Getting to Marathon

 

On the way down to our winter home in the Fl. Keys we passed a few interesting boats, one interesting bridge and did a small adjustment to the front sail that I thought you might like to see.

This house boat was as large as a small house and must have been built on a barge base. The only trouble is that most barges are built of steel and just like the Snow Goose steel is prone to rust in salt water… and that’s what must have happened to this house boat for it’s now sitting on the bottom in about 5 feet of water. The entire first floor is a couple of feet deep in water. I think though, that the deck railing sticking out of the water is cute.

We also passed this homebuilt gaff rig that went sailing by as we were powering into the wind. We know the man who built the boat and it’s a true ‘one of a kind’ boat.

I’ve always loved these bridges, (the arched one) it looks like it could have been a railroad bridge and that's because, they were. The original way the  Florida Keys were connected was by railroad. After it went bankrupt the railroad bridges were converted to automobile bridges during the 1930’s. The original train system was considered one of the “wonders of the world” at the time that it opened. Now though,,,

it’s been replaced with these modern ‘high rise’ bridges. Ugly if you ask me. When we finally got to a point that we could sail, I noticed that the forward sail was flapping on the bottom edge so I had to climb up on the lifelines to adjust the leach line on the foot of the sail.

(It’s not as dangerous as it looks). It was a great trip south this year (despite the problems that we had) and we are looking forward to our stay in Marathon.