The park at Bahia Honda has had a few improvements since we arrived last November: The bathrooms are ADA compliant, the shop has new wiring and all the buildings now have hurricane-safe windows, thanks in no small part to Tom's hard work.  I took a few temp jobs and helped out a little in the office but I still had plenty of time to take photos of local wildlife and the Keys' outstanding sunsets. 

March was a bit unusual, weather wise. Wind gusted every day out of the northeast for more than three weeks, nobody wanted to be out on the water in that, but on the first day of April, change was in the air. Calming winds were predicted to clock around to the southeast for the next three days so we got ready to make a run to Glades Boat Storage on the Okeechobee Waterway. That's where Pura Vida will stay until November while we house sit a little farther north. Mike came by on Sunday to spend an hour of his day doing some of our dirty work - scraping barnacles and crud off the prop and rudder. Now, that's a friend!

6:30 a.m. Monday, April 2nd:  As a full moon set in the west, we got busy. Down came the satellite dish, up went the bikes, and all systems were go for a 7:30 departure. We looked forward to a perfect day.

By 11:00 Florida Bay was a little rocky, not too bad, but our northerly direction put us right in the wave troughs for sideways rolls. The bright side to that is that we got exercise from constantly flexing our muscles to stay on balance. Beyond sight of land, we were surrounded by emerald water and blue sky dotted with fluffy cotton balls. The occasional billowed sail at the horizon made it look like a storybook setting. 

It was far from a storybook that evening after we anchored in Little Shark River. Tom opened a locker in the aft deck to find that seawater had leaked in. He thought a loose hose clamps could be the culprit, but, since he can't fit into an opening that small, guess who got to climb in. If I was a millimeter wider or longer I wouldn't have made it, but I squeezed in with a great deal of effort and tightened the hose clamps, only to discover that the water wasn't coming in there. It appeared to be leaking in the thru-hull fitting. Next fall, before Pura Vida goes back in the water, it'll have to be fixed so I'd better lose a few pounds by then. There's a diet incentive I've never had before! 

Tuesday was rockier than the day before, as the current pushed us one way and the wind another. In the morning I noticed a few scattered whitecaps and by mid-day we were surrounded by a sea of whitecaps. A number of large sea turtles came to the surface throughout the day, eyed the boat, and dove down again. We made it to Marco Island but our usual anchorage in Factory Bay has been banned as an anchorage by a city ordinance. That ordinance is being challenged because the city doesn't own the water but we didn't want to get into a fracas so we simply stayed just outside the channel.  

Wednesday - Lots of traffic on the water between Marco Island and Fort Myers, no doubt due to spring break. The shoreline is dotted with condos for miles. From the water, the air over the highly populated coastline is pinkish-brown, sort of like looking through cheesecloth, and rows of look-alike condos made me think of Stone Henge. Here the water color changes from green to blue-gray and later, in the Caloosahatchee River beyond Fort Myers, it turns coffee brown. 

The Franklin Lock opens four times a day and we made the final eastbound opening at 6:00, along with a smaller boat, two jet skis and a manatee. A few feet past the lock is an ideal place to spend the night, and when I woke up at two o'clock all I could hear was complete silence. That hardly ever happens any more. 

Thursday, the last leg: We were lucky enough to have morning clouds so we didn't have to squint into a blinding sun, as we were heading east. We were on our way to the Ortona Lock, our final hurdle, and between locks the scent of jasmine hung heavy in the air. The Ortona Lock raised us eight feet; this transit we were joined by one small boat and two manatees. In a little while we slipped into the boatyard and began packing whatever we thought we'd need for the next seven or eight months. 

Friday morning the big sling was fired up and it lifted Pura Vida out of the water and down onto her new resting place in the yard. We worked our butts off getting all the rest of our stuff offloaded (oh, my aching back!) and said goodbye until November.   

(click on pictures to enlarge)