March 5, Tuesday Evening

Islamorada

For dinner, we dinghied over to Marker 88 restaurant.  Food was great, and sunset was beautiful.  Pretty soon we will be in Miami and then going up the East Coast, and there will be no more sunsets with which to bore you!  But there may be some sunrises!

March 6, Wednesday

Islamorada, continued

Rain Barrel Sculpture Gallery; if this huge lobster is outside, what can be inside?

Went to another Lazy Days Restaurant (other one is in Marathon) for lunch:  Great views of Hawks Channel and the Atlantic.

Then went to World Wide Sportsman, a voluminous store.  They have an interesting way of marking the spaces in the parking lot.  The store is so big, it has room for the sister ship of Pilar, Ernest Hemingway's’ yacht, which they have renamed...Pilar.

So the question is, since we will head north towards Miami Beach in the morning, will this be our last beautiful sunset?  We will be anchoring, so maybe there will be one more....

March 7, Thursday

Islamorada to Pumpkin Key Anchorage

We left Plantation Key, traveled through Cowpens Bay seen on left; water color today was just spectacular!

Today we knew we would be anchoring for the next two nights, so we towed the dinghy.

The ICW in The Keys meanders through many mangroves.  These narrow channels reminded us of the narrow channels in Canada, except the ones there were rocky.

This is the US 1 Bridge which connects The Keys at Key Largo to the mainland.

Houseboat on the left has sunk, first deck mostly underwater.  Houseboat on right needs some work!

Gilbert’s above and left, and Steamers are good places to stop ‘under’ the US 1 Bridge.

Barnes Sound is large and protected, and was very still today as we crossed it.

On left, One September’s starboard wake going across Barnes Sound.  Above is Pumpkin Key which is our anchorage tonight.  On right, what looks like a flying motorcycle came by!