Visitors to Marathon

March 20,2015 

More beautiful sunsets from Marathon

We are getting ready for visitors to Marathon. Lauren has talked and talked about coming down for spring break but wasn't sure if she would come or not. Finally about a week before break, she bite the bullet and purchased her ticket. The night before she was to leave they changed her departure time and that would make her miss her connection. So she called them and told them she wanted to leave from Wilmington instead of Myrtle Beach. Yes, she lives in Wilmington but the flight was cheaper from Myrtle Beach, so she was having a friend take her to Myrtle and pick her up there to save money. So she got her preferred flight at a better price.

We picked her up in Key West, did some sightseeing, ate lunch, and went shopping before we headed to the boat.

Mother and daughter enjoying our time together!

Huge cactus

These gardens are located in West Martello Tower Gardens on the beach and have the most beautiful flowers!

Especially the orchids!

Lauren found her friend from a couple of years ago. He was hiding in a different place this time!

This is called the autograph bush. As you can see it has been autographed.

Lauren, doing her autographing.

The finished product.
 

This is what Lauren's autograph looked like a week later.

 

More fantastic sunsets!

 Lauren had a great time in Marathon. We borrowed a kayak and she paddled thru the mangroves. We went shopping for her birthday since we were not together to celebrate it earlier. FFF was back from Cuba, so they went with us for a sunset walk on the 7 Mile Bridge and went to Sparky's for their early bird wings and shrimp special. Lauren enjoyed sleeping late, working on her tan, relaxing, and she even worked on teacher stuff. We all watched the space station fly over the harbor one night. There's a guy in the harbor that keeps up with NASA stuff and lets us know when to watch.

We had told her how much fun we had at Sombrero Reef so we watched the weather for a day to take her. We knew the weather wouldn't be perfect, so we picked the best day and went out. The winds made the water rougher than our first time out, but she still had a great time.

As soon as we got there, she and I jumped in and took off. Shay stayed on the boat since he was concerned about the moorings. Most boats that come out here are smaller than us, so he wanted to make sure it was ok. We had fun and saw lots of fish, but I got tired and we went back to the boat. Lauren and Shay went out and explored the reef more. Lauren said the water was calmer than when she went scuba diving in Belize so she was fine.

Lauren and Dad

Doing their thing.

An alien?

No, just Lauren. Doesn't she look happy?!

Me taking a picture of Lauren while she takes pictures of the fishies!

Parrot fish

Sargent Majors

Selfie!

What are you looking at?

Sunset on 7 Mile Bridge

This is Shay cleaning the bottom of the boat. He's getting it ready for our trip north. The cleaner the bottom the faster the boat goes!





 

Unfortunately, her trip had to end, so she got all packed up and we headed back to Key West. Remember, her trip down got changed around so when she got here she called and told them she wanted to fly back to Wilmington since her car was there. So she got her trip changed and had a lot better flight for a better price. So, sometimes when things get changed, it works out better.

I'm sad, she's getting ready to leave!

 

Lauren likes the hammock

So we went back to Key West, picked up Jason and Jane, ate lunch again at Caroline's, and dropped Lauren off to fly back to Wilmington. Enjoyed the visit! Have a good flight! Safe travels!

Of course, they had to take their picture at the southernmost point in the USA!

And we went back to the gardens!

 They had a great time around Marathon. They visited the beach, dinghyed thru the mangroves, ate the early bird wing and shrimp special at Sparky's, and relaxed in the hammock. They wanted to go snorkeling, but it was too windy to go to Sombrero Reef, so they went to the quarry on Bahia Honda. They had a great time and went back another day to enjoy the water.

 

We had been thinking about getting a new dinghy and bit the bullet and got one. It's an AB fiberglass 10.5 feet. We found a guy in the harbor that wanted to buy our old one, so we waved goodbye to it and it took off to the Bahamas the next day. Enjoy the ride!

Pretty!

Putting on the motor

Let's try out this ride!

Our maiden voyage!

It was a good dinghy! Bye!

 

 

We had dolphin visitors!

The spotted rays look like they are flying underwater!

Jason and Jane posing!

Jason is driving our car back to Mount Airy, since we will be leaving Marathon soon. We took them and all their stuff to shore and came back to work on the new dinghy. It was a hot day with about 10 kts of wind. I looked up and noticed we were getting close the house you see in the picture above. We've been here since before Thanksgiving and we just seemed closer than before. As I was telling Shay we seemed close, I was trying to figure out if the wind had blown us a different way or what was going on. He looked up, thinking like me that it was just the wind. But when he really saw how close we were he knew something was wrong! 

 

He cranked up the engines and I ran to the bow to see where the mooring ball was. Well, it was still tied to us, but it was floating with us toward the shore! Shay called to a guy in a dinghy that was passing by and asked if he could come aboard and help. He came aboard and we tied a different line to the mooring ball and released the other lines. Another boater came over and took the mooring ball to tie behind her boat, so we wouldn't have to worry about the mooring line getting wrapped up in our props.

 

We called the marina and told them what was going on and they told us to pick up another mooring ball. The one they told us to pick up had broke loose earlier that week, so we didn't want to mess with in since we weren't sure it had been repaired. We went to the ball closest to us and tied to it. It was a scary experience! We know they inspect the moorings at least once a year, cause we were here in November when they did. We pulled on the mooring when we tied up to it in November, but not since then. We have had strong winds at about 30 kts or more since we have been here. In the past, we have felt secure during strong winds since we were attached to the mooring ball. I'm not sure we will feel that way in the future.

 

The marina staff finally came out and took the mooring away. When we talked to them later they said it had obviously been cut, like the other one had. We went to the marina later that day and looked at the ball on shore. There was about 10 feet of line on the bottom of the ball. The line looked rotten not cut. Shay talked to the marina manager and he said the float the holds the bottom line above the steel anchor was missing from our ball and that had allowed the line to rub and chaff, causing the line to break. He explained that the crabs tear into the floats to nest and then the floats come off. They came out and checked other moorings around us and moved 3 boats because the floats were missing. They said they were looking into replacing the floats with harder plastic ones. Hope they do and hope that takes care of the problem!

 

So our guests are gone and we are looking for a weather window to head somewhere. Shay says it depends on which way the wind is blowing. Depending on which way it blows, we could go up the west coast of Florida, the east coast of Florida, or to the Bahamas.  At this point we are not sure where we will go. That's the great thing about our lifestyle! We can decide! I guess you'll find out in the next post! T2YL!