1/4/16
Harbour Cay Club – Marathon, Florida Keys
Posted by Bill

First…happy new year everyone! I haven’t posted since Christmas so I thought I would write an update. Generally, we have been enjoying a period of fantastic weather for the last 3 weeks! Today another front is moving through and the temps have fallen to the high 60s…brrrrrrr, and as usual, we are rocking and rolling in the waves of the north winds. Most of the last week we have been working on the boat. Seems like we are finding one project after another, but most of the time has been spent trying to get the air conditioner condensation draining properly. We finally broke down and figured a way to run a drain tube to our shower sump, so we could bypass using the venturi condensator that has been problematic. After some adjustments to the tube, we were able to get a solution and have been enjoying cooler temps in the cabin. Tricia built some shade curtains out of a shade material we bought at Home Depot. It works great to shade the cockpit and it was much more cost effective than buying the usual material (Phifertex) that is used in the marine industry. Next we tackled installing a new stern light on the dinghy davit cross bar. When the dinghy is hanging in the davits, the standard stern light is obscured, which is not good! We bought a mounting bracket, a new stern light, and the wire to add a light higher on the davits. Problem was…the clamp they sent me is too large for the cross bar….oh well…we will finish that one later. I’ll try to get a few pics of the last 2 projects mentioned for other cruisers looking for similar solutions, and will post in a future post.

A couple of days after Christmas we went to the Marathon Craft Beer and Bubbly festival at the city park. We rode our bikes with friends Hayden and Radeen on Island Spirit, and Maris and Linda on Amekaya. They had craft beer, wine, champagne, good food trucks, and live music. It was great fun! Here is the gang:

A couple of days before new years, friends here at the marina, Lanny and Jim, fired up their smoker and we smoked a pork tenderloin. Tricia marinated ours with the rib rub she makes, and the result was outstanding!!! Here is half of the tenderloin:

Tricia cut it up into portions and used our Food Saver to vacuum pack it, then put most of it in the freezer. We have been enjoying, and will be enjoying delicious pork for a while.

New Years Eve, we joined several other couples here at the marina and had hor d’oeuvres and drinks to usher in the new year. Lanny made a southern traditional “good luck” meal that was really good, so we should be real lucky! All of the food was good. We were in the club house, which has a nice wide screen TV with a surround sound system. We watched football and then the ball drop in Times Square. Hayden, Radeen, Maris and Linda, coaxed me in to getting my guitar and everyone joined in singing while I played. The party finally broke up around 2:40 AM. It was really fun, and I think that is the latest we have stayed up for new years eve in decades.

We pretty much stayed here at Harbour Cay Club over the holidays, as there were hordes of tourists here for the holidays. We are glad to have things get back to normal…as normal as it gets in the keys! Tomorrow some friends are coming in from St. Pete, Florida, and I am sure the happy hours at all of the local haunts will become a larger part of our activity once again.