Boot Key Harbor (a Floating Neighborhood)

April 1-5, 2024

Apr 05, 2024

I’m really glad we decided to keep moving South because we couldn’t really picture Boot Key Harbor in Marathon without seeing it for ourselves. It’s not nearly as pretty as we had in Lignumvitae Key, but we’re finally not all alone (which is fun for a while, but we both really enjoy socializing too). There are hundreds (maybe even a thousand) liveaboard boats here! It’s an amazing thing to see!

Count all the masts in this sunset photo and then consider that there are this many boats on the other side of us too AND many aren’t sailboats (so no mast)!

This harbor has a VHF Cruisers Net every morning at 9am. They welcome newcomers, say “fair winds” to those leaving, tell jokes and trivia, and announce activities, things for sale, and help needed. We’ve heard of these cruisers nets for years, but it’s really fun to finally be on one. It’s as if Candler Park (or whatever neighborhood you live in) all got on a call every morning with all the neighbors. When today’s host reiterated the need to drive our dinghies slowly since there are many manatee in this harbor, another guy gets on and says the government brought the manatee into the U.S., arguing that we humans were here before the manatee. 😅 (Not true in case you were wondering). It reminds me (fondly) of living in a diverse Atlanta neighborhood, where people come together and look out for each other but also bicker over cutting down trees, spraying for mosquitoes, and fireworks scaring pets and the neighborhood emu (Yes, our old neighborhood had an emu - R.I.P. Lou).

There are activities here almost daily! There are exercise groups, a music/jam night, corn hole games, pickle ball, Mexican train dominoes, swap meet (like a group yard sale), and a potluck happy hour every Friday. We can totally see why people come here for a few days and end up staying for months every winter. We planned to stay five nights but decided to stay an extra day to join the Friday potluck.

Sea Turtles

On Monday, we biked/walked to the Sea Turtle Hospital. It’s an old motel that someone bought in the 80s and converted the pool to a salt water recovery pool for turtles. Keeping motel guests helped cover the expenses. It’s grown extensively over the years to the point that all the motel rooms now are either part of the hospital or used to house the volunteers and staff. There’s a surgery room, an ER/recovery room, and probably 50 tanks, of various sizes, housing the recovering sea turtles. We learned SO much and the turtles are adorable! I highly recommend this tour if you’re ever in the Keys. Plan ahead and make a reservation. Lots of videos below.

On Monday night, we checked out the local dive bar called Dockside. It was full of characters, mostly salty sailors, and the entertainment was a liveaboard who basically does karaoke for several hours, leading a sing-along. We were surprised to hear he performs every Monday afternoon all winter! Check out his ending song:

Friday Potluck

At the potluck, we met lots of people, got boat cards from a few (one who surveyed boats for decades and offered to help us troubleshoot any issues), and got advice on where to anchor or moor in Key West and the Dry Tortugas.

Another thing we got from our stay in Marathon is a greater appreciation for how lucky we are to have such a nice boat. She sometimes feels small (not usually, but we do struggle to find a home for all of our stuff), but ours was one of the larger boats in this massive anchorage. Many people live aboard full-time in super-small boats. We saw a few adorable boats that had to be well under 30 feet! Granted, most of them are not cruising, but live-aboards with jobs in Marathon, but it was still a good reminder of how lucky we truly are.

Manatee, Dolphins, and a Lovely Sail

We looked for manatee all week, heard about sightings almost daily, but never saw any. On our way out of the harbor on Saturday, while getting diesel at the fuel dock, a whole family of manatee came by our boat. It was really special!

The winds were light and on the nose on the way south towards Key West, but we decided to sail anyway, even though it meant heading fairly far off-course to do so. There’s something so magical about turning off the engines and gliding through the water under only the power of the wind! With just 8-11 knots of wind, we were moving 5-6 knots, which felt great. Sadly, the wind eventually died down, so we rolled in the headsail and kept the mainsail up to motor sail the rest of the day. It ended up costing us an hour and likely didn’t reduce our engine hours any, but we need to sail this boat every once in a while.

We’ve had a LOT of dolphin sightings since we bought this boat last June, but today was the first time we had them playing in our bow wake.

Tomorrow, we’ll arrive in Key West, a day before my birthday. This should be fun!