Adventures of Tom, Jan and Peanut

Monday, February 6, 2012

Visit to the Turtle Hospital in Marathon

About a two blocks down from the Marina is the Marathon Turtle rescue and hospital. I attended one of their educational tours. They also speak at local schools and organizations, I would love to have something like this at home. Presently the hospital has 23 turtles. Four to five of them are permanent residents because they will never be self sufficient enough to be released in the wild. I learned that there are seven species of sea turtles in the world. Two of those seven can only be found off the coast of Australia and New Zealand. The turtles that can be found in the Keys are; The Loggerhead who eats shrimp, lobster and conch can weigh up to 300 pounds. The Green eats mainly sea grasses and can weigh up to 500 pounds. He is named after the green fat in his body. The Hawksbill eats mainly sponges and can weigh up to 150 pounds. The Leatherback feeds mainly on jellyfish and is the largest reptile alive weighing up to 2000 pounds! Finally the Kemps Ridley eats mainly crabs and shrimp and can weigh up to 100 pounds. All five of these turtles are ENDANGERED! There are several threats to turtle survival in the Keys. Fishing line, rope from lobster and crab traps, boat hits, oil spills, coastal development that destroys their nesting areas, intestinal impaction, and Fibropapilloma tumors. Because the Leatherback feeds mainly on jellyfish and plastic bags in the water resemble a floating jellyfish the result is impaction and death. Because cigarette buts resemble the color of shrimp they are a hazard. Those turtles that feed on sea grasses may also ingest pieces of garbage thrown into waters by man and caught in the grasses. We must remember that much of what we throw in or allow to go into our sewers, and rivers eventually ends up in our oceans so we must all be more vigilant. If you would like to learn more about the hospital and or support their efforts visit www.turtlehospitalstore.com

Examination and X-ray

Another view of the X-ray room

Surgery room - They are hoping to purchase a heated table to reduce trauma to the turtle

Turtles do not breath automatically like humans because they only breathe when they surface. Oxygen must be hand pumped into the turtle while they are in surgery

This little turtle had an impaction. Impaction's and trauma cause the turtle to become a floater, meaning they cannot dive for safety or feeding. She has actually learned to wrap her flipper around the toy to keep her down in the water. If not found and corrected they starve or are killed by predators. Impaction's are treated with Metamucil, beano for the gas and other intestine flushing medicines. If successful they will regain their ability to dive and be released in 3 months to a year depending on the severity of the impaction.

These are individual tanks for turtles that just come in or are very ill. Green turtles are those that suffer from the tumors. The tumors will blind them and grow so large they cannot use their flippers. The tumors cause a sever drop in red blood cells. The red count must be increased before surgery can take place to remove the tumors. Unfortunately they have found that the virus that causes the tumors is contagious and it looks like it is being caused by pollution.

The netting over the small tanks keeps any animal such as a raccoon from getting to the iddy biddy turtles.

This is a syndrome known as Bubble Butt - no kidding. It is caused by a direct hit to the shell by boats causing deformities of the shell. Since the spine is connected to the shell this turtle is a permanent resident as he cannot dive without assistance. A weight has been glued to his back to help him get around a little better.

This turtle is also a permanent resident. He is paralyzed from the back end, including back flippers from a boat hit. You can see the weight glued to his back. This allows him to float straight rather than be head down all of the time.

A view of more of the tanks and the large pool area for the larger residents

This is a miracle turtle. He was found wrapped up in a lobster trap which caused him to loose one flipper. While tangled he was attacked by a shark that took off his other flipper and caused bite injuries. He is recovering and has learned to swim with two flippers.

If you look closely you can see the tumors on the back of his head, and over his eyes.

Tues., Feb. 6th - Wer'e still here!

We are still at the City Marina in Marathon, hoping to leave in the morning headed toward Miami. Weather and work on the boat have caused most of the delay but all is good because we were able to meet up with stepson Nate and his wife Steph who stopped in for a few days in the Keys on their way to Barbados for vacation. I will post a few short stories from our stay in Marathon. Here is the first;

Our car rental experience:
We decided to rent a car the first weekend her to visit Key West and do some major re-provisioning. The airport is about 3.5 miles away. On Friday, January 27th, I took the city bus to the airport only to find that I did not have my credit card to finalize the rental. Tom had misplaced his and borrowed mine the day before and I didn't get it put back in my wallet. They would not take cash so I had to walk back to the marina for my credit card. Now remember it is 3.5 miles and the temp outside is 80. Tom met me half way on his bike, bringing his card instead of mine. When I got back to the airport, now very hot and sweaty, the gal said she was not supposed to take the card because my name was not on it. I must have looked pretty uncomfortable and as if I was going to explode because she looked at me and said. I think I will make an exception in this case. The only small car they had left was a red BMW! A beautiful car but not really a good choice for carrying wood, four golf cart batteries and lots of groceries. To be sure we were very very careful with it! On Saturday we drove to Key West. Walked around then settled in at Mallory Square to watch the sunset. About 4:30 the square filled with vendors and street performers. A scene you do not want to miss if you visit Key West. Tom and I sat next to a young vendor selling coconuts. He used a machete to chop them open for you to drink the water. The young man recently moved here from Ghana and seemed to enjoy talking with Tom, offering him a free coconut. I had recently read an article about the health benefits of the coconut water so was anxious to taste it. Not bad. Our evening ended watching the sunset while listening to reggae music. Awesome day!

Fat Freddies frozen drink selection in the keys

One of many street entertainers at Mallory Square

Entrance to Mallory Square

                                 This entertainer made the most tips because his dog went around, took the dollars
                                 from your hand and put them in the bucket. Everyone just wanted to see the dog
                                 perform thus more money for the entertainer

The crowd increased as sunset neared. Of course we ended up sitting next to a
couple from Indianapolis - how funny is that.

Sunset at Mallory Square

Tom's new friend from Ghana

Self explanatory

This island directly in front of Mallory Square is only accessed by water and is exclusive
for people such as Arnold S. Oprah and a few other stars and a couple of political figures

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Wed-Thur Jan. 25th-26th A overview of the Marathon City Marina

So calm and secure - ahhhh the pleasures of spending our first night in the harbor off the Atlantic, in a harbor on a mooring ball. Throughout our trip whenever we talked destinations the reaction was the same, we love Marathon and Boot Key Harbor. I now understand the draw. For those of you on land let me describe it this way. It is a community on the water. You are in your homes and we on our boats. You drive around in your cars, we tootle around in our dinks. You have your porches to enjoy relaxing and a good book, we have our decks. You visit with neighbors in the yards or at the community center down the street. We visit on our aft decks, or at the boaters lounge or tiki hut. There is nothing lacking here. Yoga and aerobics classes, craft classes, Wednesday night pot luck dinners, Thursday movie night. A library, a workshop to use to fix your dink, motor, etc. several restaurants and bars within dingy or walking distance. A publix and West Marine down the street and even a Home Depot. Add on to that a daily morning radio show for announcements, buy sell or trade deals and help for anything you need help doing on your boat. In fact we asked for assistance with the installation of an inverter and immediately had another boater volunteer his help. As in a small community such as the one we live in in Burns Harbor, neighbors are eager to meet and greet, share ideas, recipes, and most importantly friendship! It will be hard to leave on Friday.

Chiki - Tiki Hut near the dingy dock

The dingy dock

The library in the boater lounge

One of two mini theaters in the boaters lounge
The boaters lounge is a very long pole barn

A photo of the 225 ball mooring field

Also a photo with the other 1/2 of the rainbow
Did you notice it?

Sun., 22-Tues., 24 - Can you say Dramamine

We woke up Sunday morning to find a few more boats had come in including another 42 ft Jefferson. We started on a few morning chores. Toms priority was the head, no it was still not working correctly. Although I was trying to be patient I was ready to order the darn pump myself! It was windy and the boat swayed but it wasn't uncomfortable. The couple on the Carol Ann, the Jefferson, stopped over for a visit and we had fun comparing the layout of our boats. We tootled to the marina on the dink to get bait, check on where we were on the waiting list and check out the area. Sunday evening the wind changed and the water was pretty choppy but we did OK. Overnight the weather worsened and we did a lot of rocking. Tom and Peanut were having a difficult time on Monday, both having to spend most of their time up on the aft deck to avoid getting sea sick. Thank goodness I was doing fine so I could be their gopher. We decided to pull up anchor and check out the anchorage on the inside. Tom found a couple of spots he felt we could squeeze in between sail boats. I was very uncomfortable with the close proximity of the boats combined with the intensity of the wind. I really had difficulty getting us far enough forward between boats so when Tom dropped anchor the wind pushed us out into the channel. Not a good thing so we picked up anchor and tried again. This time Tom at the helm and I was at the anchor. I had never operated the anchor release before and this was probably not the best time to learn. Tom did a nice job of getting us up in between two boats BUT in my nervousness I stepped on the button to engage the anchor as I used the bar to release it at the same time so of course the anchor had no idea what it was supposed to do and I had no idea what was wrong until Tom yelled. Now he has to maneuver between boats in the wind to get us back out safely to try a third time. But I',m spent, frustrated and tired of being yelled at so I announced I was done. You know the ol saying sometimes you watch the show and sometimes you are the show. I was tired of being the show. Back out of the harbor we went to anchor in rough seas. Tom and peanut ended up sleeping on the Fly Bridge Monday night and Tuesday morning we headed for land first thing in the morning to get off the rocking boat. Thankfully about noon on Tuesday we got the call that a mooring ball was available. Did we still want it she asked? Are you kidding me I thought to myself!! We certainly do I responded! Now we would have to fight the wind and catch the mooring ball. Tom had gone over one row to many so we had to approach the mooring ball from the front. Trusty boat hook in hand I stood by as he edged us to the ball. Capture on the first try and we were secure! Woohoo! Our neighbor yelled over "that's no fun you made it look easy", I laughed as I thought to myself, he should have seen us yesterday!

Saturday January 21st. Cruising into Marathon

Approximately 45 miles to go and we would be in Marathon! An exciting day for us. Three of us left Little Shark River near the same time, all headed for Marathon. It was nice to have a little company on the water to converse with now and then. The waters were a bit choppy today. The little white caps made it difficult to spot the bobbing crab pots until we were closer than I preferred. I felt like I had the binoculars glued to my eyes all day. Now in the mode to automatically look for the tell tale lines of crab pots to maneuver through I thought we had the configuration down pat. WRONG! About 20 miles out of Marathon a new configuration appeared! Crab pot fields; lots of bobbing pots in close proximity, forming a large square and making it extremely difficult to find a passage through! Our trail wake was beginning to look as if a drunk was at the wheel. UGH! We had used the waypoints suggested in skipper Bobs but as we closed in on the 7 mile bridge I was extremely uncomfortable with the idea of passing under the bridge at a point that was not the designated pass. Other boats were doing it but I was hesitant. Tom called the marina indicated our position and asked for guidance. The gal indicated that she could not advise but if it were her boat she would go on down to Mosier pass and cut back to the marina. That's what we did. The mooring field at Marathon City Marina in Boot Key Harbor is on a first come first serve basis and we were required to anchor and come to the office in person to get on the waiting list. There is an anchoring field inside the harbor but Tom suggested we stay on the outside. It was now very calm and about 10 other boats were anchored here so we figured it was crowded on the inside. Soon after we were anchored we had a visitor. Jim from the boat Blue Angel heard us calling in and came out to greet us. We had met Jim and his wife in Demopolis. What a nice surprise to meet them again here. Soon after we jumped in the dingy and headed for the office. We were 14th on the waiting list for a mooring ball! The sunset was amazing and the Atlantic like glass. We were actually anchored on the Atlantic in the Keys! WOW, I wonder if other first timers thought this was as big a deal as we do?

Crab Pot Field

Sunset on the Atlantic from our boat

Another view

A view after the sun went down

A view of the 7 mile bridge from our boat

Monday, January 30, 2012

Friday, January 20th; From Naples to Shark River Anchorage.

Charts were checked and double checked for today's open water travels on the Atlantic to the anchorage in Shark River. We would be in sight of land but wanted to be sure of our waypoint entry. The weather gods were again shining on us as the water was calm and the sun shining. We filled the 70 mile day watching dolphins play and keeping a close eye out for crab pots. The highlight of the day was the sighting of two sea turtles, one large, one small. I was excited but then the mom in me came out with an " I hope other boaters are watching as close as we are for these guys" I worry they will get hit. Tom just shook his head, and added " Is there anything you don't worry about?" About 5:00 we navigated our way into the entrance of Little Shark River. Our chartplotter indicated we were right on the mark for the entrance but the markers were somewhat vague. Seeing another boat already anchored in the entrance confirmed that we were on the right track. We hailed the trawler to ask why he had not anchored in the recommended area at the bend in the river. We were worried that it might be to shallow. He indicated that the bend was a little crowded with other boats, so we joined him, anchoring in the entrance as well. I LOVED this anchorage and want to go back there and spend several days hopefully in the bend. The river is a part of the Everglades National Park and the natural surroundings made for a beautiful backdrop. There were dolphins playing, birds of all kinds flying and fishing and an alligator sunning himself on shore. As we sat on the bow pads and fished while the sun set you could hear the schreeching owls, howls and other wild calls from within the glades. The night was clear and the stars bright. No city lights to obstruct the view. Even now writing about it I can close my eyes and visualize this beautiful and peaceful night all over again. I caught several fish but none big enough to keep but thats ok as long as I am still catching more than Tom. We stayed out to enjoy the beautiful night sky until the skeeters came out.