We made it to Marathon last Tuesday evening after a short stop over outside Shark River to anchor for the night. Last time we were in Marathon in 2013, we cruised right in, picked up a mooring ball in the City mooring field at Boot Key and promptly parked ourselves for three weeks. Not this time! We were warned by a fellow cruiser in Marco Island that there was a waiting list so at least we knew not to count on a mooring ball when we arrived. I know most you reading this think we are the only crazy ones living on a boat and cruising around place to place, but as we found out this time in Marathon with a 50+ boat waiting list for over 250 mooring balls, it is quite a large group. Boot Key is the mecca of cruising and live-a-board and this time of year is the 'season' (I had no idea!), so we had to anchor out.
See all those little tiny specks in the water in the harbor? Every one is a boat. Over 250 on mooring balls and another couple hundred anchored wherever they can find a spot. We decided to stay out of the fray and anchor outside the harbor.
See all those little tiny specks in the water in the harbor? Every one is a boat. Over 250 on mooring balls and another couple hundred anchored wherever they can find a spot. We decided to stay out of the fray and anchor outside the harbor.
I had a couple emails asking why our tracker made it look like we were doing circles around Marathon. Since we had to anchor outside the harbor we were hiding from the wind. When we arrived the wind was out of the south so we anchored on the north side of the island for two nights. The next day forecasted the wind to slowly clock around to the north so we jumped under the 7-mile bridge to the south side. The only problem was it took until almost 10pm for the winds to finally make it to north, so we bounced around all day. Yuck! Finally the winds slowed and moved to east so we grabbed a spot right outside the harbor.
The other problem we've had in Marathon is having no place to land a dinghy. Since there are so many live-a-boards, the marinas are not very accommodating to dinghy tie-ups. They'd be over run with them. The only place to park a dinghy is at the City docks (the same mooring field mentioned above) and that costs $23/day. Not terrible, but with a mile ride in we wouldn't use it as much. We paid for one day, got showers and a provisioning run to the grocery store.
So we are ready to move on from such a busy and crowded place - it is a great place to meet people. We plan to cross to the Bahamas tomorrow (Monday, February 1). It will be another overnight crossing. The weather window looks promising for light winds and seas as we cross the Gulf Stream (fingers crossed!).
We won't be accessible by cell phone while crossing, but once we have signal again, we have unlimited international texting and data. So feel free to text or email us. We may not be as quick to respond as we have been, but we'll catch up eventually.
The other problem we've had in Marathon is having no place to land a dinghy. Since there are so many live-a-boards, the marinas are not very accommodating to dinghy tie-ups. They'd be over run with them. The only place to park a dinghy is at the City docks (the same mooring field mentioned above) and that costs $23/day. Not terrible, but with a mile ride in we wouldn't use it as much. We paid for one day, got showers and a provisioning run to the grocery store.
So we are ready to move on from such a busy and crowded place - it is a great place to meet people. We plan to cross to the Bahamas tomorrow (Monday, February 1). It will be another overnight crossing. The weather window looks promising for light winds and seas as we cross the Gulf Stream (fingers crossed!).
We won't be accessible by cell phone while crossing, but once we have signal again, we have unlimited international texting and data. So feel free to text or email us. We may not be as quick to respond as we have been, but we'll catch up eventually.
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