Days 131 and -132 - Marathon — Captain Father John

Miles cruised 47, fuel purchased 238 gallons, fuel cost $508, this was our first fuel purchase in seven weeks, daily high temperature 82*f

We are on the road again. After 47 days in Key West, Changing Latitudes is on the move.

On Saturday night at TrawlerFest, pizza was the feast on the upper deck of Star Fisher. The amazing view at sunset on the ICW and conversations with new friends prevented us from wandering off to a local restaurant. Simple pleasures.

Priscilla and John picked up an Avis rental car on Sunday morning in West Palm Beach to drive back to Key West. Kirstyn was kind enough to drop us off at Avis on her way home to Ft Meyers. It was supposedly a five hour drive but it ended up being much longer due to the Seafood and Stone Crab Festival in Key Largo. The traffic was backed up on Route 1 for miles and miles. Eventually we arrived in Islamorada and had lunch at a seaside restaurant called Island Grill. They had nice seating right on the waters edge.

We were lucky to get through Key Largo when we did because at 2:30 pm a car pulled out in front of two people on a Harley and the cyclists has to airlifted to the hospital. That completely shut down traffic for hours.

On our last night in Key West, Priscilla and I had a farewell happy hour cocktail at the Conch Republic. After 47 days it was sad to say good by to Key West Harbor – until next time. We had dinner at Pepe’s and then headed back to Changing Latitudes to drop off our luggage. Then I returned the rental car to the Key West Airport and took a taxi back to the boat.

Dale and Andy were docktailing with John and Jan from Mitzvah. John and Jan have been living on their boat on the hard in a boatyard while the bottom was being repaired. They had been experiencing a lot of leaking in their bilge. It turns out the boat a 1981 Marine Trader was built in two sections and joined together in the middle. Their boat was splitting in half. Other boats of that design had split in half and sunk. They were very lucky. John the owner says that Marine Trafer is the Chevrolet of trawlers.

We had a relatively flat 47 mile cruise north from Stock Island to Marathon. We went under the Seven Mile Bridge from the Atlantic to the Gulf side on the Moser Channel. Then we took the ICW for five miles to the Marathon Yacht Club. George and Pat Hospodar were able to get us in. It was a tight fit getting CL with her 14.6′ beam into a 15′ wide slip but Dale lined her up and drove her right in.

We have an unobstructed view of the gulf

The Marathon Yacht Club has a very nice heated pool. We have found a new home for two days.

Bonus photo – Wyland mural on the wall at the Wharf Brewery in Key West

Carl (Chef) Wooden – quote of the day.

“I felt once more how simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. Nothing else.”
Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

Nikos Kazantzakis – 18 February 1883 – 26 October 1957) was a Greek writer, celebrated for his novels which include Zorba the Greek (published 1946 as Life and Times of Alexis Zorbas), Christ Recrucified (1948), Captain Michalis (1950, translated ‘Freedom or Death), and The Last Temptation of Christ (1955). He also wrote plays, travel books, memoirs and philosophical essays such as The Saviors of God: Spiritual Exercises.