Marathon, FL - 2/27/11 (day 30)

This morning we took the dinghy about 3 miles to the mouth of the harbor to Marathon Marina to have a brunch with several other boaters on Darel & Sue's boat, Present Moment. Sue fixed a yummy spread of waffles, blueberries, strawberries, whipped cream and a couple adult beverages for the 10 of us. We forgot the camera so there are no pictures of their beautiful Ocean Alexander or the group. On the way back to our boat we stopped at Sombrero Dockside Marina where our cruising friends Bill & Charlotte Langford (Precious Time) had just arrived from their voyage from Steinhattchee. We hadn't seen them since Ft. Walton Beach a couple months ago.

While sharing cocktails with Bill & Charlotte and Skip & Barb, we got a call from Dan Langford (Biddi & the Beast) to see if we wanted to meet them at Boondocks restaurant on Rim Rod Key for dinner. Of course ...

This was an unusual place with multiple levels all under a thatched roof. The entertainment was a group called No Way Band that did an excellent concert of Beatles music.












We stopped at Dan & Biddi's boat on the way back up the key to pick up maps and charts he is loaning me for the east coast. He also went thru his journal to give us his pearls of wisdom on places to see and stop. This will be a big help on our adventure.
We returned very tired puppies and hit the sack before 10 p.m. Tomorrow we will check with customs in Key West to see what hoops we need to jump thru for our trips out of the country. We have decided to leave here Wednesday and go thru Sister's Creek which will dump us into the Atlantic Ocean and then take Hawk Channel to Channel 5 cut back to the ICW. We are ready to move on!

Marathon, FL - 2/26/11 (day 29)

It finally happened .... everyone (except Ricki) has had an experience with the "summer cold" in our looper group. Now she can join the group! Since Ricki was not feeling very good, Skip, Barb & I drove to Islamora, a trip of around 40 miles each way, to check out what was promised to be the biggest nautical flea market in Florida. As we got closer and the traffic got heavier, our desire to attend got less and less. Within a mile or so we started seeing cars parked along the highway and traffic even came to a standstill occasionally. Long story short ... we did a drive by and didn't even attempt to sample the great deals that were supposed to be there. The photos following show some of the scene as we passed by.

I got back to the boat before noon and Ricki was feeling a little better so to let her rest I took the dirty laundry to the laundromat. When I came back she decided that she would like to go to the store with me to start loading up on stuff for the Bahamas. The front cabin is now our pantry!

We have a lot of things to do before leaving here on Tuesday and heading the pointy end of the boat north. Tomorrow we are taking the dinghy about 2 or 3 miles down the harbor to have breakfast on Present Moment (Darel & Sue's boat) along with Skip & Barb. Later in the day we will meet with Dan Langford (Biddi & the Beast) who has offered to lend me charts for the east coast and will point out things they thought was interesting. We still haven't solved the issue of the customs decal so I plan to call Customs in Key West Monday to see what they tell me. It may mean another trip down there to get it taken care of.

Marathon, FL - 2/25/11 (day 28)

We went to the Dolphin Research Center with Skip and Barb today. This place was amazing. It operates as a non-profit and it appears that they have a lot of collage age folks working there. They not only accept damaged dolphins and sea lions but also train them to respond to different commands.

Finally ... Ricki got a couple of pictures with them in the air!

If you remember we had a lot of dolphin splash pictures coming across the Gulf. Here's another good one.

These animals seem very smart and love to interact with people.

This was a game of "find the alligator" which was a memory game. The trainer would show the dolphin which bucket is was in then call it around the pool and see if it could find it.

While dolphins respond to hand and whistle commands, sea lions are like dogs and respond to verbal commands. Very impressive.

Remember ... birds are sacred here so they not only had chickens running around but also several peacocks were seen.

This guy liked to pose for pictures.

Think this guy had something else on his mind and was a little irritated with people bothering him with his "girl friend"

Such a handsome couple.

Barb & Skip

The entry sign.

After lunch we drove over to Sombrero Beach.

And spotted these two lovelies washing their toes.







We also stopped by the Homeland Security and Customs in Marathon to see about getting our boat decal for re-entry back into the USA after leaving the country. Don't know the function of this office but it seemed verrrry secure and after talking to a lady thru bullet proof glass found out we would have to go to either Key West or Miami to get our decals. Of course she also gave us a web site to download the form but ... good luck. Boy was it confusing so I guess I will go to Key West Monday.

Marathon, FL - 2/24/11 (day 27)

Today we did a few things around the boat until early afternoon when we started getting ready for the "Looper Sunset Party" at Banana Bay Marina. What a great deal. Everyone brought an appetizer to share and with over 84 people, you can guess what that food line looked like. Most everyone there was on a boat with a large majority actively on the loop like us. As you travel around on this trip, quite often you find a place you really like and return year after year following the big trip. This is the case of some of the folks here tonight. Apparently this year has seen exceptional winter weather with temps running several degrees over normal which has made it feel like paradise.






The sunset at Banana Bay Marina.










Loopers









More Loopers.

And even more loopers!

Tomorrow (Friday) we plan to go to the Dolphin Research Center which we have heard is amazing. Our plans for starting up the coast are still a little fuzzy. Originally we had planned to leave here and follow the Hawk Channel toward Key Largo and on to Miami. Last night a couple of us started thinking maybe back up the Florida Bay (Gulf side) and go thru Okeechobee Lake. We will be meeting again this weekend to decide.

Marathon, FL - 2/22/11 & 2/23/11 (days 25 & 26)

Tuesday (2/22) was our day to do nothing. Ricki spent the day at the pool and since I had this stupid summer cold, just hung around the boat. We needed our rest because we had planned to go back to Key West on Thursday with Skip and Barb. Neither of them had been there before so it would be entertaining to be with them in this environment.



On Wednesday we left before noon (so we could have breakfast on the way) and made our way down to Key West which was only 50 miles. In case you haven't been there, chickens run loose all over town. Apparently somewhere in the past a law was passed protecting all birds, so ....
they run loose!









Our normal way to see a new place is to take a tour. KW has a conch train that offers a very in depth tour of the old town.








Old town has many pretty buildings, mostly built with money from the shipping industry. They say that KW was at one time the richest city in the USA.






As far as I know, this is the only light house on the Keys.










Mile O of US Highway 1.





Everywhere you go you hear about the antics of Earnest Hemingway. Apparently after he got famous he wanted privacy and engaged the services of some of his drinking buddies (obviously) to build this wall.

His home on the island was very pretty.

No trip to KW is complete without a picture here......

Or a visit to Sloppy Joes. The ladies sent Skip and me in to save seats while they shopped some, which we didn't mind.

The entertainment was very good. These guys had a routine that required an open mind, but very funny.

Another required stop is Mallory Square and the Sunset Pier. We didn't make it here for the sunset but normally it is very crowded with various circus type acts before sunset.

Thursday we will be going over to Banana Bay Marina for a Looper gathering. Don't know how many are around the various marinas but I would guess many since all marinas are full.

Marathon, FL - 2/20/11 & 2/21/11 - (days 23 & 24)

On Sunday (2/20) I needed to put another coat of non-skid on the front deck and Ricki had spotted a quilting display in the newspaper that was about 30 miles away, so we each did our own thing. I encouraged her to go since I knew she would be gone most of the day and I could watch the Daytona 500 undisturbed. She took over 73 pictures but I just picked out a few to put here. As you can see these were quite pretty quilts.

Her trip took her over several stretches of water per the example.

Dinner was on the boat later in the evening.

On Monday (2/21) we had planned to go to Key West with Skip & Barb but Skip was just getting over a cold and we decided to wait until Wednesday. So Ricki & I put the storage boxes back on the front deck and secured them then went to the pool for the afternoon. Skip & Barb joined us for hamburgers on the grill. Apparently I have now caught the cold and feel like crap so will probably lay low tomorrow. We still have a couple small jobs to do on the boat but the big one are done. Our plans for the rest of the week .... Wednesday - Key West; Thursday - go over to Banana Bay for a looper get together; Friday - sight see; Saturday - Islamorada for a big nautical flea market and then spend a couple days preparing to leave next week.

Marathon, FL - 2/19/11 (day 22)

We got up early and did the laundromat scene in town. When you have several loads, we usually go to one even though they are really expensive down here in the keys. Washing is $4 per loan and dry time is 25cents for 4 minutes. It is easy to drop $20 doing laundry but it is quicker than trying to work through the traffic here in the marina laundry. After lunch I taped and painted the front deck with a coat of non-skid but it looks like another application will really make it look good.

For dinner we picked up Dan & Biddi (Biddi & the Beast) and went to a great restaurant in Key Colony here on Marathon Key. It is located on the ocean side and is a very lively place.







Looking at the ocean toward the south.








The restaurant from the pier out on the ocean.








The first mate resting on the way to the parking lot.









My owner is inside eating and left me in the van!

Marathon, FL - 2/17 & 18/11 days (20 & 21)

Thursday & Friday were work days on boat projects with a little social fun slipped in during the evenings. On Thursday we spent considerable time putting the eyebrow teak back on the boat. Now that it is refinished and up it looks fantastic. Another job done!

In the evening we had Skip & Barb and Dan & Biddi onboard for dinner and great conversation. The Key Lime pie after dinner was to die for! On Friday the day was spent sanding the front deck in preparation for a new application on non-skid paint. that evening we joined Skip & Barb for dinner at the Fish Market. The ladies had a fantastic macadamia encrusted grouper. Skip & I were both a little disappointed with our meals but made up for it when we stopped by the boat and finished of the Key Lime pie.

Dinner Thursday night.

Yard visitors beside our boat on Friday.

Marathon, FL - 2/16/11 (day 19)

Wednesday was "give the boat a bath" day which it needed very badly since it hadn't been washed really good since the Gulf crossing. While I did that, Ricki spent most of the day trying to straighten out the prescription snags with her new health insurance provider. Neither of us accomplished our tasks until late afternoon so after a quick shower ... off we went in our dinghy for a cruise.



We decided to take Sister's Creek which is a couple miles from our dock, over to the Gulf side of the island.










The water in the creek is of course salt but really clear.











As usual, beautiful homes along the water.









A neat little hide-a-way beach.










Then we came to the Gulf after 2 or 3 miles.








This area is dotted with little islands or as they say here .. "keys".










This is Sombrero Beach as seen from the Gulf. A really nice place that has lighted walking/riding trails and brick sidewalks.







As we turned around to return to the creek we witnessed another awesome sunset.










The mangrove trees seem to grow right to the water. The story goes that these trees collect the sand that passes by and thus forms new land to develop.





The creek dumps us into the mooring field a couple miles from our dockage. Just guessing, it seems like there may be at least a couple hundred boats on the mooring ball field. The price to sit on a mooring is pretty reasonable but the down side is having to run a generator many hours a day for A/C. This part of Florida is a zero discharge so they have to have a boat come pump out at least once a week.





We came by Skip & Barb's boat at Sombrero Dockside and as we dinghyed up .. there she was looking out her stateroom window at us.





Since darkness was closing in on us pretty quickly, the first mate got the navigation lights out. The stern light has a suction cup on it to stick on the outboard motor. The bow lights will Velcro to the front but Ricki had to hold them this time.







And ... we make it back to our canal and just a few hundred yards to the boat.

After tying the dinghy to the swim platform, we went back to Moor $tuff for pizza and turned in by 9 p.m. (boater's midnight).