Day 40 - Marathon

Kite’s return trip to Marathon was considerably more comfortable than her original trip here. As planned, she topped off her fuel tanks at Key West Bight Marina before departing around 07:30. The wind was about 5 knots from the southeast, and the tide was ebbing – helping us to motor south in the shipping channel at the west end of Key West. With opposing tide and wind, the seas were very choppy and the first mile of our departure from Key West was rough. At the Southernmost Point, Kite headed east, hoping to be able to unfurl her sails and begin sailing. This was not to be. The wind direction was just too close to our direction of travel to be able to get any help from the sails, and she continued motoring east for two miles more. When her course finally began to angle more northerly, we unfurled the sails and turned off the engine, preferring the quieter sounds of wind and sea instead of the drone of the engine. Kite’s course to Marathon through the Hawk Channel took her more and more to the north as the day progressed and our sailing speed increased as the wind angle on the sails became more favorable.

Ringle had departed about an hour later than Kite, as is her custom because she is generally able to motor faster than Kite. The winds were 5 to 10 knots during most of the day, a perfect day for sailing. Kevin and Lyn each took long shifts at the helm, relieving Peter for potty breaks and lunch. Looking back, we saw that Kite was not the only sailboat to be enjoying the relatively calm conditions for traveling east in the Hawk Channel. We spotted about 8 other sailboats, all sailing the same course as Kite. Some were motorsailing, but most were enjoying a quiet, wind-powered ride up the Hawk Channel.

Kevin at Kite's helm

Great day for sailing in Hawk Channel

Ringle caught up to Kite by early afternoon and was sailing a few hundred yards astern as Kite entered the Marathon area. Arriving in mid-afternoon, Kite’s crew was pleased to note the absence of storms in the area, and the calm seas. On our first approach to Marathon a week earlier after battling large seas and strong winds on the nose for 3 hours, Kite had to deal with a nasty rainstorm just as she was preparing to turn north toward the entrance channel to Marathon’s Boot Key Harbor.

Ringle trailing Kite in Hawk Channel

We called the Marathon City Marina and got our mooring assignments, R-7 and R-8, adjacent each other. It was late enough when we arrived that we decided to wait until morning to check-in. Our plan was to stay at a mooring in Boot Key Harbor for three nights. Kevin would be leaving Kite on the morning of 4 May, after two fun-filled weeks cruising the Keys. We would take him to shore to catch a bus to the airport in the morning, and then spend our last day in Boot Key Harbor, leaving on 5 May. Our last day together with Kevin in Boot Key Harbor included lunch at Florida Keys Steak and Lobster House, rowing our dinghy both ways due to a problem with the carburetor on our outboard engine, swimming from the stern of Kite, a delicious dinner of ginger chicken stir-fry aboard Kite, and a ceremonial conch-blowing duet at sunset.

We were all up early the next day for breakfast and then rowed Kevin and his luggage to the marina dock. Lyn and Peter walked him the short distance to the bus stop and saw him off, and then returned to the marina office to await the arrival of the outboard motor mechanic at 10:00 (Island time). Meanwhile, Ringle’s outboard motor, the same make and model as Kite’s, had ruptured its fuel supply hose, so they planned to piggy-back our time with Ben, the mechanic, and get their problem solved too.

Ben arrived around 10:20 (close enough for Island time) and looked at the two engines. He said that he would have to take them back to his shop and order parts and it would be 3-4 days to get the parts. We told him that we would not be here that long and asked if there was anything he could do. He suggested that the ruptured hose could be replaced by the good hose from Kite’s motor, so that we could have the use of one dinghy. So, Kite became an organ donor and by the end of the day, Ringle had a working outboard motor. We celebrated last night aboard Ringle with movie night, watching “McCabe & Mrs. Miller”.  Lyn supplied the popcorn, popped the old-fashioned way in a covered frying pan.

After the movie, Vince and Peter discussed plans for returning to Key Largo. Vince was not enthusiastic about either of the marina choices available from the Hawk Channel. Peter suggested the Anchorage Resort and Marina that we had enjoyed on the way to Marathon. We decided on that one. We also had consulted the weather forecast and found that Friday, 5 May, would likely produce thunderstorms during the day, while Saturday had a favorable wind forecast and no chance of t-storms. We decided then to stay one additional day in Marathon and depart tomorrow for Anchorage Resort and Marina via Channel Five and the ICW.