Our sail from Long Key to Marathon was a gray sloppy choppy zigzag through the crab pots. The wind was 20 to 25 NE but the sea had built up and was running from the East. When we passed one of the bridges or causeways the slog would pass through and make it a washing machine. It was only a 20 NM run but we were glad when it ended.
The weather forecast for tonight (Sunday) is wild and snaps from 20/25 South to 25/35 North. This is weather not conducive to anchoring amongst the many here at Marathon. We are 31st on the waiting list for a mooring ball at Boot Key. So, we have a week here at the Marathon marina. We are docked on the new concrete floating piers. This is a new replacement section following devastation from Irma.
Marathon is a full service marina with a lift, storage, pool, RV park, fuel, laundry, Tiki huts, WiFi, and friendly staff. We asked Mangos to meet us at the marina to help with landing Fracas. Luckily the wind was blocked and falling a bit. She slipped into her slip like I knew what she was doing, no cursing no skid marks of any kind…
We are on the new dock serviced by the new gas dock facility with washrooms and showers and is first class. Everything is clean and tidy. The marina is located near the 7 mile bridge out at the west end of Marathon. Marathon has about everything you might need shopping wise. They have Publix, Win Dixie, Home Depot, We$t Marine, Liquor Stores and Restaurants/Bars. You may have to walk. The City Marina and mooring field is down the road and we had stuff and parts waiting for us there.
Mangos are healthy and watch what they eat and drink. We watch what we eat, but it might only be a glance as it passes from the fork into our eager yaps… “It’s only 1.8 miles, we did it in 36 minutes” K Mango said. I was quickly doing the math, in order to get back to the boat that would actually be 3.6 miles. Seventy two minutes for the Marathoning Mangos. I told ML “No matter how long it takes us to walk to the City Marina we will tell them we did it in 35 minutes.
The reality, it took us a bit longer than the advertised 36 minutes. But it was a nice walk and we saw shops, stores, restaurants and locals that we remembered from past visits to Marathon. There is also a lot of traffic on U.S. 1. There is only one or two stop lights along the 5 or 6 mile Marathon strip. The road side is littered with the bones of people who waited to cross elsewhere.
We had to get our names on the waiting list for a mooring ball. It costs a lot to stay at this marina and we would like to spend our money on other stuff, so a mooring ball is more economical and far more secure and comforting than on an anchor in their crowded lagoon.
I picked up one of our packages, the other Amazon had shipped from Tampa to Marathon via Philadelphia. Now we had to do the 1.8 walk back to the boat. We planned to go to Sunset Grill for happy hour and dinner and Mangos were to meet us at our boat at 4:00. That meant we had to scamper so as not to be passed by Mangos. We pulled it off and arrived at our boat at 3:45 time for quick showers and a slathering of prescription strength Voltaren.
Guess what, the walk to Sunset Grill is .9 miles. Thats 1.8 miles round trip. So, total for the day 5.4 miles… Jeezuz Tabernac…