We had a great New Years Eve. Mike and I grabbed a dock cart and walked the 1/4 mile to Public and did a huge provision. Later, with Kent and Heather, we took a cab to The Lighthouse Grill at Faro Blanco Resort & Marina. Met up with a bunch of other boaters many with whom we have previously broken bread on this trip. Many folks stay a month or more down here, or leave their boats here while they visit home. Faro Blanco is on the Gulf side, and is super pretty. (We are staying on the Atlantic side of Marathon.)

Kent, Heather and we walked from there to Burdines for dinner. They had been to Burdines twice during their visit and raved about their french fries. Oh my Lord were the fries good here! Not to let the lovely spud be the only fried thing, we also ordered the hushpuppies which they cook with cheddar and jalapeños! Unbelievably good. Thankfully, we had about 3 more miles to walk back to the boat. Got over 7 miles under our peds this day.

Stopped by a couple pubs, and found one that looked promising. Had a few pints, shot some pool and listened to some good music. We were given beads, noise makers and New Years hats. (And, I kicked Mike’s ass in pool.)

The next morning, Mike and I took off for Marathon Marina which is nearer to Seven Mile Bridge and has floating concrete docks! (We hate the crappy wooden pilings out here.) Beautiful transient docks and marina within walking distance to a lot. New Years Day was a super lazy day. No laundry, no provisioning, no navigating. Was awesome! January 1 is my late Uncle Bill’s birthday; we toasted him and reminisced on so many great memories.

Next day, Mike and I took the Lower Keys bus to Key West. We had rain on and off, but the views from the $2 bus ride were awesome! I have an amazing picture of my grandma Mimi from Sloppy Joes in Havana, and had to go to Sloppy Joes in Key West. They had some pretty good live music. We were only going to stop for one beer, but it started to rain pretty hard outside, so we stayed for another and split a grilled cheese sandwich. We walked all over Key West. Charming town with so much character.

The next day, Charlie and Robin of The Lower Place and Doug and Dana of Misty Pearl brought their dinghies from Faro Blonca to our ‘hood and we met up at Burdines for lunch (to have their amazing french fries).

Afterward, we hopped in our dinghies and took a trek through the mangroves.

So, I (in all my wisdom) thought it would be a good idea to go outside the channel and take the Gulf back to where we started. We were all giddy and all got up on plane on our respective dinghies. Mike and I saw Doug and Dana stop and thought they ran out of gas (they were low). No…they were in about a foot of water. Damn these skinny waters! We took our same track back and made it with no issues.

Past couple days, we have done some chores. Last night, we went to Faro Blanco and had Happy Hour with about 30 boaters, then went to the Lower Place for Charlie’s famous Bushwhackers. They did not disappoint.

Did some more provisioning today. Had a beautiful dinghy ride and saw a ton of huge tarpon and a beautiful manatee.

Spent most of the day and night looking at charts and figuring out our trip to and around the Bahamas.

Tomorrow, doing a huge grocery provision for meat to freeze. Tentative plan is to leave Marathon on Tuesday morning for an anchorage in Islamorada. Await a weather window to cross to Bimini and will continue to scoot north for that.

Happy New Year to all! Hope 2019 is your best year to date! Cheers! M&M