Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, Vaca Key, Florida

Several friends recommended Boot Key Harbor in Marathon (see picture) as a great place to rest up and re-provision. We arrived on Memorial Day and stayed for two nights on a mooring. It was our first time picking up a mooring buoy (picture to right-that's the mooring buoy in front of our bow pulpit), and it went great. It helped that it’s the cruising off-season, and the mooring field was pretty sparsely populated with boats. NOTE: For all you cruisers checking out your cruising guides, the bridge to Boot Key Harbor is permanently raised for the time being, so you don’t have to call for an opening. A mooring is $20/night (daily rate), and includes dinghy dockage, bathrooms, laundry access, free wi-fi, and one free pump-out per week. Not expensive, but it seems extravagant coming off of over two weeks anchoring for free. It was worth it, though, for the easy access to stock up. Coming out of the marina to Route 1, you turn right for Home Depot, Publix, and the post office, left for West Marine. An alternate way to get to West Marine is to dinghy into the Marathon Boat Yard; a dinghy dock is available for West Marine customers, and the store is just a walk across the boat yard. While here we picked up our new depth sounder display, which we had delivered to the post office. It works! This is good, because we’ve been gingerly picking our way through the shallow Florida waters and trusting in the charts and navigational aids.