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 4-10-21 Our last night in Florida has me thinking of this years cruising season and how different it was from previous years. Karen and I talked well before the normal winter cruising season about staying home quarantined in Iowa City for the winter. We debated the pro’s and con’s and quickly decided that we would enjoy quarantining aboard Last Mango much better. Being aboard Mango (even if we didn’t sail a lot) would allow us to enjoy the warm Florida weather rather than what turned out to be a much colder and snowier Iowa winter. Not to mention that the Florida summers are really hard on boats in storage. Boats like RV’s or just about anything else fare better when used regularly rather than sitting idle. We really feel for our Canadian friends who were stuck up in the Great White North, we missed them and look forward to seeing them next season. This year spending almost all of our time in and around the Fort Myers Beach area has me being thankful for several things. First I ha...
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Good Bye Key West, Hello Shut Down

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4-4-20     As of this writing Karen and I are residing at her parents house down here in Florida. The past several weeks has been a stressful adventure for us and I’m sure everyone else. Karen and I were not sure what shoe would drop next as Florida began to take the Coronavirus more seriously. We were very happy spending time at Stock Island Marina and Resort in Key West as we started to sense trouble was heading our way. Each day I would wake up reach over and turn NPR on the radio, each morning broadcast would reveal more spread of the virus around the world and across our country. Karen was very nervous as each day brought more bad news. In the whole scheme of things we’re very lucky, we were not concerned for our health (maybe living in a false reality) but we were concerned about Florida being shutdown and not being able to pull and store Mango. We had plenty of food, water, fuel and could sail anywhere we wanted (winds permitting). Sailing down Hawks Channel towards...
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Off to Key West

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2-12-20     We left from Marco Island heading to Key West at 4 pm with promises from the weather gods of a rollicking sail all the way to the entrance of the North West Passage in Key West. I was really looking forward to sailing the entire 20 or so hours passing through the myriad of land mines (crab pots) without the worry of snagging a pot on a spinning propeller. My heart sank while exiting Marco Island pass and sensing that the wind was not blowing in the predicted direction and virtually non existent. I set Mango’s autopilot for the proper course and accepted that the motor would be on for quite a while as the ocean looked like a mill pond. S/V Fracas calls the water’s appearance “Flat as piss on a plate”. Karen could sense my frustration as I informed her I was going below to break out the fishing poles, might as well try and catch some fish. Sun Down aboard Mango Full Moon Rise aboard Mango as water rushes past. Almost as bright as the sunset. ...
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Good Bye Fort Myer Beach, Amazing Dog and a Walkabout

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2-8-20     This morning we say goodbye to Fort Myers Beach. It’s been great but definitely time to leave, Karen and I have itchy feet. We restocked our groceries, filled with water and fuel. The Super Bowl was viewed at the Liki Tiki while eating hot wings and BBQ brisket. A birthday celebration in honor of ML from S/V Fracas was enjoyed at Nervous Nellie’s. Weather during our time here was all over the place from very cool to wonderfully warm and almost always usually windy. Thursday evening we had storms move through that were forecast to have winds in excess of 40 knots, fortunately these winds didn’t materialize as 30 knots was tops. We did receive buckets of rain along with lightning and thunder. Last Mango stripped of canvas awaiting the  storm. Today we leave headed to Marco Island which is a short sail of just over 30 miles. Karen and I started Mango’s motor just after 7:30 AM to warm up in the chill of the 49 degree temperature. We contacted...
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