22 March 2015

It’s time to say farewell to Tavernier, FL. Mangrove Marina has been our home for the last 104 days, and it’s been wonderful. We are on the 300 dock, “Caicos” with 14 other “live-aboard” and another 6-8 transients.

We got here by a fluke. I had waited too long to get us a slip in Marathon and was able to snag a slip here. It’s turned out well, there is almost everything we need within bike or walking distance. There are on the dock pump-outs, so we’ve not needed to move the boat since we got here.

But it’s not the facilities or location that makes this great, it’s all the truly wonderful people that live here. Every night there is someone at docktails, lots of times it’s a mix of people that live here and ones that used to live here. We’ve shared drinks, snacks, great smoked meats, 100′s of rounds of the game cornhole, potluck dinners, a chili contest, catching lobsters from the dock, and have been serenaded by the only marching conch band in the Keys most evenings. Susan’s been a member since January.

Granted, we’ve been gone about 35 of the days the boat was docked, but there was always something going on for the other 60. And that has made it a lot of fun. It’s cool to watch the Superbowl outside wearing shorts. Lots of great sunrises and sunsets. Mom and a juvenile manatee gliding around the boats. Funny stories, bad puns and lots of tall tales.

I missed my three month estimate on how long we would be here by two weeks. I’d love to stay longer, but if we did, I wouldn’t want to leave. We have a grand-baby that’s growing up too fast. So we are off on Monday and start the 1200 mile trip home. You should start seeing a return to almost daily blog posts.

Speaking of posts, Susan has spent the last few days working on videos and pictures, so there should be new things to watch.

Farewell our friends in Tavernier, thanks for making our stay so great! Everytime I see a rainbow I’ll think of all of you.