Marathon, FL - Still In the Keys

Greetings from Marathon!

Paul and I arrived to Marathon on Tuesday after a wonderful evening at anchor at Tarpon Belly Key.  We left Key West on Monday morning after 3 great nights there.  We continue Eastward and will reconnect with the InterCoastal Waterway in Miami and work our way back to Stuart. 

Leaving Key West, we thought this cruise ship was hilarious - check out the lips on the bow!

Tarpon Belly Key (where we spent Monday night) was a beautiful anchorage described in the photos below:

Tarpon Belly Key is uninhabited and privately owned.  At one point, someone wanted to start a shrimp farm here and dug this canal and tried to block it off - but unfortunately with the tide changes, predators kept getting in the canal and therefore shrimp did not grow successfully.  The canal is a beautiful blue and a local woman who was also there told us that this water is really cold in the summer and therefore quite refreshing since the water overall is quite warm in the summertime.

Here is a better picture of the canal wall - now disassembled.

The island is very peaceful and the water is a beautiful clear blue.

Paul went back to Master Plan to get our beach chairs so this is him returning - with MP anchored in the background.

Sigh . . .  it just doesn't get better than this.  You did have to wear sandals / flip flops because the beach was all coral and very rough - not sandy at all - but other than that, it was pristine and lovely.

There were four other boats that pulled up to the beach while we were there . . .  one very nice couple had two Bassett Hounds - Jack and Jill.  Jill (pictured here) was adorable and very friendly!

All the other boats left and only Master Plan's dinghy remains - it was a peaceful and relaxing afternoon.

Above the anchorage is a US Air Force top secret blimp station nicknamed "Fat Albert" which is very easily spotted from our anchorage.  It is a tethered blimp that holds sophisticated radar systems to help keeps tabs on Cuba and other secret missions - to include drug running.  Very interesting indeed.

Another beautiful sunset.  Tarpon Belly Key is surrounded mostly by uninhabited small keys so at night it got very dark and all the stars were out and beautiful - including a crescent moon and a few planets.

We woke up on Tuesday morning and noticed that the tide was much lower than when we arrived, so we hung out for a few hours while it came back up.  Cudjoe Channel - which we took to get by Tarpon Belly Key is pretty deep, but there are some tricky spots, so we wanted to have a few extra feet of water as a cushion.  We departed just before noon and started our way East to Marathon - about 30 miles.

We arrived to Marathon just before 4pm - just after working our way through the famous "Seven Mile Bridge"- you may recognize it from the movie True Lies.   We were in the Bay side and worked our way South to the Ocean Side - as soon as you pass through, we turned East and right into Marathon.



My Sweet Captain at the helm with the beautiful blue water of the Keys in the background.



About to head under the new Seven Mile Bridge  . . . .



They removed a section of the old seven mile bridge (on the left) and the new one (pictured above) provides plenty of clearance.  The old seven mile bridge started as one of Flagler's railroads.



You can see both bridges behind us - pretty cool.

 We made a slip reservation at a marina so we could "feed the bitch," fill the water tank, do some laundry, and get some groceries.  Right after we docked - three manatees were just behind our stern.  They were looking for fresh water, but it is illegal to do this.  This is how manatees get hurt because they approach boats thinking they will get water and you will see in the photos below that their backs have been injured by boats running over them - very sad.  There are lots of laws to protect manatees here . . .


Two manatees here - a Mom and baby (on the left) - check out how scratched up her back is.




Another angle - I made sure to include my foot and some of the swim platform to give you an idea of just how close they were to the boat.



The third manatee raises his head for a breath - check out the snout!

We weren't giving them any water, so off they went - all three of them - really an amazing site to see them so close.



Sunset over Marathon Marina as we are settling in.

So we woke up Wednesday morning and decided to move to the Mooring Field here in Marathon.  The wind was blowing pretty briskly from the North and not a great day to travel far.  The marina we were in only had the slip for one night - which was fine - Paul called over to the City Marina and we were able to get on a mooring.  The Marathon mooring field is huge - there are about 200 moorings, only about 20 of which are large enough for boats over 40' - so we were lucky to get one.  The marina is really well run here with lots of great facilities for boaters - we were very happy to move over here.  We plan to stay here until Saturday.

As a side note - our slip at the marina was in a very weird and tricky spot and I have to give Paul a huge amount of credit for backing out of this slip and going through a very narrow fairway to get out of the marina - beautifully done! 

So I unofficially declared yesterday the day of the bike!  Once we settled into the mooring and got a lay of the land, we brought our bikes over to land via the dinghy and did some exploring of Marathon.  Overall, Route 1 is the main drag and quite commercial - lots of strip malls and nothing terribly scenic unless you veer off the main path and find some cool little areas on the water.  We found a great local spot for lunch and then headed out to the Seven Mile bridge - the old bridge has a beautiful two mile stretch that you can ride out to - but only bikes and pedestrians are allowed on this area so it was a fabulous ride!



Loading the bikes on the dinghy - actually much easier than we thought it would be - once we got to shore, there were plenty of bike racks we could store them at - so it was really convenient.



A nice man offered to take our picture at the end of the bridge stretch - two miles out.  Behind us is Pigeon Key - which has some buildings and can be toured, but no cars on this island - it is a historic district and was used as a construction hub while Flagler built the railroad in the early 1900's.  Many of the buildings are still here and the island can be toured and is also a big hub for marine research.




Yours truly on my chariot - this shows a good view of the road - two miles - as we head back to Marathon!

So today is another beauty - the winds have calmed down and I have unofficially declared this day the day of the Dinghy - we plan to explore the harbor via water and there looks to be a cool state park we can get to and perhaps enjoy some beach time and a swim. 

Until our next post - wishing you all a great last week of 2011!  Lots of love, Jen & Paul

Today's Quote:
"Beauty is in the eye of the Beerholder" - on a sign in the local place we had lunch - hilarious!