DAYS 209-211: Key West to Marathon

Key West to Marathon: 8.4 mph; 42.3 miles; 5:00 hours

Leaving Key West was bitter sweet; we really had a fun time but it’s time to move on and see new sights.



Safe Harbor Marathon: $3/ft; electric/bathroom/great showers; salt water pool; captain’s lounge; not sure about laundry.

We needed to extend our stay here because the 20-30 mph winds and 40mph gusts decided not to settle down.

Marathon is more of a fishing village. Lots of charter boats coming and going from this Key. While we were in Key West, at Irish Kevin’s, we met a group of lively gentlemen heading to Marathon for a fishing trip which was going to be filmed for television. While in Marathon, we ran into them again. There was a slight recognition and smiles but I have no idea how their trip went. Because of their great mood, I will can assume they had a good day of fishin’ AND catchin’.


We caught up with Looper friends, Side Piece, and hung out in the heated pool. Later, we met up at the bar to watch the game. The next day we walked, forever, to another bar. On the way back to the marina we were caught in a torrential downpour - drenched. On the final full day of our time in Marathon, Thistle came in and we all walked over to Castaways restaurant and bar for a Looper celebration and lots of fun conversation. The last time we were all together was on the Joliet Wall south of Chicago.


PLANS … We really have no plan for heading north. We have 1200 miles to go and if we pulled 100 mile days we’d be home in 12 days - unacceptable. There is an idea floating about renting a car and driving to Daytona to see Matt Curry's race at the end of the month.


For now, we’ll dilly about the Keys and see what we can see. We are headed to one of three anchorages/mooring fields: Lignumvitae Bay, Shell Key or Cotton Key in that order. These keys are north of Layton/Marathon but south of Islamorada. If the first doesn’t work then we have two more to try.


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