Friday, March 1, 2024

Marathon February 2024

Total Miles Traveled 1974 since departing Green Turtle Bay, KY

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We boarded the Key West Transit bus for the trip to Key West ($1 each way for seniors) to celebrate Moni’s birthday.  We had a great time with our good friends Steve and Jan (Forever Young), Steve and Libby (San Souci) and Kevin and Jill (Chasing 80).  We were also able to visit with Mike and Jan (Trust Me) on their boat docked downtown. We hit most of our favorite stops:  Irish Kevin's, Smokin Tuna, and the Green Parrot, for great music, food, and drinks.  We experienced something new at the Green Parrot, while the band was playing, an artist painted a picture on a large canvas while keeping in time with the music, he was very good and sold his paintings for several hundred dollars afterwards.

February was a busy month, I’ve been helping Steve on a major engine project, we had a freshwater pump fail, and I had to install new packing to our steering rudders.  It is a boat, and just like a house, things tend to wear out. 

It’s not all work and no fun though, we have our weekly awesome breakfast at the American Legion every Sunday with our friends, Taco Tuesdays, Bocce Ball every Tuesday, and Thursday, Tikki Hut music on Fridays at the City Marina, and our Dockside Bar and Grill at our marina.  Moni’s getting pretty good on the Bocce Ball court.



We attended the 14th annual Sunset Celebration at the Banana Bay Resort.  We met a lot of good friends that we haven’t seen for awhile and met some new ones.  This is really an awesome boating community

I finally parted with my bicycle; we have hauled it around on our boats since 2015.  We donated Moni’s bike to a friend when we purchased our electric scooters a few years ago, but I had a hard time parting with mine.  I’ve put several hundred miles on it, biking the RAIN (Ride Across INdiana), the Bloomington Hilly Hundred, the River-to-River Relay course (from the Mississippi River to the Ohio River) and several biathlons and biking events.  Times have changed and the scooters are our main source of transportation these days.

We caught this Manatee sleeping while putting around the harbor.  We stopped and waited several minutes and it didn’t come up for air or move, we edged a little closer and it dove to the bottom.

I guess this must be the Boot Key Harbor Junk yard, this boat looks like they collect anything they can find floating through or around the harbor.

We saw these two 40+ foot center consoles fueling up before heading out to the Atlantic for a fishing trip.  One has 5, 400 horsepower engines…..2000 hp and the other 4, 400 hp engines!  We have 300 hp total on our 45-foot boat.  We are much slower, but I think we’ll stick with our fuel bill.


We met some new looper friends and they are selling their boat and purchasing a new one to finish the loop.  It's a 1972 Gulf Star and is in very good shape for it's age.

We will be leaving Marathon around March 15th, and will be watching for a weather window to travel to Bimini and explore the Exuma’s before returning to Florida around mid-May.

One of our evening views at docktails.



Thursday, February 1, 2024

Marathon, Fl January 2024

Total Miles Traveled since departing Green Turtle Bay, KY 1974

https://share.garmin.com/RickVicars

We started off the new year at Marathon celebrating Steve Fields birthday.  Steve and Libby on m/v San Souci are from Terre Haute, Indiana. They are spending the winter here at Sombrero Marina then continuing their Great Loop Adventure.




We had great weather to attend the Florida Keys Celtic Festival.  The kickoff started on Friday at the Dockside bar and grill, conveniently located a short walk from our boat.  The main event continued the following Saturday and Sunday at the city park.

The festival features family-friendly Celtic rock and Traditional music, Irish & Scottish Dancing, Sheep-dog herding, Pipes and Drums, and fabulous Celtic (and Keys) foods and crafts vendors. Highland Athletics, the original Strongman sport, features a sanctioned Woman’s Highland Athletics Competition and Men’s Highland Athletic Demonstrations. The Florida Keys Celtic Festival was recently voted a Best of Florida Regional Winner for Festivals.  Most of the participants and entertainment travel from Scotland and Ireland.







For some reason I can't remember what she was selling?

We were really impressed with the Women’s Highland Athletics events.  The weight over bar event requires contestants to clear a crossbar with a 21–28-pound weight.  They have three chances to succeed.



With the Caber Toss each participant must pick up a tapered end of the caber (a 13-15 foot “tree trunk”), balance it, then toss it so that the upper end hits the ground and turns completely over.  Success is gauged by how closely the caber falls to the 12 o’clock position.








Our friends Bob and Deb from Terre Haute visited us for a few days, we spent a day at Key West, took a dinghy ride through the mangroves to a small island on the Atlantic side, and the weather cooperated to take our boat out to Sombrero Key Light and tie to a mooring ball for a couple hours.  The Key is about 4 miles offshore from Marathon.  I still can’t believe I didn’t take one picture while we were there. 

My plan was to take a few underwater pictures, but I had a senior moment by forgetting to install the cover after charging my GoPro and filled the camera with saltwater.  Camera, battery, and memory card submerged.  Well, I flushed it out several times with alcohol and let is set for three days.  Everything works!!  (note to self, remove charging cable, install waterproof cover).

We have been playing Bocce ball two days a week, which has grown to quite a few players since we started last month. 

Pelicans waiting for a handout.

And the Tarpon are circling for anything that sinks.

Steve and Jan found a cool place for lunch.



Our Looper friends Kevin and Jill on m/v Chasing 80 drove their car down from Fort Myers for a visit on their way to Key West.  We hit the nautical flea market and Kiki’s Sandbar for lunch and music.



Our scooters have been handy at Marathon, we’ve managed to put over 100 miles on them since purchasing the new model in August.

Swim ladder art.  The sailboat next to us has been in their slip for six months, they pulled their swim ladder up out of the water and found quite a mess of sea life.

We’re taking the Key West Transit Shuttle to Key West today to celebrate Moni’s birthday with friends.

 HAPPY BIRTDAY MONI !!!!

Another great sunset at Boot Key Harbor.

Monday, January 1, 2024

Marathon, FL December 2023,v

Total Miles Traveled 1958 since departing Green Turtle Bay, KY

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HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Wishing everyone a healthy and prosperous new year!

We’ve really enjoyed our first few weeks at Marathon and have a slip at Sombrero Marina through March. We’re here with our friends Steve and Jan on m/v Forever Young, and Steve and Libby on m/v San Souci.  We are looking forward to participating in several of the activities that the cruising community has to offer.  There are several marinas within the city limits of Marathon and the city administers a 216-ball mooring field that occupies most of Boot Key Harbor.  All of the marinas and moorings are full with many boaters anchored and on a waiting list. 

Each morning at 9 a.m. boaters can tune their VHF radio to channel 80 to listen to the cruisers net.  The cruisers net has a volunteer traffic controller each day to grant access to speak on the net.  Topics include new arrivals, departures, news on anything happening, lost, found, wanted or for sale items, help needed, trivia, and final business.

The annual Christmas boat parade route passed in front of our boat, so we had a ring side seat for the event.  It was hard to get quality pictures after dark, and with moving lighted boats. : ( 





Moni's art work on the back door of our boat.

m/v Forever Young strung a few lights.

We have a local Manatee but so far I haven’t been able to get a good picture….I have plenty of time though.


We have had high winds and heavy rains when cold fronts pass through, but no severe storms.  One of the all-day soakers produced close to eight inches of rain, so low lying areas get flooded.



One of the local activities we have learned to play is Bocce Ball.  It’s played with eight weighed balls aimed at a smaller target ball.  The objective of the game is to earn points by getting your balls closer to the target ball than your opponent does.  We play at the city park, about a mile scooter ride away.


This is a very friendly community, the entire harbor was invited to Roland’s 87th birthday party at Dockside Bar and Grill, conveniently located at our marina.  I think he danced with most of the ladies at the party.

Roland is in the white shirt in the background. 

There was a nautical flea market on Big Pine Key which is several miles away across the 7-mile bridge.  We decided to take the Lower Key’s Shuttle for the event.  We found an app that shows a live location of the shuttle and a shuttle stop schedule.  Not all of the stops were shown on the schedule, but we could see the location of the shuttle from the app.  We walked to the closest shuttle stop for the 9:30 pick up.  We arrived about 30 minutes early and called up the live map, showing the shuttle heading for Key West?   We figured since it was close to the holiday, they only have one shuttle operating so we would have to wait for the return trip.  The girls went shopping and the guy’s hung out across the street from the stop.  The girls came out of the store, and we were walking toward them just in time to see the 9:30 shuttle pass by, we missed the shuttle!  We learned later that the app is not accurate…duh.  We now had to wait until the next shuttle at 11:45.  We walked to a Micky D’s for a snack and drink to wait.  We finally caught the shuttle and only spent an hour or so at the flea market before heading back to Marathon.  It wasn’t all bad though, we stopped at Berdines at Boot Key and treated ourselves to deep fried key lime pie.  Once we figure out the schedule, the shuttle is a great deal, seniors can ride the shuttle from Marathon to Key West for $1.


Christmas Party at the City Marina Tiki Hut.

Christmas was a rainy day at Marathon but we made the best of it with a dinner party on Steve and Jan's boat and exchanged a few gifts.  We also played a new game to us, Tripoley.  We had a great time with good friends.

We had a great day to explore the area by dinghy.  We weaved in and out of the mangroves, cruised through several canals, and stopped at an island on the Atlantic side of Marathon.


We have seen hundreds of No Wake signs during our travels but this is the first No Woke sign we have encountered.  I think we're in the right place for the winter. 







We found several live conch while wading around the island, they are protected in Florida.



And an engine block.....not sure where the boat is?
  

We closed out 2023 with another dinner party on m/v Forever Young.  Wishing everyone a happy and healthy New Year.