Marathon in January

I figure we should get another blog out before things really start to get busy this month at the Chasing 80 B & B (Boat and Breakfast). They keep talking about island time but we haven't seemed to slow down much.

I know I mentioned in the last post how bad the weather has been so I thought I'd include a few pics just to prove it. Several of the cold fronts that came through brought some serious squall lines and high winds. Once the front would go through the winds would clock around to the North and blow hard for a day or two. After that they would start moving around to the East and finally South where things would start to warm up before the whole pattern would repeat. I know it's been a mild winter so far up North so y'all should be feeling sorry for us! The picture below is the squall line approaching before one storm. This is the same front that caused tornadoes up around Ft. Myers. It's just after sunrise and you can see we are still in the sunshine but not for long. Winds were over 50 as this line went through.

Next pic is how the forecast typically looked during January. We're hoping for an improving trend in February.

OK, you don't really need to feel sorry for us, we are still living the dream! It's been really interesting hanging out here for a month. In the past we would pass through Marathon on our way to Key West with no more than a stop for lunch or a drink. The past month we've become very familiar with the lower half of Vaca Key by riding our bikes everywhere we go. We've found several new places with great happy hour food and drink deals (I am retired after all). If the wind is blowing hard from the North we go to the South side where it's calmer! One spot we like is Porky's with really good food, great staff and a funky vibe (for the hipsters reading).

Buffalo Fish Fingers

Everywhere we've been down here is very pet friendly so we get our fill of tail wags without having to have our own on board.

So this dog walks into a bar....

We've spent time exploring by dinghy on the day's the wind isn't blowing too hard. One nice day we got about 6 boats together and did a dinghy pub crawl (row?) all the way around the key. I'd guess about 15 miles in total.

Don't think its been all play and no work, we've gotten several boat projects done including one day under the boat checking out the bottom and running gear. I'll do it once more before we head off next month. We've also attended a fishing seminar but it's not been great for fishing here either.

We took a quick trip to Key West to have an interview with Customs and get our Small Vessel Reporting Cards. These make it easier to clear back into the country when we go to the Bahamas and Canada. Work, work, work....

This past week our friends Brenda and Ron came down to visit for a few days and brought along the weather we've been looking for this past month. Finally 80 degrees!! We showed them some of our favorite hang outs both here in Marathon as well as a day trip back to Key West. We took them to the Green Parrot which is our favorite spot in Key West. Check out the music schedule in the link for some pretty great acts passing through town.

Green Parrot

The Sunset Grille here in Marathon has been a spot we hit for "Sunday Funday" which is a great party but last night was the first time we made it there for sunset. It's not quite the celebration of Mallory Square in Key West but we enjoyed the scenery and company.

Well, that's it for now. The next set of guests are checking in tomorrow and I need to turn the pillows over so they think they are clean. We're both looking forward to all our visitors and showing them around our little piece of the rock. Unfortunately it looks like Brenda and Ron took the nice weather back to their RV near Orlando....oh well, I'm sure we'll find something to keep our friends occupied!