Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Marathon Update

Days on cruise:  291

See the bright blue dot toward the lower right corner for our current location at Pancho’s Fuel Dock. Tonight will be our last night here, then we move one facility to the west, to Marathon Marina.

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This morning we unloaded the bicycles and headed east to Sombrero Beach. A good-sized city park, we’d like to return when we have more time for a picnic lunch and possible swimming. The water felt warmer than we expected.

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However we also saw our first Portuguese Man-of-War and would not have been certain what it was if not for confirmation from other beachcombers. It looks more like a pale plastic balloon than anything living. This one is about 6 inches long.

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Soon after, we spotted another larger one floating on the surface about 20 feet offshore, and dozens of much smaller ones (babies?) on the beach at the edge of the surf.

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We didn’t know anything about these . . .  creatures. Now we do, and the more we know, the more interesting they seem. Click on the photo below to enlarge and make it readable.

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We also found a number of other “things” on the beach that we haven’t been able to identify. Applause and recognition goes to the first person who can identify for us the thing below. It’s not a shell as it’s soft enough to bend slightly, and it’s translucent.

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Sombrero Beach is surrounded by mangroves, like much of the area in and near Marathon. Last night shortly before sunset we had a few No-See-Ums bother us.

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Overall, we expected to have much greater problems with bugs (flies, mosquitoes, No-See-Ums, spiders and more) on the Loop than we in fact had. We dealt with all of those at times, but infrequently except for spiders.

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