March 13-19, 2020 Cruising north on the Gulf: Everglades & Marco Island, FL

It was time to move on and Lauryl Anne was joining us to explore the Gulf Coast for a few weeks. We left Stock Island Marina Village in the lead. There was a slight chop with a few whitecaps as we rounded Key West, then it calmed down nicely as we headed north in the Gulf.  Today's cruise brought us visions of 2 turtles, 8 dolphins & a grouping of red foil balloons. FYI: don't let balloons go, they just end up in the oceans & injure living things.

We planned to anchor in Little Shark River but the no-see-ums are so bad there that we decided to anchor along the shoreline outside of the river. The forecast was favorable so we would be comfortable without much protection. It was so nice, we sat out for cocktails, watched the sunset & Doug entertained me with his shadow puppets. There were no bugs-yahoo & the stars were amazing!

The next day, Lauryl Anne took the lead and we enjoyed a relaxing cruise to anchor in Russell Pass in the Everglades.  There were crab pots but not as many as usual & they were spread out along the way. Lauryl Anne hosted us for cocktails & dinner.

The next day, we took our dinghies, first to the Everglades National Park's dock but as we were tying up, we were told we couldn't tie up in their small marina, so we couldn't visit the park-not very friendly! We continued on to Everglade City. David & Tricia had never been to the city before.  We found gas at the RV Park Resort at the end of town along the channel. Upon the recommendation of the RV park manager, we walked to the local Marathon gas station for lunch. I know, sounds weird but in this multi use gas station was Nely's Diner with really good food.  It was a tad farther of a walk than the manager suggested but it was worth the long, hot walk.

After getting back into our dinghies, we had to stop at the famous Rod & Gun Club for a drink on their lovely covered porch. The Club was originally built upon a foundation set by the first permanent settler who founded Everglades City in 1864. In 1922, Barron Collier, a wealthy rancher & industrialist purchased the property and turned it into a private establishment for his well heeled friends. Today, the Bowen family owns it since 1972 & continues to honor its' history of authentic Old Florida. The Restaurant, Bar & cottages are open & operational. The furniture inside is original from the days when the Rod & Gun Club was a playground for some of the world's wealthiest people.  Five Presidents have stayed here: FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, Hoover & Nixon. Many celebrities have visited also, some are: John Wayne, Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Sean Connery, Mick Jagger & of course, Ernest Hemingway.

During this time frame, we were hearing more about the Corona (COVID 19) Virus and how contagious & deadly it was turning out to be.  Our President, (and I say that cringing), is still downplaying it but Scientists & Infectious Disease Specialists are sounding alarms! March 11, 2020 the World Health Organization declared COVID 19 a pandemic. Cases & deaths have now been reported in 100 countries & all of our states. There is talk of "lockdowns" of cities like New York & the other major cities.  States of Emergency have been declared. Some schools are closing and there is talk of closing bars & restaurants. Gatherings of no larger than 10 people are being recommended. Tests for the virus are not readily available.

We continued our plan to cruise to Marco Island but we are changing our behaviors and questioning our future plans. We are not shaking hands or hugging anymore-it's called social distancing.  We are told to stay 6 feet away from people and practice frequent & thorough hand washing. We arrived to Marco Island to Esplanade Marina where we had reservations.  We had made plans to meet Bob & Janet for dinner.  We did meet them and ate dinner outside at CJ's right near the dock where we were staying. We walked across the street to the Winn Dixie and the seriousness of the situation hit us there; the shelves were empty-it was eerie & scary. The result of telling people to shelter in place, made the public panic buy.  Toilet paper has been the product of highest demand! None to be found anywhere at this point!  No one can figure out why TP? Really it's all paper products and cleaning wipes. David & Tricia had walked 2 blocks to Publix and they were much better stocked except for those illusive  paper products. This visit has made the whole situation very real to us and the four of us made a decision that we should get somewhere safe & secure where we can stay longterm if needed. We both have a reservation starting April 1 at Longboat Key Marina so we called Jennifer the harbormaster @ LBKM to ask her if we could come in early and she said come on in! We were relieved & thrilled because we have started hearing that some Marinas were closing to transients.

We needed to stop and anchor one night along our route.  We pulled off the GICW near Useppa & threw the anchor.  It was a nice settled evening.

Jan31-March12,2020 Stock Island, FL

We had a nice cruise from Marathon to Stock Island with Waterford following us. Once we arrived to Stock Island Village Marina we were assigned to B9 slip. It's on the run close to the hotel and the Charter boats. I wasn't too happy at first, we had a crappy sailboat next to us but the placement grew on me, I was able to use the hotel facilities & there was always something to watch. On Sundays, we could hear the musician singing & playing for Sunday Brunch.

This is our second stay at Stock Island Marina Village.  There are many good reasons for staying here. There are bike lanes & trails from the island to Key West. We can walk/bike to CVS, a french bakery, a Seafood Market & 2 good restaurants close by. The Perry Hotel, located on site at the Marina has 3 bars & a restaurant, 2 pools & a local distillery. The Hotel/Marina runs a shuttle service throughout the day to downtown Key West. Starbucks, Publix, TJ Maxx & more can be reached by bike.

We stayed busy between having many of our friends here, the good weather & lots of places to visit & fun events to attend.  We had a mini Krogen Rendezvous: Waterford, Lauryl Anne, Acadia & Tandem were all with us @ SIMV.  Some of our other Krogen family: Tapestry, H'Evans Gift and Blue Goose were docked at a neighboring marina & Tuscan Sun was docked in Key West. We don't always hang with fellow Krogens, we also had fun with new friends we met: Andante, Red Head & Lifes Travails. We played Pickleball, enjoyed docktails, happy hours, swam, dinghied and went out to lunch & dinner multiple times with our boat friends. The Marina sponsored events on the new lawn by the pool: a live concert and an outdoor movie night complete with trivia, prizes & popcorn.

We took the shuttle into town for PIB day @ Sloppy Joes with Garry & Jacque. The only performer we knew was West Side Steve & he wasn't very good. Another day, we were thrilled to participate in a mini Middle Bass Island reunion @ Hurricane Hole with Barb & Bill Lodemier, Mark & Marsha, Anne Huber & her husband & 2 other couples who all have cottages on MBI & Glen Cooper (Capt. Coop) who lives on PIB.

One of our favorite events was enjoying happy hours & live music  in downtown Key West along with many of our friends. One night, we attended an outdoor concert at the Sunset Lawn to see Here Come the Mummies-they were quite unique but very good musicians.

We enjoyed a visit from our dear friends Jim & Elaine who cruised in their boat from their winter home in Pompano Beach.  They stayed a week on their boat while we played out in the water, them on their jet ski and us in our dinghy, dined out and played Rummikub. We had a surprise lunch with Esther's neighbors, Jim & Bobbi who we ran into in Key West. Another surprise visit was Mary Beth & Mark, who were visiting friends in the area so they drove over to find us just in time for cocktails.

Barb & Bill from MBI own a beautiful condo in the Truman Annex & they invited us over to see their place & tour the Little Whitehouse, which is 2 buildings away from them. They gave us free passes for the tour. Another day, we toured the Pilar Hemingway Rum Distillery in KW with Tricia & David & of course we had to sample the product.





Doug & I had a date night, just the 2 of us to LaTeDa, a Cabaret Show with the talented Drag Queen, Christopher who sang, danced & made us laugh.  It was a fun, special night out with my lover!



In Feb/March, we began hearing about a deadly virus that was spreading in China & throughout the world. COVID-19. On March 10, the last time we visited KW, the spring breakers had landed and the sidewalks & bars were packed. We decided not to go to KW anymore due to the possibility of being exposed to the virus. Cases in the US were increasing rapidly and people were dying. The news stations were telling people not to shake hands anymore & practice good hand washing.  The general population didn't appear to be taking this seriously & neither was our egomaniacal, idiot, bully of a President, Donald Trump.

The night before we left Stock Island, I said my good-byes to the night clerk, Eliot & the night security guard, Pedro who I had become friendly with over the last 6 weeks.  We enjoyed some late night chats together. They watched over me.