January 26: Banana Bay Marina - Home for Now :-)

Yesterday we were greeted to our home for the next month by Precious the manatee. She is clearly used to people petting her and seems to visit all of the boats in the marina include us! Yesterday's Dream isn't in a real 'slip' but rather on the 'sea wall' - which means in a NW wind we bounce around a lot but the view can't be beat. Second pic is looking out of our port door and the third picture is looking out of the starboard door (wind has picked up today!).

First things first: Steve is cleaning the plastic from the flybridge as it shouldn't be needed for a while. I didn't help. Instead I sat at chatted with Dick and Joy who are staying in the hotel part of the marina complex. (They are from Arkansas and are here for a week.) Hard to believe isn't it? Me - chat? Must be the boating life!

It's surprising the number of folks that just walk along the dock and enjoy the view and sunshine at the small beach area outside our door. And inevitably we (usually Steve mostly) ends up talking with them. Nice way to meet new people that's for sure. They are often curious as to how we got a boat from Cleveland to Florida! We headed out on bikes early today as it was to become quite windy with rain mixed in.

We rode about a mile to the main harbor here at Marathon. There must be hundreds of boats on mooring balls along with maybe 30 boats actually tied to docks. The dingy docks are usually pretty full and the town really caters to the boaters here. This lady was just taking her dogs for a ride - they were very cute!

The grounds here (at Banana Bay) are gorgeous. Large palms and other kinds of plants that just make you know you are in Florida and the Keys. We even found the horseshoe pits - watch out John and Daisy because we'll be practicing so we can take you on when you get here!