Especially those of you near my age will remember the "Cuban Crisis" of 1962, when we were sure that the Russia was going to shoot missiles at the USA from Cuba. I vividly remember drills of crouching under our desks in case of a nuclear attack....Our government has been anti-Castro ever since then and in 1983 created a version of "Radio Free Cuba", or "Radio y Television Marti". Click here for a web link. .Marathon boasts 4 large transmitting antennas, beaming anti-Castro propaganda at Cuba. At night, they glow red in the sky - a bit hard to see in this picture, among all of the boat anchor lights. Here is an effort...mmm...if you don't know what to look for, you really can't pick them out, I suspect. They are the 4 vertical structures with two lights each on them.
We did take a picture today of the 4 antennas - a bit easier to see.
Today was a perfect day to sail towards Miami, but unfortunately, we need 2 days to get there. The weather tomorrow is NOT perfect. So, we are still in Marathon, hoping for a Saturday/Sunday weather window. Since we couldn't leave, we took the dinghy to Sister Creek.
To give you a good idea of where we are, here is a map. OK, it's a commercial bike/kayak rental map, but it's a good one!
When we arrived, we entered the mooring field from the far left, past Castaway and Burdines.
Latitudes sits on a mooring, just at the right side end of the yellow submarine.
The marina office, showers, boaters lounge, and dinghy dock are the 2 white piers jutting out in the water to the right, touching the green of the local park.
To get to the grocery store, glasses store, and other shopping, we take the dinghy to a spot under the small "d" in Dockside. Then we walk along the blue canal until it ends, turn left up Sombrero beach Rd to Hwy 1. Stores are along there. It's about a 1/2 mile walk.
Sister Creek is on the bottom, to the right of Boot Key Nature Preserve. It does wander out to the ocean, but is shallow in spots and not usually used by sail-boaters. We did take the dinghy all the way out today. Here is a picture of the entrance of Sister Creek from the ocean side.
See all of that development on the right side of the Nature Preserve? That is a maze of narrow channels, filled with homes of all types, but mostly very expensive ones.
Sister Creek did provide a lot of bird life. We saw an osprey guarding her nest, very near the radio towers.
A flock of 3 White Ibis were preening in a dead tree.
Here is a close up of one of the exotic looking birds.
We saw two herons. The first was this beautiful Little Blue Heron. He was standing over the water's edge, on a red mangrove root, definitely waiting for dinner to swim too close. Note his two toned blue bill!
The second heron was a new one for us! We can only decide that this is a juvenile Yellow Crowned Night Heron. His eyes were much redder than shown in the picture.
Three gallons of gas for our dinghy tank, a quick underwater prop check for barnacles and other growths by local divers, and we are about finished for the day. We're treating ourselves tonight to dinner at Key Fisheries again. It's close, very inexpensive, and darn good local seafood! Outside picnic table dining at it's best, along with those big devil tarpons and sunset.
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