A Week And A Day In Marathon

It took us about four hours to travel from Lignumvitae Key to Marathon Marina and RV Resort. We had to travel about an hour out of our way to go through Moser's Cut and under the Seven Mile Bridge. There's another cut that would have been closer but our mast wouldn't clear the 19 foot bridge height. I had called earlier to get our slip assignment and Sharon showed me the marina map. That's always a big help to know where you're going way ahead of time! But the 'stress free' docking was not to be. Two slips down from where we were docking was a dinghy with a dive flag and divers in the water inspecting a boat. I normally like to dock stern-in but chose to go bow in to avoid any chance of getting blown into the divers.

Moser's Cut. First the old Flagler RR bridge/US1 then 7-Mile Bridge

Original Flagler RR bridge that was converted to US1

Next the dock master told me he needed to wheel down a 'box' to check our power before we plugged in. There's a new electrical standard that requires new marinas or significant renovations (as well as new boats) to have equipment leakage circuit interrupters (ELCI) installed. Basically this detects if the current leaving the shore power pedestal is same when it returns and nothing is leaking via ground. Here's an article to explain in MUCH greater detail about GFCI and ELCI. Since our boat is over 30 years old, I was pretty nervous our AC electrical system may not have passed the "ELCI" test and we wouldn't be able to plug in. Especially since we have an inverter which adds another layer of complexity. As luck would have it, we checked out fine on both 30-amp circuits! Then Sharon turned on the ice maker which tripped the breaker at the pedestal. A couple days later, I pulled out the ice maker, did some troubleshooting and called my tech, Mac, at Raritan. I have used him several times over the years and he's great! In this day and age, it's rare to have a dedicated tech to talk to. Long story short, we narrowed it down to the ice maker portion. We can use the Icerette as a freezer (making bowls of ice) but it won't make cubes without tripping the breaker. The ice maker is 24 years old and lived a good life. Time for another ice maker <sigh>.

We have zero TV antennae reception here. We had two on Islamorada (both Spanish channels) but none here. Strange since we had about 40 on the mooring ball at Lignumvitae. We don't watch a lot of TV but do have plenty of work arounds...

Friday, our friends from MD, Terri and Sheila, rode their Harley up from Stock Island to have lunch with us. They are staying in their RV at Boyd's Campground on Stock Island. It's so great seeing friends from back 'home'! We ate at Burdine's which is known for their burgers and fries. It did not disappoint! They are so popular that you even need to be seated at the bar! (Their bar is not for drinking but for eating). After lunch, they headed south and Sharon and I stopped at Castaways to check that place out. Go figure! Their happy hour starts at 2:00. Just in time for us to roll in. We aren't much of day drinkers but seemed like the thing to do at the time.

Us with Terri & Sheila!

Burger did NOT disappoint! And four of us
did not finish one order of fries.

Harley getting underway.

"Wilson" at Castaways.

Sunday was a comedy trying to watch the football playoffs! We started the first game at Lazy Days -- the tiki bar at our marina. The game was on but no sound -- only music. Even though everyone at the bar was watching the game, they wouldn't turn off the music and put the game on. I tried using my Tunity app for sound but that didn't work for whatever reason. We left at half time. We went back to the boat for the second half. I tried "Smart View" of Hulu from my tablet to our TV. It worked but the resolution decreased to a point where it was horrible and it kept cutting out. So we walked over to the marina lounge for the second game. Nice couches and a big screen TV. Go figure! Apparently Dish doesn't have an agreement with Fox so we couldn't watch the game!!! !@$ Back to the boat. I watched it on my tablet (didn't bother trying to screen shot to our TV). Ahhh, first world problems.

Other than that, we did a LOT of walking and reading. We have seen fish, birds, iguanas and a manatee. Tuesday, the temp dropped and wind picked up. To the point of wearing hoodies and turning on the heat! Wednesday was even colder.

Manatees love fresh water and this
one found some dripping out a pipe.

Iguanas are so destructive that the governor
is enjoying citizens to humanely kill them.

Happy hour at Porky's

We were going to leave Thursday for Boca Chica but decided to play it safe and wait one more day for the weather (and seas) to calm down. We learned about an "Early bird" special at the Lighthouse at Faro Blanco. $20 for any entree on the menu! (except for catch-of-the-day). We both got their filet mignon. Yum! We had reservations but had great seats at the bar so decided to eat there.

On our final day we walked about two miles to Home Depot, K-Mart and Winn Dixie. We needed a week's worth of food (and beer) for our upcoming stay at Boca Chica. We took a cab back to the boat, chilled for a while and Sharon made a delicious sword fish dinner right after the sun set. (Thanks Rebecca for the fish!!!) We really enjoyed Marathon! It's really laid back with plenty of restaurants and happy hours within walking distance. We met several boaters but didn't really connect with anyone -- kind of a first for us in our travels.