Monday: We got up before the sunshine, so that we would be ready to cast off lines as soon as it was light enough. We could have left the marina in the dark and found our way out to the Gulf without any problem, but we didn’t want to get out THERE in the dark, because there are crab pot buoys that could really ruin our day if we got one of them wrapped around a prop. We needed to wait until it would be light enough to see those time bombs. As we made our way back out the channel, we saw the Snook Inn, where we enjoyed sitting last night up on the top deck.
This was our route today – get out of Marco, and set a straight line course for the next eight hours to Marathon. I don’t know why it lost track of us for about an hour. Perhaps we were abducted by aliens and then our memories were wiped clean so that we don’t remember. HA! We went fast twice for an hour each time (the yellow). Our normal cruise speed is aboaut 9mph. When we go fast, we go about 20mph, so it saves us an hour for each hour that we go zoom – which is a nice option when we have so far to go in one day. We left the marina at 7:22 (sunrise was 7:45) and we arrived at our Marathon marina at 4:10. Right at 100 miles in 8 hours 40 minutes.
Crab pot buoys you ask? They look like little bombs! Fortunately they are generally placed in lines, so if you see a couple of them you can visually follow the line to see more. Unfortunately, we encountered them over the entire 100 miles! What in the world are they doing clear out there? I don’t know! Hopefully catching crab for somebody. It is Stone Crab season, so I assume that is what these are for. Stone Crab are caught, and usually one claw is harvested and the crab is thrown back to grow another one for another time.
The water today was pretty darn nice for being out on the Gulf of Mexico! The most the wind blew was probably about 11mph – just on the edge of creating a few white-caps. No big rollers, but it was a little bit splashy when we went fast, and a little bit rocky with the wind and small waves hitting us on the port side for most of the day.
We arrived safely at Marlin Bay Resort & Marina. We have never been to this marina before, and boy are we ever so pleasantly surprised! It is a ‘boutique” resort, currently with thirteen 3 & 4 bedroom rental units, and a marina. It is beautiful! Our dockhands helped get us all tied up and then escorted us to the concierge to get us checked in. What a nice first impression!
All checked in and a tour of the facility, we headed back to the boat and celebrated our successful long day with our obligatory Looper shot – a Little Beer – Licor 43 and heavy cream. YUM!
And then we changed into swimsuits and went to scope the place out and belly up to the pool bar to check it out. The bartender Scot was very nice, and mixed oneheckova drink! YIKES and YUM all at the same time!
I think we’re going to enjoy our week here! There are four other looper boats here that we’ve never met before, then Haley Rose came in about an hour after us. We met Mike somewhere along the loop, and he will be crossing his wake in Fort Pierce Florida by the end of the month. It was fun to see a familiar face, and to meet new ones!
There will be lots of relaxing going on for the next week!