Buddy boating to Elliot Key/Biscayne Bay

On March 21 around 7:50am we pulled up our anchor at Sunrise Bay and waited in the ICW for our friends, Kerry, Kory and their friends, on sailing catamaran Hope, to meet us so we could buddy boat with them to Elliot Key, in Biscayne Bay. They arrived just in time for us to catch the next bridge opening at 8:00am. We were all smiles and looking forward to the day ahead. Once out in the ocean, the water was pretty lumpy…approximately 4’ waves at 3 seconds apart. The wind speed was at 19kts on our nose. Not until we got into Biscayne Bay a few hours later, were we able to put out both our main and jib and had a beautiful sail! We caught up to our friends just before we dropped our anchor in Elliot Bay. The water was a very pretty greenish blue that made it possible to see the sandy bottom below.

After both of us set our anchors, our friend Kory and his daughter Lauren zipped over in their dinghy for a brief visit to say hello. Lauren is a beautiful, charming, young 20 year old with a smile so big and bright you can’t help to adore her right away. The other friends aboard Hope stood on deck as we exchanged waves and smiles. We had plans to meet them all later for a dinner invite on their boat.

So, dinner time rolled around and we dinghy’d over to Hope. We were greeted upon arrival by all with a warm welcome! The guests of Kory and Kerry…the Fahrbach’s..Derek, Brittany and their children Dylan, Drew and Ellie were so friendly, engaging and fun to be around. We had a great dinner and evening!

The next day the kids on Hope were already in the water swimming and snorkeling and having a great time in the water. After lunch we all dinghy’d over, separating the two groups of people into the two dinghies, to a nearby dock. We tied up the dinghies, jumped up on the dock and doused ourselves in bug repellant in preparation of the 1 mile trail ahead through jungle like terrain that was to lead us to the Atlantic. While on this walk, we were bombarded by mosquitos, each of us swatting ourselves, one another and re-applying bug spray. The end of this trail could not have come any sooner. When we made it to the beach all that you could see was ocean..beautiful blue/green and vast ocean. There was not much of a beach, only rocks, dried seaweed and a hard rough and uneven bank. We all wandered and teetered, trying to keep our balance on the banks looking in small tide pools looking for sea-life of any kind. Mostly we saw tiny little shells in clusters housing small living critters, a few small crabs and unfortunately some garbage intertwined in the dried seaweed. We didn’t spend too much time there and soon blasted through the jungle trail as quickly as possible. Kerry who was at the lead of the pack, on the way back, saw a very large snake on the trail! I was at the end of the trail and only heard the squeals, never saw the snake but was definitely keeping my eyes open to avoid it!

We got back to the dock and dinghy’d back to our boats. As we said our goodbye’s, another dinner invitation was offered for that night. We gladly accepted and looked forward to meeting up later. Derek, the father of the Fahrbach family, came over to our boat along with Kory and helped Rick get our water maker up and running. They spent quite a while and we so appreciated their knowledge and efforts! The kids went swimming again and they also tried out our SUP boards. I think it was a first for them to experience, but they all seemed to get the hang of it pretty quickly and enjoyed themselves. It was fun to watch them having so much fun. Later that evening, we popped over for another great meal, some laughs and good conversation. Loving this group of people more and more by the minute!

Next day we took another dinghy excursion to Biscayne National Park in Elliot Key with everyone, including the two dogs, Gracie and Rudi. Kory was the only one that did not make it. He had something on Hope that he wanted to finish up. This park was nice and looked like a great place for small boats to dock and to camp out. Large grassy area, and campsites with barbeque pits. There was a couple of buildings on the property and one of them was a museum. We took a look around and talked with a couple of park rangers who showed us some sea life artifacts, shells from the different sea turtles, sponges and coral etc. The dogs were encouraged by one of the park rangers to participate in a ceremony while excepting ‘bark’ ranger badges to wear on their collars and receiving a set of rules for their time in the park. It was pretty comical but Lauren and Ellie were good sports and agreed to be the dog handlers for Gracie and Rudi during the ceremony.

Soon we decided to take a walk through to the other side of the island. Not too far into the walk, we entered a cloud of mosquitos and we were all being viciously attacked. It didn’t take long to jog our memories from the walk the previous day to know this was not going to get any better so we turned around and headed straight back to the dinghy dock. Later in the afternoon, Dylan, Drew and Ellie swam over to our boat in snorkeling gear carrying brushes and scraping tools to clean the bottom of our boat. They offered this service on day one, which we could hardly refuse. They spent a couple of hours or more scrubbing away. Derek, their father even came over for a time to help as well. Our boat bottom never looked better! That evening we had to get in one last visit on Hope. This boat is a one-stop-shop! We got fed, entertained, provided a boat cleaning service, water-maker help and…lastly and greatly appreciated was the hair cutting station on the port side sugar scoop! Brittany among many other gifts, cuts hair as well! She gave Rick one of the best hair cuts he could remember and what a view! This event seemed to attract all of our attention as we gathered around to watch the transformation in the works.

March 25th came too soon!! This was the day we were to go our separate ways. Hope left early in the morning. We waved goodbye as we watched them pull up their anchor and turn the boat around, heading away from us. I immediately felt a sadness and shed a tear or two. The impact the members aboard Hope had on us was incredible. They touched our hearts in such a way that we will never forget them! We pray that our paths will cross again. We plan to keep in touch via email with the Fahrbach’s at the very least and we keep trying to coordinate our plans with Kory and Kerry. And sadly it just never seems like our paths will collide. Hopefully this summer they can pay us a visit in Idaho! Not too long after Hope left, we sailed over to No Name Harbor where we anchored out in preparation for our passage to Bimini, Bahamas!