Listening to the morning Marathon radio show just for boats in harbor on boat radio channel we heard a couple from Chattanooga wanted to meet us because they heard us introduce ourselves on the radio. The radio program asked for newcomers to the Marathon mooring area and Steve introduced us on the radio. The belonged to the Sailing club that my bosses girlfriend belongs to. WOW what a coincidence it is a small world. We really enjoyed our visit to their boat and meeting some more people from TN.

Still in Marathon enjoying it here. This is a nice place. We went to see our friends and ask if we could leave our dinghy with them and they said no problem. We told them we were going to walk around Marathon and our friends said we could ride their folding bikes around town. We loved it, we rode to the turtle hospital and around town for a while. Marathon is a quiet small town with a lot of friendly people. We thoroughly enjoyed the turtle museum with all the turtles injured by boats, people throwing trash into the water, and fishing hooks. I did not realize that a turtle cannot dive back into the water if they are injured. Most injuries cause micro bubbles which cause the turtle to float. Turtles have to be able to dive down to feed, and if they cant they just digest what is on the top of the water which causes even more problems for the turtles. Steve and i see so many of them on the ocean. These creatures have been around for so many years and it only takes a few bad actions on our part to almost make the leatherback extinct . this turtle gets up to 2000 pounds and is huge. It is not coming back in numbers due to line fishing. It gets caught on the hooks and drowns. Just an example of how we change the course of nature with our greed. We loved it and had a ball riding those bikes around town. We took the bikes back locked them up at our friends boat and took off into the sunset back to the boat. Another great day for us!

Made it into Marathon got some gas at gas station. Funny i got onto the dock to help untie the boat and due to the wind and current boat left me and Steve had to turn around and pick me up while the guys at the dock said well is he leaving you, they said i could stay there if i wanted if he was not coming back, lol. We went into the mooring field and anchored out behind it due to the fact that all the mooring balls were taken and we put ourselves on the waiting list with 12 people in front of us. I got my exercise putting out anchor and pulling up anchor until we found a place to anchor for the night. We took our dinghy into the marina to just explore. To use the dingy dock was 22.50 per day and so was a mooring ball. To use the washers and dryers or showers was 22.50 per day. No matter what the city of Marathon gets your money. We found out that that was to keep out the trash and only keep the better class of people at the marina. A lot of people take advantage of the cheaper prices and they were coming in stealing and trashing up the place so i see the reasoning. It still stinks though. We found out our friends Rik and Nancy were docked not far from us in the channel at Sombrero marina. I was so excited we went to see them in our dinghy and Sadie (the dog) was so excited to see us she just wiggled and wiggled. Not to mention we were glad to see Rik and Nance too! They were glad to see us we had not seen them since Clearwater and they were happy to see us safe. They took us on a tour of Marathon we ate at a wonderful little second story restaurant by the water. They served huge hamburgers and baskets of fries that fed four of us. 🙂

Off to Marathon from Key West. We left before daylight and made it out into the channel and in to the ocean. It is a beautiful day for sailing and I am not up to par today.The waves are minimal and the sea is so pretty. I slept most of the trip, giving Steve a break from sailing when he needed it made lunch for Steve. We made it into Marathon and found a place to anchor and i dropped the anchor 2x due to getting too close to our neighbor. This place looks nice there are over a hundred sailboats I can see.! We anchored sat on the boat for a while to make sure we are anchored cooked dinner and sat on deck some more to enjoy the stars. Stay .tuned fans more of our adventure coming up

Good morning everyone I am headed to the Key West To meet our friends Ed and Claudia for breakfast. They are bringing a couple of friends with them who have a 43 foot boat for sale. We dinghied over to the Turtle Kraal and went to the resturaunt next door and ate breakfast. Then we went to the Publix to get some groceries with Ed and Claudia. Back to the boat and put up supplies getting ready to take off in the AM. We are going to Rodriguez key to anchor out then on to Miami.

Good morning from Key West, the most laid back  place in the states. We headed into town for some great breakfast and to explore key west. Steve took a shower while I waited at the dock stores area and watched 4-6 foot fish swimming around the boats. Daniel called and I talked to him for a long time, he is getting his kitchen fixed. I went into this little deli that served breakfast and had an English muffin and diet coke. Steve came in and got him something to ded explored a little and headed back to boat. By the way if something is misspelled it is because this stupid I ipad won’t let me put courser where I want it!!! To correct it. Spent the rest of the day chilling out on boat.

Yeah! Arrived in Key West around 2 PM and found a place to anchor the boat. We decided to anchor out due to the distance from the harbor to the mooring field. If you anchor in a mooring field there is a nightly charge and you have use of all the facilities, if you anchor the marina will let you use the facilities for a charge (laundromat, showers/restrooms, etc). We anchored out closer to the city unloaded the dink and got the boat cleaned up and headed into town to the city laundromat. I got the clothes started and Steve went to get some things we needed for the boat. It was in one of the older building in Key West and had high ceilings and plenty of folding tables to work with. The prices were good and i had a ton of laundry to wash. Blankets, linens, clothes, towels, and whatever else got dirty and wet. You would have thought i was moving in. 🙂 Steve had to go back to get the other bag of clothes out of the dinghy/dink. While i put in a wash Steve suggested we get something to eat, so we went to Turtle Kraal where our dinghy was tied up. (the dock costs 6 dollars and there were at least 30 dinghy”s tied up there). We sat down and the waiter gently put his hands on our shoulders and pushed us back inour chairs and said, “RELAX”. We were so tense from no rest and dodging crab pods we did not realize how tight we were. We leaned back and enjoyed our meal, headed back to laundromat and I finished clothes while Steve shopped. After we got back and got our clothes put up we got dressed and headed to see city. There are so many neat places in Key West but we stopped at one that had great music and a lot of people. Don’t even remember the head. Back to the dinghy and our ride through the huge yachts. There is one on the other side of the channel that has a helicopter on it. Back top sleep for one more day in key west.

Good morning everyone Steve and i got up and went to the island for some exercise and to watch the water ferry taxi come in from Key West. It travels really fast, what takes it 3 hours takes us 8-10 hours. I ran back down the 150 year old stairs to the moat area that meets the beach where there are hundreds of shells. I am looking for the shell that mom had when i was a kid that you hold up to your ear to hear the ocean! I found 3 little ones but no  big one yet. I have one small one Claudia gave to me when we went snorkeling. We checked the weather and looks like we can leave tomorrow or Tues. Whoo Hoo Back to civilization.

Got up this AM made pancakes for breakfast and continued to make bracelets from paracord. Steve ate and enjoyed the sunshine on the deck.I finished one bracelet and got ready for lunch we are going to eat on the ferry again today. We thought it would be as good as yesterday but it was not. We had a pitiful small frozen pizza and a hot dog and the crew was not as friendly today. So we went back to the boat for some real food. Took a wonderful nap got up Steve played guitar and i worked on the bracelets. I went back to the island for the exercise while Steve fished.

CAPTAINS LOG: Using raw chicken for bait works well here.