SATURDAY JANUARY 23TH

Time to return to Minnesota. Ross arranged for us to ride a shuttle bus to the Miami airport. It worked out great. They picked us up right at the marina and dropped us at the airport.

The flights home went well and we even had time at the Minneapolis airport to do a "good deed". Our friends, Mark and Tami Heimer, were picking us up after the Wild game they were attending. While we waited we noticed this young gal walking all over the baggage area, obviously foreign and looking lost. There weren't many people in the baggage area so it was difficult not to notice her. Ross finally went over and asked if we could help. She was from Mexico City and didn't have the phone number of who was picking her up. The number was in her email and she didn't have the $10 to access the internet at the airport. No problemo! Ross and I have traveled in foreign countries and have been helped many times by people who couldn't even speak our language. We just took out my laptop, plugged in the Verizon air card and she accessed her email and the phone number in a couple of minutes. She was extremely relieved and grateful.

We are home now until February 13th. When we return, the Heimers will join us for two weeks on that leg. Oh, and the Wild won the hockey game!!

FRIDAY JANUARY 22ND

The fishing trip is on!!!

Alex and Cindy have the boat and fishing gear. So we’re bringing the lunch and bait. My job was to bike to the grocery store and picked up lunch for the four of us. Then it was on to the bait store for a minnow bucket and bait.


Cindy captaining
the boat while
the guys trolled.



We went about 3 or 4 miles out and fished in around 40 feet of water. Ross and Alex caught all sorts of fish. Most of them we’d never seen so tried to identify from a book. The guys used all sorts of lures, gooey rubbery things, live shrimp, dead shrimp, you name it. And then, Alex brought out this bag he’d been keeping in the freezer. I can only describe it as a bag of stench. He cut it up and they used it for bait. At some point it had been squid. Well I tell you, they caught fish. We now refer to Alex as “the Grouper King”. Too bad we couldn’t keep any.


The Grouper King
at work.
















Some of the fish that loved stinky squid.



Alex caught this Remora.
Notice it's flat head.
This type of fish
can attach itself to
a shark's body and
the shark carries
it along. When the
shark feeds,
the Remora can detach
and join in the bounty.










We never figured out
what this little blue guy
was. And he was vibrant
blue. It is difficult to see
his teeth but they look
made to chew coral.











A beauty of a
Queen Triggerfish
that Ross caught.
It lucked out
because we didn't
read in the fish
book that they
are excellent
eating until
after it was
released.






We had a blast. It was like Christmas morning waiting to see what they were reeling in each time. It was a great last day on this leg of our journey. Thanks Cindy and Alex!

THURSDAY JANUARY 21ST

WINDY. Fishing trip with Alex and Cindy is postponed to tomorrow.



Plan B. Go snorkeling.


This was a huge
sea turtle that
swam
past us.









Just kidding. Plan B is a trip to the Marathon Turtle Hospital. No, I am not kidding. It's an actual hospital for sea turtles, with an operating room and everything. Originally it was a motel with a salt water swimming pool. The motel is no longer active and the rooms are empty. But they did use many of the rooms recently to house turtles in plastic kiddie swimming pools as they had so many patients.


The hospital does rescue, rehabilitation and release. The recent cold spell was the longest on record in the Keys. The last cold snap of this duration was in the 1880’s and it was for 6 days. This cold spell lasted 8 days and as I’ve said before, really took it’s toll on the creatures. The sea turtles get a type of hypothermia called “cold stunned” and they become stranded on the surface of the water unable to dive and slowly starve to death. People who found any of these turtles contact the authorities and they contact the animal rescue services. There have been over a thousand turtles rescued so far in Florida. The hospital we visited rescued 178 turtles in 3 days. That’s almost double what they have in a year. Most of the turtles have been treated and released.

They do have some turtles that are residents and are used for education purposes. One is blind, some only have a couple flippers and such making it impossible for them to return to the wild. Fishing line in a huge culprit. Fishermen throw it overboard and the turtle swims along and it gets wrapped around their head or flippers. Plastic bags thrown in the water look like a jelly fish to a turtle and they eat them. They can get caught in their gut and cause an impaction. At the turtle hospital they can perform surgery and fix some of these guys.



While they recuperate they
live in these blue tanks
until strong enough to swim
in the large pool.












This cute little guy is a baby Loggerhead turtle
at the hospital.










It was a beautiful evening so
we sat on the bow of the
boat and watched the sunset.