So this is a summary of our 2017, more or less. Less because our memory is another year older. And foggier. Also because much was mentioned in previous blog entries. This is also a summary of our time in Marathon since we arrived in November.
Our January 2017 was interesting because we volunteered at the Celtic Fest for the first time. Manned a beer tent and learned how to pull draft beer properly. We are volunteering there again in about a week. Our trip north was fraught with peril as a bridge tender tried to kill us (he failed, BTW) in Sisters Creek off the St. Johns River. We also spent more than three hours aground nearby that same day. Then, in March, we had extreme cold and snow in Wrightsville Beach, NC. After that our trip home to Mystic was without major issues
In July we lost our portside propeller assembly on a otherwise great sail to Montauk and had to replace it at great cost during our first haul out ever in Essex, CT in August.
In September we had another first, a baby shower for Heather and Mike. It was also the first I ever attended for anyone, including the one preceding Heather's birth thirty-something years earlier. September also saw the landfall of a major hurricane near our winter home of Marathon, FL. It tried to ruin our fall cruise south. It didn't, but it tried. Hurricane Jose also tried to wreck (bad choice of words) our cruise also but we beat it to the Cape May, NJ area by less than a day. After that our passages south were not too bad. We even went out to sea out of a new-to-us exit from the ICW, Winyah Bay, SC.
After we arrived in Marathon and saw all the damage to the mangroves, all the damage ashore and all the wrecked boats, we got to work. Approximately every five days there was a work party cleaning junk out of the mangroves or even cleaning the Route 1 roadside in front of and north of our marina and the park that fronts it. I was involved in pulling out three fridges and dock boxes along with tons of plastics and other debris from the harbor. Not fun. But fulfilling. Having a communal lunch after each work session with the other volunteers also pulled our community together.
Last year I started an on-the-VHF auction that raised about $500 for the Christmas Bike Fund. About $4000 was raised from various sources and 36 bikes were distributed to needy kids in Marathon. This year when I started talking about another VHF auction it was suggested by a professional auctioneer that he was willing to help in a live auction ashore at the marina. We started working on that idea and started collecting contributions to be auctioned off in addition to the Cruising Guides the Waterway Guide gives to me. We raised more than $1300 this time and the marina was able to purchase 44 bikes! What an improvement!. The need was greater due to Irma and the harbor came through! And we had fun doing it.
As this was going on we had a new arrival. He was a bit late in coming and caused some problems but Cobbe (pronounced Kobie) Michael Caramanico was born 1 December 2017. He is sure to cause more problems in the future. I visited him for about a week in NYC and grandma stayed a bit longer. He plans to visit us (with his parents) some time in February 2018.
We participated in our harbor Thanksgiving and Christmas Dinners this season as we didn't have family guests due to the waiting for Cobbe time. A nice chance to socialize with old friends and make new ones. Marathon is getting closer to normal and our harbor community has been much more successful getting back to normal than Marathon and the rest of the Keys at large. A lot to be thankful for.
It's been a lot of work for all but well worth it when seeing the results of that labor.
