Marathon

Loggerhead Sea Turtle

Key West

Jack Waterbury's photo

January 11, 2018

Marathon

Like so many who come through Marathon, we expected to be here no more than a week but now we’re entering week 3. We came here primarily because we heard Diesel Don was The Man who could get to the bottom of our engine problem. I’ve only had brief contact with him and my impression is that he’s a kind man with integrity and espouses in his Florida twang “it’s not done ’til it’s done right!” He’s good natured, very relaxed and seems to genuinely want to help people.

 Diesel Don determined it was the heat exchanger that's the culprit. It’s been pulled out, cleaned out and fiddled with but one of the steps not taken was soaking it in muriatic acid. Had we done that, we might have saved ourselves further angst. Once Diesel Don got a hold of it, he determined it needed to be replaced which meant another expensive part to be ordered. The shipping was delayed because of the recent snow storm along the eastern seaboard but it finally arrived.

In the meantime Josie and Oakley arrived a few days ago sans 1 large backpack. It was stolen out of the back of their friends car in broad daylight while they were at an art fair. Luckily the thief didn’t see the daypack on the floor that contained all their important documents…whew! You would think they’d be crestfallen to arrive with a hand full of things but being the wise ones they are, they took it in stride and as a lesson in letting go.

Marathon has a very boat friendly City Marina so it’s an easy place to be while waiting for parts or weather to change. With the winds this past week we would have been hard pressed to move on even if we wanted to. In the meantime we’re working on the boat and becoming more familiar with Marathon.

I don’t think of Mark as the fastidious type but when it comes to Tarwathie, he most certainly is. Sailboats require constant attention, vigilance and maintenance. When he’s not napping, sleeping or reading, he’s repairing something. Mark has spent countless hours on the engine, plumbing and electrical. Every compartment on the boat that didn’t stay closed when heeling over has now been planed or the latch fixed. If he’s not servicing the fairleads or removing superfluous blocks, he’s scrubbing down the deck or installing a salt water faucet. A boat is like a house, there’s always something to do.

It hasn’t been all work and no play. We’ve had fun with the sailing dinghy. It's a fun and relaxing way to sail. We also took the bus down to Key West New Year’s Eve and had lunch at Jack Waterbury’s favorite haunt, Sloppy Joe’s. The bartender was very friendly and outgoing and when she heard we knew Jack (others at the bar also knew him) she told us she cried when she heard he passed away and that he was her “favorite dirty old man”. No disrespect to Jack as he was my neighbor and friend. We saw his son John in the parking lot of CVS a few days later, it’s a small world.

There’s a Turtle Hospital here that does wonderful work with turtles who are sick or have been injured. Boat strikes are the main cause of injury. The turtles also come in for intestinal blockages caused by swallowing plastic bags to eating shells and other indigestible things. There’s a very high incidence of Fibropapilloma which is the equivalent to HPV virus in humans and it manifests as both internal and external tumors throughout their body. Run off from fertilizer is thought to be the main cause which is weakening their immune systems. It’s heartbreaking to see these beautiful creatures injured or sick but I also feel hopeful witnessing the care involved in nurturing them back to health. The lucky ones get released back to their ocean home.

We were fortunate enough to be here for the 5th annual Celtic Festival in Marathon.
The Screaming Orphans from Ireland was our favorite band. They’re a group of 4 talented sisters who are very entertaining. A Scottish band called Albannach was another favorite whose sound I would describe as tribal rock. They used very large drums strapped over their shoulders that had a trance-like affect as it resonated throughout your body.

In the meantime we’re enjoying the sunsets, long walks, good food and our new boat mates. Providing the engine gets fixed today, we’ll be taking Tarwathie out for a few test runs in the next few days ensuring we have a good working engine before setting out for the Bahamas.

Our Sunset View