Marathon--Boot Key Harbor

Rows and rows of boats

Marathon is a town located on Vaca Key in the middle of the chain of Florida Keys (east side of the Seven Mile Bridge, which we passed under).  It is one of three main mecca's for Caribbean cruising boaters.....the other two being Georgetown in the Exumas, (Bahamas) and Grenada.  Anyway,  it is a floating city of  226 mooring balls, several marina's and room for anchorages too....the mooring field is successfully managed and operated by the City of Marathon.   The rate for a ball is $300/month or $118/week or $22/day.

Boot Key Harbor on Marathon

When we arrived almost 2 weeks ago (after the overnight passage from Pine Island), we anchored outside the harbor, showered, jumped into our dinghy and raced to the front desk to put our names on the waiting list......it is a no reservations---first come first serve operation and we were #23.   Ok, no problem, the balls free up when the weather gets good and folks move on.....some stay here for the winter and some year around.   Next morning, we upped anchor and motored into this harbor thru the little slit (lower left side of pic) of the now permanently open bridge....watch out for the overhead power lines, they're 65' at a high tide.....we were ok with a 48' mast.

Taos refugees

We dropped anchor and called our Taos friends, Kim and Kevin, who live on their own boat, Sea Fever, in Burdine's marina.  They escaped Taos back in November, picked up a couple of bartending jobs and are living the salty life this winter instead of shoveling snow.

We have had a blast with them exploring the mangroves, sand bars.....and local bars.  The time is flying by.

KnK with dogs, Peedee & Kiwi in the mangroves

The Marathon City Marina has pretty good facilities for it's inhabitants.  There is a large lobby hall/office with library, a couple of TV's, wifi & 120v electricity, laundry,  bathroom facilities and general mail delivery.

This is also where we see the live aboard families homeschooling their kids.





 A posting board lets cruisers post notices of departures in case others want to join along.  Every morning at 9am on VHF channel 68 is the harbor Cruiser's Net with announcements, questions and a harbor      flea market of items for sale or wanted.

We spent about 6 nights anchored waiting for the rowdy winds to die down (our new Rocna anchor held true blue for us)  and for other boats to leave---most heading to the Bahamas.  We had slowly moved up the waiting list for a mooring ball,  and finally on Friday the 13th our number came up......we got U2....a Bono ball!  And thank goodness for the faithful PumpOut poop boats that come around----best $5 we spent yet.  But now that we're one of 226 assigned boats, it's included with the fee.

Where did we park?

Soft & hard dinghy segregation 

Some other local restaurant and bar dinghy docks are quite inconvenient....especially when the tide is out and the fishing is easy  

There are two large floating dinghy docks to accommodate

our main means of transportation.

Our dinghy, Speedy,  giving a pelican prime restaurant seating

Some dinghies need love too

Bob Narley's taxi service....yeah mon we're in the islands

From the dinghy docks, the grocery store, Home Depot and Kmart are all about a mile down the main road Highway 1.  We walk to these stores and then call the local taxi dude to bring us back with all the heavy supplies and liquids.

Here's a photo gallery of some the best named boats in the harbor.

                Floating breakfast joint----Harbor Hillbillies.  We are loving the diversity of people and ideas here.....frequently reminds of us Taos and it's characters.

A house with a Yamaha motor

One day we dropped the mooring lines and headed outta the harbor 

5 miles south to Sombrero Key where there's an old light house with a reef and great snorkeling.  

Ohhh--- that turquoise water was cool and refreshing. We also took the opportunity to scrub the bottom of Fiesta......she giggled with pleasure.  

The temperatures are finally what we expected in Florida mid 80's....lows mid 70's.  The warm sunshine and freedom from the crowded harbor gave Tim the opportunity for a cool down salt water shower.

We got Otto (our auto helm) fixed  and ordered up a new 345 watt solar panel that will be attached on top of our davits.  This should....fingers crossed.....take care of our voltage needs.....on a sunny day anyway.  Otherwise we have to run our Yanmar engine and high output alternator one hour twice a day. ...makes it noisy and hotter down below.

All in all our experience here has been wonderful.....and we can see returning back to this harbor again.

In the meantime, we have plans to cast off sometime this week and head down the keys towards Key West....and further on to the Marquesas and Dry Tortugas where we're hoping to meet up with ye old dock maties from Regatta Point Marina in Palmetto.  So till then------fare thee well!