Authors Note: Any spelling or grammatical errors in the following log are the fault of the editorial staff, but since we can't afford to pay them, we let it slide.

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June 16, 2012 - Introducing the new "Kokopelli" !!

(** will be visiting alot of places like this I think!)

Betsy & I took possession of this 2002 Pursuit 2870 Walkaround today thanks to our terrific broker Andy Gillis from Ross Yacht Sales. She's in terrific shape with low hours on the engines and a recent Awlgrip paint job on the hull.

We picked her up in Marco Island and drove up to her new home in Cape Coral. She ran perfectly for the 2 hour trip.

June 19, 2012 - New bottom paint

Drove Kokopelli up to Four Winds Marina in Bokeelia to get her bottom painted and engines serviced. Winds were north at 15+ kts and Pine Island Sound was a bit lumpy but the boat handled it all pretty well. Looking forward to getting her back soon and doing some cruising around this summer!

June 30, 2012 - Anchor test

After picking up "Kokopelli" from the shop, where it got new bottom paint and engine service done (Thank you Four Winds Marina!), we decided to test out the anchor windlass for the first time off the beach at North Captiva. As you can see, all went well.

Nov 17, 2012 - Bottom Paint (the sequel):

Picked up "Kokopelli" from the shop, where it got another new bottom paint job (courtesy of Four Winds Marina!). Seems the first paint job had an issue with the primer layer and the bottom paint began to peel off in large chunks. Thankfully, the good folks at Four Winds Marina redid the job for no charge.

Mar 10, 2013 - Addition to Fleet:

You know how you see something at a boat show that you just CAN'T pass up?! Well we have been thinking for a while now about getting a kayak (or kayaks) to use from the boat (as if we need to add to our "fleet" at this point, we still have an 8ft RIB that we need to sell). Well we went to the Miami boat show and came across this inflatable 2 person kayak from Conquest Adventure Gear that looked perfect for what we wanted to do. It came in a backpack style bag and didn't weigh much at all. AND it had a see through bottom! The show price was hard to beat so we went for it.

Here are pics from the first seatrial:

Apr 26 - May 11, 2013 - The South Florida Loop

We decided to take the new Kokopelli on a roughly two week cruise across the state, over to Bimini and back and see how well she (and we) performed. We planned our supplies, bought some new stuff (a small percolator for coffee, a single burner butane stove, dishes, plastic storage containers for food and supplies, etc), figured out where to stuff it all so we still had room to move around and then we packed up the boat and headed up the Caloosahatchee River for Lake Okeechobee.

We left just before 8am and it was thankfully quiet on the water as we made our way past downtown Ft. Myers and up to the Franklin Locks, then to the Ortona Locks and finally to the Moore Haven Locks and into Lake Okeechobee at around 1pm. We then proceeded around the rim of the lake to Clewiston (dodging small fishing boats the entire way). At Clewiston we aere finally able to head out into the open waters of Lake O and make some speed to Port Mayaca on the opposite shore. We made it across by 3:30pm just as the wind was picking up on the lake and got into the St. Lucie canal and through the St. Lucie lock (13ft!) by 4:30pm. We arrived for our first evening stop at Stuart at 5:30pm. We tied up at Pirate's Cove Marina and headed for our first cold beer and dinner!

We explored a bit of this area of Stuart (Manatee Pocket) by foot. There were quite a few waterfont restaurants and some artist's galleries. Unfortunately most of the galleries were closed by this time but we did find a glassblowing studio that was open and watched them at work for a bi and browsed some of the examples of their work. Next morning we topped off the fuel and headed down the coast.

(Side Note) The ICW in SE Florida! I'll get my rant out of the way here.....

I forgot how much I hate the ICW route on the east coast of FL. Even now that we have a powerboat it might even be worse. The boaters are rude. There are numerous slow and idle zones that seem arbitrary at best (the richer the homes along the water, the more zones there seem to be). The local boats barely obey the speed zones and outright ignore them the closer you get to Miami. If it hadn't been so windy on the outside, we would have gone offshore.

Our next stop was in Hillsboro at a place called the Lighthouse Point Marina. A very nice little marina just before the inlet. It had a friendly staff, nice facilities and a nice little restaurant with good food. our neighbor at the dock had just finished a day of Wahoo fising offshore and called the conditions outside as "Sporty". The weather looks windy for the next few days. Our planned crossing to Bimini looks like it will be later than we planned.

Still windy outside so we trudged down the ICW to Miami heading for No Name Harbor in Key Biscayne. Passing through Ft. Lauderdale (past the HUGE Sovereign of the Seas cruise ship in Port Everglades) then through the crazy weekend boat traffic in Miami (Authors Note: the speed zones in Miami seem to be suggestions at best. The locals mostly ignore them. Also most don't seem to care about basic boating safety: overloaded boats, passing way too close to other boats too fast and many other fun activites), and after a brief fuel stop at Crandon Park Marina (ethanol fuel!) it was on to No Name Harbor in Key Biscayne. Unfortunately since it was a Sunday, the harbor was full of local boaters out for a day trip so we anchored outside the harbor for lunch and waited for the crowd to leave. After a couple of hours we crept in to take a peek and found an empty space to anchor. Then we settled down to watch the fun. (Authors Note: Betsy thinks maybe we worry too much about proper techniques like checking to be sure our anchor is properly set, trying not to anchor too close to others, etd. After watching some of the boaters here I think maybe she might be correct. Some of them seem to just pick a spot, throw the anchor out and back up until it catches and then shut off the motor and turn on the music! No checking the anchor first, no checking how close you are to other boats, etc. Seems to work for them!). By sunset, we were pretty much alone in the harbor with the exception of a few other boats spending the night. This is our third time here and it's always a nice place to wait for crossings to Bahamas or getting away from the craziness of Miami. The next day, we inflated our kayak (see above) and took it for a spin around the harbor. We stoped in at the little restaurant here and had a really good ceasar salad. Then we went for a nice walk around the state park grounds and back to the boat. A few of the local boats started to come in for dinner and we watched as a 50ft yacht tried to anchor and proceeded to pull up an old aluminum ladder from the bottom. He managed to get it off eventually (Note to self and others: Do Not anchor in the N-NE corner of the harbor!). Later on a gourgeous Sparkman & Stephens NY32 yacht came in to anchor for the night (see photo gallery).

During our two days at No Name, we were checking the weather forecast for good crossing weather to Bimin. Since our first day on the trip the wind had been building and coming out of the E or NE up to 15-20kts. Seas in the Gulf Stream were reported at 5-6ft. By Monday, the wind was dropping but the seas were still predicted to be 3-4ft. Tuesday looked better but then the forecast began to get windier later inthe week. We decided to try to head over on Tuesday and see what happens.

We did a quick pumpout at No Name in the morning and headed out past Key Biscayne light and across the Gulf Stream at about 9am on our 44nm trip. The seas were still a bit choppy and we could only comfortably make about 16-18kts without slamming the boat too much. As we got closer to Bimini, we actually began to surf down the waves a bit (someting I like to do in a sailboat but a weird feeling in a powerboat). We arrived in the entrance to North Bimini at about 12:30pm. We were greeted by the normal clear sapphire blue waters of the Bahamas. We made our way up the channel to the Bimini Big Game club and were put into a slip, cleared customs then immigration (two different stops).

(Side Note) Bimini/Bahamas:

First I must say that the people of Bimini are extremely friendly. Always greeting us with a hello and a smile. That said, I must say that Bimini was a bit of a disappointment for us. We arrived mid-week, so it was obvious that the weekends (or during fishing tournaments) are when things happen here. It was pretty much a ghost town when we arrived. Some of that might have been due to the weather forecasts at the time. The marina was mostly empty, the streets were devoid of tourists and the local establishments seemed to be closed or not obviously open. We walked around a bit and then ended up back at our marina for food.

North Bimini itself is obviously not reaping any benefits from all the big money that comes over from the US. The streets are dirty, many of the houses are rundown and in need of major repair, many of the yards are full of old junk, the beaches are littered with trash and stuff washed up from offshore. Whoever takes the pictures for the tourism brochures for this island is a magician with camera angles or a wiz with photoshop. The people of Bimini are sure not reaping the benfits of any of the tourist dollars they generate. I can only compare it to the Abaco Islands further north where things seem to be in much better shape. One local mentioned that there may be a casino coming to the island but he wasn't if it was a bad thing or a good thing. Let's hope for the latter.

We spent a good part of our first day in Bimini walking around and getting the lay of the land. There wasn't much going on. We had a really good lunch at the Bimini Big Game Club grill. Betsy claimed that it was the best Mahi sandwich that hse'd ever had and my chicken sandwich was also very good. After lunch we went back to the boat and checked the weather for the next few days and saw that we could either leave the following day or we might have to stay put for almost a week. We discussed the option of trying South Bimini for a day and then leaving but the forecast kept getting worse so we decided to leave the following day.

The next day we checked out, got some ice and headed out the harbor and across the Gulf Stream by 10:30am. The crosing back was much smoother than the one over and we made better speed, arriving at Key Biscayne by 1pm. We dropped anchor outside No Name harbor and gave the Customs office a call to check into the US. (Note: if you've never used the US Customs : Small Vessel Reporting System, it's worth signing up for. it will save you the hassle of having to report to a Customs office upon arriving back in the US). We then tried to get a slip at Crandon Park Marina for the night but they were full. We called around and eventually found a spot about 30 mins south at Black Point Marina (near Homestead). This marina is run by Dade County and has nice docks, a restaurant, fuel but no shower facilities for transients.

Now it was time to make our way down through the Keys on the inside route. We hadn't been able to go this way in the sailboat due to the depth in some places so this was going to be a new experience. Betsy went through the Waterway Guide book to find a place for us to stop in Key Largo and settled on Gilbert's Resort and Marina (more about this place later). We fueled up before leaving Black Point and headed down Biscayne Bay to Key Largo. The forecast for the day was chance of severe thunderstorms later in the day, so we made tracks for Gilbert's. It was a choppy run down through the bay, Card Sound and Barnes Sound until we got to Jewfish Creek where we were protected from the breeze. We passed under the new fixed bridge where rte 1 crosses over into Key Largo and spotted Gilbert's Resort on the right. Oh Boy!

(Side Note) Gilbert's "Resort" and "Marina":

It's a tie whether the first thing you notice about Gilbert's are the run-down docks or the run-down hotel. Both are equally depressing. It's even more depressing when the doskmaster tells you that your $2.50 per foot slip fee gets you a spot on the run-down dock that runs along the ICW route, there are no slips for transients (of course once we found the "slips" that the live-aboards use, we were happy to be where we ended up). It only goes downhill from here. The "showers" are a pair of grimy bathrooms at the fuel dock that I wouldn't let my pets wash up in. Because of the new high-rise fixed bridge (there used to be a drawbridge here that you could easily walk across), you are basically trapped on the property because you can't walk to anywhere across the creek.

It wasn't all bad. Our dockmaster "Steve" was a very friendly guy that kept checking in on us and asking if we needed anything (He deserves to be working at a better place). The huge Tiki Bar/Restaurant is obviously the big draw here and seems to get all the upkeep dollars. We spent most of our time here as it poured buckets of rain during the afternoon hours. We did also manage to get a load of laundry done (amazingly the machines here worked fine).

Betsy told her sister Suzi about the place and she ended up spending a very enjoyable time that evening reading the reviews of Gilbert's on Trip Advisor. If only we had read them before we called!

The next day we got the hell out of Gilbert's and headed for Islamorada. Once again, we used the Waterway Guide book to find us a place to stay. We looked for something that was centrally located on the island. We found a small working boat yard/marina called "Coral Bay Marina" which turned out to be a step above Gilbert's but not by a whole bunch. At least it was within walking distance to some fun places like the Lorelei, WorldWide Sportsman and Islamorada Fish Company. We spent the next couple of days walking up and down the island checking out various places. We went to the Lorelei a couple of times for lunch or sunset, checked out the Islander Resort on the Atlantic side (big, nice beach), shopped at World Wide Sportsman and generally relaxing. The only bad note was one of our dock neighbors imitating Jackson Pollack and painting our boat with fish guts whenever he cast his fishing rod from the dock. He seemed completely oblivious to what he was doing (or just didn't care). Once we noticed, it took a while to scrub off the masterpiece.

So after two days in Islamorada, it was time to move on to Marathon. This time we checked out Tripadvisor which eliminated a couple of our choices for a marina. We ended up contacting Marathon Marina near the entrance to Boot Key Harbor. After about 3 hours, we arrived under the seven mile bridge and pulled up to the fuel dock at the Marina to top off and pump out the head (always a fun chore). Once in our slip, we checked out the place. Even though this was also a working boat yard, it turned out to be the best marina on our trip. There were plenty of clean bathrooms and showers, a nice laundry facility, a great pool, a restaurant on premises and very helpful staff. We were also within walking distance of some fun happy hour spots. One of our favorites was "Porky's". It wasn;t much to look at but the BBQ was really good, the beer was cold and the people we met were friendly. There was also "Salty's", a nice Tiki bar near the start of the bridge. We once again broke out the inflatable kayak and took it for a trip around the area. We spotted some manatees and even a few small sharks. It was a very hot day and I'm glad we had the pool to jump into when we were done.

After a couple of days in Marathon , it was time to head back north towards home. The first leg would be from Marathon to Goodland. We got going around 9:30am but were almost instantly stopped by the USCG for a "safety" inspection which added about an half hour to our trip. The ride to Goodland (about 78 nm) was over flat water and mostly devoid of other boats. We arrived at the Calusa Island Marina around 1pm. This turned out to be a really nice marina with floating docks in a picturesque setting. It's a bit of a walk to get to "downtown" Goodland but still not bad. We had a late lunch at Marker 8 restaurant and headed back to the boat to relax.

Next day we headed up the inside route from Goodland through Marco and on up to Naples. If your boat draws less than 4.5 ft and you're not in a hurry (and it's not a weekend), I highly recommend this route sometime. We tied up for the night at the Naples Boat Club. From there we walked to the Cove Inn for lunch and then scouted out the Naples City Dock and the area around there. Later on we went downtown to 5th Ave for dinner. We chose Alberto's for some of the best italian food either of us has ever had (Veal ravioli for me, red beet tortelloni for Betsy). Then we walked back towards the Cove Inn and had a beer at "The Dock".

The next day it was a nice ride up the coast, past Sanibel, North Captiva and around the tip of Cayo Costa into Pelican Bay for our last evening on the boat. We dropped the hook, inflated the kayak and went for a spin around the bay. Back at the boat, we went for a swim to cool off. We cooked dinner onboard and made a kind of beef stew using a bunch of leftover supplies (beef Ramen noodle soup, canned beef and canned veggies). The evening was quiet and star-filled and we could hear dolphins swimming nearby.

In the morning we hauled anchor and headed for home. We got back to our marina just as the weekend boat traffic was heading out for the day. A quick stop at the fuel dock for a pumpout and a bit of fuel and then to our slip to unpack our stuff and clean up the boat.

Another successful trip!

July 30, 2014 - A sad day:

Today we said goodbye to our four legged crewmate Molly. After 18 wonderful years she passed away peacefully at home. She had a great life and gave us an uncountable amount of joy. She will be in our hearts always and greatly missed.

October 12, 2014 - New Crew!

Today we introduced our two new four leged crewmembers, Roger & Wilco to "Kokopelli". Just a short trip off the dock to the bay just outside our marina. Mixed results. They didn't panic, they didn't tr to jump overboard but they also didn't seem to care about coming up on deck (except to eat). I guess it's a work in progress.......(see video below)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICPBp7qNE4Y