Kind of a long blog this time as I rarely get a block of time needed to download the pix and video and write too. It's been an adventure. More to come.
At the Marathon Turtle Hospital. It takes a year of complete healing from losing an arm, to tumors, to eating garbage and getting sick. Then they are returned to the ocean at the same place they are found.On our stern
Everglades National Park alligator 
At the highway you all know.
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| The real beach is on the other side of the palms. Mazu loved it here and should have gotten a video of her tearing around in and out of the water. |
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| We visited Sherry and Dan in Key West where they stayed a week. We took the $5 bus ride down and back for the day. Dinner at Blue Heaven we highly recommend. |
He swaggers into the
marina office and all-around gathering place while only the dust bunnies
scattered to the corners over the concrete floor. His hairy chest was poking out of his short
sleeve, orange rumpled shirt, misbuttoned and the bottom of his shirt uneven, a pile of white curly hair on his head
like Medusa’s snakes. A smile covered
his face as he looked around at anyone and everyone he knew to say, “Hey,
how’s it going?” He’s been living on his
Lord Nelson 43’ sailboat since December in the Key’s steady warmth while New
England suffered one of the longest and coldest winters on record. Where was global warming?
Steve is a regular
in Marathon Boot Key Harbor Marina and has moored in the south for the last 7
winters. He knew and liked all the
sailors here, many of them year round living aboard. Their lives were their own with no call to
report to anyone and a place where the door was shut on time. He was the one
who convinced us to come to Marathon for the winter. We only made it for the month of April after
mishaps all the way down: a new toilet and hoses and lifelines in Southport,
NC, a new polypropylene holding tank and renovation of the floor that was
removed to replace the tank in Coral Gables, FL. We fixed the boat in exotic ports (what some
say is the true definition of cruising), without the 80 degree weather we were
promised. Here, what day or time makes no difference. Each minute plods into the next with no
concern or care.
The talk at the
happy hour $5 meals and $2 drinks starts at noon at many of the restaurants and
bars, Burdines, Sunset Harbor, Sparkey’s, Hurricane’s, The Brass Monkey, Lazy
Days, the Fishery and Dockside. It is
noon to 4 or 2 to 6, doesn’t really matter.
Everyone came at one time or another to talk boats. Mostly sailboats moored or anchored here and
though Florida has a significant share of delinquent boats there don’t seem to
be many in Marathon. Everyone keeps up
their boats cleaning the bottoms, fixing the frequent break downs of various
systems and sharing every fix in detail describing every nut and bolt by brand
and place purchased, every cleat and turnbuckle. After a while I tuned out the engineering
feats I couldn’t possibly comprehend or ever do for that matter. Women just aren’t really strong enough to do
all the maintenance. I know only one
woman who lives on her boat here alone.
I think she pays for a lot of help or trades for meals.
The places sailors
venture to are a big topic of talk. Some
are the Shark River (full of alligators roaming freely) locally near the
Everglades (Gulf side) to the Azores or many Bahamian or Caribbean islands. This always includes how and when the sailor
crosses the fast Gulf Stream to get to the Bahamas and then further exploration
down into other islands.
The days start at 9
am with the Cruisers’ Net on VHF radio channel 68 welcoming new boats, fair
winds to those that are leaving, activities announcements, questions and help,
fair trade/ sales/giveaways, then trivia questions to stump the harbor, final
announcements and sign off. There are
some great deals like a $25 water maker or a $500 sailing dinghy and
interesting activities like bocci ball in the neighboring town recreation
park. The harbor has a strong foundation
of people living on their boats and everyone is generous and helpful with their
time and truly help on another every day.
Saturday night brings pot luck meals at the marina’s Tiki hut with free
local music. I tried a women’s book discussion
group a couple of times in April that went well. One morning my announcement about the book group brought a couple
of men complaining about the sexist nature of the book group – clearly they’ve
never been in one.
It wasn’t hard to
get into the Keys life with Steve, our guide, concierge and good friend from
Marblehead. Up by 9 AM to listen to the
Net, out on the dinghy by 11 to walk Mazu (she can now climb up and down the
ladder – must get video), pretty laid back and easy on time. We drink wonderful café Cubano ($.80) at the
Chevron Station. No rush anywhere. Clean
up and projects during the day, a swim around the boat as well as keeping it
clean from sea life growth at the water line.
Just one afternoon we sailed to the snorkeling reef, Sombrero Key that
was off-the-charts beautiful.
Walking to the
market (a mile each way), or boat suppliers for parts and cleaning materials also Internet
ordering (wifi in the marina building) for extra parts to fix things takes up
the day. There is usually an evening
drink with friends during early Happy Hour. I make dinner and Drew fixes. He’s better at it. I usually run the dinghy engine, navigating
too, and he does the rope knots tying and untying at the dock when we come
in. When I tied up the dinghy I came back to the boat adrift in its spot luckily.
We try to do what we’re best at rather than hear about how it wasn’t done right. We’ve sort of come naturally into the areas that we’re good at by trial and error. When items have gone overboard by mistake we have a child's bright pink net to capture the items.
Drew is an engineer so was his dad so fixing and designing is second nature. He’s grown up with that vocabulary surrounding him since birth. I have a pretty good sense of direction and feel for the engines on the dinghy, Tweety (it’s yellow) and Shawnee, the SV Island Packet, but I fix very little. I'm the go-for during his fixing, and we both clean up.
Maybe we'll head out today. ; -) I am missing everyone. I've read a slew of books.
We try to do what we’re best at rather than hear about how it wasn’t done right. We’ve sort of come naturally into the areas that we’re good at by trial and error. When items have gone overboard by mistake we have a child's bright pink net to capture the items.
Drew is an engineer so was his dad so fixing and designing is second nature. He’s grown up with that vocabulary surrounding him since birth. I have a pretty good sense of direction and feel for the engines on the dinghy, Tweety (it’s yellow) and Shawnee, the SV Island Packet, but I fix very little. I'm the go-for during his fixing, and we both clean up.
Maybe we'll head out today. ; -) I am missing everyone. I've read a slew of books.
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