COCONUT GROVE, ISLAMORADA, MARATHON & KEY WEST

He Said:  Good-bye Lauderdale.  As per our last blog we were planning to depart Ft. Lauderdale on Tuesday the 14^th and we did just that.  As much as we enjoyed Fort Lauderdale we felt it was time to head even further south.  We left Tuesday AM and headed toward Miami.  This is about a 5 hour trip.  We decided to skip the famous South Beach and travel a few extra miles to Coconut Grove.  Passing on South Beach also got us a little further south towards the Keys.  We also decided since we were in our 20’s about 30 or 40 years ago, maybe that scene didn’t have our name on it.

Miami Skyline

We arrived early afternoon in Coconut Grove and settled in on a mooring ball.  We spent the next 3 nites in Coconut Grove.  This city was very cool, but was no Ft. Lauderdale.  It has lots of chain type businesses and a lot of commercial type buildings in the downtown part of the city.  Also no beach type scene, but we did enjoy it.

On Friday the 17^th we packed up for a long day heading to the Keys.  We knew our trip would be a good 7 or more hours to Islamorada in the middle Keys.  Once you get this far south the water color seems to turn to a more turquoise shade - really beautiful. Our trip was all of 60 miles and this is a little longer than the 40 to 50 which we normally enjoy - remember we are traveling at about 8 to 9 MPH, depending on currents and winds.  We only spent 1 nite in Islamorada.  This is kind of a stop over type place on the way towards Key West and Marathon.  We found a fun happy hour at Lorelei’s.  This pub was on the water and we enjoyed our visit there.  

Lorelei's on Islamorada

We left Islamorada on Saturday morning and headed to Marathon.  We had paid in advance for a visit from the 18^th of January until the 18^th of February.  We arrived in the early afternoon after about a 5 hour travel day.  Our trip was very smooth although we left the ICW and headed into the open water.  Since leaving Norfolk Va. about 4 months ago we have not traveled in the Atlantic Ocean.  We jumped out for about 23 miles.  The waters were very smooth, thank heaven.  We do have some less than terrific memories of the BIG water.  All went very well and we are very happy about it.  Check out the photo and description below.

The splash above the flag is a dolphin, but the cool thing is the dolphin underwater between the flag and anchor.  You may have to enlarge the photo to see it.  The water is so clear.

We took the dingy off of Meant To Be and checked out the area.  Here in Marathon there are about 8 marinas.  We are staying in Burdines.  We were on a waiting list, believe it or not, with 3 other marinas.  Burdines had availability and we jumped on the opportunity.  This is a very small marina with about 4 restaurants within a 10 minute walk.  Most everything else, including groceries, is about 2 ½ miles from the marina.  For 5 bucks Mr. Cab will take you anywhere in Marathon.  The area between the 7 mile bridge and the other end of town is about 8 or so miles.  What we don’t like so much about it is there is no real city - just Highway 1 running from Miami to Key West (about 150 total miles). 

Our first Marathon sunset

Since we will be spending the next 30 days here, we are both looking forward to kicking back in the 80 or so degree weather and not having to plan everyday as to where we are traveling to.  We have been back to a normal type of life, watching some TV, cleaning up the boat, eating in, taking our walks and just being kind of boring I guess.  

To liven things up my brother Terry and nephew Todd got into town at nearly midnite on the 24^th.  On their first full day, we dinghied to the beach with our cooler, chairs and towels.  After about a 40 minute ride to Sombrero Beach Mr. Dinghy was pooped out.  We had a great day; the weather was perfect and the water was beautiful.  We then headed to Happy Hour with $2.00 shrimp cocktails at Castaways - about 200 yards from the marina.  They have a golf cart to wheel your drunk ass back home, but the walk has only 1 right turn in it.  Yes, even I can find the boat when it’s that close.

Marathon sunset

 

Because my family only has 3 full days here we thought we had to make the most of every minute.  Having said that, we jumped the morning bus to where else??  You got it - look out Key West.  The bus ride was about 2 hours and for us couple of old farts it cost us a whole $1.50.  Pat killed me at 4 bucks - she needs to get older so I can afford her.  We had a blast in Key West, mostly walking Duvall Street and also mostly drinking.  Poor Pat left the 3 of us kind of bar jumping between Sloppy Joes and the Hog Breath Saloon.  After a few or so drinks we made our way to Mallory Square for sunset.  We hung out too long and kind of missed the sunset, oh well.  We caught the 8:30 bus back to the marina and arrived back here at about 11:00ish - a long but fun day.

Lunch in Key West at Caroline's - Jack, Terry & Todd 

World famous Hog's Breath Cafe

The following morning I had promised the boys we would go out on MTB.  Normally once we are in a slip for a month or so we stay put.  I figured between the 4 of us we would have no problem pulling out of the slip - things went perfect.  We headed to Sombrero Reef for a fun day of fish watching, snorkeling, lunch, and looking at the beautiful water.  The trip out went perfect, but by the time we tied up to a ball the stinking water was way too choppy to hang and swim around.  About 1.5 hours later we headed back to the marina - gr8 effort but not what we were hoping for.
    

Check out the turquoise water - beautiful!

 
After returning we jumped on the dingy and headed to Sunset Grill - about a 15 minute dingy ride in the ocean, but it was smooth and we hung the shoreline just in case.  The Sunset has a great happy hour along with an 82 degree pool.  It was nice hanging with a cocktail in a cool little pool.  We have spent almost no time in pools since leaving Az. over 8 months ago.  We went to dinner that nite, then the boys had to get up at 3:15am to catch the bus to Miami for their flight back to Columbus.  With the chill factor they lost about 100 degrees in about a 2.5 hour flight - how bad does that suck??  It was 80 here that day and with the chill factor it was a beautiful 20 below in the Columbus.  I realize how lucky we are but for people who live in bad weather states I am still not sure what keeps them there.  The winters in both Az. and Florida are tuff to beat – summer, of course, is a different story.  Had a blast with my family here and looking forward to Pat’s folks rolling in here in about a week from Vegas.  Should be fun.

She Said:  We hated to leave Ft. Lauderdale, but at least it was an easy departure.  The 5 hour trip was a pleasant one - there wasn’t a lot of traffic and there were fewer bridges to contend with.  We passed downtown Miami and Miami Beach and headed to the Miami suburb of Coconut Grove on Biscayne Bay.  The water was the clearest we’d been in since embarking on the ICW.  The entrance to Coconut Grove (Dinner Key Channel) was confusing, and there was a lot of sailboat traffic.  But when we finally made our way into the harbor we quickly found our mooring ball.  This was a huge mooring field (225 balls) and a long dinghy ride into the marina.  It wasn’t our favorite set-up, but we only planned to spend a day or two. 

 

Coconut Grove sunset

Coconut Grove has some fun history.  Until 1945 it was the hub of Pan Am’s Latin American “clipper ships.”  The original two hangars are still on Dinner Key.  Coconut Grove is currently the home of the U.S. Sailing Center, the winter training site for the U.S. Olympic sailing team.  We saw a van that said “Melges USA, Zenda, WI.”  Buddy Melges is a gold medal Olympian, an America’s Cup winner, and boat designer from my 2^nd home – Lake Geneva, WI.   His house was just down the street from my mom and dad’s – I even bought something at one of his garage sales.  It’s always fun to see something hometown and familiar and realize how it fits into the bigger picture – in this case the Olympics!  I got such a kick out of it I took a picture of the van and texted it back home.

Coconut Grove is a regular town with a Ritz Carlton, Cheesecake Factory and Applebee’s (to name a few) – a little bit of everything.  We found a fun place on the water – Monty’s., but not much else.  There was a grocery store within an easy walk so we stocked up on a few things.  Overall, a good place for a night. 

 

The trip to Marathon (our next destination) was 100+ miles – that meant we needed 2 good travel days back-to-back.  The weather was so bad we had to stay 3 nights waiting for a good weather window.  Bad weather and mooring balls aren’t the best combination.  The waves were so bad that we couldn’t get off MTB 2 of the 3 nights we were in town.  On Thursday we decided to leave the next day.  Since Friday was forecasted to be a better travel day than Saturday, we decided to leave as early as possible and get as far as possible.  So we called ahead to the fuel dock, checked their hours and said we’d be there when they opened at 8am Friday. 

 

Friday we radioed the fuel dock at 8:05am for assistance, but there was no answer, so we decided to tie-up without assistance (a first for us).  To make a long story short, the fuel dock finally opened after 9am and we were underway around 9:30am.  That put us a good hour plus behind schedule and we had 65 miles to go at an average of 8MPH.  We were taking the “inside” route (Florida Bay side) where the water is shallower, but calmer.  The weather was beautiful and the water was calm and clear.  If not for the crab and lobster pots, it would have been a perfect day on the water.  We ran faster than we usually do (which was good for the engines, but bad for fuel economy) and made it to Islamorada our first night.  We hoped to anchor that night, but the winds were forecasted to be in the 20-25 MPH range, and we don’t like to anchor in those conditions.  We grabbed a slip and walked to Lorelei’s – our first of many Tiki bars in the Keys.  Later, we headed to the Shrimp Shack for dinner and had shrimp and grits.  It was one of the best meals I’ve ever had – excellent!

 

Lorelei's

We had less than a 40 mile trip on Saturday, but we would be going “outside” (the Atlantic) and the winds were forecasted to pick up in the early afternoon so we wanted to get an early start.  The water was deeper so we expected fewer lobster/crab pots – WRONG.  We were constantly looking for pots and Jack was constantly dodging them.  The weather was great the entire trip.  The water was so clear we were afraid we were going to touch bottom – but the depth was 10’+.  We finally arrived in Marathon.  Yeah! 

 

3 pelicans in the mangrove trees.  These things are HUGE.

My excitement was short lived when I saw the slip we were pulling into.  I was standing on the bow of the boat surveying the situation and I said to Jack, “That can’t be our spot.”  The people on the neighboring boats said, “Yes, it is.”  Uh-oh.  The slip is 15’5” and our boat is 13’10”.  That gave us less than 20” of wiggle room – not nearly enough in my estimation.  Captain Jack earned his stripes that day as he pulled us in bow first without ever touching a pylon.  It’s amazing how far we’ve come in 8 months!

I must admit, Marathon is not what I expected.  I was hoping for a mini-Key West.  Instead, I got a small town along US66.  Everything is very spread out and we’re almost at one end.  And the end we’re at isn’t the high rent district.  Lots of trailer parks (and not the double-wide variety), Cubans and burned out hippy-types.  There are several eating/drinking establishments within an easy walk, but the closest thing to a town center is 2.5 miles away.  And the town center isn’t much - a couple fast food places, 2 grocery stores, a K-Mart, and not much else.  It will be fine once I realign my expectations.

Typically when we stay in one place for a month, there’s not much to report.  We live pretty much like we did back in Phoenix, and that’s basically what we’ve done since arriving in Marathon.  Our boat neighbors for a few days, Mike and Lori from Ft. Myers, FL and Bloomington, IL, were great and we plan to meet up with them in Ft. Myers in March.  We’ve spent most of our first week here getting the lay-of-the-land.

Jack’s brother, Terry, and his nephew, Todd, both from Ohio came down for 4 nights.  We had a great time.  We took the dinghy to Sombrero Beach for the afternoon - 4 people in our little dinghy must have been quite a sight.  On Sunday we took the bus to Key West.  I left the boys in the bar and did some window shopping.  The bartender at Sloppy Joes told the guys that Jimmy Buffet’s recording studio was just down the street, so we were on a mission to find it.  We walked past is several times before figuring out which building it was.  We barely made it to Mallory Square in time to see the sunset.  It was a long day, but a lot of fun.  We plan to make the trip to Key West at least 2 more times while we’re here. 

Shrimpboat Sound - Jimmy Buffet's recording studio

Todd checking out the fishing charters as they arrive at Key West Bight

 

Sunset from Mallory Square, Key West

 

On Monday, we took MTB out for day trip (the first time ever).  There’s a reef at the Sombrero Lighthouse – about 5 miles off shore.  There are mooring balls to tie-up to so that your anchor doesn’t damage the reef.  It’s a protected, patrolled diving area.  Unfortunately, the water was really choppy.  I was feeling nauseous – especially when I was in the cabin.  None of us got out to snorkel - I think getting on and off MTB would have been a challenge.  We stayed out there about 1.5 hours and then headed back to the marina.  We took the dinghy to Sunset Bar and Grill later in the afternoon.  It’s a fun place that opens up their heated pool to their restaurant and bar patrons.  Overall, a fun day – especially for our Ohio family that left behind sub-zero temps.

Sunset Grill - Jack, Todd & Terry catching some rays!

The weather’s been great – 70s and 80s.  We’re settling into life in Marathon and have extended our stay through March 1^st.  My mom and dad are visiting for a week in early February.  I haven’t seen them since my niece’s wedding in July, so I’m really looking forward to their visit.  Our friends, John and Debbie, who we met at the very beginning of our ICW journey, are arriving 2/01; we’re really looking forward to spending time with them again.  We are planning a few outings while here, but generally we will probably be sending fewer and shorter blogs while in Marathon.