Headed South Again

[Marian Claire]

Not sure of your plans after Little Shark River but the crab pots can be amazingly thick around Cape Sable and Florida Bay. If you can handle the shallow water you can avoid the worst of it by staying just inside the park boundary.
Dan
S/V Marian Claire

[edwardc]

Thanks Dan. Others have told us that too, and with our 4 1/2 ft draft, that's certainly a consideration.

After little Shark River, we're headed to Marathon.
Been raining steadily here (Everglades City) the last two days, but it looks like we'll have a good window for leaving tomorrow.

[sastanley]

So, I have only driven thru Marathon on several occasions, and I remember that it is a lot of old people (I mean OLD) walking around checking out the yard sales and stuff...Go thru at night, and they are all asleep.

[edwardc]

As Dan suggested,we were able to stay inside the park boundaries down to Cape Sable (about 1 mi offshore) and avoid the crabpots. After that, the strings of pots were thick enough to walk across Florida Bay on the floats and not get your feet wet! Required constant vigilance.

We got into Boot Key Harbor Tue afternoon and immediately put ourselves on the waiting list for a mooring. Started at #28 and have moved down to #24 after a day. The marina also informed us that where we squeezed in to anchor wasn't legal, and if Florida Wildlife Commission (FWC) came through, we would be ticketed, so we had to pull anchor and move to the authorized anchorage, where we are anchored much too close to all the other boats (unlike the spot we came from which had adequate swing room for a full 7:1 scope).

The City marina is functional, but still recovering from hurricane Irma. The mooring field, and most of the extensive dinghy docks, have been restored, but they have NO slips as all of their docks were destroyed.

Paid for dinghy dock privileges for a week as we wait for a mooring. If a ball comes available sooner, they will pro-rate the unused portion and put it towards the mooring ball.

So, we'll probably be here for a week, maybe two.

[roadnsky]

Ed-
From very recent experience...
try to get as far away from the mangroves as possible.
No-see-ums and skeeters will make sleeping ugly.

[ndutton]

Maybe everybody knows about it but I recommend the No Name Pub on Big Pine Key (a few miles down the road, maybe you're headed there?), cool place. Look for my dollar bill on the far left side way down low under the service window identified Neil and Kimberlee (daughter).

https://nonamepubestore.com/pub/

[Marian Claire]

+1. Linda and I enjoyed lunch there as we headed south. April 2018.
Dan
S/V Marian Claire

[edwardc]

Ed-
From very recent experience...
try to get as far away from the mangroves as possible.
No-see-ums and skeeters will make sleeping ugly.

It was a good news/bad news situation. After the front went through, the temp plummeted. This made exploring in the dink unattractive, but kept the bugs down in Little Shark River.

No bug issues so far in Boot Key Harbor anchorage, but it's warming up.

[ndutton]

Did you see the meteor today?

[edwardc]

No, what meteor?

[ndutton]

A significant meteor crashed into Cuba yesterday on a North to South trajectory. Reports said it was visible from the Keys in the western sky, big smoke trail.

[edwardc]

Just an update.

We've spent the last 3 weeks in Boot Key Harbor in Marathon. Took us 12 days at anchor to work our way up the mooring ball waiting list from #24!

We really like it here , and I understand why some people come for a weak and stay 10 years!

We took a bus trip to Key West for the day and played tourist.

Yesterday, Joan got in the dinghy to scrub Dolce Vita's waterline, when she got a visit from a large adult manatee.

[GregH]

Wonder if your mooring is close to this camera!?

http://www.ci.marathon.fl.us/government/departments/marina-and-ports/marina-webcam/

- looks to be down currently though otherwise let us know when you are doing a web show!

[roadnsky]

You guys hafta go have a basket of fries and watch the sunset at Burdines while you're there.

[edwardc]

Indeed, we did that for Valentines Day.