March 6, 2014 Marathon

A sunny morning again, admittedly like all the other warm sunny mornings here.  We met up with Dave an Joanne at Rob and Sue's boat.  Dave and Joanne came across the bay (about 5 miles) so we could all take a ride around Boot Key‎ and Vaca Key on Rob and Sue's Grady White, a 28 foot runabout.

We left the Marathon Marina dock and went out the ocean side, around Boot Key and into Key Colony Beach to a place called Sparky's.  It's a popular local bar with pretty decent food.

We left there and went back out to the ocean and then back into the Vaca cut area to view some interesting homes (sorry no pictures).   Rob then headed out Vaca cut into the Gulf for the return trip.  The cut here has currents in the 5-10 knot range.  Almost like white water.

Brent, Sue, Dave, Joanne, Mary at Burdines

Brent and Susan wandered over and Mary bought a painting Susan did of Mary Ann, the precocious parrot from Destin.  They are planning on leaving Friday so we decided to go out to eat at Burdines, another Marathon local favorite. Dave and Joanne were around the corner looking at a condo and joined us for a good time.  But we were facing away from the approaching weather, a large amount of rain and didn't notice it until it almost over us.

Since we had taken Brent and Susan in our dinghy, we high-tailed it out of the bar and into the dinghy while Dave and Joanne headed for their car.  We prtty much went blasting through the anchorage at 35 mph trying to beat the storm.  And made it!  Brent and Susan stayed awhile before deciding to head back to their boat during a lull.  They left but started heading in the wrong direction for several precious minutes in the light rain before making an abrupt 180 and started heading the right direction to their boat.

The next morning I took the dinghy to shore and took 3 mile walk in search of ice cube trays since our ice maker remains dead.  In the past I dissed ice makers as an unnecessary luxury. Now that I have one that refuses to make ice any longer we miss it.  So in an effort to avoid paying for frozen water I went and bought 6 ice cube trays for $3.  We'll be be making ice the old fashion way out in the big chest freezer until we figure out whether to dump the ice maker, buy a new one, or get the old fixed.  And several months ago I spent a whole morning replacing a component on the darn thing .

I returned and we headed over to Brent and Sue's to bid them farewell only they decided not to leave today (strong winds).

We had made plans to have lunch with Bob and Carole (Southern Cross) a few days earlier.
Bob and Carole own an island packet 38 sailboat decided they want a trawler.  They drove up to Punta Gorda to look at one.  And it seems they actually put in an offer.  Die hard sailors jumping into the stink potters realm.

So we left Brent and Susan's boat and motored on to Castaways to meet Bob and Carole who had just returned a rental car.  We spent 2 hours eating, drinking and talking abut boats.  Mary was thrilled.  And we have plans to join Rob and Sue for a sunset/dinner cruise tonight too.  All this eating!  I think we're unconsciously adding pounds to help us endure the Wisconsin temperatures we must face in about 3 weeks.

  

Entrance to Noname Pub

We're bidding Dave and Joanne farewell tonight at no-name key with Rob and Sue.  We altered the diner cruise plans due to these persistent high winds.   Instead of the planned sunset cruise we ended up piling into Rob's truck and driving to NoName Key‎ and the Noname Pub.  The place is literally in the middle of no where and is very popular.  There are small,  almost tame deer that roam around the island.  They hardly balk with people standing within a few feet of them..

Rob, Mary, Sue, Joanne, Dave at Noname Pub

We had to wait outside for about 20 minutes until a table cleared so we shared a picture of beer.  Once inside we met a few young gentleman who were on a motorboating tour from Miami.  They had stopped at 15 bars since 8:30 in the morning riding in a big stretch limo. And as part of the journey they were attempting to obtain as many points as possible by motorboating at each bar.   Dave had left to go to the bathroom missed the whole thing!  

Whats motorboating you may be asking.  I'll refrain from providing a thorough explanation and instead point you here.  But it was a hilarious time.

Dave and Joanne are leaving tomorrow but have secured a condo for next March here at the marina where Rob and Sue keep there boat .  We're going to be signing up for a slip there as well.  Looks to be a riotous March 2015!

We'll be heading over to the Marathon Seafood Festival tomorrow at the park right next to the dinghy dock.  But of course a few things had to go wrong.  Tonight the inverter kicked off with a CFI fault so all the AC powered stuff went dark.  Easy fix with a flashlight.  But that event also reset the router so I had to re-configure that too.  But this time I saved the configuration file!

Alas, today it's only in the low 70's.  And I stowed all my jackets and gloves.  {{ shiver }}.