Florida: Marathon - fueled and ready to make our escape

Day 258 March 25, 2016

We had another departure from Faro Blanco this morning - Daisy pulled out of the marina to continue on her way to her next stop. Sadly we missed saying goodbye since we had no idea they planned to leave today. Always on the ready, like Quick Draw McGraw,

Quick Draw McGraw

Clark whipped out his camera to capture the moment.

Bye bye Daisy!

Daisy as she departs Faro Blanco Marina in Marathon, FL

Before starting any projects for the day, Clark made one last attempt via phone call to find the Barnacle Buster product he wants to use to clean the engine. No go - the place he called said they could order it but had none on hand. C'est la vie! That Barnacle Buster job will have to wait till some time in the future. We are out of time here in Marathon.

Having poked at the engine in multiple places to ferret out the cause of the overheating at high speeds, Clark decided that today would be the "lube oil cooler" day. He "rodded out" this part of the engine this morning while I sat nearby and worked on updating my blog. He actually finished his engine work before I finished my writing exercise. Once started, I wanted to get the blog update done, so we finally ate lunch at around 2:00.

With the boat engine back together (mixer elbow in place) and the lube oil cooler rodded out, Clark decided we needed to go for one more test run to check out the work. He always likes to "kill two birds with one stone" so he decided that while we were out playing around, he would top off the fuel tank in preparation for leaving here within the next couple of days.

I walked up to use the head in preparation for our little excursion. On my way back I saw Ivory Lady coming into her slip. When I got to the boat and Clark was nowhere to be found, I knew to go look for him over there and that is where I found him. I am sure he ran to grab their lines as they pulled in and then got busy talking. Since we were both over there and chatting, Jan and Bill invited us on board to sit for a while. Jan and I had a nice discussion comparing our experiences on the loop while Clark picked Bill's brain for navigation info related to our upcoming travels.

Jan and Bill had plans for the rest of the day, as did we, so after a while we said our farewells. As soon as Clark and I got back to our boat, we started pulling in lines in preparation for our little voyage. Since Clark had decided to get fuel, we headed out and around to go under the 7-mile bridge to get to a place with a cheaper fuel price than our own Faro Blanco marina. With all our antennas down and the radar mast lowered, we barely manage to squeeze under that bridge, but from experience we knew we could do it without concern.

From the intent look I noticed on one fisherman's face as he watched us approach the bridge, I had a feeling he wasn't convinced we would make it under. I stood on the bench seat on the fly bridge and scouted out the situation by looking over the top of the Bimini top. The clearance looked good to me, and we sailed under both the car and the old train bridges with room to spare.

I love shocking people who don't expect us to fit under bridges. Over the years, we have had some pretty close calls with, in many cases, very few inches to spare. Since I have confidence that Clark won't get us into a bad situation, I relax and enjoy watching people's reactions as a cheap thrill for me. What can I say!? It doesn't take much to entertain me.

We pulled up to the fuel dock and one of the attendants there became super chatty as soon as he saw our home port. He quickly explained that he lived on First Street in Rumson during his youth and was excited to meet us. He left Rumson in 1966 when his family moved to Flemington, NJ to raise horses. He said they even had horses in Rumson when he lived there. Knowing First Street, it is hard for me to imagine horses on that street, but over the years everywhere in NJ has become more and more built up. Anything is possible. I'm sure it looks nothing now like it did in 1966.

Before we left the fuel dock, the attendant collected a boat card from me to prove to a friend of his living New Jersey that we were there. He wants his friend to come visit, but the friend says he can't come because it is too far. I told him to tell his friend that we came via Canada and the Great Lakes to see if that convinced him he could come too.

While we were out, we did test Clark's maintenance work on the engine. The engine showed no particular improvements as a result of either action on Clark's part. I asked if he intended to check the last item on the list - the inner cooler. His answer - no, not at this time. "It's like a wild goose chase", he said, "trying to figure this out and it's not worth the time." We never travel at top, top speed which is the only time we saw overheating, and on this loop trip, rarely do we travel at anything over 8 knots. He feels he has done everything he could to this point.

When we were back in our slip with the lines secured, we took a break from it all and just sat around on the boat 'chilling' until it was time to make dinner. I worked on some crossword puzzles and Clark read today's Wall Street Journal. Clark said he was in no hurry for dinner, and I took him at his word.

When the time came to make dinner, I decided to keep the heat out of the cabin by running an extension cord out the port-side window to allow me to cook outdoors. I took my electric wok outside and made Chinese Beef and Broccoli over Rice. Yummy! Even without cooking in there, the cabin felt hot and stuffy, so I told Clark to open up the table on the fly bridge. He did and we had a lovely dinner there while we watched the sun set behind the lighthouse.

Sunset View during dinner on Sea Moss

The meal and the view were lovely -- the no-see-ums not so much.  Sooner than we would have liked, they forced us to pack up our dirty dishes and go back into the boat. We needed a nice breeze to blow the bugs away which we did not have today.