Here is a glimpse at Marathon and Boot Key Harbor

We have been about three weeks and find it very easy to get around on our folding bikes that Dirk, Sharon, and Cece sent to us for Christmas.  This island is about 7 miles long and we're near the middle.

The Keyes Drinkerie (upstars), and the Keyes Fisherie (down)

This is one of our favorte resturants and it's just across US rt. 1, also called the Overseas Highway because it goes all the way to Key West which is 50 miles west of here.  We can walk to this resturant  in 5 mins. which  puts us from the Atlantic Ocean side of the island (where to marina is) to the Gulf of Mexico side  (where the resturant is) in a very short walk.  I have to say that their specialty is a lobster rueben sandwich and I found the lobster here to have very little flavor compared to Maine lobster.  However, they make great Dark and  Stormies!                                    

As you can see, we are all happy!         

Jane, Peter, and Bill enjoying the Drinkerie (Nancy took the photo).

This is the Tiki Hut at the marina where we all get together for potluck dinners welcoming new arrivals to the harbor each week.  Yoga is held here 2 days a week.   Frequently local musicians and cruisers get together for impromtu jam sessions.  One of the cruisers that has been to the Carribean several times gave  talks on cruising the Windward and Leeward Islands.                                         

This is a view of the harbor, but only one side a about a quarter of the boats that are here.  There are 226 moorings and many more boats at anchor.

http://www.ci.marathon.fl.us/index.aspx?NID=600

Click on this link and you can see a real time webcam of the harbor!

We are in Marathon, FL at Boot Key Harbor Marina

This is the City of Marathon Municipal Marina

Here we begin our blog.  We have been here for 3 weeks already and we are loving the warm temperatures in the 70's most of the time.  We keep hearing the horror stories of snow and cold back home in Maine and that makes us know that we did the right thing in moving aboard and sailing to the Keyes!  We have made a lot of adjustments to the the boat to make it comfortable and safe for us.  The first thing was 4 trips up to the top of the mast for Billy to get the right bulb in the anchor light and mast head light as well as run a line down the back stay for the flag.  That being done we installed our composting toilet, put in a bildge pump and a salt water wash down pump.  We have gotten the fresh water tanks working well and that makes most of the big projects done.

As anyone that is familiar with boats knows, the projects are never really done so now we are planning a cleaning of the outside hull before going back north in a few weeks.

Billy has just completed a scuba diving course and became certified on Friday of this week.  He and our friend Peter Bugg on s/v Kinvara did the class together and enjoyed it immensely.

Here are Peter and Bill toasting to a task completed!