Marathon Key

Well, it’s 12:05 and I am on my second Hurricane. That should tell you what kind of a day it’s been.

It began with a decision: catch the tide or wait for the wind to lie down? We elected to leave on the tide, since there had been some VERY skinny water getting into Key Largo.

The price we paid was a choppy ride, which is fine. Nothing compared to when we first bought the boat up in Buzzard’s Bay or Nantucket Sound.

Just a 4-hour trip from Largo to Marathon, but the last two hours were riddled with lobster pots. Hundreds of them. Thousands? If I saw hundreds, there were probably thousands. The buoys are not big – about the size of a cantaloupe. Some are red or yellow or white or even black! The black ones are VERY hard to see! The problem is that if you snag one, it can wrap around your prop. I did not relish the thought of diving overboard to clear the line from the prop.

And in choppy seas, they are all VERY hard to see. So TWO HOURS of constant evasive steering. EXHAUSTING!

And – candidly – I am already cumulatively tired.

When we finally reached Marathon, they assigned me a 12′ slip for my 12′-wide boat. Because of the angle, I didn’t realize how tight it was. And I trusted my stern thruster to overcome the 12 knot wind from the west. I consider myself very good at approaching a dock “softly”. Not as good as my brother Tom, perhaps, but then no one is that good. But pretty good. Any way, I banged a piling with my swim platform. I don’t see any damage, but it really pissed me off.

Between the lobster buoys and the bumpy landing, I headed straight for the Tiki Bar.

Do not expect any further communication from me today. Ha ha!