Marathon to the Bahamas

 Hello! 

 Update:

We are now in the Bahamas! We left Marathon Wednesday at 10 am and arrived at West End Thursday at 11 am. In 2011 when we were here, West End just had a customs office with a marina and seemed desolate. Now there is a complex with hotel rooms, a souvenir shop, an upscale restaurant and a Tiki bar near the beach and pool. Several boats were checking in at the same time, sail and power. Quite of few of us went straight to the beach and visited Da Straw Bar. The rum drinks and cracked conch hit the spot, and we met a bunch of other boaters. Among them, two couples from Treasure Island, right near where we live.

 Last few days in Marathon:

To finish up with Marathon, it was overall very relaxing. The last two days were busy, with a day trip to Key West and a day of laundry and grocery shopping. Getting to Key West involves catching the Lower Keys Shuttle, and the trip takes 1 ½ to 2 hours. Figuring out the schedule and bus stop location is I believe what is called, “Getting out of your comfort zone.” We never really knew we had it right. Luckily in Key West there were people at the bus stop to ask, but in Marathon we just guessed. The bus came pretty much on time, and we bumped along the Overseas Highway in air conditioning for a change. Once there we went straight to the Conch Republic, had 2 Pain Killers, then to Bo’s Fish Wagon for cracked conch and then to Kermit’s for frozen chocolate covered Key Lime pie on a stick. I found my favorite shop, Dragonfly Imports, was still open and had to support them. We relaxed on a shady park bench for a while, wandered around Duval Street and managed to find the bus stop again to make it home before dark. Do we sound like old people? Well, yes, because we are!

 Question:

What Makes you grin ear to ear?

Al did not want to make the trip to Key West. I really wanted to go and once we arrived, I remembered why. To me Marathon and the Keys between there and Key West look like scrubby, sparsely populated windswept places. Key West is vibrant. The difference in Key West is evident as soon as you drive onto the island. Key West is solidly developed, has tons of old houses, history, character and almost every kind of shop or restaurant you can think of. I have visited all the historic sites on previous trips, including Fort Jefferson. After 2 and ½ weeks in sleepy places I loved being there. When we were back on the boat that evening Al told me he could tell I really wanted to go and that when we got on the bus towards Key West he noticed I was grinning ear to ear. I had to ask him, “What makes you grin ear to ear Al?” I did get an answer out of Al but it took a day or two. I think it's a good question.

 Passage from Marathon to the Bahamas / Three little birds:

The passage went well for the humans onboard and for 1 out of 3 birds. Al worked on the route and timing and figured that we would arrive at noon Thursday. He was only 1 hour off, pretty good! From Marathon we went essentially straight south in between the reefs and into the Gulfstream. The water turns a beautiful blue in the Gulfstream and the current gave us a 2 knot speed advantage for most of the trip. We chose the weather, very little wind, because again, to wait for great wind for sailing is to never go anywhere. And, to go in the wrong weather is to risk hating this type of travel or to risk your life. This route always brings us into contact with other boats. Lots of sport fishing is done in the Gulfstream. The Margaritaville cruise ship was 5 miles behind us for a while off Miami and we saw several tanker and container ships close to West End. It was exciting when two small birds joined us near 4 pm. It seemed to be an adult and a juvenile wren. This has happened several times to us around Florida. They usually fly away when you get close to land or in the morning after finding a safe place to sleep down below. You see a little pile of bird poop and know, oh, that’s where you slept little bird. The little wrens hopped all over the boat inside and out, even landed on us. They were a joy to watch. We gave them water, but they did not drink much. In the morning the little one hopped up in front of me and sat on the depth sounder panel. He then hopped all over the front deck and flew down below. Al found him shortly afterwards sitting in the V berth and realized he had died. Right at that time a sparrow came aboard and thoroughly checked out the boat. The sparrow was there for a while and we assume he flew away when we came close to shore. Unfortunately though,  we found the other wren had died in the back cabin. I did some checking online and felt better after learning it’s common for small birds to die that come on board. They can be migrating, exhausted and dehydrated. I am thankful to have had the chance to observe such small birds up close for so long and for the tough little Jack Sparrow that we hope is happy now somewhere in West End.

We plan to explore the Abacos after a day or two here in West End.

Thank you for reading!

Love and Peace,

Fran Lima