Cudjoe Key Arrival

We left Marathon Marina after a morning filled with good byes and safe crusing wishes from our many new friends who are docked there. It's amazing how many wonderful people we've met so far in the cruising community. Both cruisers and loopers have "boat cards" with their contact information so we exchanged a few more boat cards and cast off. It felt good to be out again; the seas were calm and the skies were blue, so I took a couple more shots of the famous Seven Mile Bridge.

and here it is directly across from the opening at Moser Channel that we passed through when we arrived.

We cruised in Hawk Channel about 20 miles down the Keys and anchored in Newfound Harbor for a peaceful night.

This morning the winds kicked up and we had a very rocky ride in 3-4' seas to Cudjoe Bay where we tossed out the anchor and sent Steve in the dinghy to check out the entrance to the canal where our rental house is located. We were a little apprehensive about coming in at low tide, but wanted to get tied up at the house before the winds became even stronger. As Shingebiss approached the entrance to the canal, a fishing boat pulled up and guided us in. Here's the view as we headed down the canal, the house is couple of blocks ahead on the right.

The owner's boat is tied up at the house, so we are docked at the vacant lot next door at a brand new sea wall. This lot is for sale for $750,000 ... we're in a upscale neighborhood, but it's friendly; two neighbors across the canal have come out and welcomed us. The local marina will be moving the owners boat onto a trailer, so we can move up to the wall in front of the house. Our friends Sue and Ron are driving down the Keys towards Cudjoe for our 3 pm check in. The two other couples coming for the first week, Terie and Chuck and Cyndi and Glen are flying into Key West later today and will be arriving in their rental car. Life is good and we are filled with anticipation.

If you want to see pictures of the house, here's the web site. These pictures are much better than any I will take.

http://www.gulfcoastrentals.com/florida-9/4key-michaudJ-florida-keys.htm

What's Next?

We added a couple of extra days to our Marathon Marina stay because of weather. There were 30+ mph winds last night and we were again glad to be tied to a dock. We are leaving here tomorrow and anchoring for one night at an anchorage near Big Pine Key just 20 miles west. The next day, we go to our rental house on Cudjoe Key to meet up with our best friends, Sue and Ron, who are driving from MN so that we can spend a month together. The house has a canal with dock for the boat, a pool, and bedrooms for our 17 other family and friends that will be coming for a week each. We are very excited to see everyone.



Meanwhile, marina life has continued and is still fun. We would definitely return to this marina if we get the chance. Summer Love, a 105' Feadship, built in 1955 and beautifully preserved, arrived yesteday with its three full time crew members on the way to the Bahamas.
This boat has a "dry stack" exhaust system and "flopper stoppers", two systems rarely seen in cruising boats. This boat has taken her owners all through the Caribbean.

How about this Chinese Junk for a character boat? Great wicker furniture on the back deck under the roof.

Here's Pam and Dave (boat: Adagio) Loopers we met way back in Alabama who are also here at Marathon Marina.

Loopers Mark and Carol (boat: Grateful) arrived in the marina last week. They are from Afton, MN, but we didn't meet them until we got to Tennesee.

We met new friends Edy and Lorne, who started their cruising aboard R-Hope in Annapolis and are next heading up the west coast of Florida. They are not Loopers yet, but you never know.

We had a mama and baby manatee come into the marina. They were attracted to the water discharge coming out of R-Hope's air conditioning unit, and stayed for a long time, allowing us to take many pictures. Here's the best of the group, but the last one is my favorite.

Around Marathon Marina

Today's blog is a little tour around the Marathon Marina and some of the surrounding area. This building houses the laundry room with its five washers and five dryers, along with restrooms and showers.

The new restaurant on site is called Lazy Days and the side of the building is landscaped with a "crab pot" theme.

This is the front entrance to Lazy Days with this huge rusty anchor. Where does one get a garden ornament like that anyway??

Here's Dave, the marina diver. He inspected our boat bottom and zincs today and cleaned off the slime. Dave reported that Shingebiss doesn't have any barnacles growing and the zincs and metals were all in good shape.

We went for a dinghy ride today. Here's the view looking into the canal where Shingebiss is docked. The building next to our boat is the marina office and you can see the travel lift at the end of the canal.

Here's the view of the restaurant from the water. Work continues on the new docks, the pilings have all been replaced and are awaiting new decking.

Here's a look at some of the boats on the "outside" docks, mostly reserved for the boats over 40 feet long, these lucky folks have the great sunset view.
There's a couple of really big yachts here too.

Even though it was "only" in the 60's today, it was sunny with no wind. The seas were flat so we took the dinghy a little ways out into the ocean. There are several sailboats anchored out here. It appears they have little protection from any weather ... these sailors are a little tougher than we are.

Coming back into the shelter of the harbor, here's a view of the marina.

The good life continues here in the Florida Keys.

Still lovin' Marathon

We're getting quite settled into the marina life here. This is a busy marina, lots of full time and seasonal liveaboards and lots of folks passing through on their way to the Bahamas and/or Key West. It's also a busy boatyard and with our slip on the canal leading to the travel lift, we see all the boats that come in and out of the water ... there's at least 2-3 every day. Waiting for the weather to warm enough to head up the Atlantic ICW, Loopers winter in the Keys, the Bahamas or go through the Okechobee Waterway that runs from Fort Myers to Stuart FL on the Atlantic coast. There seems to be alot of strong wind this winter. Even the sailors are having trouble finding a weather window for crossing to the Bahamas, but we're staying in the Keys for March too (more on that later). There's a Looper gathering almost every week here in Marathon and we attend them all. Upon completion of the Loop, one is said to "cross their wake". Fred and Linda (boat: Young America) crossed their wake here in Marathon and are pictured raising their gold AGLCA burgee to replace the white AGLCA burgee that we fly while we are looping. We met Fred and Linda in Tennesee and were happy to participate in their celebration.
We've only had one "land" visitor since leaving home. Bill is a long time friend who's lived in Fort Lauderdale for many years. He was driving through Marathon on business and stopped to see us and take us out to lunch at "The Island". Excellent meal and excellent company. Thanks Bill !!!

Lazy Days is the very good restaurant in our marina. We had dinner there with Pam and Dave (Adagio) and Diann and Tom (Noah Genda). We met these two currently looping couples in Mississippi.

We dined aboard Monarch with hosts Jerry and Marty and Wayne and Joyce. Marty and Jerry are gold burgee loopers and Wayne and Joyce recently transitioned from sailboat in California to trawler on the east coast and are considering doing the Loop.

Over sixty people attended this week's Looper Lunch at Harbour Cay Club. Fun to reunite with Loopers we had met earlier and meet new ones too.

Terry, the "social director" here at Marathon Marina, organizes a weekly outing for the snowbirds here. This week captains and crew from 10 marina boats took our dinghys on a ride. We went through Boot Key Harbor and into Sister Creek.

We turned into the narrow streams off the creek through the mangroves.

Ooops, it's a dead end. Turn around.

We ended the outing at Burdine's for dinner and filled the dinghy dock. That's Terry and Mary's dinghy with their new steering wheel in front. Nice ride. The dinghys might look all alike, but each one is unique.

Last Saturday, we went to the Pigeon Key Art Festival, a fund raising event where we saw beautiful tropically themed art and heard good music. A folk music duo called "Patchouli" from Maiden Rock, WI, right on the good ol' Mississippi was playing. If there's nothing else going on, we just walk out on the dock at sunset and then have a meal on the boat. We're never bored, that's for sure.

A gale warning has been issued for tonight, so everyone is battening down for the possibility of 39 knot sustained winds. We're grateful to be safely tucked into this marina, the boats on the mooring balls will be bouncing tonight.

Marathon Life

We are about half way through our one month stay at Marathon Marina. The weather is cooperating nicely and we are enjoying each day. Steve has done some work on the engine, adding extra zincs to parts of the systems that are exposed to the salt water. Salt water is rough on the metals, even stainless steel rusts in this environment if not well cared for. He flushed both the main and generator engines with fresh water for the duration of our stay for further protection. Hurricane Wilma (2005) did lots of damage to the marinas in Marathon, but most have been rebuilt and are thriving. The Faro Blanco Marina was one of the largest and nicest marinas on the island with accomodations on both the Florida Bay side and in the Boot Key Harbor side of this narrow island. It has not been reopened and here you can see the damage to the docks. This is their signature light house office overlooking Florida Bay.

Right on the main channel into Boot Key Harbor, this Faro Blanco building stands deserted along with rows of empty docks. Seems like it wouldn't take that much to get it up and running again.

There are lots of boatyards and marine related businesses in Marathon. We came across this boat outside of one of them which supposedly was home built in secret in Cuba and carried several refugees across the Caribbean. There's an old wooden Chris Craft right behind it.

The old Seven Mile Bridge is a great bike ride, this is the view looking out the 2.5 mile span.

At the end of the ride, there's a gap and the old bridge continues on the other side, but is not used for anything. The narrow section beneath the roadway is where the trains ran. Can you imagine going 7 miles over water on this narrow tressel in a train? The roadway was placed on top after the rail was no longer used. To the left of the old bridge is the current bridge and you can see where it rises up to a 65' height at Moser Pass. This is where we entered the Atlantic.

The Keys are divided into the Upper, Middle and Lower Keys, running about 100 miles from Key Largo to Key West. Marathon is located about half way down the island chain. We rented a car for two days this week and drove to Key West. Even though it's only 50 miles, it's mostly a two lane road, moderate to heavy traffic and not a quick trip. There's a bus that will take you there for $2 and when we passed the Marathon bus stop, saw friends Tom and Diann (Noah Genda) waiting for the bus, so we pulled over and they hopped in. Here they are pictured in front of the old Customs House in Key West.

The restored building is now a history and art museum, so we toured it to learn more about this fascinating and spirited town. J. Seward Johnson is a renowned Key West sculptor and his life sized sculptures are displayed around and in this building. This one is is based on the Henry Matisse painting "The Dance".

The next day, we drove the other way, toward Key Largo and Miami to visit the Upper Keys. The World Wide Sportsman has the sister ship to Ernest Hemingway's boat "Pilar" on display in the middle of the store. Here's Steve by the helm...

...and here's the boat from the balcony above, among all the tee shirts and fishing gear.

We had to visit Shell World which is kind of like the Agate Store is to a rock hound. Totally touristy, but they had amazing shells in here, made my collection look pretty paltry.

We are busy with social events a couple times a week. Last night, Loopers gathered at the City Marina for Social Hour. There were several Gold Burgee Loopers present who had already completed a Loop and there were two cruising couples who are contemplating doing the Loop, so we gave them all an earful of how great it is. The guy toward the left in the back row left Afton, MN just two days before us, traveling on a newer 39' Mainship and this is the first time we've met him. It's a small world on the Loop some days.