TIM PATTI RILEY BIG ADVENTURE

1/28/2018

We arrived Faro Blanco Resort & Yacht Club, Marathon, FL on 1/20. We ended up staying at Rose Marina 3 days due to weather. The silver lining.....we were able to get the bottom cleaned while we were there. That made for a faster run with less fuel on our trip to Marathon. We both stood the entire way to watch for the ever present crab pots. I stood on the 5.5 inch foot rest & Tim on a stool. We needed to do that to see clearly over the bow. The markers for crab pots are about the size of a grapefruit & come in different colors. Depending on the waves & the sun, some are easier to see than others. It was a long 5 hours, but we made it without mishap.

We were lucky to catch up with friends Lori & Derek on Donna Mae before they left for Fort Lauderdale to cross their wake. A good time was had by all. We miss them.

Our slip at Faro Blanco is tucked into a corner. (See pictures) It offers good protection from the almost non-stop winds (average 25 mph) we have been having. Luckily, it was not windy when we docked, as Tim had only inches to maneuver. As usual his performance was stellar. Once again, the dinghy is boxed in & we are unable to to get in the garage! A problem to be solved another day.

As with everything, there are pluses & minuses to this dock. We are on a corner, so a lot of foot traffic, which keeps Riley constantly on guard. The dock is not at an optimal level for Riley & myself. The staff was kind enough to lend us stairs. Riley will not use them. He would rather jump over the side, which he does pretty well.

We do not have 50 amp service at this dock, so we needed to use our splitter. It worked to begin with & then we had no power. Same thing happened at Rose Marina. At Rose they had to rewire the post, of course we thought it was the same problem. Turns out, it was not. Our splitter was broken. Luckily, the boat next to us had a spare. We were able to use that until Tim ordered another on line & it was delivered. It always seems to work. Someone has something you need & they are willing to share.

This Resort is part of a Hilton Complex. They deliver free ice 2x/day & deliver 2 newspapers/day. (Wall Street & USA Today). That is helpful as there is no TV service. There is a free breakfast in the hotel, which we are allowed to share in. The restaurant on site is good & offers specials. There are 2 pools.

Speaking of pools...we were sitting at one of them with the palms behind our backs, watching lizards sunning themselves. We kept hearing noise in the palms. We thought it was the wind blowing the palms. Next thing I hear is a big plop & what do my wondering eyes behold??? Two rather large lizards fell out of the tree right next to us. They sat for awhile & then went back up the tree.

The closest shopping is about 1.5 miles away. We took a cab to provision. We do walk it but not if we need to carry a lot. While walking, one can see how hard hit this area was by Irma. Much is up & running, but a lot is gone. It seems the walk north is in a little better condition.

There is a Turtle Hospital down the road. We have not visited it yet, but plan to.