Yes, it is my birthday and yes, we are in Marathon, having arrived yesterday afternoon. But it's also been a bit of a marathon, having started when I woke up at 5:30am and it now being almost midnight...

Yesterday we awoke to a steady twenty-knots of wind and a pretty stiff chop rolling through the anchorage so we weren't inclined to have a leisurely morning. We pulled up the anchor and headed off through the last of the thin waters and narrow cuts, finally reaching double-digit depths for the first time since we left Miami and, for the first time in months, we put up a sail and turned off the engine! Of course, with a steady 20-25 knots of wind from behind us all we had to do was unroll a little bit of headsail and we were off to the races! Or at least Anne, Evelyn, and Leslie were: As soon as we got under sail it was time for me to go to work so I spent most of the rest of the day below deck. Even so, it was a great sail: with just a working jib up, we sailed at a steady 6+ knots down the Hawk Channel, covering in one day what we had expected to break into two.

And so we came into Marathon harbor, where we were greeted by the rather staggering sight of several HUNDRED boats of all shapes and sizes swinging from a huge constellation of mooring balls....rows of cruising boats stretching from one edge of the harbor to another. This is where the snowbird cruisers hang out. Many people come and hang out here for months...its really a settlement that floats.

Fortunately there was an empty mooring ball available so we could join the assembly, just in time for my birthday! We all slept late today (okay, 5:30 isn't late but its later than my usual 5am!), Anne made a great stack of pancakes, and we all spent the rest of the morning in a rousing game of Munchkins. Then after lunch we took the dingy to shore and explored some parts of Marathon including the library and the West Marine store. We also stopped in a dive shop and remedied my one serious packing error: Somehow, in our final, frenzied preparations last July, we managed to sail off without my swim suit! Up until now its been too cold to miss it but here, the water is almost 20 (about 70F) and there are reefs and things to see...so we bought me a new pair of swim trunks...my birthday suit!

This evening we had a very nice dinner ashore and went to the local community theater to see a comedy called "A Bad Year for Tomatoes". It was very funny and it was also great to see local performing arts: That's something we really enjoy in Nova Scotia and have been missing, probably more than we had realized.

Oh, and the picture? This is Leslie's solution to cutting onions without crying: Completely effective and very fashionable. Be sure to ask your local epicurean kitchen store if they carry masks and snorkels!