marathon still.

i haven't blogged for a while.  we have been in marathon since december 26, 2014 and truly, it has been relaxing - just taking our time.  there is a joke stating that cruising is "making boat repairs in exotic places," but it is also basically doing the same thing you've always done except that you have a different view!  tom and i have both been working, me at my job and day-to-day mundane cleaning and he with writing his magazine articles and doing boat maintenance, but we also try to do something else every day not related to work.  it's all good.  we would probably save more money anchored or at a mooring rather than being at the marina but you can't beat the convenience.  it's nice to be plugged in and have climate control inside the boat.  it's nice to be connected to city water to do the laundry, dish washing, take long decadent hot showers and not have to worry too much about what is left in the water tanks.  mostly, it is about consuelo though - it's easy to get her on and off at any time without having to deal with the dinghy or looking for a convenient PFA (pet-friendly area).  she has not needed any veterinary services despite her old age - the money could have gone there, but instead it pays for the convenience of being at a marina.  she obviously did not need a college fund so we don't really feel like we are spending extra and it benefits all three of us and makes life much easier.  i guess one could think of TADHANA as a kind of chronic care dog facility.  well, no... more like a senior dog living facility :)  in any case, we are all pretty comfortable over here at the sombrero resort and marina.  

tadhana from above

along the wall

we are in the canal, on the wall right next to the condo resort building.  people staying at the resort walk by every now and then and check out the boats lining the wall.  it's a good thing we have privacy screens and blinds or they would be peering inside.  some of the tourists stop and have their photos taken with TADHANA, not realizing that we are inside watching them as they pose.  it's a hoot. 

we've seen a few iguanas here at the resort but one day as we were dinghying down sister's creek to head out to the atlantic ocean, i happened to notice something moving in the mangroves - an iguana - and after that, knowing that they were there, i would see iguanas hanging out on the branches all the time. 

our dinghy outboard had been acting up mostly because it hasn't been run full out since we left hampton on november 1, 2014.  it's been run slowly at no-wake speeds and mostly on cold days.  it hasn't been exercised and it was objecting to that by making oil and needing to be decarbonized.  the problem was that we picked up gas with ethanol and it has been sitting in the tank for a while,  so, when it isn't too windy, we are out in the dinghy in the afternoons running the heck out of it to get rid of that old fuel and making our little yamaha 9.9hp right again. 

video of dinghy ride. 

we've seen manatees in our canal.  when our neighbor washed down his boat after being out in the ocean for a sea trial, a manatee came over, lured by the fresh water spilling out from the scuppers.  one evening, while i was sitting out on the side deck, i was startled by a dolphin that surfaced from underneath TADHANA right by me!  i didn't realize that they came in here, too!  we have had our share of pelicans as well, especially since we are close to the resort's boat ramp and fish cleaning station.  nothing like free food to bring the birds in. 

manatee drinking rinse water

a WHOLE manatee

speaking of birds, one day a rooster showed up at the marina/resort property.  it was quite vocal!  the next day, we saw someone trying to catch it with a towel.  one of our neighbors donated his crab net to the chicken-catching cause and while the guy with the towel cornered the rooster, a woman used the crab net to catch the rooster.  we don't know where the rooster came from but we heard he was going to someone's chicken farm.  in any case, it was a pretty entertaining break from work to watch the catch-the-chicken show.  i especially found it amusing that the rooster was caught with a crab net from VA made of "chicken wire."  our neighbor said he kept the crab net onboard to fish his cat out just in case it fell in.

the rooster that vocalized

we do a lot of biking since we don't have a car.  tom always seems to need something from west marine and then, of course, we also always seem to need something from publix on the way home from west marine.  but at least we are getting our exercise.  the only thing is that you basically risk your life every time out there because you have to take the main road.  there is a bike path or the sidewalk but one still has to cross the cross streets.  it can be nerve wracking. we had some near misses! 

we also received some bad news from a cruising-couple friend of ours - the worst possible kind of news.  but one doesn't have to be a cruiser to know that the message here applies to all of us - that our time on this earth is not something that we have control over and that we should make the best of what we are given before it runs out.  don't put off your dreams because you don't know what tomorrow will bring.  the news shook us up pretty badly.  we are very grateful to be where we are at this point and sometimes i do think about the amount of time i spend working.  on the other hand, i have this deal i made about getting my boat sooner rather than later - TADHANA is worth every penny to me.  and this year, for the first time since we moved aboard, we are not up in deltaville in the cold and ice!  which brings me to... 

milton parks called just to chat.  tangier island got hit badly by yet another ice storm so it can't be very pleasant there right now - things are pretty much in the state of paralysis, i.e. boring.  but as much as we are enjoying the warmth here in marathon this winter, we also look forward to going back to the chesapeake.  we have missed it - the chesapeake is in our blood and we now have roots there.   

ok, next thing - our social life (such as it is).  six of the SAIL rally boats are here in marathon, either anchored or in the mooring field,  and a couple more are arriving next week.  some of us got together to celebrate a couple of birthdays and made everyone else jealous.  we finally got to the dockside tropical cafe after three weeks here and you know what?  it's still not my thing.  the food was not great and the music was way too loud.  i mentioned this to tom the next day when we got together with friends from deltaville who are staying at key largo and drove down to visit us.  did they listen to me?  no, of course not so back there we went ugh.....  worse, it was apparently karaoke night.  needless to say, we literally ate and ran hahaha...

going deaf

in any case, so there it is - life in the slow (and warm) lane.  not much to report since we're not moving.   i guess i better post the obligatory sunset photos :)

a couple more of tom's magazine articles

life aboard in winter 

planning your new england cruise 

sombrero resort and marina, marathon, FL

the passage from tarpon basin, key largo to marathon started out grey and cloudy but by mid-afternoon, the sun was out.  we went on the inside, ICW via florida bay, and lord, were there ever a lot of crabpots!   now, we are chesapeake people and crabpots do not ordinarily bother us but these were strewn everywhere in random order rather than in neat lines and they were IN the channel and everywhere else!  florida bay is pretty shallow, too, so kind of nerve wracking at times.  a pod of dolphins showed up and played in our bow wave for a while but they got bored.  we just don't go fast enough.

 video of dolphins

we didn't really have a plan regarding marathon but as we got closer, we eventually decided to take a slip for a couple of nights.  well, you know how it is with these plans, right?  first of all, there was no room at the inn for the moorings.  you can't be on the waiting list until you are actually THERE and then they'll put you on the list.  there was, however, a slip available at the sombrero resort and marina  so instead of anchoring, we took that.  frightfully expensive, however, we managed to find a reason to justify it for one to two nights :) 

at the marina, we pulled up beside TWO 37 mariner seville pilothouse boats, both just a little older than us (there are only 25 or so built so far).  it was kind of neat to see the three boats together.  needless to say, the owners came out soon enough to let us know what great taste in boats we have :) 

three sisters

we did our usual clean-up routine  and then tom called me to come quickly and bring my camera.  apparently, we had a visitor!  i got some pics and then i thought, now how am i going to get off the boat with that thing there?  but it jumped into the water and swam off across the creek.  okay, so much for going swimming....

a dragon!

the next day, tom's son, rip, and rip's girlfriend, megan, came to visit and arrived in the afternoon.  they drove in from naples where they were visiting rip's maternal grandmother.  tom managed to get a good deal on a room for them at the resort so that they could stay the night and we all went for a dinghy ride and got some sun and got caught up.  with rip having a car, we also went to the publix to do provisioning as well as to get fixings for dinner and grilled on the boat.  after that, the kids went dancing.  by this time, i was feeling markedly unwell and by the next morning, i was in full blown viral gastroenteritis.  that lasted for four days.  i didn't eat for three and i was pretty much down for the count and totally useless.  i have no idea where i picked up that bug - i couldn't even begin to guess.  needless to say, that blew off a few days and obviously, we couldn't leave.  tom was so worried, he was calling my sister-in-law who is a pediatrician practicing in orlando!  i don't think he really trusts my medical judgment.  it's true that i don't practice, but i really do have a diploma from a prestigious-enough medical school and i'm not completely out of touch.  in any case, one to two nights turned into four nights and, to make a long story short, it was either leave on january 2, 2015 or take a slip for a month.  i was doing better by the 31st but starting up cruising again on the 2nd was not a good idea as far as i was concerned.  i was very weak, i tired easily, and we had barely seen anything of the area!  as far as why our choices were so limited, it's a long story.  suffice it to say that this time of year, in this area, you don't have very many and everything is very expensive.  what the hell, we were here so we were going to stay and make the best of it - such a hardship, i know.  NOT. 

i was kind of happy about that decision as it took the pressure off to get well quickly, something i don't seem to do as well the older that i get.  oh, and the other thing was that we had planned on heading down to key west but completely forgot about new year's!  new year's at key west - probably not a good idea.  as it was, there were arrangements here in marathon for buses with a one-way $4 fare - no need to bring your boat.  no need to find parking.  no need to stay sober for the drive home.  i can only imagine what new year's eve must have been like.  needless to say, not only did we stay in marathon, but we didn't even go out for live music at the nearby dockside tropical cafe.  our celebration was the fact that i managed to eat something that night and keep it down.  tom grilled some teriyaki salmon and it was very good :) 

in any case, so this is the plan:  we have a slip here at the sombrero resort and marina for a month so we'll have some kind of "home base" for a little while that we can cruise from in this general area.  we still plan to go to key west as we have friends there who are anxious to see us.  but as far as the west coast of florida, definitely not from marathon or key west - it's too long a trip with no definite stopping point that we know of for consuelo.  we might still go but from stuart instead via the okeechobee canal or we might not.  even sanford is a question mark now, but well, you know, that's cruising.  we could still pick another place along the coast instead of heading into the st. john's river and still see mikey and marie on some weekends from there.  i don't know.  i guess we'll have to see.  i didn't mean to get sick and let me tell you, it was not pleasant, and i know it frightened tom - probably because i am not a very reassuring person when i snap back and say "i'll be okay - eventually"  (i guess he doesn't know me that well or he takes it seriously when i say that if i'm going to do something and i don't and i don't let you know why within 24 hours, i am probably dead, which, in actuality, you should believe anyway because i am completely trustworthy!) - anyway, basically, it just emphasized the fact that we can do whatever we want whenever we want and change our minds any old time.  i kinda like that :)  it's just that part where i still have to work and i was out of it for four days so you can bet that as soon as i felt well enough, i was back at it.  the money, the money....

i am dedicating this blog entry to my friend, clair monroe, who does not facebook and who is freezing her (_|_) off in deltaville in our old slip F8 at norview.  she had emailed to ask me what was happening as she kept checking the blog and there was nothing new!  well, claire, i was having a tough time with the internet - i can't connect to the marina's wifi where i am currently for some unfathomable reason and my aircard is reading four bars but it keeps cutting out so, hopefully, when we move slips tomorrow, things will be better, but in the meantime, i decided to splurge and buy an Xfinity wifi access pass for the day ($7.95 gasp!) and i tell you, it's the fastest internet that we have had in weeks so totally worth it.  i figured i didn't have a drink at the bar next door for new year's eve yesterday so i can afford 24 hours of lovely internet (it ends at 2:18 p.m. tomorrow by which time we will have hopefully moved to a new spot) but now that i have it, i feel compelled to update all our NOAA charts, download everything i need to download and upload everything there is to upload including this blog entry. hope you're happy :)

tom captured a beautiful sunset behind tadhana