Marathon, Florida – The Keyes

March 26, Monday Marathon Florida

What have I been doing? I’ve been here in Marathon for a few days and haven’t updated the blog! We arrived in the Boot Key harbor of Marathon on Friday afternoon after a 45 mile trip down from the Everglades from Little Shark River where we spent one night at anchor – beautiful.

Now we are staying in Boot Key Harbor harbor on a mooring ball along with about 150 other boats! We only have electricity when the generator is running and we plan to be here about a week so it will be our longest stop without the comforts of a marina slip. But the marina offers nice showers and bikes we can borrow – so that’s helpful.

We went to the marina office the morning after we arrived (Saturday) to register and find out about its services. Besides the showers and bikes (and a many bookshelves of books!) we learned of a shuttle that will take us all the way to Key West for $1.00! Since we were pretty much out of fresh food we took a cab to Publix and stocked up again, got a cab back to the marina, loaded up the dingy, and then traveled back to the boat, tied up, and lifted each bag to the sundeck and then carried them to the galley. Nothing to it! Well, a little more challenging than other times but doable. We hung out at the boat the rest of the day I think.

Yesterday, Sunday, we borrowed bikes for a short trip up the road to Home Depot. We want the boat to look great when we put it on the market in a few weeks (sigh!) so picked up some special cleaners, teak oil, etc. We were also looking forward to visiting with other loopers in Marathon and in the late afternoon walked a few blocks to Banana Bay Marina where a number of people who have done the Great Loop are staying. Our friends George and Pat are still there (we saw them a month or so ago when we drove down for a party they were hosting) and we met some others last night as well.

Today we used the local KeyWest shuttle to travel to CVS down in Big Pine Key – a lovely ride for only $1 each way. When we returned we worked on spiffing up the boat for a few hours and then used the dinghy and walked again to Banana Bay where it turns out a party was going on. What a life! Most of the people staying in this small marina are regulars; they spend 4-6 months on their boats here every year and have become really good friends. It was nice to be included in their fun and yummy buffet.