We arrived here Friday and predicted storms for that afternoon did not develop.  However, beginning Saturday we had very strong winds and rainshowers.  We saw little lightning and there was no hail, but we know that north of here in Florida the storms were much worse.  The locals tell us that thunderstorms and even hurricanes seem to skirt around Marathon.  Still, for several days we got steady, at times heavy rain and that allowed us time to stay aboard and rest as the decks were being cleaned by Mother Nature.  Above is the beautiful sunrise we saw this morning in the mooring field.

We paid for one week on Mooring Ball P3, which came to $118.  That includes use of the dinghy dock, laundry room, individual shower rooms, and a large lounge with two TV’s, large library for book trading and tables for using free wifi. Water is available for 5 cents a gallon.  In between rain showers, we went ashore each day for long walks.  One direction took us along the road to Publix, Home Depot, Walgreens and a number of restaurants and smaller stores.  The other direction took us to West Marine, more restaurants and lots of marine related shops.  The four lane road is very busy, but recall that this is the only way to get from South Florida through the Keys to Key West. I’m sure very few of the vehicles on the road were locals.  It’s a good thing I am no longer addicted to Starbucks frappuccinos though as there are no Starbucks after leaving Miami until you get to the one in Key West.

The locals are very laid back and friendly to cruisers, who are their bread and butter.  (We heard this tendency to be overly relaxed is called “Keys Disease.”) Yesterday, our friends needed to get part of their sailbag sewn and brought it into a canvas repair shop.  The woman working there said it wouldn’t take long and wouldn’t cost much.  Uh......that could be a dangerous when estimate dealing with most marine shops.  They came back in about an hour.  It was done and the cost was $5.  Unbelievable!  Lynn and Shelley gave the woman $10, telling her it was worth at least that much.

On Sunday, we had lunch in the Hurricane Blues Bar with outdoor seating since Daisy was with us. Monday, we enjoyed lunch at the Juice Paradise Cuban Cafe which was very small but had excellent authentic dishes, also with outdoor seating.  Lynn and Shelley went to breakfast at the Stuffed Pig this morning, but we decided to skip that.  I regretted the decision when I heard they had Crab Cakes Benedict on the menu. Tomorrow night we’ll try a restaurant right on the Gulf which specializes in crab claws.  All these restaurants had very reasonable prices.  Mark and I rarely eat out, but with our freezer now empty and only NutriSystem to eat, we welcomed the diversion to spend time with good friends eating good food.

A few nights ago, we introduced Lynn and Shelley to Mexican Train.  We haven’t played it for years, but this domino game is a favorite of cruisers and quite addictive. It was fun to be playing it again.

Mark had almost completed the installation of the five solar panels when we left Ft. Lauderdale.  After we arrived here, he spent most of Saturday doing the final hook-ups and installing the Blue Sky MPPT (maximum power point tracking) charge controller. (photo left).  We woke up Sunday morning and although the sky was partly cloudy, we were already getting free power from the sun!  What a relief and kudos to Mark for doing the entire installation by himself, as well as getting it all right the first time.  By the end of Sunday we were getting excellent readings. Somewhere down the road we will probably add a wind generator to use when the sun isn’t shining.

One of the only reasons we would need to turn on the generator now will be to heat hot water for showers.  However, we are using a solar shower which holds about five gallons of water.  As shown in the photo to the right we place it on the deck above our shower and run the hose through the hatch into the shower stall. The other photo shows the shower head coming through the hatch into the shower. By late afternoon, the sun heats the water much warmer than you need for a shower.  Whenever we have our new diesel engines running while motoring or motorsailing, the water in the tanks is heated and actually stays warm for several days so then we can use the actual shower without using power to heat the water. Of course we could use the very nice showers in the marina, but we prefer our own showers.

For washing dishes we heat water in a teakettle on the stove and mix it with cooler water in the sink.  None of this seems like we are giving up any creature comforts or doing what we refuse to do.....camping.  With the solar panels we are finally able to live “off the grid.”   Of course, after staying at marinas for most of the last two years it is a learning curve to stop using excessive power.  For example, if we leave the boat at night we usually keep a lamp plugged in and turned on.  However, that uses unnecessary power and we don’t need to do it.  Usually we plug in our phones and computers to charge overnight, but in reality the phones only take an hour or two to fully charge so why leave them plugged in all night?  There are no TV signals here in Marathon for any channels, but back in Rodriguez Key a few days ago, we watched “American Idol” and were surprised how little power the TV uses. 

We are waiting for the wind to clock a little more before we leave to go up the Gulf Coast.  It looks like the traveling conditions should be good on Thursday with favorable wind direction and speed for sailing as well as waves in the two foot range.  While we have paid here through Friday, we knew we probably wouldn’t stay that long.  The situation in this mooring field, unlike most marinas and mooring fields, is that you pay ahead either a day, several days, a week, a month, etc.  If you change your plans, there are no refunds and you can’t, after several days, change to a week to get the weekly rate.