Marathon, southern FL mecca for cruisers

We made it to Marathon, FL.  This hurricane hole is a mecca for cruisers who want to go south for the winter but not cross to the Bahamas or the Caribbean. Many, many cruisers head to Marathon by the first of November and stay here until late March. As we turned Latitudes into wide channel between Boot Key and Vaca Key, the Marathon harbor began to open up.  First, past a few fuel docks combined with tiki hut style restaurants.

Next we idled our way to the old bridge.  This used to be a bascule bridge, opening on demand, but I guess there was too much demand, so a section of the bridge was simply removed so sailboats could motor into the harbor easily.

SO...Boot Key City Marina....it's a boat city of 238 mooring balls and overflow anchoring for those on the mooring ball wait list.  We actually got the last mooring ball available yesterday.  The marina office has a large general area for relaxing, 20 or so showers, 8 washers and dryers, and just about everything else you would need to spend time here.  All in Florida Key style - very casual, yet very regimented! Present your boat documentation papers, dinghy registration, personal ID on registration. Get dated expiring magnetic cards for showers, dated bands for dinghies, for bicycles if you have them, laundry money cards. This seems to be a reaction to the earlier days of anarchist boat hippies nesting in paradise for the winter/forever with little constraints. Grocery stores, drug stores, restaurants, bars, and marine supply stores apparently abound within a 1 mile walk.  We will check that out tomorrow.

There are some creative souls here - this is anything but a boring dinghy!

But today, snorkeling!  Friends Anita and Charlie and we took Latitudes to a great snorkeling spot about 3 miles out of Marathon, at Sombrero Key. Charlie and I were not interested in snorkeling, but Anita and Luke were.  Here they are, suiting up for their dive in.

The water was clear - much like the Bahamas, but greener instead of aqua.  Lots of fish to be seen as they drifted along.

Luke said they saw queen angels, lots of sergeant majors, jacks, a scrawled filefish, a barracuda, parrot fish, wrasses, and yellow tailed damsel fish.  Charlie, Smokey, and I saw the schools of them from the boat.  A leisurely lunch on board and an even  more leisurely sail back to the mooring field.  We took almost 2 hours to sail back at a whopping 3 mph.  A very nice day!