Start: Marathon, 24.42.398 N, 81.05.392 W
Finish: Shark River, 25.19.784 N, 81.08.010 W
1100 Underway
1827 Dropped anchor in Shark River
Total Time: 7 hour 27 minutes (stopped for @one hour to cut crab trap lines off propellers, first Anything’s Pawsible’s and then ours)
Total Distance: 48.67 nm
Last night we enjoyed a fabulous dinner with Lynn and Shelley in Marathon at Key Fisheries, a restaurant on the Gulf. Mark and I had Key Lime Scallops (sauteed w/ key lime, scallions, shallots, tomatoes, and white wine over linguini), stone crab claws, and for dessert the best Key Lime Pie I’ve ever had. The scallop entree was just $18.95 and the stone crab claws were $1.25 each. The pie was also reasonable at $3.95. All in all it was an excellent end to a fun week. We watched the sunset over the Gulf from our table.
Above, Daisy caught a ride with Lynn and Shelley (Anything’s Pawsible) on our way to the dinghy dock. Daisy loves them but was a little nervous about not riding with us as she sat in Lynn’s lap.
Overall, we had a great time in Marathon. It’s definitely a place we will stop at on our way to other places, but probably wouldn’t stay longer than a week. Then again, it’s probably the best place for us to stay for a prolonged period in the Keys. The other alternative would be Key West which is much more expensive, crowded and overrun with tourists.
We left this morning and first went under the 65 ft. cable with no problem while leaving the mooring field. (photo left) Our next test of the new lower mast was going under the 65 ft. Seven Mile Bridge. By being able to go under this, it cuts off days and many miles of traveling to get to the Gulf. We have avoided cruising in the Gulf because it is such a long trip around Key West and then over a hundred miles out to sea to make the turn and come up the coast. Now we can get from Marathon to Marco Island in two short days. We didn’t even tap our antenna when we went under, so we were ecstatic to have broadened our choices of routes to include all the areas with 65 ft bridges, including the ICW.
In the photo below at the left, our mast is right under the bridge span. Although it looks close, we had plenty of space above the mast and flexible antenna.
As seen from the photos we had ideal sailing weather with blue skies and calm seas. The wind was from the NE at 13 kts most of the day and then clocked to SE. We were motorsailing but had to go to one engine as we were speeding along over 8 kts. We didn’t want to get to Shark River too early since it is very, very buggy and we have to keep the windows closed. We have screens but that doesn’t stop no-see-ums. With our old hybrid propulsion, we would be lucky to get 6 kts motorsailing in these conditions.
We did have to stop twice along the way. At 1445 Lynn and Shelley picked up a crab pot line. Close to the shore the Gulf is thick with them. They had to anchor (only about eight feet deep here) and dive under their boat to remove the line caught on their prop. We were weaving in and out of crab pots all day and it is easy to miss a white one in a whitecap. In fact, it’s possible that this line wasn’t even attached to a pot as we were all watching carefully for them.
About an hour before we reached Shark River, we picked up something on our prop but it was too rough to stop and try to remove it. Just before we entered Shark River, we anchored and Mark went under to check the props. Luckily we just bought wet suits and also a Brownie compressor a few weeks before leaving Ft. Lauderdale. Mark needed both since he couldn’t hold his breath long enough to get all the line. He was under about 15 minutes cutting away at the tightly wound crab pot line. Again, we dodged a lot of pots but didn’t see this so it may have been loose line floating below the water.
Finally, we pulled into Shark River at a little aftaer 1800. The first anchorage area was full so we had to go up farther up the river. There are horse flies, mosquitoes, and no-see-ums here. Even though there is a stiff breeze, we are in The Everglades. This is a national park therefore no dogs are allowed ashore. Daisy doesn’t understand because she sees the shore and it looks similar to other rustic areas where we have gone ashore. However, even if we could take her in the dinghy, we wouldn’t since there are too many dangerous creatures in The Everglades. Although she is a full fledged “boat dog” now and has some smells on the trampoline, she chose to wait until she could go ashore tomorrow.
We stayed outside as long as we could before the no-see-ums finally came out in full force and then retreated to the inside with everything shut tightly. At sunset, we did venture out for a couple of minutes to look at the beautiful view.
Tomorrow we will be up at dawn and raise our anchor at first light. If we don’t catch any more crab pots, we should reach Marco Island by early afternoon.