January 18, 2018
Marathon, FL
This post is written by Oakley
I have never run a marathon, but I’ve thought about it and what it would take. Other than to be well trained, the main thing is pacing. You don’t want to start too strong and exhaust yourself early. And that is exactly the mind set we are learning to adopt for this trip as we wait for our weather window here in Marathon, Florida. When you are sailing you cannot rush.
In order to get into the shallow waters of the Bahamas we need to cross the often tumultuous Gulf Stream. If the wind hits the powerful current the wrong way the waves stack up quickly and you do not want to find yourself in the midst of the fray headed in the wrong direction. So here we stay in the protected waters of Boot Key Harbor off Vaca Key. Vaca Key, the home of Marathon, is almost directly in the middle of the chain of islands known as the Florida Keys.
In the week we have been here we have exhausted all the obvious options of things to do and have started to explore more creative possibilities. We have explored by water aboard our trusty dinghy, Fatty Knees. We rowed out of the narrow channel fringed by Mangroves to the open ocean and went ashore on a public beach that still shows the signs of Irma’s destruction. Sand has been mounded up for reconstruction and the swing sets and slides in the playground just off the beach had been toppled over by wind and waves. Another day we rigged up the sail on Fatty Knees and sailed throughout the harbor and out another channel to the end of Vaca Key where we could see the 7 mile bridge stretching into the distance. Among the fleet many vessels are missing masts and have large ugly bites taken out of the rails.
One day we took the two hour bus ride down to Key West and walked the streets lined with classic old Florida homes with their high ceilings and big front porches. We walked the waterfront which is now dwarfed by massive cruise ships and joined the other tourists in watching the antics of street performers. Another day we went two keys over to Big Pine Key for a nautical flea market that turned out to be more fishing gear than sailing accessories. But mostly we have been walking and biking the main stretch of Rt. 1 through Marathon and going down every side road we can to escape the traffic.
Marathon, FL
This post is written by Oakley
I have never run a marathon, but I’ve thought about it and what it would take. Other than to be well trained, the main thing is pacing. You don’t want to start too strong and exhaust yourself early. And that is exactly the mind set we are learning to adopt for this trip as we wait for our weather window here in Marathon, Florida. When you are sailing you cannot rush.
In order to get into the shallow waters of the Bahamas we need to cross the often tumultuous Gulf Stream. If the wind hits the powerful current the wrong way the waves stack up quickly and you do not want to find yourself in the midst of the fray headed in the wrong direction. So here we stay in the protected waters of Boot Key Harbor off Vaca Key. Vaca Key, the home of Marathon, is almost directly in the middle of the chain of islands known as the Florida Keys.
In the week we have been here we have exhausted all the obvious options of things to do and have started to explore more creative possibilities. We have explored by water aboard our trusty dinghy, Fatty Knees. We rowed out of the narrow channel fringed by Mangroves to the open ocean and went ashore on a public beach that still shows the signs of Irma’s destruction. Sand has been mounded up for reconstruction and the swing sets and slides in the playground just off the beach had been toppled over by wind and waves. Another day we rigged up the sail on Fatty Knees and sailed throughout the harbor and out another channel to the end of Vaca Key where we could see the 7 mile bridge stretching into the distance. Among the fleet many vessels are missing masts and have large ugly bites taken out of the rails.
One day we took the two hour bus ride down to Key West and walked the streets lined with classic old Florida homes with their high ceilings and big front porches. We walked the waterfront which is now dwarfed by massive cruise ships and joined the other tourists in watching the antics of street performers. Another day we went two keys over to Big Pine Key for a nautical flea market that turned out to be more fishing gear than sailing accessories. But mostly we have been walking and biking the main stretch of Rt. 1 through Marathon and going down every side road we can to escape the traffic.
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