Let's Rock

Marathon Harbor

We looked at the weather report this morning and decided that tomorrow, Saturday, is the right day to go. We’ll encounter a weak front on Saturday but there’s another front coming next Tuesday and we want to get out of the Gulf Stream before it catches us.

Our plan is first a 24 hour sail to the Dry Tortugas. We’ll spend a day there, and then shoot straight for Belize City. It should take 3 to 4 days.

Now the excitement builds, as we hustle to do the last minute chores before departure. Libby is out washing and waxing the hull. She had it on her list for a month, but the motivation wasn’t strong enough until today. I know the feeling. In the harbor here the days and weeks just seem to slip by without noticing.

I checked, and our cell phone will work in Central America but it will cost as much as $3 per minute to use it there. So please, don’t call and don’t leave voice mails unless it’s important. Jenny will check our email at dmills@acmenet.net and forward anything she thinks we need to see.

Albion

Last night we invited the crew of Albion over for dinner. The four of us had a great time.

Chris is a Brit (Limey, Englishman) and June is American. The couple has lived in many countries and speak many languages. They mentioned England, Portugal, Singapore, Thailand, Panama, and several others that I can’t remember.


 

Chris is a bowyer. I never met a bowyer before. I never even heard that word before. Chris makes bows and arrows including traditional English longbows. Chris’ web site is www.castanley.com. June has degrees in teaching English and in literature. Both Chris and June have taught English as a Second Language (ESL) in many countries. June has been a HAM for many years, and Chris is studying Morse code just like me. June also speaks many languages and she sounds like a very talented woman. I suspect that talent in languages carries over to learning Morse code.

We had a lot in common and we enjoyed swapping stories about being expatriates and about sailing. Too bad we’re leaving away in a few days. Perhaps we’ll meet again with Albion and our new friends in some other port. Actually, we met Albion first in Elizabeth City North Carolina, then a second time in Fernandina Beach Florida, and now for the third time in Marathon, so the chances of more meetings may be good. 

The Bicycle Rack

Marathon Harbor
3/2/2006

Another aspect of the cruising life is the bicycle rack. See the picture. Here is Marathon it's a terrible mess as you can see.


Some people come here to stay several months so they buy a used bicycle to get around town while they are here. When they leave, they either sell the bike or just abandon it. The bicycle rack is filled with very old rusty bicycles that are locked to the rack. Nobody knows who owns them so they don't dare take them away. After a long time, the tires go flat, the handlebars and the seats fall off yet the bike remains locked to the rack.

The result is that abandoned bikes far outnumber the used bikes in the racks and that it is very hard to find a place for our bike.

When we leave, our bike folds up so that we can take it with us on hhe boat. I expect that wherever we go, we'll find dinghy docks and bicycle racks for the cruising sailors.

WX

We were planning to leave on Saturday March 4. However the weather forecast shows that we might want to wait until Monday.

The experts say that we should avoid the Gulf Stream when winds blow from the north; especially when winds are 20 knots or more. The best time to go is immediately after one of the "Norther" fronts that pass through the gulf.

The forecast in the picture shows a Norther passing through on Sunday, so I tentatively plan to delay departure until the front passes. 

Drew and Kia

Marathon Harbor



We had Drew and Kia over for dinner tonight. You remember them. We wrote about them in our blog early in January. They were the couple who own a Westsail 28 and who sailed a Clipper 26 from Ketchikan Alaska down to Seattle. Now they bought a Westsail 28 named ‘aleluia and they’re living onboard with their dog Creosote.

Also last January, I took Kia for a ride around the harbor with the sail up on our dinghy, and we got dunked in the water. (See the blogs from January 6 and 7)

We had Drew and Kia over for dinner tonight. You remember them. We wrote about them in our blog early in January. They were the couple who own a Westsail 28 and who sailed a Clipper 26 from Ketchikan Alaska down to Seattle. Now they bought a Westsail 28 named ‘aleluia and they’re living onboard with their dog Creosote.

A lot happened to Drew and Kia since January. Their engine died. They only had the boat less than a month and they only sailed as far as from Homestead Florida to Marathon. Still, the motor got water in the oil and it was ruined. Now they are both working jobs here in Marathon partially to make enough money to get a new engine and get out of here.

Drew and Kia also got married here in Marathon a few weeks ago. It’s nice to see young people who still care about thinks like that.

After leaving Marathon, Drew and Kia plan to sail up to Maine for the summer. They like that idea better than working the cannery in Ketchikan. From what I understand about canneries, I think they’re right.




Kia is checking out the pictures of our Clipper 26 sailboat on my laptop. They also owned a Clipper 26. Quite a conincidence.