2012 - February to May - Summerland Key

 

Around & About Summerland Key

 

FEBRUARY to MAY

For those faithful followers of my ramblings, here I go again. After 3 weeks working with Mark, diesel mechanic extraordinaire & Brian at American Diesel at Oceanside Marina on Stock Island, we still have the oil consumption issue. We tried everything to discover the problem but to no avail.

Joe cutting down the rubber tree

My best buddy, Joe, from Oakhill, FL, arrived at the cottage on February 23^rd for a little R&R & to help out with some house chores. We rented a car so I could drive to the cottage & begin helping him out while they were still working on the engine in Key West. A coat of kool seal on the roof, cut down a few trees & cleaned up all the leaves, re-painted the outside shower area &


Table before & after

porch, several visits to Home Depot




(my favorite place) to get paint for new kitchen chairs & tile to cover the top of the table on the porch & lots of other boring stuff. Of course we didn’t miss some happy hours at the yacht club next to Oceanside or the Warf by the cottage.

Karen, Joe & Sandy

Joe's friend, Sandy & her sister, Karen visited for a few day & we all cruised BLUE MAX home on March 3^rd just in time to miss a nasty front that came in on the 4^th with high winds, rain & big waves. We anchored out in Niles channel. All in all it was a busy month. Joe left on the 9^th &, on the 10th, our friend Billy Downes & Ellen arrived from Situate, MA to spend a week in paradise.

Ellen, Billy, W&W

 

Billy on the conch at sunset

Kathryn arrived on the 23^rd for a long weekend & helped paint the chairs & front gate. We treated ourselves (just the girls) to Sunday brunch on Little Palm Island - Ooh-La-La.



The famous & beautiful Little Palm Island

  

The beautiful shuttle, THE TRUMAN, that takes you to the island - an adventure in itself

 


Kathryn & the Key deer

Great experience, gorgeous setting & fabulous food. Ya gotta splurge at least once in awhile. 
Between projects, I was busy painting some wooden frames found at Sally’s (aka, Salvation Army). I always wanted to display some of our favorite pictures in the cottage taken while traveling. We bought the boat to the sea wall on the 30^th - easier to visit friends & neighbors.
                                                        APRIL
It’s a strange month here in the Keys with fronts arriving often, lots of wind & rain, sunny/cloudy, hot/cool-you never know what to expect. Friends, Pete & June, from Charlotte county, FL arrived to spend a month of fishing & veggin’ out.
We decided to look for another VW Cabrio & found it easier said than done. Bless the internet but who knew it was such a popular model?? I’d locate one here in Florida, call about it & was already sold. Then I found her ..

(or should it be a ‘him’?) a 2002 (last year they made them) silver, new black, electric top & new tires - pristine with only 47,000 miles & located in Cape Coral. (Gregg, Wayne’s brother lives there) I immediately called. He just took a deposit on it. Buggar!! (as the English say) He took my number ‘just in case’ the deal didn’t fly. Sure enough, on the 19^th he called to say it was ours if we still wanted it…but he needed a deposit asap. We called Gregg; he immediately drove over to Glen's & reported that the Cabrio was as pristine as it looked online. He gave him a deposit. Wayne took the Ft Myers ferry on the 25^th, secured the car & was home on the 27^th. He/she sure is sweet.(Oh...so is Wayne) 

                                                      MAY
Kathryn arrived on the 3^rd with her friend, Kari for another long weekend. Mickey doesn’t know what he’s missing. Good times &, of course, happy hour at the Warf.

Kathryn, Wayne & Kari

It was time to prepare for our journey up to Naples for David & Shannon’s wedding on the 18^th & Nicholas’s christening on the 20^th. Scupper made sure to tell our Iguana friends to stay off the property while we were away. The fuel truck arrived at the sea wall & filed up the tank, we secured the house & off we went on the 9^th. There was a nice high tide so we decided to be brave & head out the ‘back way’ - meaning instead of cruising to Marathon or Key West & then go north, we took Niles channel north past Knockemdown & Sawyer Keys to the Gulf. This short cut saved us many hours, miles & fuel…We anchored for the night.