A Brief, Sometimes Funny History

. . . OF CONCHS AND THE CONCH REPUBLIC

The Conch Republic flag is flown on many buildings and boats. Here 

it flies at Historic Pigeon Key.

Son Brian gave us a Conch Republic flag years and years ago that we really didn't understand at the time. We do now and have raised it on Carina's flag halyard since arriving in the Keys. What we've learned about conchs and the Keys in the past few weeks is:

Conchs are Both Critters and their Shells

The conch (pronounced konk) name refers to large sea snails found around the Gulf and Caribbean, and it also refers to their shells. We don't like to think of conchs as snails, but that's what they are. Every restaurant menu in the Keys offers conch fritters, conch chowder, or conch salad. Like many things, we're loving them to extinction, and limits may be put on their harvest worldwide in the future.

Conch fritters are deep-fat fried balls of dough with conch mixed in. 

Think hush puppies with conch instead of onion.

For now though, not only is conch good (though often tough) meat, it's a fine instrument, too. When the tip of the conch shell has been cut off, it makes a horn with a deep baritone sound. On Grenada and other islands, fishermen blew conch shells to let islanders know they were arriving with a fresh catch. Now, sailors use them to signal the moment the sun disappears down the horizon. We think blowing a conch shell must be like learning the tuba in high school band. It takes practice to blow a smooth continuous sound -- and the only time you can practice is a couple of minutes at sunset. 

A Queen Conch shell surrounded by coral and other varieties 

of shells at a Marathon shell store.

Conchs are People, Too, who Seceded from the Union -- for a Minute

Early settlers to the Keys became known as Conchs, a name still applied to longtime local residents. The Conch Republic started as a serious concern for the Keys that became a tongue-in-cheek tourist promotion.

In 1982, the U.S. Border Patrol set up a roadblock at the very northern part of the Keys to search vehicles for drugs and illegal immigrants. The Key West City Council complained that the roadblock paralyzed its tourism industry. Legal attempts to stop the searches failed, so as a protest the mayor and city council of Key West declared its independence on April 23, 1982. 

The city council believed that the border station was set up as though the Keys were a foreign nation, and so they decided to become one. The new nation took the name the Conch Republic. The rest of the Keys -- known as the Northern Territories -- were included in the new nation.

At a public gathering April 23, the mayor broke a loaf of stale Cuban bread over the head of a man dressed in a U.S. Navy uniform to begin the Conch Republic's Civil Rebellion. According to Conch Republic's Web site, "After one minute of rebellion, the now, Prime Minister Wardlow turned to the Admiral in charge of the Navy Base at Key West, and surrendered to the Union Forces, and demanded 1 Billion dollars in foreign aid and War Relief to rebuild our nation after the long Federal siege!" 

The border station was closed. However, the Conch Republic is still waiting for the federal aid.

Each April 23 Key West celebrates Conch Republic Independence Day with reinactments and community parties. 

In our six weeks here, we first thought the Conch Republic represented a lifestyle, like Margaritaville without the alcohol. As we understood it better, it seemed to represent a culture, like Cajun in Louisiana. Now we believe the best comparison is to the Boston Tea Party in the 1700s -- a political protest that brought unreasonable government actions to public attention. . . only the Conch Republic did it with humor and continues to do so today. We thought you might have fun reading about it. Visit conchrepublic.com for more history and laughs.



Next Blog: The Legacy of Henry Flagler

Home of the Best Sunsets

. . . MARATHON IN THE FLORIDA KEYS

If there are better sunsets than here, we don't know where they are.

Sometimes the sunsets are fiery golds. Our favorites are the mixtures of gold and orange . . . or gold and bright pink . . . or bright pink and blue.

Once again, we'll let the photos speak for themselves. We hope you enjoy seeing the glorious sunsets -- from over a month of sunsets -- as much as we did. 

Sailors sound a conch horn to mark the end of the day as the sun touches the horizon. We'll write more about the conch horn and the Conch Republic in the next blog.



Next Blog: A Brief, Sometimes Funny History of Conchs and the Conch Republic 

Life On the Ball

. . . IN MARATHON

Mid-morning Thursday, a three-minute rain blew through Boot Key Harbor as the leading edge of a "cold" front. That night and Friday night, the 15+ mph winds blew through the rigging, water lapped the sides of the boat and both the winds and water rocked us like babies. That means good sleep since we're safely tied to a mooring ball. It also means our sailing friends will still be here a few days longer.

A diver from the boat to the right cleans barnacles off Endless Summer's mooring ball. He then moved to the next mooring ball until all 200-plus were cleaned and inspected. 

Mother Nature is Your Planner

As soon as a weather window opens, some friends plan to sail east to the Bahamas, and others will sail west to the Dry Tortugas. You often don't have time to say goodbye when "Mother Nature becomes your Day Timer." That quote from An Embarrassment of Mangoes, really fits the cruising life. Mother Nature decides when people move on, stay or even motor to the dinghy dock.

For the past 10 days, we've entertained new friends on Carina. We want to enjoy their company while we still can before they suddenly leave. Two among many interesting couples we've met in Boot Key Harbor are Ron and Judy on Pioneer, a 38-foot Cabo Rico, and Alan and Sharon on their 24-foot catamaran.

Ron and Judy are from beautiful Vancouver, although they keep 

their boat on the U.S. east coast. They both swear they have 

no black velvet paintings in their home. We didn't ask if they have 
any on board Pioneer.

Ron and Judy have sailed around Central America, to the Bahamas several times, and to Cuba a couple of times. As Canadian citizens, they can travel there. Judy is a retired high school principal, and Ron had several careers, including one in the '70s as an importer of black velvet paintings from Mexico. We kid you not! Both of them are very knowledgeable and skilled sailors, as well as fun people to be around.

Alan aboard his and Sharon's catamaran on an extremely 

calm day in Boot Key Harbor.

We can hardly begin to describe Alan and Sharon's background. Alan, originally from South Africa, and Sharon trailered their 24-foot catamaran here and are outfitting it to sail to the Everglades to do wildlife photography. Alan is particularly fond of alligator photography. Although they are experienced sailors, they are even more experienced aviators!  Sharon and Alan met when she was piloting a UN plane and he was the engineer aboard.

New Additions

Items to make life easier keep appearing on Carina the longer we stay in Marathon. A tall rolling cart was bought Friday that we can bungee cord onto the bike like a bike trailer or we can roll it on its own. It'll be a huge help when we're underway and need to carry groceries or five-gallon containers of gas or water back to the boat.

The new lifting davits are made of some impressive stainless steel 

and are a less expensive version of dinghy davits. The starboard  

davit fit the mount that the dinghy motor lift was on. Kent will install 

the port side lifting davit next week. 

The item we're most excited about are lifting davits that arrived Friday. They'll enable us to easily lift our dinghy in and out of the water. It's been in the water since the Gulf crossing and has had barnacles scraped off once already. Just three weeks later, it already needs another scraping. Lifting it out of the water keeps barnacles from attaching.

This is why we are so excited about getting the "dink" out of "the drink." Here, half 
its bottom was cleaned and the other half still covered in barnacles.

Barnacle City

Marathon seems to be a fertile area for barnacles to grow. A diver is supposed to come in a couple of days to scrape the bottom of Carina, particularly the prop which has no bottom paint. Barnacles are crustaceans that grow on anything and everything in the waters around here. If left untouched, they will affect the way the boat sails and the speed it can travel. Most boat owners in coastal areas have their boat "dived" every month or so to keep the bottom smooth. We'll have it scraped now and then again before we leave Boot Key Harbor.

Mother Nature is OUR Planner, Too

After the Miami Boat Show on February 14-18, we will be the ones looking for a weather window. We'll come back from the boat show and stock up on food and supplies. When the weather window happens, we'll be gone from Marathon. That may be within days or weeks of our return. It all depends on when Mother Nature chooses to smile at us.


Next Blog:  Marathon -- Home of the Best Sunsets

The Natural Beauty of Marathon

. . . LET THE PICTURES SPEAK

Bougainvillea is planted throughout the keys. We've seen reds 

like this one and bright fuchsia pink.

A palm frond at Marathon Marina where our solar panels 
were installed. Simple and gorgeous.

A three-week old loggerhead turtle was found and nursed to health by the Sea Turtle Center, a turtle hospital in Marathon. The week after this photo was taken, this tiny loggerhead was released back to the wild. Only about one in one thousand turtle eggs that hatch make it to adulthood. This turtle is shown actual size. If lucky, he/she could grow up to 400 pounds.

Snake Plant, also called Mother-in-Law's Tongue, grows wild in the Keys. 
This patch was found between the city park and the harbor. 

A yellow head is a mature brown pelican's winter plumage and helps attract a mate during mating season. Surely the state of Florida should change its state bird from the Northern Mockingbird to the brown pelican because there are so many here. It might share the pelican as a state bird with Louisiana, but right now, it shares the mockingbird with Tennessee -- way to the north.

The Devil's Tongue cactus is one of two cactus species native to Florida. The pinkish-purplish fruit can be eaten. The juice of the cactus was used to treat rattlesnake bites, warts, and wounds. Oddly enough, the Devil's Tongue cactus was found near the 
Mother-in-Law's Tongue plant. Hmmm.

The Great Egret or White Heron -- it goes by many names -- is common along the coast. This egret was posing at Marathon Marina.

The ghost-faced Kemp's Ridley sea turtle is the rarest sea turtle in the world and is the most endangered. This Kemp's Ridley turtle was injured, rescued and brought to the Sea Turtle Center and turtle hospital in Marathon. They are small compared to loggerheads and other species, topping out at about 100 pounds.

Iguanas have become a problem in the Keys, to the point that large populations are being given birth control. This big fella was near the Sea Turtle Center and is quite handsome. It's a good thing they eat plants, not people.

In addition to bougainvilleas, other flowers blooming now include hibiscus. 
This particular plant should make University of Tennessee fans happy.

Florida has done a great job of posting signs to protect manatees and warning boaters to slow down. Manatees are hard to find, though. They are shy, very slow, very large critters that can hold their breath 20 minutes under water. Finally we saw this manatee -- our first in the wild -- swim through the inner dinghy dock at the Marathon City Marina. The bumps on his/her skin are barnacles, believe it or not.

Our marina manatee rolled over several times for us. The massive tail can be seen better in this photo. The expression that something is so ugly it's cute applies to manatees. They are gentle creatures, mean no harm and are just part of God's plan for the world.

The 4 Best Things (to us) about Marathon City Marina and Boot Key Harbor

. . . WHAT IS SO GREAT ABOUT MARATHON?

 


A lot when you’ve been living aboard a boat for a while or have come down to escape cold weather.

About the Area

If you've never been here, Marathon is located in the “middle keys” a short drive away from Key West. The city calls it a boaters' paradise, and its description is accurate. Some boaters and snow birds come to Marathon to stay the winter. Other boaters see it as a launching point for the Bahamas or the Dry Tortugas. 

The town covers several keys and has a large protected harbor, Boot Key Harbor. It has about 8,000 full-time residents, gaining many more visitors when winter arrives “up north.”

Here's city marina as seen from the mooring field, with its tiki hut gathering place and the marina office building with its WiFi area, lending library, mail center, cruiser work space and storage lockers.

At Marathon City Marina and Boot Key Harbor, the city provides over 200 mooring balls in the harbor, limited dock space in the marina, and the services that come with a marina – bathrooms, showers, laundry and pump outs. 

What do we like best about Marathon?

#1 -- The People We've Met are Terrific

Before arriving, we worried about meeting people on our sailing adventure. We'd shared a wonderful Thanksgiving in Bradenton with Pat and David on Sanctuary, but met few other cruisers until reaching Marathon. It's truly a cruisers' community.

We were lucky that Walt and Pat from New York took us under their wing just because we have a Catalina sailboat like their Waves of Grace, although theirs is 42 feet and ours 34 feet. In their four years of spending winters in Marathon, they've collected a wonderful group of friends, introduced us and included us in many get-togethers. 

Bonnie, Yasmine and Pat on a recent trip to Key West.

Some friends, like Sid and Bonnie on Fiu, are also from New York. Others, like Anna (and Rich, her husband whom we didn't meet) on Snow Goose, were from Michigan. While we aren't sure where Roy and Yasmine on Yasmine Ann are from, they are equally as delightful and fun -- good, kind people, all.

We've met other new friends on our own, Ron and Judy on Pioneer from Vancouver, Canada, and Jim and Joey on My Pleasure from New Jersey, among them. The same adjectives used above apply to them, too. It took us a couple of weeks to learn that we have to participate in the activities here in order to meet people. Meeting people doesn't just happen as it seems to at home.

#2 -- The Climate in the Winter is Excellent

Temperatures have been in the 70s and low 80s since we arrived. Occasionally a “cold front” will come through when temperatures plunge to 64 degrees. A steady breeze almost always blows in the mooring field and the temperature drops to the mid-60s at night, making for really great sleeping weather. Best of all, there are no bugs.

The mooring field is laid out in rows. This photo shows about a third of the field.

#3 -- Cruisers Organize a Lot of Interesting Activities

While the marina provides basic services, the cruisers add the lagniappe, or the little something extra, as they say in Louisiana. Each morning at 9 the Marathon Cruisers' Net – a morning VHF radio program -- comes on to welcome/say goodbye, make announcements of events or activities, ask for expertise on boat repairs or improvements, and buy/sell/trade/giveaway items. Sometimes you have to be quick on the mike to get those giveaway items.

VHF Channel 68 is the home of the 
Marathon Cruisers' Net.

Marathon cruisers conduct yoga, tai-chi and mahjong (!) classes. Cruisers organize softball practice and play tennis, basketball or could even ride skate boards if we have them, thanks to the city park being next door. Weekly talks about boating subjects are held, usually conducted or at least organized by the cruisers. This week's topic is sail repair and maintenance while underway. It sounds like something we don't want to happen, but all want to know about.

Steve, our island music rocker dude 
next-door-neighbor.

There are festivals, community theater, and music, music, music! Eric Stone and the Stoners (with our mooring ball neighbor Steve, his lead guitarist) played to a crowd of sailors at a local club on a recent weekend. Every Saturday, Gary on Saturday's Child and the other talented singers and musicians in Boot Key Harbor perform free at the city marina tiki hut. So far this year, the city has put on a two-day music video festival with local bands and plans to throw a family fun festival next weekend.

And if we get tired of Marathon activities, there's always Key West. It's just a low-cost bus ride away.

#4 -- Boat and People Services are Enough and Nearby

Marathon is a town of small businesses, with no major malls and no Wal-Mart. The stores Marathon has are enough for what we need. It also helps that most of those businesses are fairly close to the marina. That's not been the case with the towns and marinas we've passed through so far.

Marathon has a really great concentration of boat service companies with a variety of specialties, more than we've seen since our travels began. Whether it's advice, parts for the boat, or someone to do the work, there's a business in Marathon that can handle it. And yes, West Marine is down the street, too.

David at Sea Air Land Technologies (SALT) installs
 the wiring for Carina's new solar panels.

The services for people in Marathon are convenient. Less than a mile away, Home Depot, Kmart and Publix are probably the largest businesses in town. We've added to our gas container and tool collections, found things for Carina that make life aboard better or easier, and go to the market several times a week -- just because we can. 

Where To From Here?

Oddly, as much as we like it here, we are feeling the need to move on. We have developed wanderlust, it seems.

We have a few things to do first --

• have Carina's inverter fixed to charge from all sources of energy;
• have a diver clean Carina's bottom hull and props of barnacles that grow so fast in salt water and cause the boat to sail so slow;
• install Garhaur outboard motor lifts to act as davits to lift the dinghy out of the water when we're underway; and
• attend the Miami Boat Show by land in mid-February -- just because we are close to Miami, to look, not buy. Okay, if the truth be known, we're going because we want to attend the Cruising Outpost magazine party at the boat show. 

Then we'll look for a weather window to get to Miami by water and sail on to Vero Beach.

Carina Gets Juiced

. . . WELL, IN AN ELECTRICAL SENSE

Like a house, a sailboat needs juice – power -- to run its systems, such as the refrigerator, lights, water pressure and even the laptop. After Christmas, Carina's power started declining, a serious problem on any boat. We became extra careful to turn off lights, unplug the laptop, and eliminate any glowing light at night because they were draining the batteries.

Under sail, we recharge the batteries by running the diesel engine for a couple of hours as we leave an anchorage or marina. It happens without a lot of thought as we sail on our way. But when we stopped last month to moor in Boot Key Harbor, recharging became a daily task. We ran the engine in neutral for about 90 minutes or ran our Honda 2000 generator that our good neighbor, Rob, shipped to us.

Keeping Carina’s eight-year-old batteries charged became more and more troublesome as they took longer to charge and held less and less of a charge. Lucky break #1 is that it happened at a place where there are so many marine services.

After a visit to Sea, Air, Land Technologies (SALT), we gave Carina – and ourselves -- a late Christmas present of dependable power. Two new 215 amp Absorbed Glass Mat (AGM) batteries were installed over the holidays.  We had SALT install them as they weighed 125# each and were in an awkward location.

In just a few hours, John with SALT took the old batteries out 

of Carina and installed these two new Lifeline batteries. 

Sun, keep on a shinin'

The second part of this gift of power was solar panels. We moved Carina to the Marathon Marina for a day to have two 135 watt solar panels installed, along with the framework to hold them above the bimini and to brace the additional weight. Lucky break #2 is that we are getting a 30 percent tax credit under the green initiative for the entire project – batteries and panels -- and no Florida sales tax!

Kent and David, with SALT, fit the custom stainless frame to the bimini frame. 

Although it doesn't look it, the two panels were placed well behind the boom, 

allowing it to swing out without hitting them as the boom is released.

Kent smiles big as David makes the last adjustments to the 

installed panels. Back braces were later added to the frame.

Now we can sleep easier knowing that Carina has dependable batteries and a way to rejuice them that doesn’t require fuel or tie us to the boat. All we need is for the sun to shine.

UPDATE: The solar panels produced more amps than we used today. Hooray!! They worked.