neighbor photos

As promised, I'm posting photos of some of the neighbors. The two story houseboat, the fishing boat with a tent. And the small sailboat we had seen in Little Shark river.
And, Tammi, today we saw a boat from Ludlow, Vermont. Craig can unhook Cloud Nine from the truck with the snowplow.

More neighbors

We toured the other half of the harbor in our dinghy today and can add several more states represented by boats here. We saw boats from California, Colorado, Oregon, Maine, Minnesota, Alaska, and the evil city and state which is the home of the NFL team that the COLTS will defeat in the Super Bowl.

Marathon Neighbors

The boats in the harbor are quite a diverse group.  I would estimate about 15 to 20% are from Canada. eh?
The remainder are from almost every state east of the Mississippi and a few beyond.  We've seen boats from MN, RI, NY, NJ, WS, MC, OH, TN, AL, IL, NC, SC, VA, MD, CT, KY, DL, MA, PA, TX, IN, and a few from FL.  We have new neighbors on the mooring next to us who are from Wisconson.  They trailered their trimaran to Punta Gorda and launched at All American Storage.  They don't have to be back in Wisconsin until April.  I'm trying to remember why I have to be back in Indiana before April.
There's some very nice (and expensive) motor yachts and sailboats.  There's also a house boat with a second story added on.  Someone's staying on a fishing boat with a tent.  I'll send photos later. 

On the cruisers net this morning, there was an announcement that the Coast Guard was warning anyone leaving the harbor that a container ship had lost about 30 containers in the gulf stream just offshore of here.  "Florida Icebergs"

Vera, Chuck and Dave

Here's your last clue about Vera, Chuck and Dave

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGtSpsYURAQ

And the correct answer to my age has already been guessed.....................it's "older than dirt"

Conch Horns

Every day, just as the sun goes below the horizon, several people in the harbor blow conch shell horns. There seems to be more each day. Better than bagpipes.
Steve took his troubled outboard up to a Mercury dealer on Islamorada. It was a fuel problem as we suspected. And as some of you suspected, the high speed fuel injector was bad. Must be a common problem. His motor only had 45 hours on it. Mercury paid for the part--Steve paid the labor. At least he got it back today before leaving for Marco tomorrow. We went out fishing with them again today. Sharks and large ladyfish.
I think we will stay here until after the Super Bowl. They bring a projection TV into the meeting room of the marina and have a party. (The weather here also influenced that decision)
Talked with the folks from Southport again today. They're living on a Freedom sailboat. I remember seeing their boat when it was on Lake Monroe in Indiana. They have removed the diesel engine and replaced it with an electric engine. Diesel free.
Yesterday, while touring the harbor in our dinghy, we saw a sailboat from Bippus, Indiana. We stopped alongside and knocked, but no answer. We may try again later.
Yes Dawg, we have a full moon here also. I've attached a couple of photos for you so you don't have to go out in those single digit temps at home to look at it.
Vera, Chuck, and Dave are not really my grandchildren. They're characters in a Beatles song. And speaking of birthdays...........Happy Birthday to you Kindra--my favorite daughter. (Yes I know........you're my only daughter too. Doesn't make you any less special.)

Marathon dinghy

Great news for cat lovers...........they're delicious! The report on the cruisers net this morning was that the black & white cat did belong on the boat on mooring A1. The first attached photo shows the trawler where the cat was found. The fourth sailboat to it's left is where the cat came from. Must have been almost a 500' swim.
We toured the area in our dinghy this afternoon. It's hard to get a feel for how many boats are in the harbor. The second photo represents about half of them.
While we were cruising around the harbor, we saw the small sailboat (16') we had seen rowing into the Little Shark River. We motored over to say hello and offered to take them ashore in our dinghy. They already had a friend on the way over to pick them up. I haven't spoken with Wayne Stearns this week, but he had debated coming down here in his 22' sailboat from Punta Gorda. After seeing the photos of the small boats at Little Shark, he knew he could make it.
Went through Sister Creek and out into the Atlantic. The third photo is of East Sister Rock.
We went up several canals today. Last week I got complaints that the iguanas in the trees were not very easy to see in my photos. I made a point to get closer today.
Later, I tried fishing, and caught a 24" snook. (a live one) Pam didn't have the camera ready, and I didn't have my Boca Grips, so there's no photo, but Pam can attest.
It is true.........signed Pam.

Windy

It's still windy here in Marathon. A lot of the sailboats in the mooring field have wind generators. (a fan looking thing about 3' in diameter) When the wind blows, it spins a generator that charges their batteries. Sounds like dozens of small helicoptors. They might call the wind "Mariah".......but we call it "Honda".

Keeping the batteries charged can be a challenge. Since we're on a mooring (no shorepower) and not running our outboards for at least 2 weeks, we have to run our Honda generator almost every day. We have a battery charger, and the refrigerator switches over to AC while the generator is running so it's not draining the batteries. We haven't needed heat or air conditioning lately.
I mentioned the cruisers net at 9am on the VHF radio. This morning, a boat on mooring A5 said he awoke to find a black & white cat on his boat. (Remember, we're not tied up to shore.) He didn't know where it came from or what to do with it. Someone suggested that they are good with Merlot. Someone else said the people on A1 had a black & white cat--maybe it belongs to them. Those people were not on the radio this morning so we are looking forward to finding the outcome tomorrow. (Reminds me of that song......"cat's in the kettle").
And speaking of cats........TW, ask your wife about Hemmingway's cats. "gimme 6"
Today's my birthday. We took 2 spoons up to the Mini Mart and consumed a carton of Haagen-Dazs Butter Pecan. I got birthday phone calls from the grandchildren. If you want to know my age, check with the grandkids........Vera, Chuck and Dave.