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We left Plantation Key headed to Marathon Key. We continued down the inside for about 30 miles and went outside at 7 mile bridge. The bridge is actually south of Marathon. We decided to go to the Boot Key area in Marathon to find a place to stay. We ended up going a couple miles back in to Sombrero Resort Marina. It's interesting what some folks call a resort in the Keys. I guess a roof and plumbing are the main requirements to qualify. While it was not a resort in my book it was a nice place to stay. If you are going to be in this area for a while the Marathon City Marina has 200+ moorings as well as a very boater friendly set up for Wifi and dingy dockage. Sombrero Marina had what turned out to be one of the local bar and restaurant hangouts called Dockside. Live music every night and cold beer. That about does it for me! We stayed here a few days as Beverly was not up to par. On Saturday we went to the Marathon Seafood Festival. Quite the event for this small island town. What food we could get to was good. The lines were long or the venders ran out. Lots of local art and nick knacks.
Of course our stay at Sombrero would not have been complete had we not had a visit from the local dock kitty. He jumped on deck and went right down below to greet the crew. Imagine, he was in no hurry to leave and had to have a little encouragement.
On Sunday we left for Key West. Since we were already outside Seven Mile Bridge we stayed offshore in Hawks Channel going to Key West. The day began with about 3-5 (again forecast 2-4) and SSE winds 15-20. About half way to Key West the wind and seas subsided to 2-3 and SSE 8-12. In the morning with the winds more steady around 20 we reefed the mail to about 2/3 and about 50% headsail and were able to maintain 6.5 knots with no aux power. As the winds subsided we motor sailed to maintain 6 knots. We arrived in Key West early in the afternoon and to our surprise found most of the marinas full. This was the first time we had seen this since leaving Jacksonville in January. We ended up staying at Conch Harbor Marina. A nice resort but just a few blocks farther from Duval Street and all the action.