Bye Jess and Matt, We'll Miss You!

After a wonderful three weeks, Jess and Matt are off to the UK. It was really great having them visit and suprisingly having 4 people on a 42 foot boat works - nothing broke, nobody fell off!

Both Jess and Matt's sailing skills have grown to the extent that they were doing a lot more boating activities than washing the dishes (although they d

id help with those too)! By the end of the trip, Jess was driving the dingy by herself (with some adventures along the way)!

Last night we went to Castaways, a restaurant on one of the canals here in Boot Key Harbor. They have a dock so we just took the dingy and tied up while we had dinner. This was the prize for winning the cocktail competition - my choice and no dishes for anyone! Huge portions of local fish (and meat for the meat lovers in the crowd)

(Steve and I have decided we're just going to split meals from now on, they're definitely too big to eat in one go.)

They get the best rating you can give your guests - We can't wait for them to come back again!

Jess and Matt's time on Snowbird

Matt: As our time out here in Florida is drawing to an end, we thought it would be good to do a quick blog posting covering all the great things we have been up to over the past three weeks. Jess came out first on December 22nd and I joined the party after Christmas on the 27th so the first thoughts on Christmas aboard a sail boat will be all Jess' work!

Jess: My first week was great! We went to Key West, and got the boat ready for Christmas. My favourite part of it was sitting in the sun, using the dingy, checking out Marathon and exploring Key West (and of course Christmas). Christmas day was great because we opened all the presents on deck in the bright sunshine plus i got eggs Benedict and a full turkey dinner. The day Matt got out here we went to Miami and had dinner on South Beach at a great Italian restaurant but sadly i didn't see Horatio Kane during our visit. After dinner we went to pick up Matt at the airport, he looked really tired but very excited to be here.

The next day we drove to Key West to introduce Matt to the Key's way of life and get a bit of shopping done whilst we had a car and boot space! We also went for a cheeseburger in paradise and I had a Margarita at Margaritaville. Once we got back to Marathon we started our journey South with the goal of reaching Key West by New Years eve!

Matt: So after being kindly given a day of R&R off the back of my travel day it was agreed amongst the established contingent that they had been in the same place for too long and it was time to set sail. So on the 29th we sailed down to an anchorage called Newfound Harbour on Big Pine Key for a night and then it was on to Key West the next day.

We anchored just off Wisteria Island by the opening to the marina where we could dock the dingy when we wanted to come ashore. The next few days were filled with more shopping, eating, kayaking, sunbathing and tandem riding. The latter saw us hire two tandems and explore the town visiting the southernmost point, the lighthouse and having the biggest ice creams in the world. All this activity was interspersed with some great "on board" meals courtesy of both the kitchen and the BBQ and the highly competitive cocktail competition which was won comprehensively by Katherine... the only vote she didn't get was her own!!

All in all we spent four full days in Key West and had a great time with glorious weather throughout but, sadly come Sunday it was time to start heading North again.

Jess: After leaving KW we headed back to Newfound Harbour to stay overnight. It was a bit of a rough sailing day but we are sailing with experts so it didn't seem hard at all. I got to read my book on deck so I was happy. We stayed at the anchorage over night and then we were on to BAHIA HONDA!

We anchored at the Bahia Honda national park for 2 whole days. It was a great spot and anyone who goes there should ignore the books that discourage people from staying here. While we were here we went to the park and walked to the top of Flaglers bridge which is pretty amazing. We also went snorkeling and sat on the beach or in the shade for some of us.

You may wonder what we did in the evenings after the sun went down every night. After toasting the sun and competing in our cocktail competition we would play games. So far we have played articulate, bananagrams, and liars dice. So we kept just as busy in the evening as we did during the day.

When we left Bahia Honda it was a short trip back to Marathon but we got to sail there as well. Now we have made it to Marathon and back where we started all that is left is to pack up and head home. :( But I can say for both Matt and myself we have had a fantastic trip, probably the best ever!

Matt: It has been really great and although there is some grumpiness about heading back to the cold of England, we are totally relaxed and sporting good sun tans so its not all bad news!!

Lastly a big thank you to Katherine and Steve for putting us up (or should that be putting up with us!!) for the last two/three weeks. It has been great fun and we very much look forward to you visiting us in Windsor next month.

PS pictures to come later!

A Day at the Beach

Bahia Honda Day. We wandered around today, enjoying the park with its dual beaches. One beach faces the Atlantic and then you walk a short distance and you're

on a beach facing the Gulf of Mexico. There were lots of Man O'Wars (jellyfish) on the Atlantic side so we spent most of the day on the Gulf side. Jess taught us all how to snorkle and Steve was a natural. It's a skill we're going to need when we reach the Baham

as. The water was perfect (if a bit chilly, Joe!) and we were able to see fish, shells, sponges, coral and lots of other things

in the sea grass. There is also the remains of the old Flagler railroad bridge which you can walk up on and see the entire island spread out before you, and Snowbird patiently waiting in the harbor.