Waterways Marina
Aventuras Florida
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The Cruising Adventures of Joan & Ben Schuetz aboard
Francesca
Part 39: 1000 miles and counting
Saturday, 24 June 2000
Since leaving Fronteras, Guatemala we have come just about 1000 miles. The 700 miles or so left to go to our home port in South Carolina have become surprisingly familiar territory. This morning, here at Angelfish Creek just northeast of Key Largo, we awakened to a lovely sunrise. We remembered being anchored here last year when a violent squall hit loosing Francesca and two other sailboats all at once. Familiar-, yes, but sometimes just as challenging as the more exotic places we have been.
Back at Boot Key Harbor, Thursday night, Joe Mama night at Dockside, Joe performed “Freight Train” for us. He was great. I need to make a correction to Part 38 though. The composers name was Alda Mae Cotten. At the time she wrote “Freight Train” she was the housekeeper for the Seegers. Sometime later, Pete Seeger performed the song at Carnegie Hall. Joe said that he knew the Seegers, Carter family and even our favorites of those days, Ian and Sylvia Tyson. When I asked him if he knew those folks Joe said, “yes, well- you know, if you live long enough. . . “. And that's the rest of the story.
I'm not real big on elevating entertainers or sports figures to hero status. But some of those folks were real movers and shakers in the 60s. At the time, some of them were thought to be pinkos, trouble makers and ecology nuts. I think history may have been kinder to them. OK enuf.
Joan went to the grocery store in Marathon. Gasp! Sticker shock! What we paid for groceries in Guatemala to last a month just filled a couple of bags here. She did enjoy the magnitude and variety of the supermarket though.
The last night at Boot Key, Joan and I reminisced about the months and miles we had been. During the last 3 years Marathon has been kind of the beginning and ending point for new explorations. It's always sad when that part of a trip is over. But we look forward to getting home, seeing family, friends and the job of sprucing Francesca up for the next trip.
On the way from Boot Key we, as almost always, monitor channel 16 VHF. A sailboat made a call to an unknown motor vessel. The motor vessel responded as “Knot Too Shabby”. Holy Toledo and serendipity too. Dave, Mary and Heide (their dachshund) from Fort Meyers had just passed through the Channel Five Bridge heading home from the Bahamas. We were no more than 8 or 10 miles from them. They are good friends whom we had met on our first trip to the Keys. We had a really nice chat and brought each other up to date on our travels.
Today we will move up to Aventura, just a few miles south of Ft. Lauderdale, and our favorite “Waterways Marina”. Mark and Mariam on “Delphys” will meet us there sometime Sunday and we will do the town or something.
Well, I know this is kind of short and hardly qualifies as a “Part”, but it is time for us to pull up the hook and move on.
More.
Joan, Ben & Maggie
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