No Boat Travel
Today started out ordinary with me doing laundry first thing in the morning and, as the day progressed, became quite extraordinary.
Jen and Mitch on Fat-n-Sassy stopped by to see the boat and visit for a few before their day got going. They stayed for a while and chatted until Jen said they were leaving to go parasailing. They did that recently and really enjoyed it, so she wanted to go again. Unlike when I did it years ago, Jen said the two of them can go up together. I think I would enjoy that.
Later, after putting away the laundry and washing dishes that seemed to have piled up all by themselves, Clark and I took a walk down the docks to see if we could figure out where to find the brunch that we had been told would be happening this morning. We did not have to travel far. As we approached Hour Plan, we could see several guys on the upper helm talking. Clark called up, "Is the brunch happening?" and Jim replied, "Yes. Come on up!"
The guys invited me to "come on up" as well, but I looked around and immediately declined asking where I could find the female contingent. With that they sent me to the boat's salon to join the other gals in attendance.
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| Mel - Morning Star II Jim - Shell Belle |
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| Phil - Finns Jim - Hour Plan |
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| Kevin - Lone Star Mandy - Shell Belle Ann - Morning Star II |
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| Evelyn, Kevin, Mandy, Ann Lynne - Finns AC - Hour Plan |
Ann, Mel, Kevin, and Steve left first to take a day trip to Key West to see the sights. Clark and I left shortly thereafter to connect with Bill and Sandy for a drive around Marathon.
Sandy and Bill (from L'Attitude Adjustment) invited us to go out with them this afternoon in their car. They had some errands to run and wanted to go for a drive. Once we got in the car, Sandy informed us that we would not be returning to our boat until she said so and then proceeded to drive us all around Marathon showing us places including some we did not even know existed.
Taking pictures from a moving car is difficult, but Clark did capture some scenes along the way. As part of the tour, they showed us boats wrecked by Hurricane Irma. Many of the damaged boats have been removed, but some still remain.
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| Boats damaged by Hurricane Irma the one on the right must have been under water for quite a while. |
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| Another collection of damaged boats |
On our travels, we visited a few neighborhoods to get the flavor of Marathon including Flamingo Island, which I had never heard of, as well as Duck Key.
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| Sign says: "Welcome to Flamingo Island" |
As part of the Marathon tour, Sandy and Bill took us by their "favorite house in Marathon". This house is built to resemble a big ship.
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| Bow of the Ship / House |
On the other side of the street, directly across from the bow, we saw the stern of the ship / house. The stern is the garage.
Clark had never been to Duck Key before, but I had. When I flew home in 2016 without Clark to greet my new granddaughter Lillian, the airport shuttle drove into Duck Key to pick up an additional passenger.
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| Entrance to Duck Key |
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| View of Marathon waterway from bridge |
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| Another view from another bridge |
Hours later, when we returned to our marina, it was almost time for docktails. I wondered with the earlier brunch how many folks would appear for docktails - not many as it turned out. Walking along the docks towards the lighthouse, I found Sandy on the Ranger Tug named Tootles visiting Debbie and Bob. I had accidentally found docktails!
A while later Clark came by and found me on Tootles, and we invited him to join our small docktails group. Very quickly he was off with Bob getting a tour of the boat. I tagged along for a piece of the tour only to be amazed by how much could be contained in a boat that small - 35' length over all. This boat can sleep six but is small enough to put on a trailer and haul behind a vehicle.
We stayed chatting on Tootles until it got late. Then, tired of always eating on the boat, I asked Clark if we could eat at the 7 Mile Pizzeria. He agreed and we set out to walk there for dinner. When we got as far as the SALT building, I knew we had gone too far. Clark pulled out his phone and found we had passed the restaurant a while ago. Good! I got some much-needed exercise.
Last time we went to this place, Clark would have walked past but I spied the restaurant and stopped him. Tonight he insisted that the restaurant must have been closed or else we would have seen it. I disagreed, and when we got back, we found the restaurant lit up and fully open. Since the place is covered in multi-colored Christmas lights, I do not understand why we both missed it except for the fact that it is set back in the corner of the parking lot.
We returned to the boat after dinner around 8:30 and I started working on the blog update. Clark immediately went back to today's boat project - reversing the anchor line. He separated the older section from the anchor last night and has been splicing in the newer end of the line today in between our other activities.
Tomorrow the SALT installers are supposed to come at 8:30 with the solar panels. I am not holding my breath, and I am not placing any bets that they will appear as promised. After all, they did say 8:30 Monday, but did they say which Monday!?
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