"January 1-6, 2001 A New Year in Marathon" Top 5 Page for this destination Marathon Travelogue by grandmaR

Marathon Travel Guide: 238 reviews and 384 photos

Cape Florida Light in 2003

January 1-3, 2001 Starting South

Rafted on a friend's dock

We left Miami on New Years day, a bit later than Bob would have liked, but it took us awhile to get organized. We sail down Hawk Channel (the eastern side of the Keys) as far as possible aiming for Rodriguez Key where there is a recognized place to anchor with some protection. But it was too far so we anchored for the night off Point Willie (Key Largo). The Hawk Channel side (the east side of the Keys) is deeper and we don't want to try the Bay side which is shallower. The anchorage was pretty rolly, altho the anchor held well in sand.

Then the next day we went to our friend Ed's dock in Coco Plum and rafted on his friend's boat for two nights. Ed was a friend from the internet who has a boat of the same make as ours. He used to live here but had been transferred to San Francisco, and rents his house in the Keys out during the season.

He gave us explicit instructions how to get in to his canal (his boat is in San Francisco at this point). He and a friend went out on the point at the entrance to wave us in. Ed had his mom down with him, but Daisy, his wife, had had to return to San Francisco.

We were pretty isolated here without a car, and couldn't get ice for the refrigerator, so Bob broke down and fixed the refrigeration.

2004 - Chinese Junk docked by marina office 2004

Ed's friend was a bit unhappy with us rafted on his boat, so on Friday, we left and went to Marathon Marina for a few days.

We went to get fuel at their fuel dock first (the picture is of the area where the fuel dock was) and there was not only no one there to take our lines, but no one to give us the fuel either. I had to go into the office to get them to turn on the pump - pumped our own fuel and found and got into the slip they'd assigned us by ourselves with the help of other boaters.

Marina from Hawk Channel

We walked to the 7 Mile Cafe(across US 1) for dinner, and it was good although the place was so crowded that we had to eat outside and it was somewhat cold out there. At this point there was also a restaurant at Marathon Marina where we also ate once -can't remember what the name was and the next time we were there it was out of business, but it was basically a bar and burger place.

In this picture the Marathon marina restaurant is in the middle of the picture.

Visiting Boot Key - 4-5 January 2001

Draw bridge looking toward Boot Key Harbor

We went into Boot Key Harbor by dinghy and there were a lot of boats in there. We knew a friend's boat was anchored in Boot Key Harbor (Marathon the name of the town, but it is actually on Boot Key - there is no Marathon Key).

So we took the dinghy and went under the bridge into the harbor to look for it.

Harbor from the City Marina 2004

Boot Key Harbor has two entrances, and quite a bit of current as a result, but the only entrance we could have gotten into with our big boat was this one under the draw bridge because the other entrance (without a bridge) is too shallow.

We puttered around the harbor and saw our friend's boat, but they weren't there.

Marathon Boatyard 2004 from a boat

Unfortunately the filter to our little 3.5 hp Evenrude got clogged and the motor kept cutting out on the trip to Boot Key Harbor.

This picture is of Marathon Boatyard from the harbor. The Marathon Boatyard is a yard only and has no slips. It is confusing because the marina we were staying in was Marathon Marina and Boatyard and does have slips.

Heading South again- 6 January 2001

Mangroves around Boot Key Harbor with bird

Anyway, Bob had to row the inflatable back. He was not pleased. The inflatable is much less easy to row than the portabote. This picture was taken of the mangroves along the channel on the row back.

The next day we left and went on down to Key West

Page Updated Apr 16, 2009
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Comments (10)

iandsmith Sep 15, 2008 at 10:47 AM Report Abuse

You must spend all of your time in port writing tips! Thank you for sharing - liked the bridge story.
carrottop21 Jun 26, 2008 at 2:35 PM Report Abuse

Sparkeys has a great happy hour on Thursday and Fridays. Beers are cheap and there is music.
Jim_Eliason Aug 6, 2007 at 6:41 AM Report Abuse

great page!
hammersc Mar 7, 2007 at 11:01 AM Report Abuse

The Keys Fisheries is well known up here in Toronto. I have had a craving for a lobster reuben since my stay in the Keys. We sat at a picnic table overlooking the gulf and washed down the Reuben with a few Key West Lagers, the overall experience was 5*.
XenoHumph Jul 5, 2005 at 11:10 AM Report Abuse

Beautiful sunset! Excellent page! I know Marathon, Texas, which is very dry in the middle of the desert... very different from that one!
sprdak11 Sep 17, 2004 at 9:30 AM Report Abuse

Great information and pictures! Greetings!
mafootje Aug 10, 2004 at 10:06 AM Report Abuse

Well...that's a more extensive page as mine :-). Good tips
sinequanon Feb 25, 2004 at 8:44 AM Report Abuse

good to know there is a Marathon in the US which (most probably) looks much better than the original Marathon.
deecat Feb 24, 2004 at 9:44 PM Report Abuse

You must eat out a great deal! This is an impressive list of restaurant tips. Detailed, informtive, and a unique kind of travel. Sounds heavenly.
JudyinPA Jan 28, 2004 at 2:09 PM Report Abuse

Ah, the life of boat people. Sounds like a fantastic way to travel. We stayed at a condo on the beach and traveled by bikes from there.