Boating with Sunset Delight: 2021: More Marlin Bay Resort

December 10 to 16, 2021

We have kept busy this past week with a few chores mixed in with a lot of relaxing. Every day, it seems, another boat comes into the marina, and as a result, we have more people to meet and more names to remember. Clark and I are both good with boat names and terrible at remembering people names. I have made a cheat sheet and have a copy on my phone. Clark quizzes me on a regular basis simply because he is hopeless at remembering names until they have been drilled into his head.

Many of the boaters we are meeting have come from North Carolina. They keep their boats in the same marina in NC and know each other quite well. They have been kind to us northerners and invited us to join them for docktails on the point by the lookout tower. It's an ideal place for docktails as the sunset every night rarely fails to be beautiful.

11 December 2021 - Saturday

Saturday is "Farmers Market" day here in Marathon. As she did when our boat was positioned next to hers at Faro Blanco, Sandy took me with her to go shopping. When I got into her car at Marlin Bay, two others were in the car with her. I recognized Anne from "Morning Star II" instantly. The other person introduced herself as Jenny Lynn. I replied, "Melody in C"?. She beamed and said, "Oh, are you that Evelyn?! With Clark?!"

"Melody in C" is the name of her boat. JoAnn McFall is our mutual friend. Jenny Lynn and I met briefly at a marina in Staten Island where the McFalls and "Melody in C" stopped on their way to complete their Great Loop in Michigan. Clark and I drove to Staten Island from New Jersey to meet up with them before they continued on their way home.

Later, Clark walked up to use the restrooms by the pool and never returned. I figured he had found people to talk to. We met folks here at Marlin Bay on a boat, "Black Swan", similar to, though a few years older than, our model boat. Finally, I got a text saying Clark was on "Black Swan". A few days earlier, they had visited us and toured our boat. With the news that Clark was on their boat, I put on my shoes and walked over to climb aboard to join them.

When I arrived, I found Clark had buried himself in the engine room with Oscar to trace wires through the boat - no surprise there. I joined Pam in the salon to chat. Every once in a while Oscar would poke his head out to say hello or get something. When he lingered too long, Pam would try to shoo him away to go rejoin Clark. Oscar told us Clark was busy reading manuals and tracing wires and did not even notice if Oscar was there or not! That sounds like Clark!

As the afternoon wore on, Pam announced that she was going to get her suit on and go to the pool. That sounded like a good idea and all the motivation I needed to do the same. We told the guys we were leaving and set off to have some fun while they labored on the boat. When we got to the pool, we found Anette from "Bagus" there before us, so we joined her and became a threesome.

The pool here is quite magnificent. Currently, since it is still somewhat off season, we frequently find the pool empty or mostly empty. The Concierge here told us to enjoy the quiet while it lasts as the marina will fill up in January. The pool is longer than most pools and about 5-feet deep from one end to the other. Clark loves the long pool as he can swim laps.

Pool at Marlin Bay Resort

Unlike most pools, it deepens from side-to-side, not end-to-end. Swimmers have a choice as their are steps and stairs into the pool. In addition, one can just walk into the pool from one side. The edge of the pool laps onto a brickwork "beach".

Shallow, Walk-in Pool - no stairs or steps involved!

The Hot Tub is indeed hot! Instead of feeling chilled when getting out on a windy day, it feels refreshing after a super hot dip in the Jacuzzi! Anette, her husband Bill, and I enjoyed lounging together in the bubbles of the hot tub!

Hot tub / Jacuzzi

12 December 2021 - Sunday

Maintenance Run on Boat

High winds were predicted for the next week. They already seemed to be picking up a bit. Even so, Clark said he wanted to take the boat out for a maintenance run today. I told him that if he set up the lines, I was good to go, so he did just that. When he was done, we had two lines left on the boat - a breast line at midships and a stern line to hold us near the dock against the wind. When Clark had the engines running and ready, I threw off these two lines easy peasy and we were off!

Since it was just after 11:00 when we left, Clark suggested we drop anchor and eat lunch or eat lunch along the way. I am not keen on maintenance runs just for the sake of being a maintenance run. Dropping anchor and hanging out for a while before returning sounded like the better idea to me, so that is what we did.

We mostly traveled the path we did when we stayed at Faro Blanco and headed for John Sawyer Bank Shoal. It is supposed to be a great fishing spot, but since we do not fish, we would not know. After reaching our destination, we turned and headed back towards the main channel where Clark could find a spot to drop anchor with good holding power.

It was noon when we dropped anchor and perfect for our picnic. Clark and I joked that we could tell folks we "ate out" for lunch. Since we never seem to go to restaurants, this is as close to eating out as I get!!

After lunch, while we were still at anchor, I did some cleaning of the upper helm. It gets really dirty up there. I hate sitting up there looking at the grime as we travel, so I decided that I would wash it down while I was thinking about it. Seems like I just did this job, but it does not last long before it has to be done again!

As I cleaned the upper helm, Clark rigged a bridle to the anchor line with a thin piece of rope as an experiment to see if a bridle would help reduce the swing of the boat at anchor. The picture below that I took from the internet shows approximately what Clark rigged on our boat.

Example of a bridle on anchor line

Clark could not tell until he removed the line whether it helped or not, but once he removed the bridle, the boat turned to be at almost a 90 degree angle to the anchor line. This happens when the current and wind disagree with each other. The bridle must have been working well as it had kept us facing into the wind until removed! I guess we now have a new piece of anchoring equipment!

We pulled up anchor at 1:20 and headed back to the marina. Clark called the marina to tell them we were returning, and the dockmaster and one other dockhand came out to help with lines. We docked at 2:10. After pulling into the slip and getting the boat secure, Clark talked with the dockmaster for a while.

When he was done talking, we adjusted and readjusted the lines to prevent the boat rubbing on the dock while at the same time allowing the boat to be pulled over for easier off / on. We finally declared ourselves done with the lines at 3:00! It's no wonder I dislike maintenance runs - they are so much work for little (for me) payback!

Since we have not been in this marina before, we did not know what to expect for the predicted high winds later this week. Clark decided we should take a walk out and look at the surf protection at the end of our dock to see how much wave action we might expect. He decided that it looked well-protected.

Looks like we have a "Fred Junior"
growing on the rocks by the docks.

Since we were right there on their dock, the folks on the sailboat in the end slip came out to introduce themselves. The boat name is "Beach House". The owners are Brad and Tia with two children - a boy Morgan (8) and a girl Brooklyn (5). We stood there and talked for a very long time and heard about their move from Miami Beach to here as full-time cruisers.

13 December 2021 - Monday

On Monday, Clark got a surprise call from the dockmaster at Marlin Bay. We have been on the wait list for a slip in January and February since September. Some miracle occurred and the dockmaster called to say that they found a way for us to stay but it would require changing slips for January and then again for February. That seemed a small price to pay for staying in "paradise", so Clark readily agreed and cancelled our alternate plans for dockage in the Everglades for those two months.

Over the past few days, Clark and I have been working on making Christmas cards. I put something together via PowerPoint then we took it to the UPS Store to be copied onto card stock. Unfortunately, we did not have enough envelopes to mail out all the cards, so we had to wait for Amazon to deliver. The envelopes arrived today.

With the help of the internet, colored pencils, and colored ink pens, I made some special cards for my grandchildren. Below are two test cards that I made but did not send.

Cinderella

Toy Story - Woody and Buzz Lightyear
("to infinity and beyond!")

The kids enjoy receiving mail, and I get to do some artwork.

We did the addressing and stamping today and set the cards aside to mail out on Tuesday.

14 December 2021 - Tuesday

Before the day heated up, we rode our bikes to the post office to mail our cards. Afterwards, I ran into Publix to pick up a couple of items before heading back to the boat. We got back to the boat just after 11:00. I told Clark that I wanted to go for a swim before lunch as I had not made it up to the pool on Tuesday even though I intended to go. I figured if I waited until after lunch, it just would not happen like it did not happen the day before. The pool felt wonderful after the hot bike ride.

Clark and I have taken numerous sunset pictures here. They are addicting. Anette, on "Bagus", said that by the end of the season we would have more sunset pictures than we would know what to do with! I think she might be right on that!

15 December 2021 - Wednesday

We invited our friends from Faro Blanco, Bill and Sandy on "L'Attitude Adjustment", to lunch today. I decided to get Lobster Rolls from Keys Fisheries to include in our meal. Their website says they are open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. I wanted to get the sandwiches and then prepare the other dishes to go with it. We biked there at 10:30 and found the restaurant portion did not open until 11:00. Fortunately, the place is only .2 miles away - basically two blocks from the marina. We went back to the boat and then returned at 11:00 to be there when they opened.

Keys Fisheries Menu

When a food order is placed at Keys Fisheries, they ask you not for your name but for some other piece of information. It might be a favorite song, for example. Today's choice was "Your favorite TV show". "MASH" came to my mind, so that was the "name" they called when our order was ready.

We quickly biked back to the boat as our company would arrive at 11:30, and Clark planned to meet them at the gate to the marina. Lunch was a success though Clark and Bill talked about repairing / replacing boat "heads" more than either Sandy or I appreciated.

Bill and Sandy left mid-afternoon. At 4:30 Clark said we should walk over to the "tower" to see who was around for docktails. He met a bunch of folks there Tuesday when he went for a walk. They told him to come back and bring me along next time.

Before heading to the tower, we walked down the other side of the outer harbor and met folks in a Nordic Tug, "Sea Gypsy". They are from the state of Washington. They bought the boat here in Florida and plan to do the Great Loop. They are wondering how they will get the boat back to Washington when they are done with the Loop. They have plenty of time to figure that out since they have not yet started their Loop trip. That will begin in April.

A few folks were over by the tower when we arrived. More came shortly after we sat down. We met more boaters - mostly from North Carolina. I quickly updated my phone-copy cheat sheet of boat and people names.

We also got to see "Gus" the snowman on the top of "Endless Summer".

When the wind blows, Gus waves!

Unfortunately, more people was not the only thing coming our way. Clark pointed to the sky and said, "Look at those dark clouds!"

With the clouds rolling in and a relatively long walk back to our boat, we decided we better say our farewells and get going. The storm passed just north of the marina. We saw not a drop of water from the sky! Oh well, better safe than sorry. We had some windows open on the boat, so besides us getting wet if the rain did hit, we would have had some clean up.

The sky was magnificent as sunset and the storm approached.