Naples, FL to Marathon. FL

12/9/2015

Scenes from our final Gulf crossing

The last day with our gold burgee

Leaving the Great Loop in our wake

One of the hundreds of floats we dodged on our way to Marathon



The "Admiral" at the helm

 Approaching Banana Bay 

 Displaying our new Platinum Burgee

Celebration cake after dinner on "Joint Venture"

 

We untied from the dock at the Naples Yacht Club at 6:30 a.m., while it was still partially dark with temperatures in the ‘mid 60’s, which felt chillier because of the damp air, and slightly breezier conditions than we had expected.  Today’s trip would be our last for this adventure, and we would travel 110 miles across the Gulf of Mexico to our winter home for our seventh season at Banana Bay Marina in Marathon, in the Florida Keys.  “Reflection” made her way to Gordon Pass and then entered the Gulf at 7 a.m. with winds of about 10-15 knots out of an easterly direction off the land, with seas of about 1-2 feet.  As we headed south, we were surprised to hit off- and-on patches of dense fog, and we were glad to have radar to let us know, if and where any other vessels might be out there.  Now, however, we also encountered hundreds of pots scattered over the Gulf by local fishermen and crabbers over wide areas, which we had to dodge to avoid.  Eventually the skies started to clear, and by the early afternoon the sun was high in the sky, the water and air temperatures were well into the 70’s, and the sea conditions were lovely.  We contacted our friends, Marc and Susan Einbinder, who were vacationing aboard their boat, “Joint Venture”, in the slip next to ours in Banana Bay, to tell them that we would be arriving at around 3:30 p.m., only to find that they were out on their dinghy fishing near the 7 Mile Bridge, and they hurried back to the marina, so that they could beat us in and be ready to take our lines when we arrived.  We soon approached Banana Bay, where we had started on this adventure on 4/7/2015, and with much love, joy, and thankfulness after having traveled 5,768 miles over 198 days on the water on this trip, and having boated over 40,000 miles together in our 43 years of marriage, we sounded our horn as we “crossed our wake” for the second time on this circumnavigation of the eastern waters of the United States and Canada known as “America’s Great Loop!”  We had now achieved “Platinum” Status in the America’s Great Loop Cruisers’ Association, so we quickly removed our “Gold” burgee and replaced it with our new “Platinum” burgee to signify that: “We’ve come a long way, baby!”