Preparing to head home

We've settled into a comfortable routine here in Marathon's Boot Key Harbor. While we're still having a great time, it's not been very blog worthy.

It's been an unusually cold winter everywhere on the East Coast including the Florida Keys. Although cold is a relative term - I have been swimming in the ocean just about every week we have been here.

We have been awaiting a change in the long term forecast which might signal warmer weather to the north and now we finally see it. Barring any change in the weather prediction, we will slip our mooring and head north across Florida Bay to the Everglades this coming Friday morning. We will continue up the west coast of Fla to Ft Myers and enter the waterway across the state to the east coast of Fla. expecting to be home in late April or early May.

We will miss the many cruising friends we have made here including some folks from our former Lake Ontario cruising grounds. It's impossible to become bored in Boot Key with the hundreds of fellow cruisers nearby who are all eager to share their stories and maybe a glass or two of wine.

The may issue of Soundings contains a nice article on the transformation of Boot Key Harbor from a blight in the Keys to a really nice cruising destination. It still has a way to go reach its full potential, but as soon as US citizens are allowed to travel to Cuba, this place will become a major hub for pleasure boat travel.

We will post regular updates of our travels Northbound as access to the internet permits.