{"id":4157,"date":"2015-02-21T13:28:09","date_gmt":"2015-02-21T13:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=4157"},"modified":"2015-02-21T13:29:07","modified_gmt":"2015-02-21T13:29:07","slug":"marathon-home-of-the-bahamas-wannabees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=4157","title":{"rendered":"Marathon, home of the Bahamas wannabees"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Saturday morning and we are anchored in a mangrove creek off of Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, in the Florida Keys.\u00a0 The weather for the last few weeks has been pretty crazy, like the weather up north, but in a Florida Keys sort of way.<\/span><\/p>\n

That is to say that it\u2019s been unseasonably cold, try 40s in the morning and 60s during the day.\u00a0 However, before you start yelling \u201cBob, you are such a weenie, try Zero degrees and see how you like it.\u201d, remember that while we are blessed with heat aboard Pandora, we are really exposed to the weather and\u2026.well, just trust me, it\u2019s pretty cold out on the water and way colder than we were expecting.<\/p>\n

Anyway, think what you will, but to be less than 100 miles from Cuba and feeling the 40s is not typical. \u00a0Regrettably, it\u2019s just not tropical at all.<\/p>\n

Our two day run down here from Miami was quite a snorter.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The wind was on the beam and solidly in the 20s with gusts into the low 30s.\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, that\u2019s a lot of wind but Pandora handled it pretty well with just the jib.\u00a0 For much of the time we were booking along at 7-8 knots, a pretty respectable speed with just a small jib up. \u00a0\u00a0Our route took us down the Hawk Channel , which runs down the ocean side of the keys and is protected by a long barrier reef to keep out the ocean swells.\u00a0\u00a0 I can\u2019t say that I enjoyed sailing hard for two days but we got here and to wait for more settled weather would have kept us in Miami for another week, which we didn\u2019t want to do.<\/p>\n

Marathon is the best harbor in the Keys (actually, it’s the only protected one) and it\u2019s the spot where many cruisers spend their winters and some wait for a \u201cweather window\u201d to head out to the Bahamas.\u00a0 The city has put in about 250 moorings so the harbor is completely full with very little anchoring room available.\u00a0 Don\u2019t get me wrong, I\u2019d be happy to pay the $20 per day fee, less if you book for a week or month, but EVERY mooring is occupied and there\u2019s a waiting list with 30 ahead of us so our only option was to head into the mangroves and anchor there along with others in the same predicament until a mooring spot opens up for us.\u00a0\u00a0 And, I have heard from some folks who spent two weeks here and only a dozen boats left during that time. I have to say that’s not encouraging.<\/p>\n

As an interesting aside, Marathon is the home to \u201cradio Cuba\u201d that has been operated by the Uncle Sam since the 60s, broadcasting \u201cnews\u201d to Cuba.\u00a0 There are three enormous radio antennas nearby blasting their signal to Cuba only to be \u201cjammed\u201d by our buddy Fidel. \u00a0We broadcast, they jam and that’s the way it’s been for some 50 years. \u00a0Such is the subtle thinking of government. The signal is so strong that the LED lights in our cabin have been flickering, even if they are turned off, and our inverter has even been turning itself on all by itself because of the strong radio signals.\u00a0 I have also noticed that my SSB long range radio has terrible reception as the signal from the antennas just overwhelms it.\u00a0 There is so much power from the station that the signal bleeds over onto the SSB frequencies and I can hear the station itself on Pandora.\u00a0 \u00a0Bummer that I don\u2019t speak Spanish.<\/p>\n

This is an interesting place, that\u2019s for sure.\u00a0 They even have a Home Depot.<\/p>\n

And being in the mangroves is fine, while there is wind.\u00a0 The mangroves are very pretty but when the wind drops, watch out, as the no-see-ums come out for blood.\u00a0 Fortunately, or not, the wind has been honking so bugs haven\u2019t been a problem.\u00a0 Oddly, while the moorings are only $20 a day, you actually have to pay $22 a day to dock your dink at the city marina if you don\u2019t take a mooring.\u00a0 I guess that\u2019s to keep out the derelict boats that hang around in the few anchoring spots and mess up the harbor.<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s been pretty cold for the last week, it looks like we are heading into a warm spell which will be great as our son Rob is going to visit us for a few days on Tuesday.\u00a0\u00a0 We are also going to visit our friends Port and Cathy at their home nearby.\u00a0 That will be fun.<\/p>\n

With more moderate weather forecast for the coming week, it\u2019s quite possible that many folks will clear out of the harbor and make a run for the Bahamas which will free up some moorings, 31 I hope.<\/p>\n

The creek that we are anchored in is used by local fishing boats that take it out to the ocean to fish so we have to be sure and stay out of the channel.\u00a0\u00a0 This means that we dropped our anchor and run lines and tie them to the mangrove trunks.\u00a0 This is actually easier than it sounds and once we are firmly tied to the mangrove trees and anchored, we just winch ourselves into position.\u00a0 It\u2019s pretty neat and allows for many boats to be tied up along the mangroves in a tidy row.\u00a0 Here\u2019s what Pandora looks like in her spot.\u00a0 \"\"<\/a>As you can see, it\u2019s not a long trip for the bugs to visit Pandora for a snack. Wind or not, as I write this \u00a0I can’t help feeling like I am being bitten.\u00a0 As it\u2019s still windy and the boat is all closed up, it must be my imagination.\u00a0 Itch, itch, scratch\u2026\u00a0 I won\u2019t think about that for now.<\/p>\n

How about a panorama in the early morning light? \u00a0\"\"<\/a>Anyway, there is also a very healthy local manatee population.\u00a0 This fellow had to have been a good ten feet long going nowhere in a hurry.\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/span>So, for now, here we are snuggled against the mangroves thinking about the no-see-ums while they wait for a lull in the wind to come over to Pandora for dinner. <\/span><\/p>\n

Let’s hope that lots of boats head over to the Bahamas soon as I know that’s where they wannabee.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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It\u2019s Saturday morning and we are anchored in a mangrove creek off of Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, in the Florida Keys.\u00a0 The weather for the last few weeks has been pretty crazy, like the weather up north, but in a Florida Keys sort of way. That is to say that it\u2019s been unseasonably cold, try […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_s2mail":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4157"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4162,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4157\/revisions\/4162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}