franklin Campground and Marina which is operated by the Army Corps of Engineers and staffed by volunteers.  So 14 miles after leaving the City of Fort Myers Yacht Basin we tied up at a slip with water and electric for $24.00 a night ($12.00 for people over 65).  They check ID ! The Campground is really quiet and the Marina is well protected in a basin just to the north side of the park. 

Just as we tied up, one of the park volunteers showed us a 2’ baby alligator  that was living under our finger dock and told us about the 8’ mother that lived mostly on the other side of the basin.  Dave spent the rest of the week trying to get a picture of the baby (he was very skittish).  They also have some different types of shore birds here, one that made wailing sounds starting early in the morning.

Our plan was to stay a few days here before going on, but we liked it so much we stayed 7 nights. 

Time 2 Go at Franklin Campground & Marina

Different shore birds

More different shorebirds, the dark one is really noisy

2' Alligator living next to us at the dock

Turtle sat on this submerged log all week

Anne standing under a Bottlebrush Tree

March 17, 2013

Monday night we had dinner with Marilyn and thanked her for her hospitality and said our goodbyes.  

The next morning we left for Fort Myers Beach.  The weather was so-so, calling for rain in the afternoon but with the wind out of the south, we were able to make good time at 6 1/2 to 7 knots most of the way.  We arrived at Moss Marine about 2 pm. and shortly after the wind speed picked up and started coming out of the northwest and it stayed that way for the next 2 days.  The tidal current in this area is very strong and when the current is going in the opposite direction to the wind, it makes it a little uncomfortable sitting at the dock.   We had thought of moving to the mooring field but with the weather conditions,  currents and the long distance to the dinghy dock, it didn’t seem like a good option.   

We toured around Fort Myers Beach, looking at all the t-shirt shops, walking on the beach, and seeing all the March breakers, it reminded us of a larger version of Grand Bend near home.  It was fun to watch the kids on the beach, the girls all trying to look ‘hot’ and the guys all trying to look ‘cool’.  We sure felt old.

Friday the wind died down and changed direction slightly, so we decided to head up the Caloosahatchee River to North Fort Myers.  This is the start of the Okeechobee Waterway.  We were glad it was a short trip as the water temperature had dropped to the mid-60’s, this combined with the wind, made for a cool trip (wore our foul-weather gear).  We wanted to stop in North Fort Myers to visit with friends from Kincardine, so we reserved a slip at the City of Fort Myers Yacht Basin.  The staff at the Yacht Basin couldn’t have been friendlier or more helpful.  The City of North Fort Myers is trying to restore and promote it’s old downtown core, so there is a lot of services and conveniences for boaters staying here, including a free bus service.   

We met up with our friends, Jim and Bev Saturday morning.  We had a nice visit and they gave us a tour of the area, showing us Fort Myers, where they keep the plane, and their condo.  All over Florida we have seen homes on canals for the boaters to keep their boats in their backyards, where Jim and Bev keep their airplane is an aviator’s version of that.  Bev’s uncle’s home, where they keep the airplane, has an airplane hangar right beside the house.  When they want to fly in their airplane, they taxi down the road in this gated community to the airstrip.  It’s a pretty nice set-up.  We had a very enjoyable day with them. 

  Sunday was St. Patrick’s Day and Fort Myers had a large party planned.  They closed off a 2 block section of the downtown core and had several bands playing, special Irish foods at the different restaurants and, of course, green beer.  We wandered around listening to the bands and having fun just people watching.  There were some interesting sights. 

Saying Goodbye to our friend Marilyn on Marco Island

Strange looking Catamaran on Caloosahatchee River

Spring Breakers at Fort Myers Beach 67 degrees F.

Fort Myers Water front and Marina

Our friends from Kincardine Bev and Jim in Fort Myers. 

St Patrick's Day Fort Myers

St Patrick's Day Fort Myers

March 10, 2013

We have decided to head to Indiantown, where we will leave the boat for the summer via the west coast of Florida.  People have been telling us how protected the waters are on the west coast, due to the prevailing winds having to cross the land mass.  

We said our good-byes to Jay, Tino, Carla, Dave, Sal and Ina on Wednesday and prepared to leave at high tide.  We made it over the low spot in the channel and out into the Atlantic, heading for Boot Key at the west end of Marathon.  The wind had swung around on us and came directly from the west on the nose, making it a rough and choppy ride.  We arrived late in the afternoon at Boot Key Harbor and got a mooring ball for 2 nights, as the weather was not expected to improve.  

Early Friday morning we left Boot Key Harbor and headed west to the Seven Mile Bridge, then north into the Gulf of Mexico.   We noticed the water was really green, probably due to it being very clear and only about 7 to 12 feet deep.  Our goal for the day was to anchor off the beach in the Florida Everglades National Park.  The trip across, is the first time that we have been out of sight of land on our trip down from Canada.  The wind swung around on us in the afternoon and went from the Northeast to the Northwest, making our beach anchorage impossible.  So we went to plan “B”, both Jay and Sal had told us about the Little Shark River anchorage so we changed course and headed for it.  About half a mile up the river, around the first bend, the wind was gone and the water calm, blocked by thick mangroves along the entire river, making it a very quiet and peaceful anchorage.  

Our goal for Saturday was to sail to Marco Island, a journey of about 55 miles.  Our friend, Jay, had contacted Marilyn, a lady we had met at Coral Lagoon Resort in Marathon, whose condo on Marco Island had a dock that we could use for free.  We arrived there late in the afternoon and after winding our way up the channel, it sure was nice to see Marilyn waving to us from the end of the dock.  

Sunday morning Marilyn took us for a tour of Marco Island, showing us different points of interest.  A large part of Marco Island, is land that has been reclaimed from dredging canals, so that people can have boats in their backyards.  She also showed us a couple of spots that had not been developed, but preserved.  The first, was the remnants of a foundation of a hotel that had sat on the highest point of Marco Island, even though overgrown, it was easy to imagine the view.  The second was called Otter Mound Preserve.  Here someone had built retaining walls from thousands of conch shells.  It wasn’t possible to tell what the purpose of the walls had been, but it was incredible to see the large number of conch shells used in this manner.  We had our lunch on the beach and went for a long walk.  The sand on the beach is really white and powdery and full of shells, unlike the more coarse, granular sand we saw on the east coast.  We finished off the afternoon in the hot tub and pool at Marilyn’s condo complex.  She cooked us a delicious supper and we had a nice evening visiting. 

Heading to the Seven Mile Bridge and the Gulf of Mexico

Sunrise in the Little Shark River anchorage

Mangrove Swamp at the Little Shark River, Everglades National Park

Retaining walls built of conch shells

The beach on Marco Island

March 3, 2013

Two new boats and two new couples, Sal and Ina, and Tino and Carla have arrived on the dock this week.  The one couple is from Picton, Ontario, and when we helped them dock, Sal’s first question was ‘Does anybody play guitar here?’  It turned out we had 2 guitar players on the dock, that sounded really nice with his harmonicas.  This led to several pot luck suppers, jam sessions, sing-alongs, and a lot of enjoyable evenings during the week.   

On Wednesday we were invited to go lobstering on Carla and Tino’s fishing boat.  Dave was interested in learning how it was done and where to look for lobsters, so we took them up on their invitation.  Tino took us over to the Gulf side of the Island to start on some of the spots on his GPS, that he had marked from his last trip.  What we were looking for was small clearings in the sea grass that had some kind of rock formation that the lobsters could hide under.   When we found a spot that looked like it had some potential, Tino would dive over the side for a better look.  If he spotted lobsters, we would get in the water and help try to find them, usually you would see an antenna sticking out from under a ledge.  To get them out, he would use a tickle stick to try and touch the lobsters tail at the back of the hole and make them shoot out of the hole and into his net.  Tino made it look a lot easier than it really was because when the lobster decide to come out of the holes, they move really fast.  In spite of this, we returned to the dock at the end of the day with 15 legal sized lobster.  It was a beautiful day on the water and a good pot luck lobster supper.  

Our time here is coming to an end and we have to start thinking about heading north next week.  Our friends have suggested for us that it would be possible to go up the west coast of Florida to Fort Myers.  We would then travel the canals to Lake Okeechobee to Indiantown.  This would eliminate having to go through all the bridges between Miami and Lake Worth.  We are researching it.


  

Impromptu dock party and music night

The head lobster guy

Florida Spiny Lobster aka. supper

Dave getting ready to clean the propeller 

February 24, 2013

We have been enjoying our time here in Marathon.  It is quite different, going to the pool and relaxing on our boat, from sailing Time 2 Go to different destinations everyday.  We still have things that we want to see and do in this area, one of those being John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park.  We arranged to do that on Wednesday.  

We rented a car for Wednesday morning and drove, about an hour north to Key Largo.  Dave had hoped to snorkel on the reefs and the wreck at the Park.  When we arrived, the weather did not co-operate, being cloudy, cool, windy and a 2 foot chop on the reef.  So we decided to do the Glass bottom boat tour out on one of the reefs.  This turned out to be a good choice, as our 2 tour guides narrating were extremely knowledgeable about the different kinds of coral, sponges, and different reef fish.  They also were able to point out the not so common sites, such as Spiny lobsters and a Hawksbill turtle.  It was an enjoyable trip.  

When we returned to shore from the Glass bottom boat tour, we had hoped to snorkel on a 16th century shipwreck that was right off the beach.  We were unable to find the location so we spoke to a Park ranger, and found out that it wasn’t a shipwreck, but an “authentic replica” of a 16th century shipwreck.  They had dropped some cannons and a few boards in the water, in the swimming area, so we didn’t bother putting on our new wetsuits and snorkeling out to see them.  However, overall, it was a fun day.  

When we were planning this trip south, we joined an association called ‘The America’s Great Loop Cruisers Association’.  They are group of people who travel all, or parts of the circle route, down the Mississippi, around Florida, up the eastern seaboard, back to the Great Lakes, Trent-Severn Waterways and North Channel.  Their website and web forum are a help in planning a trip our’s on any part of this route.  This association had a Sunset Celebration planned for Thursday night in Marathon at the Banana Bay Resort and we were going!  This was a potluck supper, with a band (boaters from the marina who had some kind of musical instrument, that they thought they could play).  We went with a friend of ours from our marina, who also belonged to the Association, and met a lot of fellow cruisers.  One of the first we met, had done the loop 3 or 4 times and now was sailing the canals of France, who turned out to be from Guelph.  Yes, in Ontario, it is a small world.  

The Upper Keys Rotary Club holds an annual Nautical Flea Market every year in Islamorada.  It was being held this weekend, so we arranged for a rental car with a friend at the Marina.  We went early Sunday morning and toured around the different booths - it was huge!  Although it was the second day and things were picked over, the final score was Dave - one shirt, Anne - 2 dresses.  This event is a really great fundraiser.  We headed back to the Marina around lunch and had agreed to help our friend, Dave, take his powerboat for fuel.  When we arrived back, another friend Jay was taking his catamaran to Coffin Patch Reef for an afternoon of snorkeling.  Our friend, Dave thought we should go snorkeling on our way to get the fuel, we never made it for fuel.  We had a great afternoon snorkeling on the reef and seeing many of the fish and coral, that we had seen on the Glass bottom boat tour, earlier in the week.  

Glass Bottom Boat at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park

Aquarium at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park

Lion fish at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park

AGLCA Sunset Celebration. Dave & Cruiser from Guelph

Snorkeling at Coffin Patch reef

Cotton Patch Reef