March 14, 2014 Friday Marathon Key

Went with Jeff and Judy for a ride out in the ocean to check out their props they had redone and put back on.  They had a vibration high speed with their old props.  The New props pushed their 32 foot Carver to 28 mph in moderate seas.  Impressive! ( Curt's comments)  Jeff took us back to the Marina dock, we got our bikes road them home to get laundry done quick and then rode back to Dockside to meet Jeff and Judy and George and Mary for dinner and to listen to Eric Stone and his band.  Curt had a nice size filet of lightly breaded Grouper with fries, I splurged and had my Bushwacker for supper along with a few bites of Curt's.  We had a good time listening to the music and watching the 18 year old (dress and dance moves) 70 year olds  Not sure how to get this back in order, anybody have any ideas?

March 13, 2014 Thursday Marathon Key, Florida

Up at 6 am to catch the bus at 7:30 to Key West with Ross and Barb to meet Scott and his wife.  Curt and Chris helped Scott get his new boat back to Deltaville from Florida.  George and Mary met us later in the day.  Returned to Marathon and all of us went to Frank's Grill, an Italian Restaurant that hold about 20 people, good food and good Chianti.

 Curt and Ross had to check out the cigar store.

 I went thru the Little White House, was very interesting

 The group tired waiting for the bus to take us back to Marathon

 Saw the Blimp on our way back by Cudijo Key, story is they have 24 hour surveillance of the area looking for illegal immigrants.  The US government was supposed to pull it out of service last year but it is still there.

Fat Albert | Mile Marker 23

milemarker23.wordpress.com/2011/02/14/fat-albert/‎

Feb 14, 2011 - Fat Albert is located at the end of, what else, Blimp Road. ... feature is the unmanned Navy surveillance blimp (don't get technical here), ... There is a very detailed article here: http://www.n-the-florida-keys.com/Fat-Albert.html ...

Finally got back to the boat at 10:30.

March 12 , 2014 Wednesday Marathon Key

Woke up early this morning, what a nice sunrise, had to walk along the resort side walk around the corner from our boat to get pictures.  Went to the Turtle Hospital with George and Mary, Curt went to a seminar regarding Off-Shore Power Management and Solar and Wind Generators. It was very educational at the Turtle Hospital. 

 Took pics as the sun was coming up

 Yes it is as beautiful as it looks.

 Ended up having Reunion, the motor boat parked to our starboard in most of the sunrise pics.

 Castaway early in the morning not as nice as Reunion but the morning sun coming up on the Mangrove trees behind our boat.

 A selfie picture of us in the boat
 We got our care package from home, thanks Mike and thanks to Kiren for making sure Uncle Mike included our share of the Birthday Cupcakes.

Grand pa had to eat his right away.   Yum, you did good with your Daddy and Uncle Mike making birthday cupcakes.

 Barb came over to visit while I was sitting in the cockpit of our boat having coffee.

 At the Turtle hospital we learned about the different types of sea turtles, I took a picture of the poster cause I didn't know there were so many kinds.

 This was the classroom for show and tell

 This is a Leatherback shell, they have a shell that is like the cartilage in our ears or nose.  It needs to be soft because this turtle will dive up to 3000 ft down in the ocean for food.  If he had a hard shell it would break at those depths.  He gets 4-6 ft big and weighs 300-500lbs.

 We saw Iguanas outside sunning thenmselves by the water

They would isolate the turtles in their own tank when they first got to the hospital of course not to spread any diseases.  The round tube was so the turtle could stick his head in it and feel safe.  They would first clean their shells and get all the barnacles off.

 This guy was waiting for  eye drops since he had an eye infection.

 This turtle just got out of surgery this morning, had a Papiloma tumor removed, they are given antibiotics and kept isolated to make sure more tumors don't start and kept at the hospital for 1 year to make sure they have fully recovered from the tumors.

 This is a turtle who had a 3 lb tumor around his front left fin, when they removed the tumor the fin was so terrible injured by him trying to swim with the tumor that they amputated it.

 This Guy was called Bubble Butt, if I remember right his shell was cut by a boat motor and he got air under the shell, he was unable to dive so they tried several different things, ended up using weights to help dive for food.  When they fall off they replace the weights enough so they can dive again as they want to.

 This is the only turtle of this kind here, it is shy so doesn't come up often, they said if you see it take a picture quick.  I believe it is called a Kemp's Ridley.

 Weights on his back,they like Kale also

 This is the big tank they change the sea water, not sure how often

 The one without the fin

 They said they don't see well but they smell good, they loved the vegetable pellets we were given to drop in the water to feed them.

 They got another turtle with the same phenomenon of bubbled shell and were able to treat him quickly with weights so he could dive and eat.

 They all were named by the person who found them, they are released the same place they were found when they're ready.  Each had a sign on it's tank like this.

 This cute little guy loved people and was very active, they take him to the schools to teach kids about turtles.

 When a turtle comes in with an obstruction they give them vegetable oil until they pass the obstruction.  Some turtles will swallow plastic bags thinking it is a jellyfish.  They will have lots of gas in the intestinal tract as they are passing the obstruction so they float, can't dive down in the water so they also give them Beano, everyone had a good laugh but she said no that's what we give them plus put weights on them so they can dive down when they want to.

This visit made me think of the Big turtle we saw floating on our way to Virgin Gorda, BVI's.  Wondering if it was injured and that's why it didn't dive when we went by it.  What do you think Vera?