3 Marathons to Marathon...and on to Key West

We departed Lighthouse Point January 29 under still windy conditions with an intermediate destination of Fort Lauderdale, only 2 hours south (but 6 bridges) for two reasons.   First, Tristan's girlfriend Dom was joining us on the boat for a couple of days, and we wanted to give it another day for the wind to drop, which was forecast.  Friends of hers also joined us for the day trip to FLL.

Second, and more important, was that we were stopping there to see a hockey game that night, Montreal Canadiens at Florida Panthers. The games are played in Sunrise, on the west side of the city.  Tristan still had his rental car so the 4 of us made use of that, and dropped the car at the airport on the way home, and then Uber.

The following day we headed south, thru Miami, and another 14 bridges, fortunately only 8 of which needed to open for us.  The wind had indeed finally dropped which made for a good trip for the 30 mile run down to a city marina in Coral Gables on  the west side of Biscayne Bay.

The 5 miles in the more open waters of Biscayne Bay was quite calm so finally got a chance to show Tristan how the boat performed at semi-displacement speed.  We had a very quiet night in dead calm and very warm conditions.

The next day we needed to depart early for a long run, and Dom departed by Uber for the train station in Miami for the trip back to her family in Palm Beach.  We departed at about sunrise in low cloud/fog with visibility of a couple of miles.  As the morning progressed, visibility reduced to less than 1/2 a mile at one point, but with relatively deep water ie close to 20', and open water conditions, we were able to run at 16 knots for a couple of hours, thru Biscayne Bay, Card Sound and Barnes Sound, with appropriate slowdowns for narrow areas and bridges, to ensure getting to our destination before dark.

The clouds also lifted so that we had clear skies, and warm temps.  The Florida weather we had been waiting for, finally.  The balance of the day we traveled at our normal cruising hull speed, as we were now solidly in the southern reaches of the ICW where much of the time the depth is between 6' and 8'.   You boaters will understand the prudence required operating a boat with a 4.5' draft in those depths.  In the picture here, you can see the sand in our prop-wash.

We arrived at Marlin Bay, in Marathon, about 430, having logged an 84 mile day (which is more than
3 marathons, hence the title), which is a record distance day for us.  That night being New Years eve we found a good party at a nearby marina with an "Anchor drop", rather than a ball drop, at midnight.  Judy and I departed after midnight, but Tristan enjoyed the nights festivities much longer.


Marlin Bay is a wonderful stop, with a great pool so we enjoyed New Years day there, and got underway for Key West on the following day.  The run on the bayside, rather than the Atlantic side is longer at 55 miles, but better in the prevailing wind conditions.  We departed early in order to arrive early, as Tristan had a car booked for that afternoon to head north.  Tristan had been with us for two weeks, which we are very fortunate to have, but the first 10 days was probably the worst Xmas weather Florida had seen in decades.

We are happy with our progress overall though.  The 900 miles from Myrtle Beach to Key West was accomplished in 18 travelling days.


So now in Key West, and we will be here for the month.  I can hear you asking, What will you do for a month?  Well, lots. My overall plan is work in the morning, and fun in the afternoon. And as any boater knows, there are always lots of small maintenance tasks to tackle so I have a list of those to work on.

We are in the historic seaport area which positions us well to walk the town.  Duval street, which is 10 blocks of restaurants, shops and bars, many with great music in the evening, is 3 blocks away, so easy walk, but far enough to be away from the sound when we want to turn in.  The town also has a fairly active cultural scene and there are productions on almost every week that we plan to see. And there are still a few museums we didn't see on our visit here last year.  The beach is only 12 blocks away by free shuttle, so we will spend some afternoons there.  And there is a pool at the marina we can enjoy if we don't want to pack our umbrella and chairs.  And for lighter wind days, we can launch the dinghy and go explore some nearby snorkeling spots.

There is lots to see and do here. One notable boat is the schooner America 2.0, which is a re-creation of the original yacht to win the America's cup.  It does day sail trips so we certainly plan to take advantage of that one day. And for those of you who watched Miami Vice and longed for the life of Don Johnson living on his sailboat, with his pet crocodile Elvis, the boat is tied up the other side of the dock from us.



And as mentioned, the weather has finally turned for the better.  Although this past weekend was a bit cooler, in the high teens C, the weather, at least for the  next couple of weeks is generally dry and expected to be mid-20'sC.  There probably wont be much to report on the next month so I expect blog posts will be somewhat less frequent.