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