Day 143 – 167
On our first full day at Marlin Bay Resort and Marina, on 02/01/21, the weather forecast proved to be 100% accurate when the lower keys got slammed with a powerful cold-front that came through with a vengeance. Thank goodness we’d done our crossing from Key West to Marathon several days before! Winds were blasting our marina from the northwest at speeds anywhere from 18 mph to almost 30. Being located out in MBRM’s less-protected “outer basin”, Legacy spent several days heeling away from her dock finger in all that wind. Steve had secured the boat with extra lines which was a good thing, because those amazing winds were unrelenting for the next several days and nights. Even though the sun shined brightly, the winds were biting. We changed out of shorts and t-shirts and back into long pants and long-sleeves during this period. Legacy spent most of her time straining against her lines and bucking the winds like a rodeo horse trying to break out of its stall. Which gets pretty OLD when you’re trying to live and move around inside that rodeo horse…! As I mentioned before, the docks at Marlin Bay are all fixed and made of heavy concrete. In the outer basin, the docks extend out over the water for quite some distance with NO handrails on either side of them. 😐 Navigating those docks after dark, after several adult beverages, or in gale-force winds was tricky, to say the least. At one point on the first day of the “big blow”, I attempted to walk up to the marina restrooms, and felt the wind trying to blow my legs right out from under me, which could’ve resulted in a broken bone when I hit that concrete, or a dunk in the drink when I toppled off the 5-foot high docks right into the water. Add in the fact that I have NO natural sense of balance, and that was just an accident waiting to happen. Therefore, I stayed mainly on the boat during the worst days of wind. (I’ve already had my dunk into the drink, and do not wish to repeat it! Even though I did have to admit the waters at Marlin Bay looked much prettier, clearer and more inviting than those at C-Quarters in Carrabelle, I still didn’t wish to partake of them in that way.) In addition to the constant rocking and bucking of the boat, we got to listen to incessant lapping of the wind-driven waves against Legacy’s hull, which proved particularly annoying at night when trying to sleep. UGH! We were more than ready when the blow finally calmed down after a few days.
Just like on our very first night at MBRM (aka Marlin Bay Resort & Marina), we enjoyed multiple late lunches/early dinners next door at Keys Fisheries. Once, instead of walking the three easy blocks over from our slip, we rode Digney over to their dinghy dock where we could tie-up and eat at a table conveniently located right next to where our dinghy was tied, which I enjoyed (being paranoid about theft), but will say the gymnastics required for me to deboard and reboard the dinghy at this particular dock were challenging. (I can’t actually prove it, but I’m pretty sure Steve secretly enjoys all the gyrations I have to go through with this new lifestyle of ours…) Keys Fisheries is very popular with locals and tourists alike, and we received many recommendations to eat there. They also have a fresh fish market that is restocked daily by area fishing boats. Several of our dock-mates purchased seafood from them and prepared it aboard their boats, or at one of MBRM’s many complementary gas grills around the grounds. Right next door to – and in conjunction with – Keys Fisheries is Clawsa Blanca, an upstairs, open air restaurant touted as the home of the $3 Stone Crab claw during happy hour. We enjoyed their services and fun atmosphere several times as well.
Despite the fact that there were so many wonderful eateries within walking distance of our marina, there were other necessities like Publix, Walgreens and Home Depot, that were not nearly so walkable. Publix and Walgreen’s were a mile’s walk one way, and Home Depot was half a mile one way. MBRM does not provide any courtesy vehicles or hourly shuttle (like we’d enjoyed at SIMV – man, did I miss that shuttle!), so we had to walk where we were going, ride bicycles (which we do not have), or pay for an Uber ride. The expense of Uber rides adds up quickly – especially when you’re only traveling a couple of miles per trip. Our personal shuttle service in the Spykmans’ vehicle was often available, but not always, and besides we didn’t want to take advantage of our wonderful friends. SO… we made several, long, hot walks down the sidewalks right along super-busy Highway A1A (aka Overseas Highway). Some of you readers are probably saying, “Oh, BOO HOO” that we had to walk in blazing sun and high humidity, considering the horrendous winter conditions being experienced in much of the US during the month of February, but I can assure you those walks were not the most pleasant part of being on Marathon. We could’ve rented a car (and maybe we should have), but that gets very expensive, too. So, we just powered through and got ample exercise during this time. On one of these trips, I went alone to Walgreen’s and Home Depot. Steve was okay with me walking alone, as long as I texted him when I arrived at my destination or departed from it. I purchased more than planned at Walgreen’s, so had a relatively heavy bag to carry back with me, then proceeded to stop at Home Depot and purchase a lot more stuff, some being new boat plants and their respective potting soil and pots. Since we didn’t have a collapsible rolling cart onboard, like so many of our counterparts, I was then forced to call an Uber to haul me and my purchases the half-mile back to the marina. D’OH! Steve finally relented and ordered us a collapsible rolling cart for our boat, so I could have it to use for my next shopping excursion, rather than paying for an Uber ride. 😊 (Hopefully that cart won’t ultimately wind up becoming a white elephant just taking up space down in our forward bilge…)
One of the highlights of being on Marathon was our proximity to the Boot Key Harbor Cruiser’s Net, which is held every single morning at 9:00 am, 365 days a year, on marine radio Channel 68. I had first learned of this net from our friends, Carol and Russ Burchfield on Spirit, who had rented a mooring ball in Boot Key Harbor for several weeks late last year on their way over to the Bahamas. Boot Key Harbor is a large mooring field, located on the south side of Marathon Key, and is home to an average of 200 live-aboard transients or full-time boaters who all stay in close contact with each other and help-out whenever needed. It’s like a “floating neighborhood” that benefits its residents and surrounding areas of Marathon. The first morning we tuned in, we discovered a plethora of local entertainment. In fact, Steve quickly became addicted to the morning net, and insisted upon listening to it daily, even though a good part of it was unintelligible to us, because many of the users were either located too far from MBRM or were using handsets with weaker radio signals, so their contributions reached our boat only as loud, annoying static. We did manage to glean quite a bit of information, as well as some chuckles, from this “Mayberry RFD” of marine radio shows. Different, previously assigned boat owners would moderate the Net each day. They used a closely-followed agenda to share Net rules, new arrivals, upcoming departures, announcements of the day, scheduled events, and people needing help. Next came Buy, Sell, Trade, Giveaway, Lost & Found, where neighbors could either obtain needed items, or get rid of anything unnecessarily taking up space on their boat. One boat was selling a barely-used jib sail for $100 OBO, and another one was selling a brand new Johnson outboard motor for $400, etc. If someone needed to borrow a specific tool for working on their boat, they first announced it on the Net, in hopes of locating a neighbor who would loan them said tool. People needing help was often an interesting topic, as we heard one Net listener asking for assistance from several people to come over to his mooring to help him bail water out of his rapidly-sinking dinghy, that was getting swamped in the large waves from the blow. Several people responded they would be there, and the dinghy was rescued by the next day. The people in this community are nothing if not big-hearted and civil-minded. Another one announced she had found a lost kayak paddle floating near her boat. She asked that the owner call her on her cell phone to describe it, so they could get it back. Several people asked for local doctor or dental recommendations and then proceeded to describe their very personal health problems in great detail for all to hear! 😐 Some of the descriptions were WAY too personal, in my opinion, but everyone else seemed to readily accept them. Over the course of our month in Marathon, we began to figure out that some of the participants obviously lived for the daily opportunity to share their voices over the air waves, because you could count on them to speak up at least once every single morning. The rules are for the speaker to announce his/her boat name and then wait to be recognized by the moderator. Once that occurs, the particular boat can finish its message. This process is to avoid people walking all over each other on the radio. Steve and I would take bets on which boats we would hear from each morning. I won’t mention any boat names here, but there were about three that came on the air very frequently with random statements that either would – but often wouldn’t – pertain to the subject at hand. You could hear in the moderator’s responses which boats were known to be frequent callers. It was both amazing and hilarious the things these frequent callers would say just to have their voices heard. The different subjects would always veer off course, topic-wise, so the moderator often had to break in and steer the conversation back to the particular topic at hand. Toward the end of the show each day was Trivia, where callers would try to “stump the harbor” with all different types of questions on absolutely ANY subject. The rule was for someone to come up with the answer, WITHOUT first researching it online, but I’m pretty sure people were doing that anyway. One frequent caller was so anxious to speak, she accidentally gave away the answer to her trivia question before she even asked it! But then, went right ahead and asked it anyway, as if she hadn’t just shared the answer. As you can imagine, such an informal forum can rapidly descend into arguments over the radio – especially politically-based subjects. One day we got to listen to a lively, over-the-air argument about when and where COVID masks should or shouldn’t be worn. Within moments, the participants slid right down that slippery slope into bedlam, causing the moderator to sternly admonish those who were speaking out of turn and disrespectfully. Steve said he couldn’t believe people were seriously and publicly saying what they were saying, when I pointed out that WE were intentionally sitting and listening to it, so what did that make us? 😊 Still, all-in-all, it was obvious that this daily Net is a helpful tool for anyone listening to it, whether a particular item is needed, or simply for comedy relief.
Much to my delight, and something I actually learned about on the Net, were the free yoga sessions offered right across A1A from our marina, in Marathon Park’s amphitheater. I’d been missing my yoga sessions since we left Grand Rivers, KY, last summer. Marathon’s sessions are offered by volunteer instructors who either live in Marathon, or come through the area for extended stays on their boats. There were 1-hour sessions every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning at 10:30 am. All one had to do was bring their own yoga mat and a bottle of water to each outdoor session. (Have I mentioned that I love outdoor yoga?) Needless to say, Steve wasn’t interested, but many other men did participate in the much-needed opportunities to stretch and strengthen. I tried to attend every session I could, by either walking the quarter-mile over, or catching a ride with the Spykmans, who almost always drove their car over, which saved me from possibly being run-down by traffic in the middle of the busy Overseas Highway. Once again, thank goodness for the Spykmans! Diane and Ray Parrish often joined us as well, and others rode their bicycles from different parts of Marathon or came over in their dinghies from the Boot Key Harbor area. We had several different instructors, all with different styles and exercise speeds. We had Sandy, on Coastal Karma, whose routines centered around different breathing techniques, and Nicole, on Lunacy, whose style was a bit slower and very satisfying. Nicole cracked us up when she referred to our gluteus maximus region as “the abundance”. When she needed us to be positioned directly on our sit bones, she would instruct us to “move the abundance” by pulling our butt-cheeks out from under us. 😊 From the first time we heard her use that term, we all started referring to our fannies as “the abundance” for the rest of the month. The sessions were sometimes intimate, with only a handful of participants, and others were really large, with maybe 30 or 40 participants. Just as back in Grand Rivers, I welcomed the sessions as chances to get off the boat, socialize, and try to be a little bit healthier.
One evening, early in the month, I decided to organize a dinner over on the other side of Marathon, beside Boot Key Harbor, at a popular marina/restaurant called Burdine’s (pronounced burd-eye-ns). Burdine’s had been highly recommended to me by our buddy, Wayne Gaudet, who’d told me we “could not miss it” while in Marathon. Dave and Val Mamo, on Sea Major, joined us and the Spykmans one evening and brought their new friends, Diane and Ray Parrish on Radian Journey, another couple with which we instantly clicked and became fast friends during the month of February. We ate outside on one of the restaurant’s decks overlooking the water and the sunset and had a terrific time. Rhonda had asked Rick to please order her a rum punch, and I had asked Steve to please get me a margarita. When the guys returned to our table, they were carrying their two beers and two small, plastic cups of what was obviously just white wine! Turns out Burdine’s only serves beer and house wine. Alrighty-then, we’ll take it!
Speaking of rum punches, Steve found a wonderful recipe for those online, and started a tradition of making us each a rum punch every evening to enjoy while watching the beautiful sunsets. They were colorful and delicious (the drinks, not the sunsets…), and required the tiny counter-tops in our galley to resemble a small bar, but oh well! On some evenings, when there was a good breeze and not too warm, we carried our drinks out to our cockpit where we could enjoy the sunsets from our back benches and covered awning. I got some stunning sunset pics from back there, if I do say so myself.
Other times, we poured our rum punches into our Yeti cups (per MBRM rules) and discreetly carried them over to the marina’s community sunset-watching wall, where MBRM provides very nice, sturdy wood chairs and tables for patrons to utilize while ogling the sunsets. Because Legacy was slipped WAY out in the outer basin, this adventure required us to traipse all the way around the marina, but was always worth it. The Spykmans and the Parrishes often joined us there. And an added bonus to this group sunset-watching was witnessing Captain Crusty avidly blow on his conch shell each evening, distinctly marking the moment the entire sun slipped just below the horizon. Others would try to challenge Crusty with their own conch shells, but he just could not be beat. Captain Crusty’s real name is Terry, and he and his wife, Dorothy, are living aboard their boat, Magic, which was slipped right there at the sunset viewing wall, so all they had to do was step out of their boat’s cockpit and across the sidewalk to the sunset-viewing chairs. Nice! Also slipped in that prime location were Pam and Mike Sammons on their boat, Sea C Rider, which is where we got to meet them, too.
One afternoon, we heard a commotion on the docks outside our boat, so went out to investigate. A small crowd had gathered on one of the docks and was staring down into the water below. Much to our delight, there was a HUGE manatee floating below the boats looking for a hand-out of fresh water from a wayward water hose. It is said that giving the manatees fresh water is illegal, but it appears most people aren’t real worried about that, because the manatees obviously enjoy the fresh water so very much, it’s impossible to resist giving them a drink when they swim by. Sure enough, one of the men on the dock pulled out a hose and sprayed that glorious fresh water down toward the manatee. Almost immediately, the manatee rolled its huge body over onto its back, where it floated with its large mouth protruding up from the water’s surface to catch the spray of cascading deliciousness. Priceless! That manatee lavished right there in reverie for several long minutes until people began to feel guilty and the man put the hose away. We’ve heard two different reasons why giving the manatees fresh water while they’re in saltwater is illegal. One is that giving them their beloved freshwater encourages them to become too comfortable with boats (and their dangerously sharp propellers). Another reason is that giving them fresh water while in salt water regions discourages them from migrating north to central Florida’s fresh waters for mating season every year. I’m sure this has been widely researched, but I find it difficult to believe the manatees could so easily shirk their age-old, deeply-engrained, and natural instinct to breed just because they received a few drinks of fresh water while down in the Keys, but perhaps I’m too cynical…
Early in the month, the Spykmans drove their car down to Stock Island (about 45 miles) to pick-up the McKinleys and bring them back to Marlin Bay to spend a day and a night. (The Spykmans and the McKinleys had actually first met each other a year ago at MBRM, so it was like old home week for them to return.) That afternoon, we all hung out in Marlin Bay’s gorgeous pool enjoying tropical beverages, and it felt just like being back at SIMV in January. It was great to see them again! After the pool, we all showered and walked over to Clawsa Blanca for a fun happy hour. The temps and breezes were just perfect for an exceptionally fun evening together. As usual, we shared libations, more boat stories and many laughs. The original plan had been for the Spykmans to shuttle the McKinleys back to SIMV that same night, but plans changed for the McKinleys to just stay in R&R’s guest quarters for the night and be driven back to SIMV the following morning. That way, we could all enjoy some of Rick’s homemade Brandy Alexanders up in R&R’s flybridge and watch that night’s sunset, without anyone having to be a designated driver. We talked and laughed some more, with the conversation turning to scuba-diving, which Steve and I love, Scott McKinley has done, and Rick Spykman had been wanting to try. To Rick’s good fortune, a friend had actually given him a full set of dive gear (including an air cylinder) to take with him on their boat. Rick hoped to take lessons while in the Keys and utilize that free dive equipment in the process. Steve and I cautioned him about having all of his gear checked-over and serviced before trying to use it, as it could be faulty from age and lack of use, so he asked Steve to look over what he had and do a sort of inventory of it for him before he took it in to be serviced. Evidently, our long conversation about diving sparked a flame in Rick, because the very next day he took his gear to one of the dive operations on Marathon to have it checked, and wound up signing himself up for lessons and diver certification! Before we knew it, he’d completed his online learning, taken his allotted lessons, and become certified within less than two weeks. Rhonda says she has no interest in learning to scuba dive as she is not a strong swimmer, and jokes that she “has to hold her nose just to jump into the pool”. 😊
Another evening, the Spykmans again played shuttle service to a bunch of us by carrying us over to Dockside, an open-air restaurant on Boot Key Harbor, for happy hour and live music. In attendance were the Linns, the Spykmans, the Parrishes, and Pam Sammons, as her husband Mike was away on a job. Not long after we found ourselves a high table with stools, we were joined by Bob and Sue Keehne, aboard Osimo, who were friends of Pam Sammons, and had their boat slipped within walking distance of Dockside. It was soon discovered that the Keehnes are from almost the same area in Michigan that the Spykmans are from and that Bob and Rick shared memories of some of the same childhood haunts. Small world! The food at Dockside was delicious (they served the BEST “crackers” with their smoked fish dip, that Rhonda and I decided were actually deep-fried naan – YUMMY!) A fun, local band was playing on stage, the warm evening breezes were blowing, and the sun was setting over Boot Key Harbor. What more could we have asked for?
In continuation of my onboard charity crocheting projects, I finally completed crocheting a very large winter scarf, using double-yarn, with long white fringing on the ends. My intent was to make it warm and comforting enough to be used by someone forced to live outside in the cold weather, but instead it finished out to be a scarf that might be best used by Andre the Giant. D’OH! I stuffed it into a mailing envelope and addressed it to the charity association recommended on the Warm Up America! Facebook page. I then proceeded to walk all the way to the USPS in Marathon, carrying that package so I could send it on its way. Even though it was just a wad of yarn, that package became very cumbersome by the time I walked it all the way down A1A for three quarters of a mile. A very bright sun and extra high humidity levels only made that journey even more ‘pleasant’… Still, once I arrived back at our boat afterward, I felt like I’d done a good deed and tried to imagine the looks on the recipients’ faces when they unfolded that humongous scarf… 😊
Some of our old sailing friends from Lake Pickwick, Phillip and Anna Rochat, purchased a new-to-them Offshore 54 live-aboard boat in Sarasota and were cruising it around the southern tip of Florida and back up to their current home north of Fort Lauderdale. We’ve kept in touch with them through the years and knew they were searching for a new boat on which to live and travel, once Phillip retires. We’ve been hopeful we would cross paths with them again in this new boating lifestyle of ours. Anna and I communicated via FB messenger that they would be coming through the Keys soon on their new boat, and hoped to meet up with us while we were at MBRM in Marathon. Sure enough, on 2/16/21, the Rochats dropped anchor not too far northeast of Marlin Bay to spend the night and dinghy over to see us! Onboard with them for the trip were their friends, Jeanine and Mike Serrino, so we got to meet them as well. The four rode their dinghy over to Keys Fisheries/Clawsa Blanca, where we walked over to meet them, as there was no easy way for them to dinghy directly over to our boat and deboard. We all climbed up top at Clawsa Blanca to enjoy happy hour and each other’s company. Right before sunset, the staff at Clawsa Blanca always brings around trays of small “sunset shots” for all its guests to enjoy right when the sun goes down. None of us were sure what was in those shots, but they tasted kind of like some sort of pineapple schnapps to me. YUM! One of the bartenders loudly recited a poem about the sunset, and signaled for all of us to simultaneously down our sunset shots, which we dutifully did. 😊 After several hours of fun and stories, the Rochats and the Serrinos boarded their dingy to head back out to their “mother ship”, while we walked back to MBRM, as it was almost dark. The plan was for them to dinghy back over the next morning to view our boat, and possibly dinghy us back with them to view their boat, but the weather changed and made them decide they’d best pull anchor and continue heading northeast toward home. We had already planned to see the Rochats again when we stopped at Lighthouse Landing Marina up in Fort Lauderdale in March, thankfully.
On Sunday, February 14th, Steve and I celebrated our 33rd wedding anniversary with our new friends, Rhonda and Rick Spykman, at Island Fish Company. They provided our transportation to and from the restaurant and presented us with a special anniversary card. We had a fun and memorable anniversary.
A special amenity at Marlin Bay Resort and Marina is their incredibly, luxurious pool. Blessed with perfect weather almost every day, we spent many a lazy afternoon lounging around that pool with friends, freshly-made Pina Coladas in hand. I’ve noticed – now that we’re retired Boomers – just how differently our age group behaves in a swimming pool. Oh, sure – there’s always those one or two zealous health nuts that are swimming laps and making the rest of us look bad, but by in large, we Boomers seem to just stand around in chest-deep water in a circle, talking to each other. We might move our arms around a little bit, but other than that we just stand there! 😊 Gone are the days of my youth when being in a swimming pool meant constant activity, spent mostly underwater. Or climbing countless ladders of varying heights up to diving boards, only to dive or cannonball from repeatedly, in an attempt to thoroughly drench our playmates. Now we just lounge around like beached whales on holiday. My favorite thing about this particular pool is its beach-like, wade-in entrance on one side. That little feature makes it possible for us women with balance challenges to gracefully wade in and out without making too much of a scene or undue commotion. I did try using the pool’s stairs a couple of times and almost drowned myself when I stepped out into water I thought was only 3 feet deep, but was actually 5 feet deep! D’OH! As I’ve mentioned before, GRACE is not my middle name.
One evening, the Spykmans had a previous commitment up in Key Largo to attend a fancy Tierra boat show with Dave and Val Mamo, so while the cats were away, us mice (the Linns and Parrishes) walked over to Uppercrust Pizza to play. The pizza was refreshingly delicious and the company even better. Ray and Diane once lived down in Venezuela, so Diane was thrilled to learn the manager of this restaurant was Venezuelan. We learned that, along with her other talents, Diane speaks Spanish. She was particularly delighted to find that Uppercrust Pizza sells Polar beer from Venezuela, which the Parrishes had learned to love many decades earlier during their time abroad. She and Ray each ordered a Polar beer with dinner, for old time’s sake. Steve tried one of them, but Polar is a Pilsner and Steve is a dyed-in-the-wool IPA man, so there you go. During dinner we learned about the Parrish’s shared boating and sailing proficiency, their past jobs, their children and grandchildren. They are both from Deland, in east Florida. Their stories of the St. John’s River have convinced Steve that Legacy needs to cruise along that river later this spring. After dinner, the Parrishes joined us aboard Legacy for some cocktails and got to see for themselves that, even though their boat and Legacy are both Ocean Alexander 51s, they could not be laid-out more differently.
Besides walking over to enjoy several delicious lunches at Florida Keys Steak & Lobster House, we also experienced a very fun happy hour there one evening with the Spykmans, the Parrishes, and Dave Mamo. One of the cool things about this restaurant’s happy hour is that it goes from 11:30 am to 6:00 pm, which is my kind of happy hour! The only downside to that is the best happy hour appetizers get ordered up early in the day so they’re not available for us normal-time happy hour patrons. One of them being FKS&L’s highly-touted Prime Rib Kabobs, which we had to miss out on that evening.
The evening of 02/20/21, we all made our ways (us being chauffeured by the Spykmans, of course) several blocks down to Banana Bay Marina, where they were holding their annual Banana Bay Sunset Celebration in honor of all AGLCA (America’s Great Loop Cruisers Association) members in the area. It was an extra-breezy day, but we all managed to power through the wind and have a great time. Much to our surprise – during COVID – the celebration featured a potluck for food. Each participant was asked to bring a “COVID-friendly” appetizer to place on the large buffet table. Everyone was careful and sensible around other people, and it was rejuvenating to see people simply enjoying life, rather than letting fear rule their lives. Several representatives of Curtis Stokes Yacht Brokerage were on hand to speak with any prospective new boat owners, or those who might wish to trade up, including the broker who’d helped us to purchase our boat, Michael Martin. It was good to see, talk and laugh with him again. He told us that 2020 had turned out to be one of Curtis Stokes’ biggest years, as many people have decided that boating is a perfect way to social-distance. Who would’ve thought? After the celebration, the gang returned to MBRM and gathered up in R&R’s flybridge again for sunset and “impromptu dessert”, where Diane regaled us with hilarious stories of her east-Florida ancestors. Lots of laughter!
Later in February, the gang rode over to Castaway on Marathon in the Spykman carriage for a particularly fun happy hour. Rick and Rhonda had previous experience with Castaway, and assured us all a good time. In addition to many scrumptious appetizers and dishes, Castaway also offers an impressive sushi menu. And their happy hour wine pours are substantial, so we women might’ve slightly over-indulged that evening… 😊 I thoroughly enjoyed a dish called Rangoon Roll, that was basically a crab Rangoon deep-fried in Tempura batter. SO GOOD! Afterward, we all gathered on the Parrishes boat, Radian Journey, for cocktails and to watch the movie Down Parascope, starring Kelsey Grammar. Radian Journey boasts a large TV with awesome surround sound system onboard – one the Parrishes told us came with the boat. SWEET!
For Tuesday evening, 02/23/21, Diane invited us all over to Radian Journey for a scrumptious Italian pot-luck dinner. The Parrishes provided home-made rolls from scratch, the Spykmans brought an incredible Italian salad, and the Linns contributed an extra-cheesy lasagna. We had such a great time eating, laughing, telling boat stories, and ended the evening by watching the movie, My Cousin Vinny, on Radian Journey’s “boat theater”. I should note that boarding and deboarding Radian Journey was a challenge every single time, especially for yours truly. The prevailing winds seemed to perpetually keep Radian Journey’s hull pushed as far out from the dock finger as possible, so that someone would invariably have to pull hard on the lines to move the boat close enough to safely climb onto or off of. 😐 I somehow always managed to succeed (with lots of help), but don’t mind saying that adventure brought back memories of C-Quarters Marina in Carrabelle every time – LOL!
My skipper had been watching for optimum departure weather for several weeks, and determined that Thursday’s, 02/25/21, weather looked the best for us to cross from Marathon over to our planned anchorage on the south side of the Keys, near Tavernier Key. I found this way too soon, as I’d hoped to stay at MBRM through 03/01/21, but weather forecasts for that period looked inhospitable for cruising, so we had to leave early. Whenever I whined too much about having to leave our friends so soon, Steve would look at me and ask me if I wanted a repeat of our Day and Night from Hell (12/30/20), which immediately quieted me down. I did NOT want that!
On Wednesday morning, 02/24/21, I boarded the Spykmans’ carriage one last time to ride to my last, bittersweet yoga session with Rhonda and the Parrishes. I said goodbye to my beloved yoga instructor, Nicole, and we both pledged to try to run into each other again, somewhere out on the water. The Spykmans and the Parrishes had other plans for the night of 02/24/21, so we spent a quiet night alone on Legacy, which was just as well, since I was feeling so melancholy about leaving MBRM, especially since our friends weren’t leaving until the following week. Both couples did make special trips down to Legacy to wish us fair winds and following seas, with promises to meet back up with us again later on the Loop, and to keep up with each other in the meantime.
Our (almost) month on Marathon had been markedly different from our previous month on Key West. MBRM is only about 1/16th the size of SIMV, which has its downsides and its upsides. With all the hustle and bustle of activities and comings and goings on SIMV, came lots of noise, people, and commotion. With the small size and more remote location of MBRM, came peace and quiet, relaxation and beauty. SIMV had the non-stop complimentary shuttle, which I adored, where MBRM did not. HOWEVER, we were fortunate enough to have our own private shuttle many times, thanks to the Spykmans, so we really lucked-out there. Even though Marathon is far more laid-back than Stock Island, those of us who’d been to both commented on how overly-regimented the rules at MBRM are, compared to those at SIMV. The Florida Keys are supposed to be RELAXED, not regimented. We never knew for sure what the reasoning behind all the rules was, but we got the vague impression that us transient boaters are secondary compared to the land-based, condominium guests, which may stem from the fact that MBRM still has its roots in being MBYC (Marlin Bay Yacht Club) which did not deal with transient boaters – only full-time, permanent yachts who owned their own slips. Regardless, MBRM is a lovely, luxurious place to spend a month of one’s life!
Position: N 24° 43.015, W 81° 05.438
Distance traveled: 45 SM
Total distance traveled: 2444 SM
Total marina nights: 146
Total nights at anchor: 20
Locks today: 0
Locks Total: 27