Half Way Down the Keys

We pulled into Burdine's Marina in Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, FL this afternoon. We left Little Crawl Key at about 9:00am. The wind wasn't really blowing all that hard, probably 12 to 15, but the ocean was rockin and rollin quite a bit since the wind had been blowing pretty hard for so many days earlier this week. Fortunately we were doing a big broad reach which is very close to down wind, so the ride wasn't really too bad. Just like every time we've sailed the boat, we learned a few new things about how to set it up, particularly when there was more wind and waves to contend with. We had a reservation made at Burdine's Marina so we pulled right into slip number 4 without a hitch. The dock hand was there to help and we even had some of our neighbors helping with lines. More and more we're finding that there are lots of people who bring their boat down to one place, put it in a marina and stay there for the season. The slips aren't real cheap; the boats aren't cheap, so I'm not sure why someone would want to do that. If I was going to stay in one place, I think I'd get a Condo. There would definitely be more room. We're packed pretty tight in the Marina, but the folks on both sides of us seem very nice. One couple is from Illinois and the other couple is from up state New York. The fellow from Illinois has his car hear, so he said to let him know if we need a ride to the grocery store or anywhere else in the area. So, that was pretty nice and we'll probably take him up on the offer. We're going to stay here for several days until our friends Pat and Judy Sorenson from Denver arrive to stay with us. So, we'll see what surprises Marathon has for us in the next few days.