Day 178, Departing Marathon

Leaving Harbour Cay in Marathon


Burdines








This is 1/4 of the original order of french fries









View from the Tiki Bar at Tranquility Bay



We chose "Burdine's on Boot Key Harbor for our last outdoor lunch here in Marathon, the view is fantastic, great view of the Harbor activity and best of all the French fries. The picture shows what was left of one order after Tom and I consumed our fill.

After running errands on our bikes, we stopped at the Tiki Bar at Tranquility Bay for a beverage in the sun while watching some young adults (Young girls in bikinis - is it spring break?) play volleyball.

Our last evening meal in Marathon, we tired Porky’s which is right next door to our harbor. It is a very popular spot with entertainment every night. Actually we have avoided "Porky's since it really didn't have eye appeal, but discounting the outside appearance it was very good, very "Keys", extremely popular and plus a live one man band that played an excellent song list.

We left Marathon at 8:30 this morning with all of our friends waving good-bye from the dock. It has been a great stay with wonderful people. We traveled on the inside ICW for 7 hours to Tarpon Basin in the Key Largo area. This is a longer day than I like but even at that we only traveled 54 miles. When we talk about the inside and outside it sounds like we’re in prison. Outside is the Atlantic Ocean route with open water, less scenery and possible rough seas/water, where the ICW inside gives us navigational routing markers and more wind protection. Tomorrow we have 35 miles to another anchorage/sea wall tie in Boca Chita which is an island, Florida State Park located in the south end of Biscayne Bay on the Atlantic Ocean side. Today's count statistics, 2-dolphin sitings, 100's of crab pots.

What a great anchorage here in Tarpon Basin MM 1140, quite, remote, protected from the wind and very few vessels with us. We had a great dinner on the aft-deck watching the sunset in the west. The temp's are perfect for a good nights sleep, low humidity and in the 60's tonight. Amazingly we are receiving about (30) over the air TV channels, however a few of them are in Spanish.
If you can rely on the weather prediction this far in advance, it appears the weather forecast for Friday is not great. We hope to get into Dinner Key at Coconut Grove (about 6-miles south of Miami) before Friday afternoon for a 3-day stay. We have been advised you do not want to be on the Miami ICW on Sat or Sunday due to the wake you could encounter from very fast large boat traffic and the lack of respect their wake can create.