February 15th- Boot Key Harbor, Marathon FL

A belated Happy Valentine’s Day. We had Valentine’s breakfast at a Cuban Restaurant (5 stars). It was over 80 degrees so we then went to the beach. Many sailors were heading out to the reefs to go snorkeling. Since we have almost no snorkeling experience we decided to try it out at the beach. Unfortunately, the water was very cloudy so we couldn’t really see anything. We enjoyed the swimming anyway. Ollie was like a fish. Later in the day we headed back to Catalpa for grilled steaks and a nice sunset.

Oliver was tired from all of his swimming activity.

By the time we got to Marathon, a month ago, Catalpa was looking pretty rough. The hull was stained from the tea colored ICW water (called ICW moustache). My varnished teak was beat up. Our American Flag was in tatters by Vero Beach. We replaced old glory when we were there. The Cuttyhunk Burgee made it all the way to Boot Key Harbor but it was also shredded. The hull is now white again and I’ve managed to touch up the varnish a bit.

We discovered, on the radio net, that a woman on Invictus makes BKH burgees. We promptly ordered one. She also made us a custom Catalpa flag.

The new Boot Key Harbor burgee. We still love Cuttyhunk too. We’ll get a new Cuttyhunk flag when we get back.

The Catalpa burgee. I’ve wanted one for years.

More bling. Catalpa also got a new anchor.

One more for the road. I found these colorful fish interesting.

We’re here for at least another week. Then we’ll go West.