Marathon City Marina

Marathon City Marina is a huge field of 226 mooring balls, and we have been there when it was completely full. Plenty of room this time, though, and we are moored next to Valhalla and Aurora.

Wayne had to run in to West Marine to get a remote microphone for the VHF radio. The one we have in the cockpit has been misbehaving and Wayne sometimes has to bang it on something to get it to work.

Valhalla, Aurora, and we dinghied over to Burdine's Waterfront Restaurant for dinner.

This was posted on the menu

In my prayer when I woke up this morning, I said to God, "Please let this be the day when things start to go in our favor." It was not to be.

I've told you about a few of our mishaps, but it's the many minor things not worth sharing or reading about that tend to wear you down. Make no mistake, though, it's all small stuff.

Wayne and Dennis determined that, because strong ESE winds would not be in our favor today, it would be best to spend a second night in Marathon. I was excited about the options available to us with a full day to do as we wished, even if all I did was work on my to do list. Two things I CAN'T do when we're underway, though, are to go for a walk and do errands, so I decided to make a final run to Publix, possibly my final opportunity before crossing. Surely there was SOMETHING I had forgotten to bring!

I looked up at the sky as we prepared to get in the dinghy and, although it was mostly clear, there were some ominous clouds to the southwest. "Is it supposed to rain today?" I asked Wayne. It's been very warm, so we had three hatches and a number of port holes open. He wasn't sure, so I checked the weather app on my iPhone. Zero percent chance of rain. We're good. I casually stepped down on the bedroom hatch which is directly over the bed, thinking, "Well, it's not going to rain, but there's no reason to take a chance." Normally, we never leave hatches open when we leave the boat.

Off we went, to a dock Wayne had tied up to on a previous Publix trip, about a mile and a half away. Unfortunately, the whole area was under construction and we could find no public dinghy dock. We finally asked a woman sitting in her backyard if she knew where we might be able to tie up. She offered her friend's dock (she was visiting), so Wayne left me there and off to Publix I went.

I was a woman on a mission, walking along the plaza, eyes fixed on Publix half a mile down the road, when suddenly I felt a strong force drawing me to the door of a shop. I walked in and lo and behold, I was at the Sandal Factory Store, with possibly more sandals than I have ever seen in one place before! I was in sandal heaven!

I called Wayne to see if I had time to browse or if he wanted me to hurry. Take your time, he said. YES! Ten minutes later he called back to tell me that it's pouring out, he's soaked to the skin, we left hatches open, and he was headed back to the boat. "Finish your shopping, wait until the rain stops, and take a cab back to the marina," he said.

WHAT??? It's raining??? I glanced out the window. Sure enough. Okay, I can deal with that. There are worse things than being stranded in a sandal shop during a rainstorm. A few minutes later it dawned on me that I keep a couple of plastic rain ponchos in the dinghy bag for such occasions. I started to call Wayne but he was already soaked. And slowwwly making his way at no-wake speed back to and across the mooring field. Oh, well.

I must digress here to explain that I am always on the lookout for comfortable walking sandals. I have really tender feet and if I walk more than about a mile in a pair of sandals, no matter how comfortable they are, I can't wear them again for several days because my feet need to heal. If I know I"ll be doing a lot of walking, I'll even bring an extra pair with me so I can switch. Thus, I need several pairs so I can rotate them. Or just not walk.

The deluge didn't seem ready to stop, but I was tired of trying to wait it out, so I paid for my (one pair of) sandals and continued on to Publix. As I crossed the parking lot, a gentleman returning to the car with his wife and their purchases dropped a bottle of wine on the ground! I couldn't believe that it didn't break! A woman pushing her grocery cart behind them admonished him, "That's alcohol abuse!" True story.

The marina was just over a mile away, so I chose to walk instead of take a cab. I called Wayne when I got close. He said that he and Emma would be waiting at the marina to pick me up. They weren't there when I arrived, so I waited a bit, then tried to call him. No answer. He finally showed up. The dinghy had run out of gas and he had to row half a mile against strong wind to get to the marina while keeping a careful eye on Emma. She and I stayed behind to minimize weight while Wayne rowed back to the boat, filled the tank, and returned to pick us up forty-five minutes later.

Wayne had a big mess to clean up when he returned to Lena Bea during the downpour. Lots of rain in the cabin to wipe up and dry out, but nothing serious. Thank goodness I closed the hatch over the bed!

We'll be leaving at 7:00 tomorrow morning for Rodriguez Key.