4-3-2016 - Marathon in the FL Keys

It’s April. The days are longer, and much, much warmer. We are in Boot Key Harbor, in Marathon, in the FL Keys. Marathon is in the “Middle Keys”, just east of the Seven Mile Bridge, sort of in the middle of the whole Keys chain. We arrived here in late March.

To get to Boot Key Harbor, we passed under the Seven Mile Bridge.
In front of the car bridge is the abandoned train bridge, with a gap for boats to pass through.

The City Marina at Boot Key Harbor works differently from all of the other marinas. Of course it does, this is the Keys, and everything is different from what we expected. Our plan this year was to experience the Keys. I looked forward to it, even though others had spoken disparagingly of the FL Keys, calling it a floating trailer park, “Redneck Riviera”, “Hippie Harbor”, and other colorful monikers.  We thought, if nothing else, we’d enjoy diving in clear, warm water, maybe fishing, and seeing some nice sunsets. We also heard that the weather can be rough on the “outside” of the chain, and shallow on the inside, so getting here could be a problem. But Summer Wind is a “Goldilocks” sail boat. With a 5 foot draft we were able to take the inside route without too much trouble.

Boat flying a white "Peace Sign" flag,
  next to a boat with a blue "Conch Republic" flag,
in Boot Key Harbor

The Harbor, on one of the very windy days

Captain Jack, one of many permanent residents
 at Boot Key Harbor Marina

One of two sets of dinghy docks at Boot Key Harbor.
Soft and Hard dinghies are segregated.

There are 226 single-boat (no rafting) mooring balls at the Boot Key Harbor City Marina, and they are usually full all winter. The marina maintains a waiting list, and boaters must show up in person to be added to the waiting list. No calling for reservations. So you show up, anchor, dinghy in, sign up and wait to be called. Anchored boats are allowed to use all of the facilities of the marina for just slightly less than the cost for mooring, and many boaters choose to remain anchored indefinitely. The monthly rate for anchoring is $75 less than on a mooring, weekly is $25 less, and daily is the same.

We arrived late in the afternoon on Thursday, March 24. On Friday morning, we listened to the Cruiser’s Net (9 AM, CH 68), and then we dinghied to the office to check in, put our name on the waiting list, and pick up our welcome package.  The welcome package comes in a gold colored hot/cold bag, imprinted with the names of local business sponsors. This bag is a magic ticket that carries things, but also identifies us as cruisers from the City Marina. Those folks at the bus stop that looked like homeless people? Cruisers. They had the gold bag, so we had a nice conversation. When we started to walk the mile back from the Publix one very hot day, laden with groceries, another cruiser couple stopped in a car and offered us an air conditioned ride, because they spotted our gold bag. Magic!

A few hours after putting our names on the waiting list, which had about a dozen others already on it, we got a call that a mooring was available for us. It must have been the magic gold bag.

When we first got here we thought there wasn’t much to do. We were told, “Water and drinking, that’s it.” And we’re not big drinkers, so that doesn’t leave much. We had visited many wonderful friends on the east and west coasts, and really enjoyed their company. Suddenly we were in a place where we didn’t know anyone! But that is gradually changing.

• The Cruiser’s Net helps us keep track of who has arrived and who is planning to leave, and now we recognize the names of the boats who are frequent Net contributors.
• On Fridays, we walk 1 mile in the mid-day heat to the Hurricane Grill, where we have lunch with other members of Seven Seas Cruising Association, “SSCA”, who are staying at the City Marina or other places nearby. They are a friendly bunch, and we have lively conversations. And of course, making contacts is useful. We or they often plan to visit near one another’s “Home Port”, and now we have someone with local knowledge.

 "Just look for the big blue fish" as they said on the cruisers  net.
The Hurricane Grill is located immediately after Tilden's Scuba Center.

SSCA Luncheon every Friday at the Hurricane Grill (Week 1)

SSCA Luncheon every Friday at the Hurricane Grill (Week 2)

• Last week I organized a get together for “Women Who Sail” members and their families. WWS is a closed, women only, Facebook group, and it’s worldwide. Women post questions or comments, which often generates lively, and always polite, supportive and respectful conversation. It can be hard to know where the other women are – next door, or in the Pacific Ocean? – unless they have some FB place identification setting turned on. And Facebook uses people’s names, whereas the Cruiser’s Net and other boat communications (radio, for example) always use boat names, so some translating from human name to boat name is needed. As a result, WWS often have a get together while staying in large marinas so they can meet face to face. It’s fun, and even though we might not see one another again, we know we have a way to stay in touch.

Women Who Sail Rendezvous at the Tiki Hut, Boot Key Harbor

DH's ("Dear Husbands") of some of the WWS, under the Tiki Hut
 at the WWS Rendezvous

And we are learning about what’s available at the marina:

• Office and community room. One enormous room, with wifi, work tables, mail delivery area, TV’s in 3-wall sitting areas, a bulletin board area, ATM and marina notices area, and of course, a huge bring/take bookshelf wall.

Bookshelf wall in the community room

Marina Office, within the community room

TV viewing areas on the far wall of the community room

• Tiki Hut – a gathering area with cement picnic tables and a thatched roof.
• Bathrooms and showers. There are a lot of them, and each one is a nice big, clean-enough room, with toilet, sink and shower, and plenty of hooks. The problem is that they are not air conditioned, so they can be very hot and stuffy.
• Laundry Room. Big, clean enough, with a water fountain. We haven’t used it for laundry yet, just for the fountain.
• Project work rooms. This is a great marina for DIY projects. These rooms are for people sewing, painting, doing carpentry, fixing things, working on dinghies, and more. Available for projects, they only pay a small about, around $5, to be able to leave work materials there overnight. And projects must be finished within a week. (Ha! Good luck with that.) Work rooms also have cubbies (small and large storage units) that rent out by the month, but are never available. One recently became available and it was a big deal on the morning Net.
• Community garden – my favorite spot. Some wonderful people (Jim and crew) created raised gardens and planted seeds, and they weed, water and maintain them.  People like us are encouraged to take stuff. We’ve been able to pick many types of lettuce (arugula and other “spring mix” ingredients), cherry tomatoes and lots of herbs (basil, parsley, rosemary, mint, oregano, dill). There are other plants on the way, but not ready yet – squash, green beans, beets, and others. Too bad we won’t be here long enough to see those. There are also some flowers for decoration, and aloe for sunburns.

Community Garden at Boot Key Harbor

The large numbered garden stones are recycled weights
from old crab or lobster traps, found abandoned in the mangroves 

Jim, in center, "weeding the beer plants".
Jim created the garden, with the help of several other cruisers.

Salads made with garden arugula, garden cherry tomatoes and garden dill

• Dumpsters – one for regular trash and one for co-mingled recycling. Re-usable stuff is left outside or on top. We swapped out our grill-cover handle for an unbroken one, and picked up a pair of jeans and a warm hat. They’ll be usable after going through the laundry again, in case it’s cold on our way home.
• The "Tree of Knowledge" a gathering, sitting and pontificating area, with comfortable seating, in the shade.

The "Tree of Knowledge"

Another meeting of the minds, under the "Tree of Knowledge"

• Recycling area for used oil, gasoline, diesel, antifreeze, filters and batteries.
• Next door to the marina is a community sports park, with areas for tennis, shuffleboard, bocci, basketball, baseball and more picnic table areas. And a skate park, although it probably has never been used by the cruisers.

Community Sports Park

• Nearby is Sombrero Beach, which is open to the public.

What else have we done? 

·         We found the library, and we’ve gone out for lunch. Happy hour is very big here, and at least one restaurant, Florida Keys Steak and Lobster House, across from the Marina, has Happy Hour starting at 11 AM, with $6 food items that are very good.

·         We went out to dinner with our friend Bob Goodwin, from Shoreline Sailing Club, (SSC) in CT. He moved to Marathon a few years ago, and it was fun to see him and catch up.

Bob, Sandy and Chuck at the Sunset Grill

·         We took the bus to Key West, twice. The bus costs $4 per person ($2 for 60+), and takes 1 ½ - 2 hours. The bus itself is an adventure, with other cruisers and lively locals, including Pirate Dan (a costumed street entertainer), and the lady in white who told me that she’s the daughter of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. 

On  the morning bus to Key West, with Pirate Dan

·         Key West was wonderful. I didn’t expect to like it. I thought it would be raunchy like New Orleans, but it isn’t. It’s got nice art galleries, shopping and great restaurants. We went to the Ocean Festival on one of the days, which had sea creatures in touch tanks, live music and artists, and we had some memorable breakfasts, snacks and lunches. And of course we visited Mallory Square at sunset, with the circus performers and vendors. We only saw Key West in the daytime, so we could catch the bus home. Maybe it’s different at night.

Approaching Mallory Square in Key West, for the daily sunset celebration

·         We dinghied to a local Marathon restaurant, Burdines, to hear “Ty and Cory” play on Wednesday night. Ty is the marina manager, and Cory is an accomplished singer/songwriter who once ran the pump-out boat. Everywhere we go, we are served by people who live at the marina or once worked there. Ty and Cory were great, and the food was good, too. We won a CD, for being old. We knew that the song they played came from the movie “Easy Rider” in 1967. We love Cory’s CD.

Ty and Cory, at Burdines every Wednesday night

·         We still haven’t gone diving! Or fishing. And lobster season has come and gone. We missed it again. Oh well. We’re still hoping to do some diving and fishing before we leave. Or next time. We decided we like the Keys. We'll be back.

We haven’t decided what’s next for this trip. Either we’ll see a little more of the Keys, or start heading north. We’ll be back in CT for the summer, most likely sometime in June. Or sooner if it keeps warming up down here.

Sunset at Boot Key Harbor