We are still in Marathon. We’d done a major stock-up of groceries and had plans to collect the packages we’d had sent here, top off fuel and water and then move to Key Largo to wait for a weather window for the Bahamas. But Willie Dawes had other ideas.
We returned from Key West to find our battery bank very, very low. We have AGM batteries, which typically last about five years, and then without much warning, they die. Ours are in hospice mode. It’s been five years, and we’ve been living aboard the last year and a half. So Dan spent a few days doing research and consulting others, and decided to make the switch to Lithium batteries, which are now on order. Due to the holidays, though, we probably won’t get them for another week. Dan is happily busy drawing diagrams for some of the re-wiring necessary, and making other preparations. (Like cleaning up the engine room.) There is nothing he likes better than a big project. It’s a good thing he’s so handy.
In the meantime, while we wait, (and to take Dan’s mind off the batteries) we joined our friends Dave and Nancy from Hygge on a 2 mile hike to the tiny Pigeon Key. The entire island is on the National Historic Register and once housed several thousand workers and their families in small houses and many tents during the construction of the railroad that ran from Miami to Key West. Many of the buildings are gone; what is left is used as a museum which plays host to schoolchildren and tourists. The crabpot buoys hanging in the ceiling of the old dining hall are signed by the schoolkids who spent a camp weekend there. The people on this island worked hard, were paid very little, and had to endure mosquitoes and hurricanes as they constructed the bridges that once held the railroad. The railroad only last a few years before it was replaced by a highway.
On Saturday, Dec 30, I went along with Nancy and her sister Patty on a road trip to Islamorada. Nancy has a book that lists several things to see and do in the Florida Keys. Getting your picture taken with Betsy the 40 foot lobster sculpture is one of them. This was the main goal, but we stopped at Long Key State Park to hike the one mile Golden Orb trail, which the ranger assured us was the best hike in the Florida Keys. Didn’t see any golden orb spiders, but we did get some good views of the ocean and a few herons in the mangroves. Next we stopped at Anne’s Beach in Islamorada to walk the boardwalk that spans the length of a sandbar. After that we found the Rain Barrel collection of arts and shops where Betsy presides and a friendly woman offered to get a picture of the three of us. We had a late lunch at the Island Grille and make an impulsive stop at the Windley Key Fossil Reef Geological State Park on the way back to Marathon. This turned out to be a real find. The quarry where Flagler harvested limestone (known as Keystone) for his railroad bridges is here. There were also several nature hikes with an accompanying guide book that informed us all about the local flora and fauna. We returned home in time for a beautiful sunset from Hygge’s marina.
Sunday, Dec 31st Dan and I took Willie over to Sombrero reef, about six miles southwest of Marathon to snorkel. There are eight moorings here, which filled by 0900. The air was about 68 degrees, and the water wasn’t much warmer, but it felt good to pull on wetsuits and get in to go sightseeing. There was an amazing variety of fish, despite the fact that the coral was mostly dead. We spent about an hour in the water, swimming all around the lighthouse fixture. It was a great way to end 2023. We came back to find our anchorage had been taken, but fortunately that boat left us enough room to squeeze in behind them. We’ll have to stay put now, as new boats are coming in every day.
Happy New Year Everyone!
Tommie finds anyplace a good place to take a bath.
No comments:
Post a Comment