Archive | The Pearl RSS feed for this section

Jan. 10 – Florida Keys Facts

By on January 11, 2015 in The Pearl
Sombrero Resort & Marina
There isn’t a lot to report on today, so I’ll share a few fun facts about the Florida Keys. The Florida Keys are a coral island archipelago near the southeastern tip of the US state of Florida, starting about 15 miles south of Miami and extending out in a southwest direction and then west toward the Gulf of Mexico. The islands lie along the Florida straits.

CONTINUE READING HERE…»

Jan. 9 – Marathon, FL

By on January 10, 2015 in The Pearl
Sombrero Resort & Marina
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” –Maya Angelou
Life in Marathon is beginning to get busy. There are so many things to get involved in. There are all types of activities taking place every day. A cruiser can be as busy or lazy as he chooses. Today we went to the Seven Seas Cruising Association (SSCA) luncheon. They met every Friday, mostly for the camaraderie of the group, but also to share cruising information. We don’t belong to the group at the moment, but friends of our do and we met them there. We enjoyed seeing our friends and meeting a few new ones. We spent the rest of the afternoon looking at other marinas in the area…the ones on the Gulf side of the island were very pretty and even had small beaches of their own. We asked about reservations…maybe for another year, but were told they never have openings because the same people come back year after year. From what we can tell every marina slip and mooring ball in the harbor are full.

CONTINUE READING HERE…»

Jan. 8 – Marathon, FL

By on January 9, 2015 in The Pearl
Sombrero Resort & Marina
“There are two ways to be rich: One is by acquiring much, and the other is by desiring little.” —Jackie French Koller
Most of the country woke up to freezing weather this morning. Even north Florida had temperatures in the 20s. Our temperature was 61º with the wind blowing 20 MPH…I think I could get use to winter in the Keys. We had to give up time with our little grand wonders to get out of the cold wet weather of Texas, so this life isn’t without it’s sacrifices.

CONTINUE READING HERE…»

Jan. 7 – A Day at the Beach

By on January 8, 2015 in The Pearl
Sombrero Resort & Marina

 “Nothing soothes the soul like a walk on the beach” –Lessons Learned in Life

We spent the morning at Sombrero Beach. It’s a beautiful park located on the Atlantic Ocean and next to Sister’s Creek Inlet. It has a nice little crescent beach with deep sand and clear emerald water, and a wonderful place to spend the day lounging in the shade of the palm trees.

CONTINUE READING HERE…»

Jan. 7 – Marathon, FL

By on January 7, 2015 in The Pearl
Sombrero Resort & Marina
“Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true.” ―Ralph Waldo Emerson
Our life in Marathon is relaxing and warm, but I really don’t have a lot of interesting things to blog about. We are staying busy each day with small projects on the boat, drinking coffee on the fly bridge in the morning, visiting with dock mates, swimming, reading, a little bike riding and yesterday we played softball. A group of cruisers meet three times a week at the Community Park for a friendly game. Each time they divide up who ever shows up into two teams. We had a great time and met some nice people…quite a few were from our marina. We plan to play again; it’s a great way to get some exercise.

CONTINUE READING HERE…»

Jan. 4 – Marathon, FL

By on January 5, 2015 in The Pearl
Sombrero Resort & Marina

“Unnecessary possessions are unnecessary burdens. If you have them, you have to take care of them! There is great freedom in simplicity of living. It is those who have enough but not too much who are the happiest.” —Peace Pilgrim

We’ve been in Marathon for three days and are beginning to do a little relaxing. The first day was spent getting settled in…getting things on the boat organized, getting the cable to work (still needs more work), figuring out the none existing Internet signal and Stan installing our Island Time Internet Booster we purchased before leaving home. The booster is working great and we can now access a little free wifi. It’s always nice to have more than just your Verizon plan. The next big job was getting the boat clean inside and out…it gets pretty dirty while we’re traveling. But it hasn’t all been work. We’ve had time to meet some of our neighbors, use the pool and do a little exploring.

CONTINUE READING HERE…»

Jan. 3 – Marathon, FL

By on January 3, 2015 in The Pearl

Sombrero Resort & Marina

“Boats, vessels of freedom, harbors of healing” — Kenny Chesney

It is hard to explain to non-boaters what is that we love about boats, but the more we’re on the water the more time we desire to spend on it. We just feel more complete when we can see the water, feel its movement and hear its sounds. Being on the boat fills our senses and makes us feel alive. Boating is fun, it improves our quality of life, it reduces our stress, it provides us with opportunities for personal growth and it’s a great way for us to bond with family and friends.
CONTINUE READING HERE…»

Jan. 2 – Marathon, FL

By on January 2, 2015 in The Pearl
“The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” ­- Saint Augustine

We’re here…in the warm sun of the Florida Keys. In a cruiser’s winter play ground, a day camp for adults. We’re told there are all kinds of activities to get involved in…tennis, fishing, boat seminars, baseball, crafts, swimming, book reviews, you name it they seem to have it here. The question is how involved to we really want to be. The way to find out what is going on is to tune into the cruisers net every morning at 9:00 on VHF channel 68. A volunteer controller manages the net traffic and it’s always very informative. This net begins with arrivals and departures, so people know which boats are in the area.

Next, they move to announcements. This is were they announce all the various organized activities that will be taking place the next couple days, like Yoga, tennis, Bache ball, softball, crafts, HAM luncheons, SSCA meetings. After announcements comes “Treasures from the Bilge” where cruisers can buy, sell or give away unneeded items. Then it is on to the questions, comments or need help section. Here cruisers can seek help with any boat issues, mechanical or otherwise or anything else they need to know.

I think we’ll start slow and observe for awhile…no reason to jump in too fast, we’re going to be here for two months. We do know several boats in the harbor and we know a few more that will arrive soon. My main objective for the moment is to relax and get over this holiday cold I have. Seems like a great place to do that.


The water is beautiful

The welcoming crew on the Seven Mile Bridge as we came into Marathon

Our friends on Exuberant going out for a sail with their family

Boot Key Harbor is getting full

Our dinner view from Dockside Tropical Cafe

Jan. 1 – Happy New Year

By on January 1, 2015 in The Pearl
Marathon Bound

“What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.” ― John Steinbeck

It’s a nice saying and you do appreciate the warm weather of summer more if you’ve suffered through a long cold winter…BUT let me tell you swimming in clear beautiful warm water on New Years Eve is amazing. It’s because we’ve spent a lot of cold, wet and dreary Januarys in Texas that we appreciate being in the Keys this year.

CONTINUE READING HERE…»

Dec. 30 – Miami, FL

By on December 31, 2014 in The Pearl
Marine Stadium – Anchorage

“We can’t be afraid of change. You may feel very secure in the pond that you are in, but if you never venture out of it, you will never know that there is such a thing as an ocean, a sea. Holding onto something that is good for you now, may be the very reason why you don’t have something better.” – C. JoyBell C.

We’re in the land of beautiful water now. Mansions, yachts, people and bridges…this part of Florida is filled with excess. They say everything’s bigger in Texas…well I’m beginning to think not. Some of the houses we went by today were huge compounds that took up a full block of land on the ICW. Beautiful homes and even more impressive yachts, and we could only see what was along the ICW. There are canals everywhere with more mansions and more yachts. There were a lot of boats moving around today but we saw no one outside any of the pretty homes or around their beautiful pools. In fact most looked like no one was home at all. I guess they were out working to pay for their huge homes. I think I like our simpler life.

CONTINUE READING HERE…»