Key West to Marathon, Florida

Friday 1/12/2018
Depart: Key West Bight Marina 8:40
Arrive: Faro Blanco Marina in Marathon, FL 2:45
Distance: 45 NM

As we prepared to leave our dock space in Key West for the trip to Marathon today, Clark noticed the ferry to Dry Tortuga heading out.

Yesterday we were on that ferry!

On one last walk on the docks in Key West, Clark found some items of interest to capture on "film".

Made you look!
Not a real fish, but very impressive display.

I have no idea what this is for. It looks like a coffee grinder but
why is it on the docks next to a big fish?

Old Anchor

Monument: Henry C. "Booty" Singleton, Sr.
Seafood Pioneer & Visionary

Signposts in Key West

Whoever put this signpost together knew a few folks in NJ! Just on this one side, we see Fairlawn, Toms River, and Wildwood Crest represented!

Typical Scene in Key West - bikes, mopeds, and motorbikes

Leaving Key West, we noticed two cruise ships in port today.

We had some weather excitement on our trip to Marathon today. Clark posted the below on Facebook, so I have included his words here instead of trying to recreate the scene myself. I will only add that as the winds and rains hit us, my adrenaline was pumping. I wondered who would notice we went missing if anything happened, and I double-checked to make sure life jackets were on hand.

Clark's entry for today's trip:

Today started hot and sunny with S winds < 10 kts and waves 1-2'. Key West NOAA weather beareau asked on channel 16 for wind and wave reports on ch 12 for Hawk channel. I was just entering Hawk and after no responses on channel 12 by anyone else, I responded with the current conditions.

Later, I was listening to the weather on the VHF weather channel because the weather was expected to deteriorate and they announced the name of my boat and the report. I had never had them ask before nor ever heard reports from other boaters before on the NOAA wx channels.

As the day progressed, 1-2 became 2-3 then 3-4. I was hoping NOAA would stop broadcasting my report (they did). Dark clouds began chasing us. I opted to run on the Atlantic side because it was shorter although rougher with 2-4' predicted verses 1-2' on the much longer Gulf side route.

There was still at least an hour to go to get to Moser channel to take us to the Gulf side to reach our destination. The radar suggested the storm would catch us in about 1/2 hour.

The waves picked up to some 5's making the numerous fish traps hard to spot and equally hard to dodge with the following seas off the starboard stern quarter.

It got dark. The winds picked up to 27 kts. The land off the port side disappeared in gray and next the heavy rains were on us. This continued for about 15 minutes.

Then, the rains and wind lightened. Another 15 minutes and the rains stopped. Land reappeated off the port stern and the skies lightened. The waves dropped back to around 4' and we were almost at Moser channel. Shortly after, we made the turn north and found the channel markers.

Almost as soon as we passed under the 7 mile bridge, it became calm. A little while later the red and white light house appeared signaling we were almost at our destination for the day and the sun reappeared.

It was not our first rain squall and probably not our last.

As Clark mentioned, as soon as we passed under the 7-mile bridge, the waters calmed right down like magic.

7-mile Bridge in the Florida Keys

Old bridge - no longer open to traffic

Shortly thereafter we reached Faro Blanco Resort and Marina in Marathon, Florida where we will be staying for the next six weeks.

Faro Blanco Resort & Marina Lighthouse

While still in the process of tying our dock lines, Jim and A.C. from Hour Plan stopped by to say hello. Our boats were docked side-by-side last year here in Faro Blanco. How nice to see their familiar faces! We talked for quite a while as we had a lot of catching up to do.

After finally tying our lines, we decided to walk the docks to see who else was around. We met some in-progress loopers staying here. Everyone here is so friendly. It's wonderful to be back with like-minded boaters. 

When we returned to our boat, I decided to spend my time catching up on blog entries, so I got out my computer and got to work. Clark decided to walk the docks some more. He did so around 5:00 and managed to find some boaters enjoying docktails. He came back with several boat cards (like business cards) as a result of his travels.

While out meeting other boaters, he managed to capture a couple of evening pictures of the area.

Sunset in Marathon, Florida

Faro Blanco lighthouse at dusk

Evening Skies over Marathon, Florida

Since I had become several days behind on Blog entries, I kept working on them most of the night. Clark left and went up by the pool area to listen to the live entertainment provided by the resort. He enjoyed the musician so much he bought a CD and brought it back to the boat with him. He played it so I got to hear some music as well. Nice!

In Key West when we scanned for over-the-air television stations, we found three Spanish-speaking ones and nothing else. We did not watch TV there. Here in Marathon, we found only one Spanish station and no others. We will not be watching any television here for the next six weeks. Looks like we'll be enjoying shows via the internet only.