HAWK'S CAY / Sunday thru-Thursday, February 7-11 (Days 17-21)

This week was pretty much a relax and catch up on housekeeping kind of day. The winds and seas have been pretty strong and are expected to stay that way unfortunately.  Barbara took the Island Shuttle to the Ft. Lauderdale airport this morning to go back to snowy Kentucky. Mike and Joe took a taxi to Marathon to rent a car.  I vacuumed and did laundry. Mike, Joe and I watched the Super Bowl, (we really did not have a favorite, Peyton is a good guy and Cam went to Auburn). We had bar-b-que sandwiches which we had brought from home and I made baked beans and cole slaw.

Monday, Joe and Mike drove up to Ft. Myers in the rental car so Joe could get his car to drive home to Kentucky after his meeting in Ft. Lauderdale. So I had 8 hours to spoil myself! I went for a nice brisk walk, had a glorious massage and caught up on my blog. When the guys got home we went to Island Cafe and Tiki Bar on Marathon. We all had fried shrimp and shared a fried Key Lime Pie. It was just OK, we all agreed it had too much batter. 

Tuesday we all three took a walk to the Tiki Hut bar on the resort. Whoa, glad we only did that once, 5 drinks were pricey! But that's what happens on a resort. Then we ran some errands; Publix, NAPA, and UPS so I could mail the kids their Valentine's Cards. That night we fixed a pretty good stew and watched the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Fellow Loopers

Mike & Joe getting some pointers.

Wednesday the guys got massages and I went to the gym. Then just hung out until we joined the Cosgroves for "Docktails" at their marina; Faro Blanco on Marathon. Mel and Ann Cosgrove are the Looper couple we met at the October Rendezvous and they also stayed at our house in November. They introduced us to a bunch of other boaters, many who where Loopers. I made sure to take plenty of "Boat Cards" (these usually have a picture of your boat, a photo of ourselves and our contact information) to exchange. Because you never know when and where you may meet up with them again. We then went to dinner at the Sunset Grill, on the Gulf side of the Island. We were hoping to see a nice sunset, but it was too cloudy!

Sunset Grill

I got the She-Crab soup which was delicious and stone crab. Mike and Joe checked out the weather forecast for the next couple of days to see if we could go fishing and when we might have a window to head back north.

We were getting tired of doing nothing because the weather stunk! Even the locals said this wind and extended cool temps were very unusual. 



Thursday looked a little better than it had been, so we scheduled a fishing trip on the "War Eagle". We figured it must be an omen.

The owner is an Auburn Alum and lives outside of Atlanta and has a captain that charters the boat when he is out of town. We left at 7:30 for a half day charter. The sun peeked through a few times, it was still quite windy, but the waves were not too bad. Joe caught the most, with six yellow tails. I'm not sure Mike caught a keeper at all. I caught one keeper yellow tail and a black grouper and mutton snapper that were not big enough to keep.

Burdine's for lunch

We met Ann and Mel again for lunch at Burdine's. Our captain and the Cosgrove's told us it was a great place for lunch. Ann ordered us the hushpuppy appetizer. They were so light compared to most hushpuppies I've had, and were served with a Jalapeño Pepper Jelly which was very good, not hot at all. We also had their famous fresh cut fries with seasoning salt.

Fried Key Lime Pie!

Ann insisted we get their fried Key Lime Pie. We were not convinced since the last one was just so-so. But WOW, this one was so much better! We bid them safe travels and hope to catch up with them again in the Bahama's, but we will see them for sure at the Spring Redezvous in Norfolk the first of May. Once we got back to the boat, Joe and I did more laundry because we think the next couple of stops may not have any facilities. Mike did his engine room check so we would be ready to leave early in the morning as long as the weather held. We had leftovers for dinner, thank goodness,  because the refrigerator was overflowing!

Joe did not like his, Haha