Well, we've been in Marathon about 6 weeks now. We've met lots of great people,some who have already left to go home or to the Bahamas or elsewhere. New friends Brian and Lynn from Manitoba were here on their catamaran but left about a week ago to go to Dinner Key near Miami and will probably head to the Bahamas in the next couple of weeks. We went to the Sombrero reef light just offshore from Marathon on their catamaran a couple of weeks ago and snorkelled over the reef. The water was cool but not too cold and the fish were beautiful. So was the coral. We got a couple of photos before our "waterproof" camera leaked. Apparently, you are supposed to replace the seals every year, or so Olympus camera says. Who knew? So we ordered a new camera and got it a couple of weeks ago.
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| One of the locals: "Viking Bobby" (center)and his Dragon Boat |
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| Another local |
We also went to the Marathon airport to see the WWII bombers that are touring around. Greg's brother Patrick and wife Cris came over to see them and being a former Navy pilot, Pat was allowed in the cockpit and made the front page of the local paper!
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| Patrick in the cockpit |
We also volunteered with the Seven Seas Cruising Association and worked their booth at the Miami boat show. We got to see the Strictly Sail portion of the show for a couple of hours and purchased some more Prism polish and Mirage polish so we could clean and polish the deck and cockpit. Spent several days doing that too.
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| Miami Boat Show SSCA booth |
Meanwhile, Connor came for a short visit and we sailed to Key West for a long weekend. Got to see Pat (greg's brother) and Cris again and had some great meals along the Schooner dock. Both the Boat Dock bar and grill (downstairs part of the Commodore restaurant) and Alonzo's have happy hour from 4:00 to 6:30 and have 1/2 price appetizers and drinks. We made a meal from those on two nights. Greg and I agree that Boat Dock was our favorite but both were good. Connor rented a Vespa and rode around town for a few hours one day. He visited the butterfly garden and nature center with some people (girls) he met and made it to the Southernmost point. He also checked out the night/early morning life in Key West. He had a great time. Pat and Cris generously provided his airport transportation and joined us for dinner several times.
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| Dinner at the Boat Dock in Key Wesst |
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| On the boat in Key West at the Schooner Docks |
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| Dinner at Alonzo's |
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| Connor "showing off his boat" |
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| Patrick, Cris and Connor in our main salon |
We have been doing lots of boat projects: purchased and installed a wind generator (LizAnn even did some of the heat shrinking for the electrical connectors; but mostly handed things to Greg as he cussed under his breath); outfitted the watermaker and adapted the Honda generator to run on propane so we can run the watermaker; rebuilding the head (YUCK); lots of little things like putting a lock on the little bow compartment in the dinghy, replacing the dry rotted rail mounts for the lifesling; purchasing a chain to lock up the dinghy in the Bahamas, purchasing an anchor for the dinghy and in the process of making a storage bag for that anchor. Greg has made almost daily (sometimes twice daily) trips to Home Depot and West Marine. Fortunately they are .5 to 1.0 miles away.
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| Running the wires for the wind generator |
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| In the lazzarette to install the switch for the wind generator |
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| Making the control board for the wind generator. Look at the size of those resistors(green) all you people who took the HAM classes with us |
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| The day we finally get the wind generator up and there is no wind. |
We rented a car and made a trip up to Miami just over a week ago to do our "interview" with Homeland securityy/ Customs and Immigration for our local boater cards and small vessel reporting system. That enables us to just call in from wherever we return in the US to clear back in. That way we don't have to go to a port with the Immigration office and don't even have to get off the boat to report in. The local boater cards are free and the boat decal is about $27.00 Very worth it for the convenience. However, our experience at the Miami office was like a Saturday Night Live skit. Bureaucracy at its finest! The people were very nice but it was comical how nothing worked like it was supposed to.Our interview consisted of doing our fingerprints and photos. Of course, the equipment wouldn't work so they finally got Greg's done and couldn't do mine so they just gave up and gave me a card anyway. Hope I am truly in the system and can get back in when I need to. If you plan to cruise out of the country, I would recommend that you go online and fill out the application for the local boater option and schedule your interview before you leave home so you can do it more conveniently.
We have refilled the propane tank (Still had one we haven't even used) which has lasted us over 3 months. Now we are ready to take off for Bimini. We wanted to leave last week but the weather wasn't cooperating. Looks like Friday will be our day to head out. Keeping our fingers crossed that the weather predictions hold. We are anxious to head out. Marathon has been great but it is too easy to get used to staying here. Time to move. But as they say: "Better to be in here, wishing you were out there than out there, wishing you were in here."
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| Sunset in Boot Key Harbor, Marathon |
