Thursday, November 12th - December 2nd Marathon
06 December 2015
Maybe we should use this description: “a trip of dodging crab pots”! Miles & miles of them, with hard-to-spot floats & no discernable lines or patterns. The most interesting thing did happen; Ted spied a tiger shark circling one float as we went by, leading us to believe it must have been very recently baited with something attractive… Fired up the water maker on this leg in this beautiful, clear water – works like a charm! Contacted a couple of marinas via radio, just in case this mooring field is similar to Ft. Myers Beach. Buck & Angie are at Sombrero Resort, but dock master doesn’t recommend it for us b/c of depth. The other option, Marathon Marina, offered us a slip for the bargain price of $900/week!! Don’t think so…
We’re under the 65’ communications cable over the missing section of the old bridge (taken out to accommodate masts or to eliminate a bridge tender job?) & per our instructions, locate mooring #W8 at the back; successfully snagged & secure on the 1st try! Boot Key Harbor is a huge place; 200+ moorings plus floating docks, 2 big dinghy docks, laundry (only $6/load w/the use of your preloaded card!), bathhouses, lounge w/WiFi, & TVs, & of course, the tiki hut! Water is available here, should we want to tie up at the main dock & risk scrutiny about our overall length being in excess of the 60’ max. (With bowsprit & stern arch, we’re closer to 63’, so probably will get water elsewhere!) There’s a cruisers net at 9:00 am every morning, which covers arrivals & departures, comments/questions/need help, buy/sell/trade & the all important trivia. The “traffic” and on-air personalities a/k/a “net controllers” are quite entertaining!
We are soooo glad to be here when the weather rolls in, with wind at 20-25 knots & forecasted to last for a week at least. It does cool things off some! Waiting for a favorable weather window means we can do some on-line shopping for a few boat items: wind scoops, Ted’s snuba, add’l covers for shade, SIM cards for iPad & phones; anything too expensive to purchase in the Bahamas if it was available and if you could afford to have it shipped/imported! We will also concentrate on restocking some food items that are reportedly very expensive: coffee, paper goods, cheese, beer (not por moi!), chips, catfood/litter. Finding places to store will be the challenge!
The bikes are such a help here; trips to Publix, CVS, Winn Dixie, K-Mart, post office, farmer’s market are much easier! No problems riding on the sidewalks & adding milk crates makes toting stuff a snap. Wasn’t fun loading them into the dinghy for transporting ashore, but after obtaining the required tags (w/expiration date!), they will be locked to a bike rack for the time we’re here. Tag required for the dinghy too, and access cards for bathhouse must be updated each time your departure date is delayed…
Sampled food at 3 of the local “hot” spots. Took the dinghy to Castaway’s during week 1; not overly impressed w/my Key West shrimp & fairly sure Ted’s fish was frozen, not fresh! Walked to the Stuffed Pig on a Sunday morning; mimosas & eggs Benedict were quite good, but the wait & the service tainted that experience. Tried the “chiki tiki chicken” sandwich at Burdine’s (where we also purchased fuel and 15 cent/gallon water!); the mahi mahi sandwich was MUCH better than the chicken. Kitties had the leftovers & gave their approval! Met Buck at Dockside for drinks before they left, & had the worst ever waiter! This kid had NO clue…couldn’t take an order, much less answer questions about the menu! Hope they pay him in food; anything else would be a waste!!
Here’s an experience for you – we took the Lower Keys shuttle to Key West! A day pass is $8, so decided we wanted to go back & order a couple of unique Christmas gifts for Caroline & Savannah, & try to replace sandals for me. (Mine developed a huge split from the heel up & I didn’t find anything in Marathon,) Sooooo, walked to the bus stop about 8:00 & boarded with 1 (very smelly) gentleman for the 2 or so hour trip. Really interesting! Unfortunately, the vendor on Duval Street wasn’t open at 10:00, or at 11:00 – an advantage of being in business for yourself, but not great for us! We finally talked to Ted’s cigar maker next door & confirmed that the booth should be open sometime, so we bought sandals (yay!) & decided to grab lunch at Sloppy Joe’s, since I’d never been there. Vendor finally opens up & it only takes about 10 minutes to place our order – now we have 3 hours to kill before catching the bus back to Marathon. We wandered to Mallory Square & the Little White House (again!), listened to live music at The Bull & walked to the stop by the post office, where we fed & videoed for C&S 3 of the roosters that wander around Key West & met & visited w/2 guys traveling in their RV; yacht vs. land yacht! Back safely about 5:00, just in time to dinghy back to the boat before dark.
We sign up for the Thanksgiving potluck, since it appears we will be here until after that. It’s still blowing hard & the gathering is moved from outside to inside, thank goodness! After waiting in line outside in the heat, we missed out on my candied sweet potatoes and barely got dressing & gravy! Poor Ted made the mistake of not saving himself a piece of pecan pie; all gone… It was an opportunity to mingle & visit so overall, an awesome 1st cruisers Thanksgiving! Who needs food??
One of our last things to accomplish before heading to Bimini are health certificates for the kitties. We’ve visited with several pet owners at the marina & most seem to avoid the process altogether; kinda like not declaring weapons/ammo when clearing in. Yikes! Our preference is to follow the rules, so we download forms, mail them w/the required $$ & hope for the best! We’ve rented a car for 1 day to load up heavy/bulky items & to take all 3 to the vet – their 1st ever dinghy trip! Actually went very well, the vet is so helpful w/recommendations for medicines/dosages to have on hand for all 3, writes us a new scrip for kitty Xanax and best of all, the Bahamas Department of Agriculture paperwork has been faxed to the marina office! We are legal & properly documented…
Bimini, here we come!