Sombrero Marina, Marathon, Florida: January 30-31, 2021
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Marc- We have combined both days in one blog entry since our internet was very slow yesterday. I completed a project on both Lucy III and one on Fiddler's Green. We went over to Michael's to enjoy a a group New York Times Cross Word Puzzle with Brian. Lots of fun working out solutions while enjoying Michael's coffee. The big project of the day was installing a new 110 volt electrical outlet with two USB ports in the forward cabin of Fiddler's Green. All went well despite it being difficult to snake new wires from a midship power outlet.
The Lucy III project of the day was installing non-skid in the cockpit. Sue and I also did our usual share of walking about and spied interesting pine trees found here (photos below). the pines found on Marathon today were confirmed by John and Mindy Donnelly to be Monkey Tree (a relative of Norfolk pines).
Sunday was a bit different. We started off with online St. Ignatius Mass, then walking over to the Town Park to the tennis courts for some Sue and Marc tennis. Next was Michael's coffee time. We were treated to a trip to Big Pine Key Wildlife Preserve by Michael in his really neat F-150 deluxe truck. The colors displayed on the water while crossing the 7 Mile Bridge never cease to amaze us with the many shades of blue and green. Our first stop in the Wildlife Preserve was the Blue Hole. This is a freshwater pond in the middle of the island in a protected wilderness. The first trail we took brought us to the Blue Hole where a boardwalk led to the edge of the pond. When we looked over the edge into the pond there were two alligators about 5 feet below us. They were 5-6 feet in length. See a moving alligator: https://youtu.be/dMNgd_lCAWY It was amazing to see fish swimming in their midst. One of the larger fish was a 3 foot long Atlantic Tarpon. We learned that tarpon came to the Blue Hole when a hurricane in 2005 raised the sea level by 5 feet flooding the whole island. When the waters receded the tarpon remained in the Blue Hole and were able to adapt to life in fresh water. Our second trail went through some new growth forest after a controlled burn. The third trail brought us to nearby No Name Key looking for the elusive Key Deer. We saw one on the road when driving in and I got out and went along a path about a half mile to a grassy area where there were two small deer. Unfortunately they fled before I could get a photo. We went back to Big Pine Key and were surprised to see several Key Deer in a developed neighborhood grazing on the mowed lawns. These deer were fearless and a baby walked right up to me as I was taking photos.
We also enjoyed an excellent lunch outdoors at the No Name Pub on No Name Key.
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