Winter in Marathon

Well, it’s been a while since I have blogged so I guess I’ll get things caught up.

My last entry was just before Christmas, so I’ll start there. We flew home a several days before Christmas so we could spend time with family and friends. We came home to a beautifully decorated house done by Lauren. When she went back to school after Thanksgiving, she took some Christmas decorations for her dorm. When it was time to come back home for Christmas, she just packed them up, brought them home, and set them out again. It was really nice to come home to the decorations.

My family had Christmas at our house on Christmas Eve, a tradition we have had for over ten years. We had a great meal and everyone was very pleased with the presents. I have been telling them I hope it’s the last time we do Christmas in our house for 3 years, ever since we decided to sell the house. Every year my nephew Ethan asks what will we all do when we sell the house. I tell him not to worry, we will still have Christmas…it will just be in a different place. Well, maybe this will be the last time…I hope.




PaPa  and his grandkids




Lauren and her cousins

 



Daddy and the kids

  

Mom and babe



Lauren must have really liked what her grandmother gave her

 

Lauren 

Christmas morning we opened presents with the kids and had a great time. We all got too much stuff again. Next we went to Shay’s mother’s house to celebrate with his family. We had a houseful as we usually do. We stuffed ourselves and then opened more presents.

We also got together with our friends and had lots of fun catching up with each other.

Well, after Christmas we left for Marathon. Shay and I argued about driving our car down. I wanted to leave the car in Mount Airy; he wanted to take it to Marathon…..he won. Shay’s brother, Joey, his wife, Lisa, and Adam, their son drove down to visit too. We had a great time with them. We went for dingy rides, they went fishing several times, we went to the beach, and just enjoyed the beautiful scenery.



Adam fishing



Adam catching a fish, there is a difference in fishing and catching fish as you can see. It's the fish.



Iguana



Adam wants to take an iguana back to NC, but....he's afraid of its tail.

Lisa, Joey, and "Adamsmasher"

Caption Adam taking out the trash

After they left, we settled back in to life in Marathon. We worked on some of our projects, and Shay helped other boaters with theirs. He and Ken installed Ken’s humongous solar panels and when they started working, Ken did a happy dance.

Shay worked for 3 days cleaning the bottom of our boat. It had a jungle growing on it and it was very hard work. He scraped and rubbed until he was exhausted and sore, but he got it looking better.



Diver Shay



Its hard work.



We enjoyed music at the Tiki Hut several Saturday nights. A boat was at the dock that had lots of speakers, guitars, banjos and a keyboard. There were several very talented people playing and singing. Margaret finally talked Ken into playing and we were all amazed. He sounded fantastic. Margaret even talked him into playing a song he had started writing for her called “Until Then” and it was absolutely beautiful. It sounded like a symphony was playing. There was lots of clapping and cheering when he finished. He is hesitant to play because he doesn’t want people to think he is “showing off” so it was difficult to get him to keep playing, but we finally persuaded him to keep playing for the rest of the time. We could all tell that he loved music and had lots of natural talent, since he can’t read music. He plays by watching the other people. Margaret said this was the man she fell in love with 30 years ago. Not the boater, mechanic, and fixer-upper he had been for the past year. We had a repeat performance the next weekend and it was just as good. Everyone that was there realized what a special time it was.

We’ve been to several “meet and greets” at our marina and others. “Meet and greets” are get-togethers were you bring a covered dish to share and get to know others with similar interest. Of course the similar interest at these was boats and living on them. We met lots of new and some old faces and made lots of new friends. We love to go to these and talk to other boaters. We always get lots of ideas and suggestions on how to do things and where to travel to next.

We’ve been to several boats for “sundowners” which is a time for drinks and appetizers and of course sharing boating tales. We have lots of great people traveling through our marina…some are new and some are people we have met before, but it’s always great to get together. We had a huge one on our boat with 22 people. We had 11 dinghies tied around our boat. Everyone said we got the award for having the most people at a time. We enjoyed having everyone over and had a ton of food. Shay told everyone we were having heavy snackies. Everyone asked what that meant and he told them he wanted the good stuff so when he ate, he would be full and not need to eat dinner. We were stuffed and no one wanted anything to eat.



Mary from Dark Star and Judy from Folly



Lots of dinghies mean lots of friends onboard.

 On Valentine’s Day, we and Ken and Margaret went to Key West. We all went to the Customs Office to get our LBO or Local Boaters Option. It’s a “fast pass” to return to the US from another country. Usually, you have to report to customs within a certain time when reentering the US. Most boaters that have this can call the Customs office and check in and that’s it. We don’t know when we will use it, but Margaret and Ken have plans to leave sometime around the first of March.


Relaxing in the dink

I had trouble getting fingerprinted and the guy asked me what size jumpsuit I wanted. I told him orange was not my color and he needed to find me one in coral. We were all expecting a complicated process but it was just fingerprints and pictures. We had already filled out a form online and it was no big deal.

Next we toured Key West with Ken’s mother and her friend who had stopped at Key West on a cruise. No, we didn’t just happen to run into them, we had planned to meet them. We rented a six person electric car, better know a golf cart and took off. We went to the “southernmost point in the continental US” but decided we didn’t want to stand in line for an hour to have our picture made in front of it. Then we rode to the beach and walked down the pier. We took the car back and ate lunch at a local place. We all had a great meal and even enjoyed free Key Lime Pie. We were all stuffed on the ride back home. We had another great day in the Keys.

Marathon water taxi

That same week we all went to the boat show in Miami. The traffic was terrible. It took us 4 hours to go from Marathon to the boat show. But we had a great time after we got there. We saw lots of new stuff, heard some interesting seminars, and toured a beautiful catamaran. Another busy day.

Later that same week, we drove back to Miami to pickup Shay’s mother, Jean and his aunt Shelby. They are staying for a week and riding back with us when we go sign papers on the house. YES, we finally sold the house. It has been on the market for almost 2 years and we are SO happy that it sold. Shay keeps telling me it’s not sold until we get the money, but I keep telling people.



Somber Light

We had a great time with our visitors. We took them for dingy rides, we went to the beach, and we went shopping, and just enjoyed ourselves. We it wasn’t all great. Shelby had an allergic reaction to some medicine and broke out in a rash on her back, arms, legs and lips. It was bad, but we gave her Benadryl, cortisone lotion, Sarna lotion, and she stopped taking the medicine and it started getting better. Then her mother was admitted to the hospital back home. It’s bad enough when a loved one is sick but it’s terrible when you’re not there. We told her we would take her to Miami so she could fly back but her mother improved quickly and Shelby stayed with us.



Shay and his mom. Can you tell they are related?

  

Shelby, Shay's aunt and Jean, his mother.

Captain Shay on the bow.

Dolphin chasing a fish beside our boat

A beautiful Marathon sunset

And another

And another

Ha-ha, I fooled you. This a beaufitul rainbow.

When we left a 2:00 am coming home it was 75 degrees and had been 85 the day before. When we got to Mount Airy, it was 50 degrees, Shay and I had on shorts and sandal and we almost froze. It’s been a while since we’ve been in temperatures that low.

We started packing up our stuff that day. We had cleaned and gotten rid of a lot of stuff, but we still had a ton to get rid of. We signed the papers and sold the house on Wednesday. We started calling people and telling them we were “houseless, not homeless”. Sorry Ethan, but don't worry, we will still have Christmas, just not at Shay Street.

We had bad news Thursday morning. Shay’s mother was attached by dogs and had to have surgery that day. She has a bad bite on her leg and it will be months before she will recover. She spent one night in the hospital and went home the next day.

We were busy--- getting everything out of the house and trying to help with Shay’s mom as much as we could. We got everything out of the house Tuesday morning, I went to visit my dad and Shay visited a friend and spent time with his mom. We were thinking about staying a few more days and realized that Lauren and her friend, Kenzie would be in Miami on Thursday at 6:30 waiting for us to pick them up for spring break. They were flying down and then driving our car back to North Carolina.

We thought about letting them get a hotel room in Miami for a day but decided we’d go ahead and leave and start the drive back to Marathon.  We had already put everything in the car --- the trunk was full and the backseat was full to the windows. We barely had room to see out the back. We planned to drive for a while and then stop for the night. Shay started out driving, then me, then him, then me, and he finished the trip. We left Mount Airy at 6:00 pm and got the Marathon at 10:00 am the next morning. We made several trips to the boat and started putting stuff away. We had to at least get enough stuff out to be able to get the girls and their stuff in tomorrow.

We finished unloading the car early the next morning and left to pick up Lauren and Kenzie at the airport in Miami. We got back to the boat around midnight and loaded the dinghy with stuff and people and got the girls settled in. Kenzie had never been on the boat so she got a tour.

The girls came down to visit for spring break. We celebrated Lauren’s birthday while she was here so she got a “spoon ring” and other stuff from us and cards with money from Shay’s mom and my dad. She really liked the ring, it was one she had picked out for Christmas and said she wondered what happened to it. I can’t believe she is 21 years old. It seems like only yesterday I was holding her in the hospital.

The girls went to the beach, went bicycle riding around the island, sunbathed on the boat, took dingy rides, went swimming in the beautiful water, and visited Key West. Lauren had never been to Key West and Kenzie was about 10 when she went so it was a new experience for both of them. We walked the streets shopping for t-shirts, went to Mallory to watch the sunset, watched the street entertainers and dinner and had Key Lime pie for dessert. The Key West trip was a real adventure. There are some really really weird people there.

Kenzie in the water



Mermaid Lauren

Girls swimming

Sunning on the front deck

The girls doing KP duty on the cockpit. When we have a lot of dishes, we wash them in saltwater and rinse in fresh.

The girls at going "out on the town"

Sunset at the 7 Mile Bridge

Dad, mom and babe



Yes, that is a tree growing in the middle of the old 7 Mile Bridge

Lauren goes "way south" in Key West



We can see Cuba from here! No, girls you can not see Cuba! Yes we can!!

"G.R.I.T.S.---Girls Raised In The South"-- Well, Kenzie is a transplant for college, but she's coming around.



They can make a rusty old pier look good. Can't they?




Lauren, do you realize he has a long neck and can snap off your nose in a second? Yes, so get the picture so I can "quickly and quietly" move away.



Let's share ice cream



Run faster Kenzie! I know you can pass her!

A museum in Key West had "action sculptures" and the girls liked posing with the characters.

Kenzie and Hammerhead




Lauren and Hammerhead. Have you noticed, these girls will pose with anything that will hold still. A bird, a shark, a pier, a bouy. They are not picky.



You never know what you'll see on Duval Street

Street entertainer at Mallory Square

Waiting for the famous Key West sunset

And here it is!

Aren't they beaufitul?

Relaxing in the hammock

 

Aren't they pretty!





Kenzie, don't kick her off the bow!

No, Lauren don't push her off either!

Now they are happy!

Beautiful girls on beautiful Sombero Beach

Can you believe how beautiful this place is?

Is this an alien?

No, just the girls snorkeling.

Manatees at the dock in Boot Key Harbor.

Drinking water from a hose

The girls left on Friday to drive to Kenzie’s sisters to spend a few nights and visit. I was sad to see them leave and missed them as soon as they left. We are carless again, since the girls drove our car home. Lauren called Sunday and said she had a bump up on the way home. Several cars quickly stopped and Lauren tried to avoid the one in front of her, by going off the road, but nicked his bumper anyway. Shay talked to the man and they exchanged info. The guy is supposed to call us later and let us know how much damage there is. Lauren took pictures and she sent them to us. We were glad that no one was hurt.

She called me at 8:30 pm to let me know they were at school and to tell me she was sick. They stopped in Savannah to eat lunch and she started throwing up soon after. She said they had to keep pulling over along the side of the road and at service stations since she was sick. She said the trip was miserable and she was exhausted and ready for bed. Sorry you are sick babe.

We are planning to leave and head back to North Carolina soon. We had originally planned to take a slow trip north and spend some time exploring old and new stops along the way. Since Shay’s mother is having surgery next month, we have decided to move a little faster and get back to Mount Airy.

The weather has been windy for the past 3 weeks, so as soon as it settles down we will leave. There are a lot of boats waiting so it will be a busy time. Shay spent several days in the water cleaning the bottom of the boat. The bottom of the boat is in bad shape again. He’s not sure if it’s the paint we used in the fall, the nutrient rich water in the Keys, or a combination.

We did several dinghy rides to tell other boaters good-bye. Several dinghies went to Lazy Days to have a “We’re getting out of here” get together. We had a great time visiting and telling lies. We stocked up on provisions even though we will be able to get groceries along the way.

We have had a great winter in Marathon. The weather has been great. We have had several family members come and visit. We have made lots of new friends. We have seen lots of old friends. We have seen dolphins and manatees. Oh that reminds me------ the day that the time changed, they had an “alternate” cruiser’s net. The cruiser’s net is a time the boaters get on the VHF radio and socialize. We met new boaters to the area, tell those leaving goodbye, ask questions and get help with problems and have a swap meet. Well, since a lot of boaters forgot to change their clocks and would be on an hour late, we had an alternate cruiser’s net and acted even sillier than usual. So… Shay called in as “Bubba on Slow Cooker” and said he had snagged a baby manatee and wanted some recipes. Well of course everyone was shocked until they realized he was kidding and then others joined in… one guy wanted to “drippings” to use to grease his engine. There’s no telling how much money is spent in Florida and other states to protect manatees. They have a zillion signs telling you to go slow, they have lots of wildlife officers riding around in boats fusing at you if you go fast in your dinghy, and have lots of pamphlets printed up telling us to protect them. And these animals are not even native to the area; they brought them in to get rid of some of the grasses. And now they are sacred or something. Anyway…