Boot Key Harbor

We left Everglades National Park Marina at Flamingo early in the morning in moderate fog. Since it was Saturday, fishing boats were being launched at a feverish pace, so we figured if they could go out, so could we. We had been in much worse fog on the rivers, plus Steve had set the chart plotter to leave a trail of our route coming in, so that we could retrace our 10 miles back to rejoin the route to Marathon. Here's the view as we left, the building on the left is the visitors center.

The fog got worse at times, then appeared to be lifting. It's hard to burn fog off with 97% humidity, but it was warm and the seas were as flat as we had seen them. We busied ourselves with spotting and avoiding the numerous crabpots in Florida Bay. On these long straight passages, Steve enjoys finding the next marker on his chart plotter, setting the course, and then finally spotting the marker "live". The fog was lifting. We were excited and proud to think that we had cruised the Shingebiss all the way to the Keys. Boot Key Harbor and the City of Marathon are at the east end of the famous Seven Mile Bridge. Impossible to get a picture of the entire bridge because, well, it's 7 miles long.

The story is that the mammoth task of building the first 7 mile bridge across open water was quite a "marathon" job, giving the town its name. We followed the markers to Moser Channel, came under the bridge...

... and entered the Atlantic Ocean. In this picture, you can see the original bridge in the lower right behind the tall bridge, still intact except for the middle cut out. It's used as a fishing pier.

We enter Boot Key Harbor. The marina on the right is Marathon Marina, where we will move tomorrow to start our 30 day stay.

The entrance to the Harbor is lined with marinas and restaurants. After passing under an old lift bridge, we entered the City Mooring Field. It's huge with 226 mooring balls and right now they are all occupied. Liveaboards are allowed, you actually cannot "store" your boat here, you have to be on it. For $21/day ($105/week or $275/month), you get a ball, use of the dinghy dock, showers, laundry etc. They also have a huge lounge, book exchange, TV's, bike racks, and a "project room". You even get one parking space with the monthly. The pumpout boat visits weekly. The majority of boats are sail boats and there are some unique ones, although the truly unique ones are the ones anchored just on the edge of the mooring field. The balls are close together and there's lots of windmills whirring, and dinghys scooting about. Here is the mooring field as we approached.

and here's Shingebiss tethered to Ball W1 ... it's kind of like your address.

We were famished and needed a walk so we walked to the Hurricane and had a cheeseburger and fries. This is one of two dinghy docks, where the "hard" and "soft" dinghy's each have their own designated areas. They give you a colored band to attach to your motor as your "permit" to use the dock.

Here's the other dinghy dock, Steve counted 61 dinghys at this dock at 10 am on Sunday.
When we arrived, we were given a welcome packet. A nice insulated bag containing all sorts of literature about the harbor and the island. "Cruisers Net" is the volunteer group that puts together the packets. Every morning at 9 am, on VHF channel 68, Cruisers Net broadcasts the daily news which includes:

• new boats to the harbor
• weather, of course
• a flea market where anyone can sell or give stuff they don't want, or request to get new stuff they do want
• announcements like yoga daily at 10 and a softball game today at 3
• entertainment, music, and charity events coming up
• anyone can ask questions and participate as they want to.

Today they announced a $6 breakfast at the American Legion, so we went and it was great.

It's all pretty darn amazing and fun. We ran into Ron and Barb (BarRon) from St. Paul and have been contacted by our buddies Marty and Jerry (Monarch) who are at the Marathon Yacht Club and invited us over there to watch the Vikings tonight.

It's been a fabulous journey so far and it feels like a bit of milestone to get to Marathon. We'll be moving to the marina tomorrow and are looking forward to settling in. I'll probably not blog quite so often for the next month, but will try for weekly updates at the least. Keep those comments coming in and stay warm up there. Go Vikes.