Tarpit Harbor

Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, FL
34 42.54 N 081 05.58 W

In 2008, I wrote a post that quoted the lyrics of Eileen Quinn's song Tarpit Harbor. I recommend Eileen's songs. Find her web site here where you can buy CDs. Anyhow, the situation today is so similar that it bears repeating.

TARPIT HARBOUR


Well the holding is good 
and the water's pretty clean
it's an easy dinghy ashore
the French bread is fresh 
and the laundry is cheap
there's a well stocked hardware store
feels so familiar, almost like home
and I can't quite remember
what I left home for


Chorus:
Tarpit Harbour
has sucked down my anchor
and with it my will to be free
there's some what goes sailing
I seem to go anchoring
stuck in the muck this side of the sea.


Monday there's movies
Tuesdays the potluck
Wednesdays I play volleyball
there's the luncheon on Thursday
happy hour Fridays
Saturday the market's
got my favorite stall
Sundays I look at my list of boat projects
then lie down and try to recover from it all


Chorus: tarpit harbour ....


well I'd have been long gone
if I hadn't been waiting
on boat parts from overseas
now my tools are all rusted
autopilot's busted
and the freezer refuses to freeze
but I would have remedied
all of these problems
if I wasn't so busy shooting the breeze

Where's the similarity? Let's see.  Today is the SSCA luncheon.  Tomorrow, snorkeling and the farmer's market, Sunday we play Balderdash. Monday is wine tasting. Tuesday we stock up on borrowed DVDs from the library. Wednesday is the meet-and-greet pot luck,followed by a jam session by The Barnacles. Thursday is Libby's day to volunteer at the library.  Friday afternoons are free seminars on marine subjects. Wednesdays Libby teaches other women how to make pine needle baskets.  We check mail several times per week, and we can order stuff online and give them a snail mail address to send to.   Every day we note what grocery items we might need and take a walk to the store.  Also every day at 9 AM, we listen to and participate in the Cruiser's Net on VHF channel 68. Twice a week, Libby does a load of laundry. Most nights at sunset I grab my conch shell and blow a blast with all my might.  It is a keys and Bahamas tradition.  We hear a dozen or more other conch horn blasts from all directions at sunset.  I have a list of 40 boat projects.  I'm working on one and contemplating working on the others if only I could find the time.

Eileen Quinn certainly hit the nail on the head. Tarpit Harbor it is.  By the way, Marathon, Florida, Vero Beach, Florida, Marsh Harbor, Bahamas and Georgetown, Bahamas are the four Tarpit Harbors that we're aware of.