No boat travel.
After we completed our kayak trip, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and then rode our bicycles to the post office to mail an urgent piece of mail. After disposing of the mail duty, Clark called AC from Hour Plan from the post office to see where the pub crawl crew were currently located.
AC said that folks prepared to leave Island Fish Company as soon as they settled their food bills with the next stop on the agenda being Keys Fisheries. With that bit of news Clark and I decided we had time to grab an ice cream at the local shop before making our way to Keys Fisheries to meet up with the group. Even taking time for a sweet treat we arrived before the folks making their way by dinghy from Island Fish Company.
As we locked up our bikes, Becky and Mike McGee from True North came over to say hello. They too beat the group here as they did not attend the first venue and decided to join the gang at the second stop as we did. They, however, had arrived by dinghy - not bicycle as we did. We chatted with Mike and Becky until the dinghies started to arrive and then Clark, by his actions taken, declared himself the official greeter of each and every dinghy that stopped at this point in the crawl.
As Clark spotted a dinghy approaching the area, he waved until they took notice and then ran to the tie up spot to first take a picture and then help with lines. More than one person mentioned that they appreciated his role as greeter as at least one couple said they would not have figured out how to find the tie-up spot without his assistance. Others just enjoyed the help tying up their craft.
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| Our planners / hosts arriving - Jim and Mandy from Shell Belle |
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| Jim and AC from Hour Plan |
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| Tom and Mary from Viator |
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| Tied up dinghies of pub crawl participants at this stop |
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| Crew enjoying beer, shrimp, and stone crab claws upstairs at Keys Fisheries |
Some of the folks that had gone to Island Fish Company did not stop at Keys Fisheries. I heard that the trip from Faro Blanco to Island Fish Company was a full 6 miles each way. Apparently, some decided they had had enough fun for one day and opted out of the rest of the pub crawl. Jim and Faith had to bail out due to engine problems with their dinghy.
The pub crawl consisted of three sites, so after a few brews and claws, the group set out once more - this time for Barnacle Barney's.
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| Tom and Mary leaving with AC and Jim close behind (Mandy and Clark watching them go) |
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| Clark and Mike McGee watching Jim and Mandy boarding their dinghy through the railing (high tide) |
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| Mandy and Jim leaving with Becky and Mike close behind |
As we watched the last of the dinghies pull away, we unlocked our bikes and jumped on to race them to the next site - Barnacle Barney's.
Barnacle Barney's is practically next door to Faro Blanco yet in the three years I have been coming here, today was the first I learned of its existence.
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| Barnacle Barney's Tiki Bar & Grill - that a-way |
The trail to the Tiki Bar from the street side consisted of finely ground stones such that we had to walk our bikes back. When we neared the docks, Clark said, "We were by here this morning in our kayaks!" At that time I truly had not noticed the Tiki Bar and certainly would not have known its name, so it still came as a surprise to me.
At the docks we spied the dinghy folks just tying up. Clark, of course, ran over to assist. I stayed back with my cell phone to take a picture of the proceedings.
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| AC, Jim, Tom, Mary, Clark, Mike's hat presumably attached to Mike's head, Becky, and Jim (Mandy missing from picture) Note the Faro Blanco lighthouse is easily seen from here |
We had only one more day in Marathon before heading out towards Captiva. With that in mind, Clark wanted to be sure that all four of the solar panels fed the batteries power before we left town. He climbed up the ladder to reach the panels and one-by-one he unplugged each panel to verify that the amount of "juice" being fed to the batteries reflected the loss of one panel. With favorable results, and more than a little hot from the work of climbing on the hot hardtop, Clark decided to take a quick dip in the pool.
I told him not to expect docktails tonight since a lot of the loopers spent the day on the pub crawl. Given that, he could relax in the pool and not worry about missing some social time elsewhere. Just as we left the boat for the pool my phone rang, and it was my younger son calling to talk. Catching up with him by far took precedence over the pool, so instead of swimming, I sat by the pool while Clark enjoyed a dip.
Since this was our last night to take advantage of eating at the Lighthouse Grill, we made a reservation for 6:30 to take advantage of their early bird dinner rates. Since we had some time to kill before our 6:30 reservation, we decided to walk the docks. As we passed Shell Belle Jim invited us on board to relax and chat.
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| Mandy on Shell Belle |
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| Sunset picture taken from fly bridge of Shell Belle |
When my alarm sounded that it was time to go, we said farewell to Mandy and Jim and headed to the restaurant. We planned on enjoying a leisurely dinner. Thankfully we had nowhere to go and no rush to be there. Dinner took a rather long time to appear.
As we waited for our meals to arrive, I saw a sailboat approaching Faro Blanco and realized that it was Yasmine Ann returning from the sunset cruise Yasmine had told me about. Since all we were doing was waiting for food, I said yes when Clark asked if he should go assist them by catching their lines. They appreciated the help, and he missed nothing. When he returned to our table in the restaurant, the food had not yet arrived. It did show up shortly afterwards, however, so timing was perfect from that point of view.
Having warn ourselves out with kayaks, bikes, boat work, and swimming pools, we enjoyed a quiet night on the boat before retiring early (for us). As noted in prior blog entries, sometimes it is hard to believe that so many events occurred in the same day. Today was one of those days.
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