Log 99; day 272; Feb. 17, 2009; Marathon, FL

This is how foggy it was when we got out in the Key West channel

Here is our view as we enter the Marathon channel

In order to bow in to our slip (so we could get the dinghy off) I had to rig up a ladder to get on and off the boat. Not pretty...but it works just fine

That's me in the dingy in the channel just behind our boat

This is our slip in Sombrero Resort and Marina

This is the view when we were "stern in"

This is our view now...much better

Log 99
Day 272
Tuesday, February 17, 2009

6:30 AM EST
Location: Sombrero Resort and Marina, Marathon, FL.
Weather: 64 and a little windy...forecasted to be 72 and sunny today

Just barely light out this morning in Marathon. I’m sitting on the back deck, and I need to have the lights on to see the key board of the computer. Looking out the front of the boat I can see the palm trees blowing pretty good, and the winds have switched over night, and are now coming out of the North Northeast. But I can also see the eastern sky is crystal clear, so when the sun comes up it should be beautiful.

We had a nice run from Key West to Marathon. It was very foggy in the Key West harbor, so we took our time getting going. Before leaving, we had to put the dinghy back on the boat (we could not have it on during our stay in Key West due to the docking situation) and also take on some fuel. So after putting in 200 gallons ($2.24 @ gallon) and securing the dinghy we headed out at 9:30 with bright and sunny skies. But, the sun did not last long...by the time we were in the ship channel just at the edge of the Key West harbor, it was very foggy, with probably less than 1/4 mile visibility. No problem though, we have great radar and chart plotter, so it was just a matter of watching the instruments closely.

It’s about 50 miles East Northeast, from Key West to Marathon (most of us think that the keys run north and south, but they really run east and west...especially the lower keys) and we were in and out of fog most of the trip. At one point it would be bright and sunny, and 2 miles later it was very foggy. There was also a small swell out of the NE, so much of the way we went about 18 mph, to avoid the side to side rocking the swells would cause. We ran about 1 to 2 miles off shore in what they call Hawks Channel, which runs inside a reef from Key West almost all the way to Miami. We reached the mouth of the Marathon harbor about 1 pm, and after weaving our way through the channel, we arrived at Sombrero at about 1:30.

Once getting to our slip we hurried as fast as possible to get tied up, and hooked up to electricity, so I could start recording the Daytona 500. While I did take some time to clean the salt off the back of the boat, I did not do a good job, because I was anxious to start watching the race.

Monday...Sombrero Resort and Marina is not the nicest resort you have ever been to...but also not bad. The location is just about as far back in the Harbor as you can go, and on a fairly narrow mangrove channel. The bad news is we, again, have a slip that is designed for us to dock “stern in” and that’s an issue getting the dinghy on and off. Because we were in a hurry to dock on Sunday, we did stern in, but on Monday we turned the boat around so we had a better view of the water, and we could easily drop the dinghy in the water and head out as often as we wanted. This caused somewhat of an issue getting on and off the boat (you can see in the picture how I rigged a ladder to do this) but we both felt the hassle was worth the benefit of using the dinghy. Also, on Monday, we did a bit of exploring. I took the bike and rode as far (in both directions) as I felt we would normally ride, to see what was within a reasonable distance from the boat. Good news...there is a Boaters World; post office; Publix; Win Dixie; Kmart; liquor store; and a small boat marina that services Mercury engines. Also, there is a dockside bar and restaurant about a 5 minute walk from here. Not Key West...but not bad. Deb also did laundry and I did a more complete job of washing the boat, as well as getting the first layer of crud off the bottom of the dinghy. To do it right, will take a lot more work.

Today...we are talking about more exploring. Maybe by bike and by dinghy. Most of the major boat chores we did yesterday, so we only have some more organizing to do today. The winds are also supposed to pick up later in the week, so it’s a good time to get out and check things out. Inside chores can wait for a bad weather day.

I’ll keep you posted.

Bob