A Day in Marathon/Boot Key Harbor

Day 20: March 24, 2018

We awoke after a great night’s sleep.  There is something comforting about spending a night on a mooring ball.  Our Rockna anchor is fantastic and has on

Sunset in Boot Key Harbor

only a very few occasions not held.  It is typically rock solid, however, I sleep with one eye open to make sure that we are not moving in the middle of the night.  It has happened on several occasions and it is not at all fun.

We began our day with bacon, eggs, and toast.  While getting our breakfast ingredients out of a storage locker under a bench next to our sink, I realized that there was about 2 inches of fresh water sloshing around in the bottom.  I turned on the faucet and found water draining from under the sink.  I pulled the spray

And sunrise in Boot Key Harbor

nozzle out and found that there was a large leak in the stainless steel flexible hose.  I spent the next 2 hours trying to disconnect the hose from the faucet with no success.  The faucet was installed before the boat was assembled and all but impossible to get to.  A couple of years ago, it had frozen and in order to get to it, I had cut a hole in the wall behind the seat cushion and replaced it but this time, I was unable to unfasten the hose.

We finally decided to take a break and walk to Home Depot and get a new hose so that when I do get it apart, I can affect a repair.  They had only one model and it

Hurricane dammage

appeared that it would fill the bill but upon returning to the boat, I realized that it was in fact different. 

I tried to come up with some scenario that would allow us to use the sink without wasting our precious water.  Janine came up with the solution that we settled on.  We cut the hose off below the leak.  The problem now is that when we turn on the water, we have a fire hose that dumps a lot of water.  We work hard to conserve our 30 gallons and this is going to require finesse.
 

That shot the morning and by the afternoon, we were hot and not interested in trekking about so we resorted to reading a couple of books that we picked up at the huge “take one – leave one” library at the Marathon City marina.

The Neighborhood

 

As we were preparing for super, I received a text message from our friend, Jim, who told us of his favorite restaurant in Marathon.  He said that they were famous for a piece of key lime pie that they freeze, wrap in a tortilla, and then deep fry.  He remembered that the name was Burdines.  It sounded interesting so we packed up our shower duds and headed out.  We left our shower stuff in the dinghy and went to the dock office to inquire about transportation to

Burdines.  Fine dining on the balcony overlooking the river.

Burdines.  The lady at the desk told us that Burdines was her favorite restaurant and that we had to try their special hush puppies that are very good in their natural state, but that they also smothered in cheese and provided a tangy raspberry dipping sauce.

We hailed a cab that would take you anywhere in Marathon for $5.00 and headed to the restaurant.  The main eating floor is on the second floor of a waterfront tiki bar. Of course, we started with an appetizer of hush puppies followed by a tuna melt for Janine and a large split Italian sausage smothered with peppers, onions, mushrooms, provolone cheese and a mild marinara sauce.  And of course, we finished our meal with the fried key lime pie. All items were wonderful.

We called the $5.00 cab for a ride back to the marina where we enjoyed nice

warm showers.  Damn Dink too carried us back to the boat where we found rest.