Marathon🌬💨🌊🌤🌦☀️

We arrived to Marlin Bay Marina in Marathon on a beautiful day and a short 40 mile run up the Keys. We are ready for a change from Key West after 2 months. I was super ready to move but really sad to say goodbye to Cara and Randy. I got to know them really well and I just adore them! She was my soul shopping sister. We had fun shopping in Key West and hanging out together.

It BLEW like crazy the whole time we were in Marathon. The winds whipped and blew for weeks. We were unable to get on the water. The marina was safe, the boat was tied up, the pool was warm, we had lots of friends there…..So we did not suffer.

Beautiful pool area.

Marlin Bay is more of a resort. It has a large resort style pool and a bar and is surrounded on one side by tall single family homes. The property was originally build as a home development with 3 and 4 story single family homes surrounding the gorgeous pool and marina. They had plans for many more homes but, from the story I heard, the hurricane happened (Irma) and they couldn’t sell the homes. The area got hit hard and they had to reinvent this property. An investor came in and bought the property and turned it into a resort, renting out the homes and has plans to finish the rest of the build. You can rent a villa and the marina is now available for transient cruisers and travelers. When we got here the marina was full of loopers. We arrived just minutes before Rick and Rhonda from R&R. I was super excited to reconnect with them. We had traveled some of the rivers together. We also met up with our pals from Curti-Sea, Ted and Robin. They were a welcome sight. I have missed them terribly. Remember my blog about having too leave them in Tarpon Springs after they had an incident? Then the holidays came and went while they went back home to Michigan. It felt like ages since we saw them. The gang was back together.

Ted and Robins Boat with a great view of sunsets!

Marlin Bay was quite a change from the busyness of Key West. We spent a few days lounging by the amazing pool and walking to local places for breakfast and dinners. The Stuffed Pig was a big hit with an outside eating area and yummy breakfasts. You just had to remember that Marathon operated on Island time.

We enjoyed community yoga in the park and Andy played pickleball a few times. He was a total natural.

Andy and I had been looking for a new place to call home after the loop. We had taken one trip up and saw some homes. Nothing felt right and we began to play the Zillow/Realtor.com game. “Whats new today?” We began to compare listings and every time I opened the app I hoped something would pop out at me. AND IT DID!!! We rented a car and drove up to see it. It was perfect, beyond perfect, absolutely everything on my list and more. We made an immediate offer, they countered exactly where we wanted to be and in 2 days we were in escrow.

WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!

This has been the smoothest, most wonderful transaction. Everything was meant to be and we are thrilled.

My online Zillow game turned into online designing and decorating. I deleted Zillow and loaded Wayfair, Overstock, Pottery Barn, Joss and Main, etc….. Turns out another looper and friend, Connie and Rich were also in escrow on a house a few miles away. Connie and I compared notes, styles, shared photos and IT WAS FUN!!!! I cannot wait to visit her home and see what she does with it and vise versa!.

The weather in Marathon was similar to Key West. Windy as heck with swell and rough oceans. We had another 3 weeks of disappointing ocean. Andy and Ted decided that one day the ocean looked favorable to take the dingy out to a reef. We loaded them up and made our way out 8 miles in the open Atlantic to find this reef. We spotted a bunch of boats and the lighthouse landmark in the distance. Now if you have read my blog, you will remember a particular story about my dingy ride from hell in the Bahamas where we almost flipped it over in rough waves and we would have perished. I looked out in the distance at this lighthouse-reef and wondered if I was going to be telling the same story. It wasn’t fun. It was bouncy and a long way. We got there. There were a lot of boats, NOT dingy’s, BOATS, tied to mooring balls. We asked a smaller boat if we could tie to their boat. We tied up and then Ted and Robin tied up to his. The boys jumped in the water with Aquaman leading the charge while Robin and I bounced and jerked against the other boat in the swell. I would normally jump in to snorkel but the swell was big, the dingy was jerking in the swell and I was a little green. Plus I decided a wet long ride back would make the ride back miserable. So I opened a bag of Doritos, drank a beer and tried to remain calm. The Doritos were a good move!

He loved driving this dingy, even in choppy rough water.

We returned and all was well. I still do NOT enjoy these long rides bouncing through waves and rough seas. It just is not my thing. My back kills me later! I wore my life jacket this time which gave me some comfort. It also held my boobs in from all the bouncing! Haha! 😂 A bathing suit does not give enough support to bouncing waves in a 10 foot dingy. Later, at the pool, people found out what we had done and decided we were certified crazy. My thoughts exactly.

I wanted to visit the Turtle hospital. It’s the largest hospital in the US and it has a smaller one in Jekly Island. We had visited that one when we were there last year. I convinced Connie to go with me. We got to see what happen to turtles who were rescued and injured. I did enjoy that. Boats hit them all the time and dent their shells making a gas bubble, which causes them to float. When they can’t sink down they can’t eat. They also are effected by the poor quality of our oceans and suffer with tumors and disease. So sad but this was a cool place.

Manatee in the grass

The day finally came to leave. We had a good few day weather window to get up the coast to Miami and Fort Lauderdale. It gets harder and harder to leave these place because we become connected to these wonderful friends along the way. We were anxious to cross our wake. So it was time to go. Rick and Rhonda came to say goodbye and see us off.

Rick snapped some pictures of us leaving the marina. I love that he got a great shot of us and our boat!