Matacumbe Bight

From Marathon we traveled in the Florida Bay to Matacumbe Bight, a beautiful anchorage behind Islamorada.  

I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts (deedely dee)

 

There wasn’t much to do here and as such we kept to our regular schedule with modifications suiting the environment. 

Sunset in the bight

Pirate girl

There was a piece of privately owned land with only one (uninhabited) home built on it and plenty of “no trespassing” signs staked along the perimeter.  However, because of the dogs, and lack of a public landing, we were somewhat forced to explore a small section of the land out of necessity.  I do not enjoy, nor do I condone trespassing, but we all enjoyed going to shore here twice a day to stretch our legs, play, and observe the wildlife.

A pair of bald eagles had roosted in an Australian pine and we were lucky enough to see them in flight, hear their calls, and catch a glimpse of their eaglets.

"Noman" Island

Rei-skeroni-pony

Family portrait...no idea where Ransom's shirt went

Rei running...

...from dad!!!

Palm tree stump

Main St. at sunset

Coconuts, yum!  We need a machete!

Charles looking dashing

Rei looking a bit protective of her piece of palm

Eagle in flight

Eagles' nest

 

In the afternoons we would all go swimming.  Ransom and I would snorkel a bit first, then the dogs would do a long lap with us for some exercise.

One day we took the dinghy over to the mangrove islands to the north of us for a change of scenery.  Wow!  Everything was so green and full of life.  Lots of fishes and birds and mangrove roots as far as you could see.

Mangrove tunnel

Mangrove roots

Mangrove roots

Osprey

Don't they look like they are having just a horrible time?

Really, these dogs are soooo bored

Sea birds...smelly, smelly, sea birds

To the south of us we found a place to tie up the dinghy; and within walking distance we found a Cuban restaurant (delicious food), a “country store” (glorified convenience store, but we were able to restock some provisions), and a dock with a hose we could “borrow” water from (42+ gallons worth). 

On our last day in the bight we met a kayaker who invited us over to the small resort (run by former sailors) he was lodging at for “dusk drinks.”  We shared some tales and drank some beers among the company of other mariners.  When the sun set a conch shell horn was blown to salute the close of another day and we returned to Vitte to prepare for our departure to Key Largo the next morning.