Marathon

It was two weeks ago today that we arrived at Boot Key Harbor, the city marina for Marathon in the Florida Keys. We attached ourselves to mooring ball K2 and after two weeks, it is beginning to seem like home.

The city of Marathon is unique in that the four or five marinas within the city limits are among the few marinas in the state of Florida that allow live aboard boaters. The state of Florida has become very weird and downright stingy about allowing boaters to live aboard their boats. In their defense, the state and more than a few municipalities have had some really bad experiences with some boaters in the past who have lived on their boats. Examples of these bad behaviors are the total neglect and upkeep of the boats, poor hygiene of the live aboard residents with the improper disposal of waste products both human and hazardous and probably worst of all is the abandonment issue when the boat no longer becomes inhabitable. This is the major reason for the half sunken boats that we have seen along our journey. My first thought was that the boat were just left in place following the hurricanes of the past few years but upon further investigation it seems that many times the boats are stripped of any identification and then just abandoned to rot. It is extremely costly to remove the boats and it seems that the state of Florida can not keep pace with the number of boats that are dumped each year so the answer is to tighten the rules and regulations relating to living aboard one’s vessel.


So back to my main point, now that the snow birds have headed back North, the boaters in Marathon at this time are almost all live aboards. It is certainly an eclectic group of people to say the least. Just at the City Marina, I would say that every socio-economic, age and gender group is represented with sailboats being the predominant vessel of choice. The ratio of boats is probably 80% for sailboats, 17% powerboats and 3% are boats that defy classification. It is very obvious from the crust line of barnacles along the waterline of several boats, that these boats have not been moved in a long, long time.

While the Florida Keys as a whole have a reputation for an alternate life style, Boot Key in the past was known as a safe haven for outlaws. No one asked about one’s past or one’s last name. If one was willing to offer that information, terrific but if not, that was okay as well. Even today, if you spend more than a little time in Boot Key, you begin to sense that this is a place to come to in order to start over. Most everyone that I have met here was from someplace else originally – I have yet to meet anyone who graduated from Marathon High School. While the cost of living is relatively high compared to the Midwest, Boot Key and the city of Marathon is not a wealthy area in stark contrast to Marco Island, Naples and Key West. There is definitely an undercurrent of outlaw pride and alternate lifestyles among the people we have met during our few weeks on Boot Key.