Key West to Marathon, FL

     We left our slip in Key West with the excitement of little kids on Christmas morning. Jittery but excited. I think we walked in circles around the boat for about the first hour taking pictures about every five seconds and checking everything compulsively. We had a beautiful morning cruise through Key West Harbor. Then we rounded the corner at Fort Zachary Taylor and the story changed...we had a residual swell from many days of high winds. Three foot seas and I don't really mix well, as I came to find out. "OK, just keep it together for a few hours. This will be over soon and the ICW will be a piece of cake the rest of the way" I told myself as the sickness crept up. And then "the shitith hitith the fanith" as some may say. We lost the starboard motor. OK, not the end of the world to most (aka Jon and Marcus), but I was stressed to the max and thinking the worst. What in the world am I doing on this boat...

     Shortly, the boys figured out that we had a fitting to one of the fuel injector pipes with a crack. Eventually it starts to take on air, motor shuts down. With the help of the very delicate 43 year old engine manual, we locate the part we need and I order it from All Keys Diesel in Marathon. We anchor just off Loggerhead Key near Cudjoe Key about 30 minutes before sunset and enjoy the serene view and some beers. We will continue on to Marathon on one motor to wait for our parts to arrive.

     The next day we made the sloooooooow 3 knot journey to Marathon. We had beautiful weather and I drove the boat for awhile. I should point out, that though we have owned the boat for a year, I have only been on the boat stationary in our slip with the exception of riding along from the boat yard to the marina. So my being behind the wheel was a big deal. I was white knuckled, much to the entertainment of the boys.

     Eventually I loosened up and driving the boat became kind of fun. I drove under the Bahia Honda bridge to cross from the outside to the Gulf side and through some THICK fog that rolled in that afternoon. We made it to Rachel Bank and anchored safely.

 THE FOGGGG!

   
     The next day, we were trying to figure out where we could pull our dinghy ashore. It turns out that all the places with dinghy docks are on the Boot Key side of the island which of course we weren't on. I called our friends Kaci and Josh who live in Marathon to see if they had any leads. Kaci led us to a her friend's place which was very near where we were anchored and very hidden. We entered a tiny, shallow cut in the mangroves that looked like it went nowhere, but as we rounded the corner the cut opened up to a little cove with a compound of homes and several docks for boats. "And if you see a tall guy with a big white afro, that's Jimbo and just tell him you are with me". Ah, the Keys and their characters. Gotta love it :)  Having a safe place to go to shore was extremely helpful and Jimbo and his neighbors couldn't have been nicer. Thank you everyone for your help and hospitality!