(Continued from Part 1)

By SA Rowner

The world of social media sharing makes so many jealous because people choose to share picture-perfect moments that make your life look like a fantasy on unending positive experiences.

You don’t find people sharing things that don’t go right. But face it, nothing in life is completely perfect.

It’s a good thing that you can’t smell pictures, because, well, while everything looks beautiful in them, the restroom odor… We called our host, and his response to the exaggerated odiferousness was to, “try taming it by pouring in some Fabuloso…”

There are many exceptional chemical packs for RV/marine restrooms that really work. We know, because and after trial and error in our own RV, we NEVER had odor issues. Pouring Fabuloso in?? That’s NOT the way to do it, and no, that wouldn’t work, sorry.

Still and all, with the restroom door closed, it wasn’t so bad. I’ll admit, many would not have stood for the restroom situation, and I’d completely understand anyone who’d have given up right then. After all, would you want to have to get in a canoe at 3 AM, in the dark, then paddle for 15 minutes to get to a restroom? And then paddle all that distance back to the boat, just to get back to bed?

So we chose to make do with our on-board facilities. Truthfully, with the skylight open and deck doors open, the brisk breeze reduced any stray nefarious odors to pretty tolerable levels.

Now back to the positive, which for the most part, was our overall experience.

There’s something beautiful about being surrounded by the water, no lights except flashlights and the twinkling stars above. The cove was very calm, so fears of waves and nausea were, thankfully, completely unfounded.

Our host had also given us a green underwater light to hang off the back deck into the water, which was supposed to attract fish for us to see.

We did have inexpensive underwater Go-Pro-type action cameras, which we wanted to try and capture some underwater images, but the quick-moving tide churned up silt and no fish we could see, so we gave up after a few unsuccessful attempts.

The upper deck was beautiful to sit and relax on, and the gentle water and wind sound and seclusion were quite pleasant. The American flag at the back of the boat, was pretty much the only sound, as it flapped unceasingly in the breeze.

We headed inside to bed, and the gentle motion on the water lulled us to sleep. We both slept quite comfortably until morning.

I awoke early and went up to the top deck to watch the early sun rise on the horizon. And then I hear a splash. About fifty feet off the boat, there were dolphins, playfully frolicking in the water. Awesome!! And that was something we definitely don’t see back home.

I chose not to awaken my wife, or to even run and get the camera, opting instead to just take in the experience. It’s not always about the pictures, and I’m (sometimes) cognizant to remember to live in the moment.

The dolphins actually came within a few feet of the boat, and it really was something to see.

When my wife did awaken a bit later, I told her about it, and as I was saying it, the dolphins came back for a spin. This time I grabbed the camera and snapped a few pictures for posterity. Definitely cool.

We davened in the tropical solitude on the deck, had a delicious breakfast of bagels and fried eggs, and off we went in our canoe to head to our car and start our day.

We tied up our canoe at the marina and drove our rental car out into the main road on the island of Islamorada, stopped in a local grocery store, and loaded up on water, some drinks, and snacks for the day.

I’m a fan of stopping in the visitor’s centers to see if anything piques my interest, but the Islamorada one was somewhat uninspiring, so we just snapped a picture of a cute stone manatee mascot they had outside and continued exploring by car.

Passing by a small Jetski Rental sign at a side of the road marina, we called them to see about rentals.

JSK Watersports turned out to be a small family-run operation, friendly, happy to help and their sign said that they even offered snorkeling options, too.

We loved the sign they had hanging on a tree as well that said:

Advice from a Tree:

– Stand tall and proud

– Go out on a limb

– Remember your roots

– Drink plenty of water

– Be content with your natural beauty

– Enjoy the view!

Continued in Part 3