Our last days in Marathon

Our last several days in Marathon for this winter are coming to an end.  We moved Southern Style on Wednesday (3/20) to Marlin Bay Marina just a mile north of Farco Blanco Marina for a few days.  Marlin Bay is a resort with very nice facilities.

Southern Style in the basin of Marlin Bay Marina (viewed from the watch tower)

View from the cockpit of Southern Style in our slip in Marlin Bay.

Pool with club house in back.  Covered bar to left.

Pool from the second floor of the club house (Southern Style is right in the middle of the far screen)

Balcony of the club house 

Our friend Brad Hanks also arrived on Wednesday evening to visit for several days.  He and Keith will be watching some basketball this weekend along with enjoying some vacation time for Brad.  We all went to Sunset Grill for dinner the night Brad got in.  We had a table right on the water.

Sunset Wednesday night

The dock at Sunset Grill was lighted with green lights

Thursday morning we spent some time at the community park tennis courts so we would not feel so guilty going to Burdines for lunch.  It is likely our last Burdine's for this winter.  Of course we had to have a fried Key Lime Pie for desert.  This twist on standard Key Lime Pie is pretty tasty.

Fried Key Lime Pie

Although the exact origins of Key Lime pie is not definitively known, the first formal mention of the recipe is from William Curry.  Curry was a ship salvager in Key West in the early 1900's.   Curry was Key West's first millionaire and his cook, "Aunt Sally" made the pie for him.  In all likelihood, she adapted the recipe from the lime pie that local sponge fishermen made in the region at the time.  Because the sponge fishermen spent many days at a time out to sea, they would have had ingredients such as limes, canned milk, and eggs all used for the lime pie.  They also would not have had an oven and the original recipe did not call for cooking the pie.

We went back to Faro Blanco Marina on Thursday afternoon to see the racing boats that had come in for a poker run rendezvous.  We were told there were a large number of them coming into the marina for the weekend.  Boy were they right.  They had boats rafted several deep in some places to fit them all in.  I wish we had known what time of day they arrived, as that might have been fun to see.  Instead we walked the docks to look at these amazing boats.

These two boats were in the slip that Southern Style was in from January until last Wednesday

They had some boats rafted several deep along the face docks

This one had 6 engines across the back of it

This one had a tuna tower as well as engines that certainly suggest it is a "go fast boat".

Most of the boats had come in from the water, but a few came by trailer too.  They even had a big fuel truck that was brought in to refuel some of them.  Just crazy the horse power on these boats.

Boat engines everywhere

This truck pulls one of the boat by trailer

Friday the guys spent a good portion of the day in Key West while I did some laundry and errands.  When they got back we all relaxed and had dinner before the basketball games started that they wanted to see.

Pengi ready to cheer for the Tar Heels  (He would wear the hat but then he couldn't see the game).

Keith watching the sunset Friday evening

Saturday we played tennis again in the morning and then took some of the fresh yellow tail snapper from Keith's fishing trip the other week to Lazy Days for them to prepare.  We had it 3 different ways and as usual it was great.

Our yellow tail snapper Lazy Days

We had a friend come looking for a hand-out.

Keith and Brad in Paradise

That afternoon we chilled by the pool for a bit and at the sea wall watching the waves roll in.

Selfie at the pool

Keith and Brad discussing basketball waiting for sunset

Another gorgeous sunset

The weather looks good for a departure Monday the 25th to start heading back north.  My next post may be from parts north of the keys.

Turtle Hospital

Monday March 18th Keith and I went to visit the Turtle Hospital in Marathon.  This facility is fully equipped to rescue, rehabilitate, and release injured and/or sick sea turtles.

Turtle Hospital

The hospital started out as the Hidden Harbor Hotel.  In 1980 Richie Moretti purchased the property. He ran it as a hotel until 2005 when he turned it into a place for the rescue and rehabilitation of sea turtles.  It grew into into a turtle hospital with the old guest rooms serving as rooms for staff and offices, surgical,treatment, and radiology rooms.  The old salt water swimming pool was converted to house some of the turtles and many additional tanks of varying sizes have also been added around the property to accommodate all sizes and ages of turtles that may come through the facility.  Moretti deeded the property to the non-profit turtle hospital that now runs the facility with the provision that it will remain a place for turtle care and education.

View out over the old hotel swimming pool with additional tanks

There are some small turtles

Hatchling

And some large turtles

There are 7 species of sea turtles in the world and 5 of them can be found here in the Florida Keys.  They are the loggerhead, Kemp's Ridley, green sea turtle, hawks bill, and leatherback.  These turtles can suffer injuries due to boat strikes or being entangled in fishing nets.  They can also develop intestinal impactions from ingesting garbage.  Another ailment of many turtles is fibropapillomas.  These are cauliflower like tumors that are caused by a virus and can form on the turtles flipper, head and face, or even internally.  These can become life threatening and need to be removed to save the turtle.  The hospital is able to help with all these afflictions.

This turtle has a strip of Velcro you can see pasted to his shell.  They will Velcro weights onto the strip to help him submerge since he has trouble regulating his buoyancy after being hit by a boat.

This turtle has multiple fibropapilloma tumors on his flippers that will be removed surgically and then he can be released

As you can see in the picture, they write the names of the turtles on their shells so they can identify them easier for daily treatment.

It was an interesting excursion and one we wanted to do before we left the area.  With only about a week left here in Marathon, our time is running out quickly.  Wednesday we are moving Southern Style just a mile north to Marlin Bay Marina for a few days.  Our good friend Brad Hanks will be arriving to visit and watch the NCAA basketball tournament with Captain Keith.  We are excited to have Brad visit and spend a few days in a different marina before leaving Marathon.

Foodie Kind of Weekend

Saturday our friend from Greensboro, Cam Hall, that is here in Marathon with his boat, and Keith went for a half day fishing charter.  They were lucky to have relatively calm winds, as it has been pretty consistently windy here lately.  But this past weekend the wind was calm.  They came back with a number of yellow tail snapper.

Cam and Keith with their catch

They hooked a few other types of fish such as Grunt, Blue Runner (in the Jack Family), as well as a Grouper ( it was not grouper season).  They did not bring those back.

This cormorant wanted to snag some of the live bait fish from the boat

The pelicans were also waiting for some scraps as the captain cleaned the catch

Is that not a goofy look?

After they got all the fish cleaned, the four of us (Cam and Margaret Ann, Keith and I) decided to take a lunch sized portion to Lazy Days Restaurant where they will cook your fresh catch for you.  We made quite a lunch with it.  They prepared it 4 different ways,  It was fun to be able to sample all of them.  They did a coconut crusted, piccata, blackened and Lazy Days style.  They were all very good.

Our fresh catch platter

Hard to believe that we now only have a week left in the Keys before we start our travels north again.  We have enjoyed our time in Marathon, but we are looking forward to heading to the Old North State for spring.

Outer Banks on our Minds

It is hard to believe that in only 10 days (weather permitting) we will be cruising back northward.  I can not wait to get to Ocracoke.  I so hope the weather is favorable for us to make good time and get there quickly.  I have been putting some final touches to a few craft projects that I plan to leave with friends for the Ocracoke Firemen's Memorial Day Auction.  It has been wonderful to be able to do some sewing and crochet during our travels.  It is good to have an indoor hobbie at times.  Here are the projects I have completed for our friends this past year.

There are two afghans

Three table runners or wall hangings (personal preference).

A Sea horse wall hanging (Semore the Sea Horse)

And finally a sea creature lap quilt (which could also be hung if desired)

These were fun to work on and I hope they bring in some funds for the fire department on Ocracoke.   

Marathon Seafood Festival

This weekend was the 43rd Annual Marathon Seafood Festival.  Keith and I along with friends Cam and Margaret Ann Hall (fellow Tar Heels from Greensboro) decided to check it out on Saturday.  The day was sunny and warm with a light breeze up at the community park where the festival was held.  As with most festivals they had numerous vendors selling crafts, jewelry, clothing, etc.  There were bands that played under the amphitheater all day.  And of course there was seafood.

They had mahi mahi, spiny lobster, stone crab, conch fritters and conch ceviche, and Key West Pinks.  In addition to seafood there was also hot dogs and hamburgers as well as fries should one so choose.  Keith and I had the seafood combo plate.

My plate with fish, lobster, baked beans, slaw and hush puppies (OMG).

The Florida spiny lobster is not like the Maine lobster.  Spiny lobsters are smaller and they do not have claws like their Northern cousins.  They are a little saltier and the meat is a little chewier but they are "delish".

We walked around the booths and even found a few fun purchases.  I found a cute glass seahorse pendant and also a hair clip with an anchor on it.  

Seahorse pendant

Hair clip

There were some dips to sample, and we purchased a few of the mixes to restock for easy appetizers.

Dips tent where we sampled their options

I saw these colorful buoys outside one tent and thought they looked cool

It is a good thing we can't fit much on the boat or I might have had to have this mermaid chair.

Saturday after coming back from the Seafood Festival we got a few boat choirs done and then had dinner on Cam and Margaret Ann's boat "Sanctuary", a 51-foot Sea Ray Sedan Bridge.  We watched UNC beat Duke in the final game of the regular season.  A pretty good day if I do say so.

Sunday morning Keith and I played tennis at the community park.  Sunday late afternoon, Keith, Cam, Margaret Ann and I all went to The Pickled Pelican for happy hour for some good food and a beautiful sunset.  

Here we are waiting for sunset

Tuna, Keys Pink Shrimp, and gulf oysters from the raw bar.

View from the bar

Another day has come and gone in Marathon.  We have really enjoyed out time here.