2020: Faro Blanco March happenings

6 March 2020

When we traveled the Great Loop in 2015 - 2016, we met many boaters that became life-long friends. Marathon is a great place to reconnect.

Dinner with  Friends at Key Colony Inn ...

Susan - "Nuclear Fission"
Faith - "Third Degree"
Ev - "Sunset Delight"

Clark - "Sunset Delight"
John - "Nuclear Fission"
Jim - "Third Degree"

8 March 2020

Faro Blanco is a very social marina with docktails, craft and game parties, and other events planned by the boaters. Back in January, F dock held a Mardi Gras party. In February, E dock hosted the chili cookoff. This month, A, B, and C docks hosted a Sunday Brunch. The food at all of these events was quite remarkable.

Sunday Brunch at Faro Blanco ...

Yasmine making waffles

Delicious buffet

Ev with a yummy waffle

Marjorie, Ev, Faith, Dan

Enjoying the great food

Sampling the bar options - Bloody Mary, Champagne, ...

10 March 2020

My college friend, Darlene, and her husband, Mike, drove to Marathon to visit us. We had a busy two days worth of fun together. We found it shocking that we have been friends for almost 50 years. 

As soon as they arrived, we went to the Lighthouse Grille to grab lunch. Then, even though they had driven all morning to come visit us, they agreed to take us on a car tour to see some of the local sights. 

Our first stop ... Isla Bella Resort to check out the market there.

Isla Bella Resort Market

A sneak peak at the resort behind the market

Then we drove to Big Pine Key to look for the Blue Hole and the resident alligator.

Mike and Darlene at the Blue Hole

The park ranger told us the female is "Allie Gator"

The ranger also told us to watch out for "poison wood"

Darlene enjoying the Blue Hole

From there we headed over to No Name Key to look for Key Deer. We managed to see two but both were too fast for the camera. After wandering No Name Key and Big Pine Key for a while we drove to Kiki's Sandbar for an early dinner. 

View at Kiki's Sandbar

After dinner, we drove back to the boat. Earlier in the day we had talked about going to Sweet Savannah's for ice cream. Although it felt like we had been eating all day already, we got in the car and went to get our sweet treat. As happens when I eat too late at night (after 8:00), I slept poorly!

11 March 2020

When Mike and Darlene said they were coming to visit, they asked if we could take the boat out for a "maintenance" run while they were here. Fortunately, the weather was accommodating, and we had a fine day for a boat ride. Given a choice of a maintenance run or going out to anchor over night, much to our delight, Mike and Darlene chose the latter option. After breakfast, around 11:00, we dropped our dock lines and headed for Bahia Honda State Park.

Boat access to Bahia Honda State Park

Sand Sculpture at Bahia Honda State Park

Work in progress

We walked up the bridge to get the aerial view of the park.

Hike up the bridge for the view

We saw several manatee while we were there. They came up right next to the boats and docks.

We crossed from the bay side and strolled along the ocean side of the park.

Mike and Darlene with bridge in background

Geodetic Survey Benchmark at park / bridge

College classmates enjoying a view of the ocean

Atlantic Ocean view from park

We had a choice to pay and stay at the park overnight at dock or throw off the lines and anchor out. Given the hot day and lack of breeze, we unanimously opted to anchor near Boot Key.

Before finding a place to anchor, Clark took us on a tour of the Boot Key mooring field. We wove our way through the numerous boats and then navigated Sisters Creek out to the ocean. We should have picked a time other than dead low tide for our exploration as the depth in Sisters Creek at times showed no more than 6 inches of water under the keel.

Rows of boats at anchor in Boot Key harbor

Mangroves leading into Sisters Creek

Fancy house on the water at Sisters Creek

Atlantic Ocean ahead
(Sombrero Reef in distance)

Sombrero Beach

Clark took us into the ocean and back around to the Boot Key anchorage area to find a spot for the night. We found a boat named "Timbuctoo" and decided to drop anchor at its stern to wait for a spectacular sunset. Sadly, the sunset was not quite as awe-inspiring as we hoped.

After dinner, we sat in the cockpit of the boat and oohed and aahed at the wonderful setting and gorgeous weather. We watched Venus appear and disappear as it set behind clouds that rolled into and out of the area. Finally, the moon rose.

Moon rise at Boot Key

12 March 2020

Mike and Darlene had a long drive today back to Port St. Lucie, so as soon as we had finished breakfast, we started prepping the boat for departure. With such a short distance to travel, we arrived back at dock around 11:30. Mike and Darlene had their bags packed and said their farewells as soon as we had ourselves secured at the dock.

As Clark set to work cleaning the boat, I stripped the beds, gathered up all our laundry and dragged it up to the washers and dryers. It took most of the afternoon to get ourselves put back into order including transforming beds back into sofas.

Clark scrubbed everything clean -
even the solar panels got a good wash!

We completed our chores in time to start cooking and participate in Italian Dinner Docktails night. I made stir fried vegetables. Many folks made pasta dishes. It was an amazing feast held in honor of dear friends that are moving on to new adventures in their lives. Jeff and Jasmine on "Mystic Gem" are selling their boat and moving to Washington state and eventually Alaska. One of our dock staff has decided to be a stay-at-home mom, so her life is changing drastically as well.

Ready for the feast to begin

Mel announcing the reason for the big event

Jeff and Jasmine say goodbye

The farewell cake

Picture of "Mystic Gem" at Faro Blanco
that I painted for Jeff and Jasmine

Devon (guest-of-honor), her husband Ryan, and
baby Cora Cay

Jasmine surrounded by folks that will miss her 

13, 14, 15 March 2020

Clark and I used the next few days to wind down, do some reading, and stroll the docks.  To get some exercise, I walked the 3-mile loop to the 7-mile bridge and back. I got to see some wildlife at the marina and on my walk.

Colorful fish on the rocks by the docks

Egret near the Lighthouse Grille Restaurant

Giant Iguana admiring the view and breeze
from the top of the vegetation at the 7-mile bridge. 

16 March 2020 - Clark's Birthday

With the Coronavirus scare, many boaters are wondering where that leaves us as far as staying or going. Restaurants and bars are closing. Food stores are out of many supplies. No one knows the best plan to stay safe. We were supposed to drive to Texas for a wedding. Our sons planned to fly in for the big event as well. All that was canceled!

Others have changed their travel plans as well. Some are leaving earlier than planned; others are shortening the time they will be away. Some folks planning to rent cars are afraid that they won't be available when they need them. The uncertainty of the times is trying.

"R&R" departed today for Marco Island -
a little ahead of schedule

Sitting at the table working on my laptop, Clark asked if I wanted to go for a bike ride with him to the post office. After checking the weather for myself, I decided that exercise sounded like a good idea. Once we rode along the pathway beside Route 1, I had second thoughts. The wind in my face really made me work super hard to make headway. Of course, Clark was instantly way ahead of me, and I struggled to catch up. Impossible!

Our first stop was the Tax Office to renew the out-of-state registration for "Sunset Delight". We arrived there at 2:30 and finally left at 4:15. When we arrived at the building where we registered last time, we found a sign pointing us next door to their new location. Upon entering the new site, we found a kiosk and got our number which was called almost immediately. Almost the entire time we spent there was working with the person behind the desk doing the paperwork.

When we walked up to her station, the worker, JoAnn, said, "Renewal? Great! If you had said a new registration, I'd rather have had a needle in my eye!" The renewal went well, and we were done with that within 30 minutes. The poor woman thought she was done when Clark spoke up and said, "We have a dinghy. Do we need that registered as well?" Of course the answer was, "Yes!"

Now the poor woman had to do that dreaded new out-of-state registration she had hoped to avoid. She needed strong coaching from the manager. Eventually they had to call Tallahassee for assistance. We started to wonder if we would get to the post office before they closed. Ultimately, we left with valid registration stickers for both the big and the little boat.

At least the person we worked with was a pleasure to spend time with and had a sense of humor. It could have been a lot worse. I asked Clark if he was enjoying his birthday at the tax office!

Besides worrying about getting to the post office, we had a time line for getting back to the marina in time for our reservation at the Lighthouse Grille for their early bird dinner. A person celebrating their birthday eats free, and we did not want to miss out on a free dinner for Clark.

In addition to the post office, we even managed to squeeze in a stop at Publix to see what we could find on the shelves. Thankfully, that wind we fought on the way to the post office pushed us all the way back to the marina so we made excellent time getting back. We put away the bikes and changed our clothes ready for dinner.

Sandy and Bill on "L'Attitude Adjustment" joined us for the celebratory dinner.

Sandy, Bill, Clark and Ev

After dinner at the restaurant, we returned to Sandy's boat where she had ready heated Guava pie and vanilla ice cream. Neither Clark nor I had ever eaten guava pie. It was amazing with the ice cream. We polished off the whole pie among the four of us! We chatted until we were in danger of over-staying our welcome and then we practically leapt from their boat to ours as we share a finger dock at the marina.



17 March 2020

St. Patrick's Day is supposed to be one of parades and festivities, but with Coronvirus ruining plans, everyone is rather subdued. Florida announced today that all bars would close at 5:00. That left us wondering why folks were still gathered around the bar at the Lighthouse Grill after 5:00 until someone said that the rule did not apply to all restaurants dependent on the portion of revenue brought in by meals versus drinks.

Sandy invited me to go grocery shopping with her. Given the current climate of empty shelves, I decided to go with her and stock up on some key items for the pantry in case we get stuck on the boat from some reason. Many items were missing - no chicken, no hamburger, no canned tuna fish, ... I got what I could and perhaps more than I should. It is hard to know what will happen tomorrow or the next day.

Because it was St. Patrick's Day, Mel and Ann made homemade vanilla ice cream tonight at docktails and dyed it green. We decided that having only ice cream would be relatively safe. It was absolutely delicious and tasted like a vanilla milkshake.

To round out the night, we watched the old classic movie, "The Quiet Man" - one of my all-time favorites. Best of all it was aired commercial-free!!!