Waiting for a mooring in Boot Key Harbour

Monday 1st March
A day for teak scraping and cleaning up the cockpit punctuated by helping a new arrival in the anchorage tie their boat to the mangroves. Unfortunately, in my attempt to climb further into the mangroves I end up hanging from the outer mangroves with my legs in the water. Fortunately there is no photographic record of this ignominious performance. I managed to somehow drag myself up to a safer perch and retrieve the dinghy which had shot away as I pushed up from it. Good job I'd had the presence of mind to tie it up first. That broke the ice with Jeff and Jane Landry aboard Deja Vu who gave us a bottle of wine for my troubles.

Tuesday 2nd March
In the middle of the night we awake to the sound of some body's anchor line being winched in and the sound is very close. When I shot up on deck I found our new neighbours fending our bow off the side of their boat. I thought at first we'd dragged but it turns out although our stern was tied off to shore, the wind was right behind us and pushing us forward while they were being dragged the opposite way by the current. So I just shortened our stern line to shore and we all went back to bed.

Another front was forecast for the day's entertainment so we waited for the big event which turned out to be a complete fizzle as the predicted squalls bypassed Marathon.

We had Jeff and Jane over for happy hour aboard Incognita.

They're Texans who've done many years of cruising around the Bahamas and Caribbean aboard their Morgan but now here they are aboard their current boat, a Prout catamaran.

Picture courtesy of Deja Vu

Wednesday 3rd March
It felt like a cold was coming on the day before and now it's here in spades. Deja Vu supply me with some cold medicine but I still feel horrible and Carol has to take Buddy ashore on her own - not something she does at all, in fact she's only ever taken the dinghy on her own once before.

After the front passed we have strong north-westerly winds blowing cold air at us all day and night.

Thursday 4th March
More of the same clear cool windy weather and the cold virus continues its steady progress.

Friday 5th March
Better weather is being forecast for the next week and we are hopeful this may mean people leave and we get a mooring, meanwhile here we are at anchor amongst the catamarans.

Picture courtesy of Deja Vu

Saturday 6th March
The cold symptoms are starting to recede but the temperature isn't really improving any yet.

Sunday 7th March
On the way over with Buddy in the morning we stopped by Dick and Ann (Grey Hound) and they took these picture of us to demonstrate to friends up north that Florida winters are not all sun and sand.

Picture courtesy of Grey Hound

They're good friends with Larry and Carol who we know from way back in Gananoque and are sending these pics to show them what they're missing!

Picture courtesy of Grey Hound

We both read the book "Shutter Island" a year or so back and thought it was a real zinger of a story so we've been eagerly awaiting the movie ever since we saw it first advertised last year. Marathon has a great little movie theatre which we discovered for the first time when we got a ride with Steve and Cathy (Kit) - they have a car - to go see it. The theatre is a bit like the one in Elizabeth City, NC, where there's regular seating plus table and chairs. No hot food like Elizabeth City but you can have beer and wine - very civilised.

We ended the day taking Buddy for a walk on the beach.

Word is we're 2nd on the list to get a mooring can - maybe tomorrow?

Monday 8th March
While we're onshore at the Marina with Buddy for his morning run we get the call. After nearly two weeks we finally get a mooring. So we sign up for month as we intend to rent a car and visit Carol's relatives and leave the boat for a few days.

We say goodbye to the anchorage and Deja Vu.

Picture courtesy of Deja Vu

So it's into the mooring field of around 260 boats we go after filling up with water.


Carol took a walk to Publix (I'm not quite up to that yet) while I stay in the marina and download the Oscars.

Tuesday 9th March
After breakfast it's back over to the marina to do laundry, finish downloading the Oscars and updating the blog. On the way in though we meet a poor fellow trying to paddle his dinghy with non-operational outboard back to his boat. So we gave him a tow home. Good deed for the day.