A Week in Marathon

We have been in Marathon for a week now and very few boats are moving out. So far 2 boats next to us have left for other destinations. On any day this week we have only seen 3-4 mooring balls free out of 288! Thursday we rode our bikes to Home Depot to pick up a few items. The flowers in the garden center were so beautiful that Peter decided to do 2 small hanging baskets to hang off the radar arch. We did this before on our extended trip to Maine. So, in the pictures, you see the baskets that Peter planted right at Home Depot, in the bike baskets ready to return to Kinvara. Yesterday we decided to get 2 five gallon water jugs to supplement our fresh water supply. All of our water tanks emptied on Friday so we un-pickled the water maker and ran a trial run for 2 hours. Unfortunately the main filter clogged after 1.5 hours and it shut down. We have been told that others use their water maker since the harbor has 2 ocean access points so we will change to a new filter and try again. If it gets clogged very fast again then we will not use it here in the harbor.

A riot of color!



Our little hanging baskets.



The captain adding water.

New 5 gallon water jug



Last night there was a music night in the tiki hut with boating and locals playing a variety of instruments and singing. We brought our new fold up chairs and a cooler of beer and snacks and Pretzel!! She slept on Jane's lap the whole night. Our friends, Bill & Nancy, were with us and we stayed from 6:15 to 9:45. It was a great time had by all...people and dogs alike!!







Pretzel's newest friend!!

Yesterday afternoon Pretzel was roaming the deck while Jane read her Kindle outside. The next thing Jane noticed was Pretzel inside whining. Peter was taking a shower. We realized that Pretzel walked over the forward hatch, the screen under her fell through and must have slid off the bunk to the floor. Pretzel was scared but not hurt so all we can think happened is that she must have been on the screen like a snowboard. The bunk is only about 3' below the hatch but the floor is another 3' below the bunk! She is so lucky. We don't know how to avoid this happening again...maybe put up our wind chute. since arriving in marathon we have had a high pressure system sit over us. It has been 78-80 during the day with light breezes and 68-70 nights with no breezes. It is beautiful. I guess we are getting a colder front next week. It will be good though to cool off and dry out.

Pot-Luck night

Next on the agenda today is a trip to the grocery store. Publix is only a short ride away. $180 later and we are speeding our way back to the marina with loaded saddle bags and carrier baskets. We do have some non-essential treats in the bags needless to say. Cravings do not go away just because you are on the boat!!


The afternoon is spent in the cockpit reading or occasionally taking a nap. Once again it is awesome to have Sirius radio to keep in touch with the real world out there and listen to our favorite music 24/7. There are always items to be taken care of, such as laundry, but if it is not done today it will wait until tomorrow!!

Cocktails at 5.30pm.

Wednesday night is Pot Luck night at the marina. Everybody brings a dish to share, your own beverage of choice and your dinner plate and utensils. Cocktails start at 5.30 under the Tiki Hut and dinner at 6 in the great room. As it turned out we were enjoying our drinks outside with some new found friends while the mob began the dinner early so we missed out on some of the early treats. However we did not go hungry, there was more than enough to satisfy everyone. After dinner there was entertainment provided on the dock so the party went on well after we retired for the night.

 

Tomorrow I need to mount the travel lights on the dingy, trying to hold them in your hand while navigating your way back to the boat at night is a little difficult. Add this to the honey-do list!!

Keeping Busy!

Monday we rode our bikes west for a mile and found the Turtle Rescue Hospital, West Marine, and Chiki Tiki Bar. Tuesday we spent the morning doing laundry. Try sharing 4 washers & dryers with 288 moorings.


Since there are no TV channels to watch we are very lucky to pass our on board time with boat work, listening to our Sirius radio, and reading on the Kindle. Tuesday night we opened a new card game called Golf. Our golfing friends will appreciate the pictures on the cards! Peter set up Jane's hanging chair from the radar arch. She and Pretzel enjoyed swinging in the breeze for a while.

Of course the lowest score wins!
Peter beat me by 2 points.
 Lucky draw because I was 30 pts ahead!



My little bit of heaven.





Outdoor living space. We close up at night
to keep it dry.

Sunset in Boot Key harbor.

Today Peter took the dingy to the only fuel dock at the entrance of Boot Key Harbor and filled our jugs with gasoline for the generator and diesel for the engine. We turn the engine on an hour each morning to heat hot water and give a boost to the daily charge. We are getting 11amps in from solar at the height of the day and a trickle from the wind generator. We haven’t used the generator yet so that will probably be used to recharge 110 toys like the phones, computers, etc.

First Day in Marathon

After all the drama in getting here we were able to get checked in quickly, came back to settle down, have a drink, and breath. We listened to the Sirius radio for a while, Peter did the blog, then we tried to program our TV. There are only 2 channels received on our antenna and they are both Spanish language TV. So....it will be a long month! Thank goodness for our Sirius radio and Kindle. At least we can be entertained and informed via those. Thank goodness we don't have to stress about watching Super Bowl this year! Oh BTW yesterday along the way here we spotted more dolphins and Jane saw a loggerhead turtle floating next to the boat! there is a turtle sanctuary and hospital just 1/2 mile away so we will definitely go visit that!

Today dawned sunny, calm, and warm...finally! Jane is still sore around her knee and large toe joint but it's not serious. Peter got in touch with a live-aboard who dives to check props, and clean bottoms. he came to our boat at 10:30AM and free dived to check us out. He was able to cut a long length of line attached to 2 wooden stakes from around our prop. He also cut more line that wrapped around the shaft. He checked the Gori prop and it opened and closed easily. Our engine worked this morning in neutral so everything seems to be working. Yesterday when we lifted anchor Peter unhooked a length of line with wooden stakes attached. Somehow we must have picked it up, though, and dragged it with us during our 5 hour cruising day to marathon. The diver said it looked like an old pot system. It's maddening because we anchored in an area of no crab pot markers.

Nasty crab pot line!

After the diver left we went ashore with our bikes, got them set up and rode 3/4 miles to West marine to pick up an order we put in. Then we rode another 1/4 mile to Burdines Fuel dock and ate at the Chiki Tiki Bar on the second level. The ride there felt very much like riding in the Bahamas. Marathon has a few resort spots but the ride along Rt1, Ocean Highway, is rundown with many businesses closed. We will ride east tomorrow where there seems to be a mall, Home Depot, and Publix Grocery store.

Chiki Tiki Bar at Burdines Fuel Dock

Do NOT take this with you!

Love the painted rat trap for a check holder

Marathon at last!!


What a day today turned out to be. We hauled the anchor at 8.30. When it broke the water it had a line draped over it with a couple of small wooden stakes attached. I flipped it off with the boat hook and the Admiral drove the boat forward. She heard a strange noise like something hitting the prop but nothing felt like it was attached. We have a special blade attached to the shaft to cut any line like a crab or lobster pot.

We proceeded out the inlet and had an uneventful run down the coast to Marathon. The wind varied between 5 to 10 and the seas were 1 to 2 ft most of the day. Just what cruising is all about! Little did we know how things would change as we entered the harbor. We had called for a mooring ball and had to wait in the channel for notification from the office of what ball to pick up. That was when all hell broke loose. The wind was blowing strong on our bow and I had to turn and go back down the channel one more time. I put the boat into reverse and before I knew what was happening something wrapped around our prop and the engine stopped dead. We were in the middle of a very narrow and busy channel with nowhere to go and no power. We dropped the anchor right away to stop our drift but to no avail, it would not catch. Within minutes three men arrived in their dingys and began to get us under control. We drifted up against one boat but no real contact thanks to Jane jumping aboard to hold us off. She had to be picked up by one of the dingies and brought back aboard Kinvara. While handing lines to the guys she slipped into the anchor locker and got a nasty scratch on her knee. I think after her heroics last week going up the mast and her handling of today’s crisis she deserves a special treat when we find a nice jewelry shop or perhaps a wine shop this week. The guys tied their dingies up to our sides and bow and eventually towed and pushed us to a mooring ball. It was not our assigned one but the dock master had the occupants pick up the one intended for us. We were lucky they were not on their ball just when we needed it. While on the helm I had called Boat Us for a tow but he told me it would take 30 minutes to get to us. He arrived when we were safely tied up to the ball and he agreed that we did the right thing having the guys help us to the mooring. He will have to get paid but that is why we have Boat Us Towing.

Jane's leg injury.

When we both calmed down and relaxed for a half hour we dropped the dingy and went in to the office to check in. Tomorrow is another day. I will have to contact a diver and check out the damage and have it taken care of. We paid for a month, $275.00 plus $20 tax. This includes one pump out a week, free wifi and TV in the cruisers lounge, showers, laundry and lots of activities. How can you beat that? That is just about what we would spend on golf for one week in Solivita. The harbor is packed. They have 280 moorings and they are all full. We were very, very lucky to get assigned to one. It is on a first come first served basis. There were only 5 available today. Once we get through this ordeal I am sure we will have a great time here. I believe it will be in the low 80s all week and in the 60s at night. Just remember the old saying: Cruising is fixing things in exotic places.

Matecombe Bight on Long Key



After another night of NNW winds of 15+ our batteries were fully charged again, allowing us to watch TV, use the computer, and recharge any 110 gadgets we had. By the time we got up at 6 this morning the wind abated and we had beautiful calm water. Our plan was to pass through Angelfish Creek into Hawk Channel. This is the open water between the Florida Keys and the barrier reefs that run 4 miles offshore along the islands.

Sunset at Pumpkin Key

Angelfish Creek is the last passage through for boats with over 4.5 draft. Over that depth the inside ICW route through Florida Bay is too shallow. We had 2 people confirm that we could make this passage with our 5.5' draft. both said to go at mid to high tide and expect some shallower water at the beginning and at the end. Jane had read the same advice online and in a guidebook. So with lots of confidence we hauled anchor and left our little Pumpkin Key sanctuary and motored about .5 miles to the entrance....exactly at high tide on the inside. The beginning was never less than 2-3 feet under our keel. As Peter motored through the middle of the twisting channel, lined with mangrove on both sides, the depths even reached 10 feet under our keel. We made it through the creek to the 3 pairs of markers that lead you into Hawk Channel. The depth went rapidly from 6' under to .7 feet under. That's only about 8 inches under our boat!!! Yikes, it was definitely an anxious moment because there was no where to turn around or back up. What a relief to finally make it through. On the ocean side we noticed that high tide had passed and the water had dropped about a foot on the marker poles. We never thought to check the tide times on the outside! We will not be repeating that route again. Because the wind prediction was suppose to be 15k again about midnight we traveled another 45 miles to pass under the Channel Five Bridge (65') to anchor inside Florida Bay again. Channel Five Bridge is only one of 2 bridges along the keys that a sailboat can pass through. Since today was Saturday there was a parade of fishing boats all heading out to the reefs to fish. It looked like a fishing competition.



Typical bridge connecting the keys

Along the way we did not see any man o'war jellyfish but lots of dolphins!! We haven't seen them since Ft Lauderdale last November. We saw them splashing about, rounding a school of fish together. We even saw them flipping fish in the air. It was not the typical docile dolphin you usually see. They were definitely hunting with aggression. Today was really warm in the sun and we were able to put full sail out...along with motoring since we had to travel some distance. The winds today were mild and the sea was calm. We are hoping tomorrow will be the same!


Once anchored peter made a hot crab dip which we enjoyed with drinks watching the sun set. Then after a light dinner Jane consulted her galley cookbook and made a type of bananas foster with a left over bunch. Life was very good to us today!

Day 2 Pumpkin Key

Wow, what a night we had at anchor here in Pumpkin Key. The winds picked up to 20kts. And the seas to 2 to 3 ft. Neither of us slept well. This morning things were not much better so we decided to stay on the hook here for another night. The waves have not decreased all that much throughout the day but we had warm sunshine and mostly blue skies. The wind generator and the solar panels pumped power into the system all day. We have been able to charge computers and phones etc. power our fridge and freezer and watch a little TV all day and we are still at full power.


Last night there was one power boat anchored here with us but in the last hour three sail boats came in and dropped their hooks. One of the boats, I think about a 36ft, arrived in with a Great Dane on board. Now that is a little crazy in my book. As soon as he set the hook he had to load him onto the dingy and take him ashore to do his business. It looks like just the dog and his master on board. The dog takes up most of the cockpit.

We were told before leaving Coconut Grove that this was a very exclusive area of the Keys. We were not anchored very long before several Leer Jets, a helicopter or two, and other small planes flew in to the private airport. The actual Pumpkin Key Island on our bow is privately owned. It looks like two houses a dock and several small boats both power and sail along with other toys like a golf cart are visible from our anchorage. What recession!!!!!!!!!!!! Boy, if you really want to see how the rich and famous live all you have to do is join us on a trip down the coast of Florida, indeed down the entire east coast of the USA. I am sure you can multiply this to many other areas of this great country.

Yesterday as we slowly made our way in light winds down Biscayne Bay we gave some thought to taking a swim of the boat. That thought did not last long after we spotted our first of many Man of War jellyfish. They look so innocent on the surface, just a pretty looking bubble ranging from transparent to deep blue. The bubble, which propels them, is only about 6 or 8 inches long above the surface but the tentacles reach far below the water and if they wrap around you they can do serious damage including death if stung by enough of them. One other thought. The day we passed through Miami a rather large skate (fish) launched out of the water just off our bow. It was Peter’s first time seeing one jump but Jane had seen one last year in the Bahamas. We read recently that one jumped into a small fishing boat injuring the owner who had to struggle with the help of his son to get him back overboard. AHHH, the joys of cruising. Every day is another adventure.