Back in Boot Key Harbor, Marathon City Marina

We're back in Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, for a week. We're waiting for a weather window to cross to the Bahamas from Miami and it's going to be cold and windy for at least the next five days, so we're back on a mooring ball for the week.

Chuck took a walk on the beach at Bahia Honda State Park this morning while I got my act together for the day. Jazzy and I walked up to the old bridge to see the beautiful views once again...brrrr it was freezing up there!

We walked back to the boat and I made sausage, eggs and toast for breakfast. Then I placed an order for Chuck for a riding sail to use while at anchor. It will be sent to Billy Kerstetter's house for Wednesday delivery.

Chuck used the bosin chair to climb the mast and change the bulb. I didn't particularly want to see him 53 feet in the air, and I knew Wayne was spotting him, so I stayed down below and downloaded iTunes to my iPod Nano.

We left Bahia Honda at 12:35 p.m. for Marathon. It was really rough on the water. WInds were 18-22 knots with gusts to 24. The temperature was a cold 55 degrees. Seas were 2-3 ft. We were rocking and rolling! Visibility was 10 miles. Our jib was to the first reef and our main was only out maybe 1/3. We were heeling 15-20 degrees and motorsailing all the way.

When we were about three miles from Marathon, I was down below and saw water splashing up from under the floor boards. It turned out that when Chuck had to bleed and prime the air conditioner in Key West, we didn't run the bilge and water was below the boards. When we were heeling, it was splashing up from under the boards. So we put the boat on auto pilot and pumped it out.

We arrived at the Marathon mooring field about 4 p.m. and put the motor on the dinghy. We went to the dockmaster to pay for the week, then went in and out of the boats, checking them out. There are 226 mooring balls here and less than 10 are empty. It was only about half full Christmas week.

On the way back, Bum's Rest had company, Doris and Dennis, a couple that that they met on their last trip to the Bahamas. They are sailing on Magic, a 42 ft. sailboat. We had wine and cheese and are going back for a light dinner.

Patti is making chicken and salad tonight.