Key West to Marathon 2/10-2/17/18

Another day in paradise ending

Abbys getting ready to go to the Bahamas

We left Key West this morning and are heading east to Marathon for a weeks stay at the Marathon Marina Resort.  We passed close by one of the cruise ships on our way out of Key West.  The weather was clear with about three foot waves and was pretty comfortable.  When we arrived at Marathon Resort we were greeted by Debbie who works the fuel dock.  She is a real character and helped us get tied up at the fuel dock so we could unload the BMW before moving into our slip.

We are in Slip 1 which is quite close to the fuel dock, but on the plus side is also close to a nice bathroom and near the end of the dock so the view is pretty nice, and the sunsets are fantastic. All of the docks here are new Bellingham brand floating concrete docks.  Very stable and new power pedestals and water connections.  The new power pedestals also have the new GFI breakers.  This is the future of dock power pedestals and we found out that our boat will trip the breakers.  Under the direction of Robert the dock manager we plugged in and turned on one breaker at a time until we tripped the GFI.  We found out that it is only the 220 system breakers that would create a fault and trip the breaker so we ended up not being able to use the washer/dryer, oven, cook-top, hot water heater and the upper salon AC while connected to shore power.  Its a bit of a pain but we made do with microwaving and grilling on the BBQ.  When we did need the cook-top or oven we started the generator and that also reheated the water which was good for a day or two.  I guess I will need to spend some time going through all of the 220 appliances and isolating the neutral and grounds on them as this is what is causing the GFI to pop.  Household appliances are commonly wired with the neutral and ground bonded together inside the appliance and this just won't work for the new pedestals.

On our first evening at Marathon Resort we treated ourselves to dinner at the attached restaurant Lazy Days.  It was pretty good but not worth a revisit.  Over the next days we rode the BMW around Marathon and explored different places, bars and marinas.  Our favorite was Faro Blanco Marina which is attached to a Hyatt and allows access to the resort pool and facilities.  Pretty nice place.  We may stay there next year for a month if it fits in our schedule.  We went over to Banana Bay Marina where we had looked at a boat years ago to buy.  Many loopers make this their winter home and they were full up and not looking like there would be any room next year either.  Both of us agreed that we liked either Faro Blanco or where we are better anyways.

Marathon got hit pretty hard with the hurricanes last fall and although they are working hard at rebuilding there is still a lot of visible damage everywhere.  Some parts of it reminds me of driving through third world countries.  Another consequence of the hurricane was that there were over 300 boats on moorings in Boot Key Harbor (Marathon) and something like 65 made it through the hurricane.  They have two very large cranes picking up the salvaged wrecks and a large excavator smashing up the hulls and loading them into dumpsters.  The harbor is full again with not an empty mooring ball to be seen.  We dingyed through and stopped to visit some Canadians that ended up being from Lachute QC.  They recommended that we take the three Sisters channel over to Sombrero Beach for a visit and dog walk.  Abby was very keen on that idea.  We liked it too and we spent an hour or so there people watching and walking Abby.

One day we headed off to Key West on the BMW and rode along the south breakwater to downtown.  We parked and walked through Malory Square and Debbie looked in a bunch of the shops but came out empty handed.  We then moved over closer to the Marinas and went in for lunch at the Conch Republic Seafood Company.  What a great choice.  Delicious local steamed shrimp in clam broth, lobster bisque, and a Cesar salad.  We shared all of the items and Debbie had a few margaritas and I had a couple of beers since I still had to ride the bike back to Marathon and the highway can be busy and dangerous.  I didn't think margaritas would be a good choice.

Debbie and I at Mallory Square

Key West seemed to be in good shape, certainly less visible damage than Marathon.  We enjoyed our visit and headed back to Marathon.

Other days were spent getting haircuts, grocery shopping and visiting different bars and restaurants.  We went to Castaways and also Burdine's on the wharf.  I much prefer Castaways food and menu.  Its a dump but a nice dump!  Every morning I took Abby for her morning bike ride and we would ride down the highway and over to Castaways and Burdines to see what was going on.  All of the commercial fishermen are in this area and there is always something happening.  Abby got lots of treats and compliments.  After a few days of this I found a park right at the beginning of the seven mile bridge that Abby liked better because she could go off leash and run around. That became our morning regular run and we did a couple of miles every morning.  Good for the old dogs to get out!

Casey Key Fish House

The ocean had an eerie look to it today.  Like it was lit up from below