Marathon...a Week and Counting

Day #134; Loop Miles to Date = 1,740

We have been relaxing in the Keys for over a week now, and the time just seems to ooze away a day at a time. We left the last blog post with an unresolved fuel leak, and are happy to report that this has been resolved. New fuel lines were delivered on Monday, and by Tuesday afternoon, Rob had the repair complete...everything appears to be good as new. So, no more major projects on the boat right now...just routine minor chores as we laze around here in the Keys.

We want to give a belated shout out to our friends aboard California Lady. They have been here since before Christmas, and have been a great resource here as we get our bearings. And, knowing that we were coming in a bit late on the day when we arrived, they were gracious enough to have us and Inspeyered 2 over for dinner the night we arrived. It was great...and much appreciated! They were also instrumental in organizing a pig roast for the staff and boat owners last night. We had a tremendous spread, catered by a local Cuban Restaurant, and there must have been 75 or 80 folks in attendance. Too much food...and all delicious!

So now for some pics of the goings on over the last week...



View of the Faro Blanco Lighthouse from our slip.

 

  

The Old 7 Mile bridge is now a pedestrian bridge, and only about a mile walk from the marina. And once there you can walk for another 2 or 3 miles.

 

The is the section that we came under when we arrived coming into the Marina. It's hard to tell from this shot, but there is a pretty stiff current that often runs through here...we had some of this to deal with when we came in.

One day, we took a day trip to Key West with Inspeyered2 (thanks to California Lady for walking our pups so we could spend the day away!). We rode the bus for 2 hours each way to get there...that was an interesting part of the day. We had a really nice day...the highlight was probably the breakfast that we had at Bagatello...it was really, really good. Most of the day we wandered the streets like most of the tourists...lots and lots of shops and bars and restaurants. We're glad we went, but have no inclination to spend another day doing it again. 

Obligatory photo of the Southernmost point in the continental US. There was a line about 50 people deep that we would have had to wait in to include ourselves in this shot...we opted for just the buoy.

Not sure why we chose this particular spot to take a selfie...but why not?

This weekend, some serious power boaters from Miami visited the marina and used it as a stop over for their Keys weekend Poker Run. (Basically it's just an excuse to get their boats together and burn a whole lot of expensive fuel for the weekend.) These boats are mostly $1Million + and can run at 70 to 80 mph with no problem. Amazing to see the contrast between these machines and the trawlers that we travel with!

 

We heard them coming before we could see them...there were 12 - 15 of them in total.

 

This one basically looked like the Batmobile.

Most of these carry 2700 horsepower...that's roughly 8 times the amount of horsepower that we have on our boat.



And some of them were outboards...nothing like 1600 hp on your transom. Yikes!

The other happening of note this week was that we temporarily said goodbye to our friends on Inspeyered2. Their plans dictated that it was time for them to move onward on Thursday. We've been lucky to travel with them for the past few weeks, and look forward to when we meet up with them next...we are hoping that it will be soon.  



Yes, it's been a bit breezy...this day it was blowing at 20-25 mph. But we're not complaining!