Getting it Done in Marathon

Yes we are still in Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, Florida. We are waiting for a last part for the SSB and using the time here to get valuable work done on the book.

We have the outboard working fine again (it was missing a piece...since when?). I seem to have fixed a slow leak in the dingy with a patch on the fabric bottom. We had a guy out to recharge the refrigerator but as near as I could tell it worked the same as before even though my wallet was $118 lighter. I may give up on this one as I hate throwing good money after bad. The guy said if it didn't take he needed to put a vacuum pump on it to get all the air out and for that I'd probably have to be at a dock (not free) for shore power. Not worth it.

Yesterday a storm came through followed by steady 20+ knot winds in the harbor. It is a very crowded harbor and many of the boats recently arrived did not anchor into this north wind. Result? Boats dragging and wandering about the harbor and much stress. We too were dragging our anchor but got on it while we were still a good 3 feet from the boat behind us. It was still raining and cold for down here as we tried to re-set the anchor. I was in just my bathing suit and was pretty cold. As we set the anchor and began to lay out chain a guy hollered from a nearby boat. "MORE CHAIN". Thanks. Like I wasn' already doing that. Besides, I'd like to let out more chain but then I would have been right back into the boats I was trying to avoid. Everyone's an expert!

More exciting was a nearby boat who when they pulled up their anchor found another anchor attached to it...from another nearby boat! I and some others dingyed over to help out from the water side. We finally got them untangled and put with their appropriate boats!

When it was raining really hard I went out and scrubbed the port side of the deck. Why? Well, then I plugged the scupper on that side and opened the fill to the fresh water tank. Free water! and lots of it. I filled the tank in just a few minutes. Yum.

This weekend we have volunteered to feed and pet a couple of cats on another boat in the harbor while the owners go away for the weekend. Having been in this spot ourselves with good old Gracie we know how this is are a looking forward to helping out.

This latest cold front is supposed to make for northerlies all week so no going to Bahamas yet. That's ok though because we are going to go to Chicago to watch the Superbowl! Airfare going Miami to Chicago is cheap...I would guess that it is not the other way around! So out of here on Saturday, Superbowl Sunday, Back to Marathon on Monday! GO BEARS!

Finally, if you are real bored I have an article in the Feb. issue of SAILING.