Since we left on our journey, we knew we were going to have to create money making opportunities for ourselves to fund our trip. We’ve had many more ideas than we have had concrete results, but one of the bright ideas we have had is now coming to fruition. A few weeks ago K. and I were enjoying a very special bar of dark chocolate that we had purchased in a specialty chocolate shop way back in Palm Beach that we went to with Sheri and Roark. As we lay in bed moaning and ooohing and aaaahing over this incredibly delicious bar of coconut macaroon sea salt chocolate, we knew that we had found our calling — to sell chocolate to deprived sailors who mostly can only shop at whatever store is in walking distance of the marina. We felt we had discovered a niche market waiting to be tapped. And it’s almost Valentine’s Day.
So the next day we set up a wholesale account with this same chocolate company –Seattle Chocolates, and placed a huge order of chocolate to arrive by Valentine’s Day. The chocolate arrived yesterday and now we have begun our new jobs delivering happiness in the form of chocolate to Boot Key Harbor.
If you, too, would like to experience this happiness AND feel good about supporting the travels of two crazy sailors, you can place an order through us and we will mail it to you!
Our special deal to you, dear readers of the Wee Happy blog is:
3 bars of chocolate for only $10! The flavors are Coconut Macaroon with Sea Salt, Rainier Cherry, and Cappucino Crunch. They contain 55% dark chocolate, except for the Cappucino Crunch which is a milk chocolate.

Our other money making venture is performing our fire dancing, and we have our first paid gig TONIGHT! tK. and I have been practicing a little choreographed staff routine, and we have pulled in our friend Amanda to play drums for us along with our new friends Kurt and Kristina who have been creating a special drumming chant just for us.
We will post photos tomorrow!

After a wonderful, although too short, visit with my mother, we now welcome aboard the last of our string of visitors from the snowy and cold north. Our dear friend Amanda from Northampton, MA just arrived last night and is here to spend a few days with us. YAY! When she arrived last night we managed to have what we have been CRAVING for months — a fire! A little fire circle with our friends Kurt and Kristina. We busted out the drums and some chanting and made some music around the fire. Aaaah! Medicine for the soul!

Today Amanda and I explored a new section of the mangroves. An enchanting tour through a maze of roots, led by fearless kayak leader Lala.

Then we took Amanda out for a sail on Wee Happy.  We happy on the water with Amanda!

 

Later, while Amanda and I went to the beach to swim and lounge, Cap’t. K was braving a fierce army of no see ‘um bugs in the mangroves while fishing for our dinner. Those little bugs were fierce!! All mouth and no visible body! K. caught 3 snappers for our dinner and had a major process when it came time to kill and fillet the fish. A true existential crisis. Thank goodness our friend Kendall came by and helped him fillet the fish. We cooked them up for dinner and it was absolutely delicious!

In the next few days we will be planning and practicing for our first official fire performance in the Keys. We have a gig on Saturday night at the Sunset Grill, and luckily for us, Amanda showed up at just the right time to be our little drummer bitch. Getting punchy, I think its time for bed. More later. (for those of you who don’t know Amanda, she is an excellent drummer).

Today we took my Mom out for her first sail aboard Wee Happy! It was a beautiful warm and sunny day with great wind. Not too much, not too little. We went out by the 7 mile bridge and towards Bahia Honda beach. Mom took it all in with a smile on her face and didn’t mind the waves rolling us around a bit at all. Here’s a quote from her when asked what her favorite part of the day was:
“I liked watching you guys operate, and seeing all the details it took to get the sails up and down.” She got an inside look at the work it takes to sail!

We anchored near the beach, and wanted to take the kayak in to the beach for a walk, but the waves were rolling us around so much it made it too difficult to get in and out of the kayak from the sailboat, and we did not bring our dinghy with us today, so unfortunately we were stuck on the sailboat….so we just had a little lunch at anchor while rolling back and forth like crazy, and then we set back towards the harbor.
On the way back Mom tried steering the boat. It’s a good thing the water isn’t a road — there isn’t much to hit out there and you can’t run off the road….we just veered around the water while she got the hang of steering. And she got it! By the end of the afternoon she was steering like a pro! Steering the boat is counter intuitive because if you want to go right you push the tiller to the left, and if you want to go left you push the tiller to the right….it takes a little while to get it right!

When we got back to the harbor we took the kayak out in calm protected water around the mangroves just before sunset. We watched pelicans and birds and got a little arm workout with the paddles.

Then we went out to dinner to our favorite place in Marathon, the Keys Fishery, where we stuffed ourselves on shrimp quesadillas and key lime pie.

Here we are, me and my mom, drinking pina coladas while watching the sunset on our boat. Life is good! She arrived last night safe and sound from chilly, no make that FREEZING South Dakota. We are experiencing nice and hot weather to thaw her out for a few days!

This morning we ate breakfast at a local breakfast joint that makes omelettes with seafood. At the restaurant we saw this sign that Mom wants to share with all her Northern friends that wish they were here:

We hung out at the marina and talked to other sailors, so Mom could get a glimpse of all the stories that abound in this harbor full of sailing adventurers. There were a few of them who had donuts and really made K.’s day. He has been having donut withdrawal since we left Dunkin’ Donuts territory way back in New England.

Then, since there wasn’t much wind today, we took our dinghy over to Sombrero Beach and hung out on the beach. Mom had a miserable time on the white sand with a mixed drink in her hand. (just kidding! she looked pretty happy and relaxed the whole time!)

Then we went on an adventure out to the coral reef, which is 3 miles out in the ocean from the beach. We flew across the water at a whopping 10 miles per hour bouncing over the waves and screaming. We finally made it out to the reef, unfortunately without our snorkeling gear. So we peered over the edge of the dinghy to see waving fans, sea sponges, fish and all sorts of other unidentified aquatic life just under the surface of the water. K. and I got in the water for a short swim, and then we headed back towards land. While we were passing a lighthouse tower where there were lots of birds perched, we noticed a bird dangling from the side of the tower. It looked unusual and strange, so we went closer to take a look. It turned out to be a pelican who had apparently eaten a fish that had a hook and fishing line still attached to it. The pelican had become completely entangled in the line, and the line was entangled in the tower, and it was hanging in the air struggling to get free. Since pelicans are currently my favorite animal, I couldn’t bear to see it suffering like that, and we tried to figure out how we could help it. It looked awkward, as if it had been seriously injured in it’s plight, and we weren’t sure if we could save it. But K. bravely volunteered to climb up on the tower to cut the line free so at least the bird could be released. When he cut the line, the pelican fell to the water and did not move. But it was not dead.  It floated upside down with it’s head lying in the water as if it’s neck were broken and it couldn’t lift it’s head. I turned it over and it still couldn’t lift it’s head, so we assumed that it’s neck was broken and sadly decided there wasn’t any more we could do. Even though we put forth a valiant pelican rescue effort, we didn’t save the bird. But we did lay it to rest in the arms of the sea. May it go to bird heaven in peace.

On another note, tonight is the Super Bowl. But we don’t really care (although we are rooting for the Packers!!!) and we are going to make fresh fish on the boat. But there is a big gathering going on at the marina for the game and we will probably go over and check it out….

Bad news….K. just checked the weather report and it is gonna be cold tonight –lows in the 70’s.  Hope Mom can handle it.

For 1300 miles, we carried on our wee boat a large bag of kiteboarding kites, with the plan that when we hit warmer climes and waters, K. would get to finally try kiteboarding. We thought it would happen in North Carolina, and South Carolina, and Georgia, and Florida, but the truth is the huge kites have not seen the light of day since we left.

Until now. We finally got the kites out and took them to a large beach on a hot and sunny day. We went on the most major expedition yet in our trusty uber dinghy, and took it five miles down the coast loaded up with gear, a cooler of ice and beer, and other beach essentials. We brought our friends R.J. and Mel, who were interested in checking out the kites too. And we made a day of it.

The kiteboarding kites are very large and require some strength and skill to handle. There wasn’t enough wind get pulled up on the board in the water, but there was enough to get the kite in the air and practice flying it. Here’s Cap’t K. continuing his life long passion for kites:

R.J. picked it up really quickly, with the help of K.’s expertise. By the end of the day he looked like a pro.

We also found that the kite made an excellent sunshade!

There are still man o’wars around. The beach was covered with them. As beautiful as they are, the threat of their sting is disconcerting. We saw a guy walking all along the beach stepping on each one that had washed up on the beach. He did not appear to be affected by them and claimed he had extreme callouses on his feet.

We got some serious sun that day and all went home with a few patches of sunburn. K,’s butt is actually get whiter and whiter, we have discovered!
That night we had a mega fish feast, thanks to R.J. who went all out getting a LOT of shrimp and red snapper from the fish market and cooking it up for us. A sweet day!

We have been on the go, having fun with Stephanie and it’s been hard to find the time to sit down and write any updates for the blog! So here’s what we’ve been up to the last few days….

On our way out to Bahia Honda Beach, right after I was commenting how we had never been stopped by any official in our boat before, we got stopped by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, who were in a scary looking powerboat with 4 giant engines of 225 horsepower each. It had to go as fast as it could with all those engines maxed in order to catch up to us under full sail. They pulled up next to our boat and one of the officials jumped over to our boat and checked our documentation. Good thing we had just dropped off the 4 illegal Cubans we had hiding in the v-berth! Satisfied that we were not criminals, the border patrol officer complimented our wee boat for being clean and went on his merry way.

After a rocky night anchored off of Bahia Honda beach, we went ashore the next day and did a photo shoot of my latest handwoven scarves. Stephanie was a great model, and the scenery was perfect too. Here’s a shot of her displaying the scarf that could be yours. (only $85!) Contact me for more info.

There are two of these available, don’t miss your chance to have a Dreamweaver creation.

In the afternoon we sailed over to the “bay side” of the Keys to check out some islands that had been recommended to us by our native Keys friend Katherine. We kayaked around a small island that was covered in roosting pelicans and other birds. We must have got a bit too close because all at once the island lifted up into the air and disappeared. That was WEIRD. Here we are kayaking near the island while it was still there:

Good thing the kayak only needs 3 inches of water to float, because most of the area we covered in the kayak was 4 inches deep!!

That night we tried fishing again, only to be disappointed. We were stunned, however, to see hundreds of bioluminescent worms glowing in the water around our boat. They seemed to emit a discharge into the water that also glowed. Crazy! Amazing! What strange things will happen next to the lucky individuals aboard Wee Happy?!?

Here’s what happened next…..the next day we sailed back to Marathon escorted by a pod of jumping dolphins. Then we went to music concert where we were the only people there under age 50. The music was good, but it was not as exciting of a show as we had hoped, and so we managed to find a poolside bar where we enjoyed the sunshine and a few drinks.

On Stephanie’s last day, of course we wanted to show her the best time of her life and have the most perfect day ever. We decided to sail up to a nearby harbor to meet our friends Mel and RJ. It was the warmest day we’ve had in the last week and it was a great day to be out on the water. But there was NO wind and we ended up motoring to get there. Drag. Then we finally got there only to find that it was too shallow to get our boats into and we ended up turning around and coming back to Marathon. Major drag. But hey, it was glorious on the water, and we got to make pina coladas for each other, and that’s just how the pickle wrinkles. (this is a famous saying from Luck, WI)

Just for fun, here are a few more pics of Stephanie’s stay here. And 10 points for anyone who can guess which details of this post are true and which are fictitious.

We would post more photos but the computer is being weird and I can’t access the photos. Is anyone else having issues with these types of things? My phone wasn’t working for a few days, my camera died, computers are being difficult, etc. It must be the “marine” environment….

Anyway, we are off to make dinner on my sister’s last night here. Good night!

After a very short stay, K’s sister Sas, was whisked back to the cold north. She survived her stay without getting sunburned! We were sad to see her go so soon! We managed to pack in almost all the elements of a good Florida vacation…sailing, fishing, kayaking, and even some beach time. The beach we went to with Sas had palm trees and lounge chairs and pina coladas and white sand, AND they even had little Hobi catamarans to rent. These are entry level, easy to sail, mini racing catamarans that are basically a really fast wind powered water toy. We got one for half an hour and went screaming around the bay. It was a blast!!

When my sister Stephanie arrived, we all crammed into the dinghy and went to the Sunset Grill,a restaurant on the waterfront which we mistakenly thought had a dinghy dock We arrived in the dark and had to tie up our dinghy on some rocks underneath a private dock…somewhat of an awkward adventure, but we survived.
During the night on Tuesday, while all 4 of us were tucked in our wee bunks sleeping, a severe thunderstorm blew through the area, waking us all up with dangerously close cracks of lightning and frighteningly strong winds. The next day we took our dinghy to a beach and on the way there we saw hundreds of floating iridescent blue and purple jellyfish. We had never seen them before and we mystified as to what they were. A man saw us being tourists and told us that they were man o’ wars, one of the most dangerous jellyfish known to man. They have beautiful condom like bodies that float on the water looking like jeweled water balloons, but underneath are LONG stinging tentacles that can cause reactions ranging from major pain and welts to anaphalyctic shock and even DEATH. The man o’ wars had been blown to shore by the storm. The beach was covered with them, and we decided it wasn’t a good day to swim….

The next day we took Stephanie to one of the nicest beaches in the Keys, Bahia Honda. We sailed there with a cool north wind, and anchored in the bay right off the beach. It was unseasonably cool, and all the locals were warning us to stay warm and not freeze to death. Stephanie had to wear her down jacket she had on when she left Wisconsin! But there was still sun, and here she is rejoicing in it:

The beach featured amazing shell hunting, and we enjoyed walking up and down the beach admiring the multicolored tiny seashells, coral pieces, and grasses (and some gorgeous but deflated man o’wars). We found a charming little oasis under a tree decorated with seashells…..perfect!

Since we put out the word that we were staying put in one spot long enough for people to catch up with us via airplane, we suddenly have a long list of people coming to visit! Now that we have braved 3 whole months of cold weather and tedious travel to get the boat down here to a warm climate, people freezing their butts off in the North wanna come visit!
The first to arrive is Sas, K.’s dear little sister, who came in Sunday from Plattsburgh, NY, where it was 15 degrees below zero. She is here for only a few short days, and so we are trying to pack in the warm weather activities while she’s here. Only the weather isn’t really cooperating, and even though it’s almost 100 degrees warmer than in Plattsburgh, it still wasn’t really bikini beach weather today. There was a blustery wind blowing all day with scattered showers…..but we still decided to go out sailing, and Sas is such a sailing trooper that she didn’t stop smiling the whole time we were out there getting rocked around and sprayed in the waves.

And we all were laughing hysterically when a “rogue” wave came crashing over the boat, completely soaking her brother in 20 gallons of water. Some dolphins even made a brief appearance just for her.

We finally got some basic fishing gear and a fishing license so that we can try fishing. We are both complete beginners at fishing, neither of us ever having fished before. So today, with Sas, we threw our lines into the water for the first time to see what we might catch. K. caught several tiny fish right away that were so wee they got lucky and were tossed back in the water.

And that was all we caught. No big boys for us, although some sneaky fish who figured out how to eat the bait without touching the hook got fattened up from our bait!

Tomorrow the second sister, arrives: my little sister Stephanie. For one night the sisters will overlap and we will have an all time record number of people sleeping aboard Wee Happy. We’ll let you know how it goes.
We’re really happy to see our sisters, who we’ve been missing a lot!!

We are settling into our temporary life living in Boot Key Harbor. Every day we have been doing work projects on our boat. The things we have worked on so far include major structural improvements such as reinforcing the mast beam and the forestay chain plate, which is a weak point on the Vega and needed improving before we felt comfortable heading out onto the open ocean. K. has been working hard with all kinds of complicated and frustrating details of that and it is a whole story in and of itself. We have also been making new hatch boards and cockpit locker covers out of wood, and I’ve been busy in the workshop every day giving the boards 8 coats of varnish. And we’ve also been doing gross stuff like cleaning out the storage lockers and getting rid of months worth of gunk that had accumulated in there. Whoo Hoo, so much fun!
But we have been also managing to have some fun here and there with some new friends that we have met in Marathon. In an earlier post we mentioned the sailors that we towed out of a difficult situation when their engine died at the marina dock. These two Minnesotans, R.J. and Mel, have become great friends, and we’ve really enjoyed hanging out with them.

A few days ago the four of us took our dinghy out to a tiny little island and explored, and we’ve also been enjoying making dinner together and playing cards. They left this morning to visit some other areas of the Keys, but we hope to meet up with them again in Feb. and possibly travel together.
We’ve also made a new friend who is not a sailor! In fact, we took her out on her first ever sailing trip on Tuesday. Kelsie works as a manager at a local restaurant and has been overworked for months, so she wanted to have a day off to do something fun. So we showed her a good time aboard Wee Happy! It was also the FIRST time on our entire voyage that we just went out sailing for the day, and returned to the same spot we started out from. We went a few miles out into the ocean to a reef and sailed around in circles just for the fun of it. Despite a near bout of seasickness from the rolling waves, she managed to enjoy herself just fine. The highlight of the day was when a pod of 6 large dolphins swam around our boat, following us and playing around the bow of the boat. They were so close we could have reached out and touched them! It was truly a visit from the dolphin world, and we were grateful for the gift! And check out the color of the water!! It was the most amazing shade of turquoise I have ever seen.
And, there’s been some fun nights here at the marina tiki hut with wonderful live music, food, and drink going late into the evening. Our social life is so much more active since we have moved aboard our boat! Who knew?