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