Presidents Day in the City

Presidents Day was sunny but cool...which was great after yesterday's heat wave. We spent the morning on the boat; Phil did minor repair jobs and I helped when I could but mostly kept out of the way.

The water taxi picked us up about 1:00. We needed to get to a wi-fi hot spot, pick up gas for the generator, and grab some lunch. This marina doesn't offer wi-fi and the office staff couldn't tell us any place except Starbuck's in CocoWalk to pick it up. We knew the library was a good spot but the Art Festival had that area blocked off. In fact they had about a square mile blocked off. On Sunday we had to go around the area to get out but today a security guard led us through it. Saved us a lot of walking.

As we were leaving the marina office we ran into a Canadian couple who had been in Marathon. We didn't meet them there but they knew our boat and saw us here in the harbor. So we had a nice conversation with them. They convinced us that we needed to stay here for another day and they'd show us around. So tomorrow we'll take the tour with them and then decide how much longer we want to stay.

Phil wanted you to know that he stayed at the Ritz-Carlton in Coconut Grove (for 5 minutes) and here's proof.

CocoWalk is in the heart of the business district in Coconut Grove. As you might expect, most of the businesses are upscale and on the pricey side. But it's a “must see” for tourists and there were thousands of them here for the Art Festival. Starbuck's was so crowded that we gave up on wi-fi and went to Johnny Rocket's for lunch. They claim to be the home of the “original hamburger” so of course we had to try one. When the waitress brought the fries she made a happy face with the catsup in a small bowl.

Sorry it started to run together in the picture.

Phil chillin' out at Johnny Rocket's.

We had to get back to the marina by 5:00 to catch the last shuttle back to the boat but we also had to go the opposite direction to get gas. This marina doesn't have fuel which is not unusual for a government-owned facility. Guess they aren't allowed to compete with local merchants. We made it with time to spare.

First Day in Coconut Grove

After the exhausting day we had yesterday, Sunday was very quiet and relaxed. We did take the water taxi in about 1:30 just to stretch our legs. The driver was nice enough to take our bikes also.

This is the water taxi that runs every hour from 8-5. Takes us from our mooring into the marina.

The Coconut Grove Art Festival was in town this week-end. It's one of the biggest outdoor art shows in the country and features artist from all over the world. Probably would have been interesting but the weather was hot and the crowd was huge so we decided to skip it. Since it was right on the waterfront finding a way to get around it was a challenge. We finally succeeded in getting to a bike path through a lovely neighborhood. Massive houses and beautiful landscaping. The picture below is an alcove on the street side of a wall . There was no identification but we thought it was interesting.

The next 3 pictures were taken along the same wall showing the beautiful flowers in bloom (yes, they're real and yes, it's February).

On our way back to the marina we stopped at a mobile lemonade stand that's been doing business at the same place since 1978.

They also served hot dogs and Phil just couldn't resist. Hope his cardiologist doesn't see this picture.

Right across the street from this was a beautiful gated house. Notice the tall stately palms on each side and the unusual gate.

After cooling off with a frosted lemonade we headed back to the marina for a shower. You'd think in a place as swanky as Coconut Grove the facilities would at least be a little better than average. Wrong! The shower stalls were air conditioned but the water was wacky...it ran hot then cold never just right. The shower curtain looked like it came out of the dollar store and was not clean. There was no place to hang your stuff and nowhere to put anything except on the back of the toilet that didn't have a lid. But it was a shower and that's important. Maybe these are just the facilities for boaters on the mooring balls, not for those in a much more expensive slip.

The taxi brought us back to the boat about 4:30, then we had an early dinner. There was a nice cool breeze blowing through the open hatches so we had a/c without power all night long.

Heading Home

Friday, February 17 dawned bright and hot. We left the City Marina dock 7:30; had to stop for fuel at Marathon Marina. A lot of fishermen were also fueling so it took quite a while. Finally got under way at 8:30.

Caught this one resting and in flight as we were leaving the harbor.

The Gulf was mostly flat with no winds but we made very good time...arrived at Ligumvitae Key at 2:30 and tied to a mooring ball. There were a couple of other boats anchored nearby. The sun set was nice but not nearly as spectacular as we've seen on the Albemarle Sound. However, the evening sky was amazing, crystal clear with thousands of stars mirrored in the flat, calm water.

Saturday morning was clear with light SE breeze, hot and humid. We left Ligumvitae at 7:45 and arrived at Gilbert's Marina in Key Largo at 1:00. Forgetting this is a holiday week-end we had planned to anchor near the marina and spend a couple of nights. But the anchorage as well as the dock was full.

Since there was no place to stay we continued on toward Dinner Key thinking we'd find suitable anchorage somewhere along the way. The wind picked up so we hoisted the jib and continued on to Dinner Key (another 30 miles). With the increased speed from the wind we thought we'd make it by 7:30. But the wind dropped to nothing. We had a track on the GPS from when we were here in December so we figured we'd be able to follow it right into the mooring field. Thirteen and one-half hours after we started out we finally got here. In the dark with choppy water we had to find and tie up to a mooring ball. Let's just say this was not one of our better days. Both of us have a word to describe it; Phil thought it was an adventure, I thought it was insanity. But tomorrow is another day.

The Adventure Continues

On the road again...well, the water...starting back up north. We'll take our time coming back and try not to get in front of the cold weather. Don't know how well we'd handle that since we had all these warm, sunny days.

This is a wrap-up of the past month in Marathon. In our last post I think I told you about attending the Centennial Celebration of the Overseas Railroad. Well, we made the paper the next week. No, we didn't get in trouble we just posed for the local newspaper with a few of the “characters” at the celebration.

This is the picture that was in the local paper.


We met a really neat guy from New Jersey when we visited Crane Point Nature Park in December. He was our guide on the tour and we've since developed a warm friendship with him. Here's a picture of us with him in his dinghy going to dinner one night. Because we don't have a motor on our dinghy we usual don't take it out at night. Some of the restaurants here are not in an area that you'd would want to bike to at night so unless our friends take us on their motorized dinghies, we eat in.

Now I know why I hate photos so much...shows me how fat I am.

We attended the Martin Luther King Celebration because the pastor of the church we'd been attending was one of the speaker. We have thoroughly enjoyed hearing him preach and we enjoyed his speech; caused us to think about some things that we might not have otherwise considered. Attire is a lot more relaxed here than at home even for church. We never see anyone in a coat and tie not even the preacher.

This is a picture of Keith making his speech.

When we win the lottery (and that'll be kind of hard to do since we don't buy tickers) this is what we want our next boat to look like. This is the Valkyrie and it spend a month here in the harbor across from us. Even though they obviously have lots of money they were nice people. Their boat did create some problems for us with wi-fi; not sure what caused that but service improved immediately once they left.

This is the Valkyrie; can you see why we'd like to have one like it!


Our neighbor in the boat behind us at the floating dock was an old gentlemen who has been here for 3 years. He lives alone aboard his boat and he celebrated his 90th birthday while we were here. Everyone knows Capt. Jack so his birthday was a big deal. He picks blooms off the bougainvilleas around the harbor and gives them to a different lady every day. Yesterday he came by and brought me a rose.

Picture of us with Jack.

That about wraps it up for Marathon. We enjoyed out stay but we're ready to get moving again. Will update you as often as wi-fi is available.