Made it to Marathon... the end of this leg of the "journey"

Paddle Boarders in the Atlantic Ocean

Left Key West at 0815 Sunday morning.  Made it thru the channel and over to the other side of the Island - the Atlantic side - before long we kept seeing all these things sticking up out of the water in the distance. They looked like markers or some sort of sticks. There we sat just scratching our heads and trying to figure out what to do as they were everywhere.  Michael said go around them - but when I looked they were as far out as I could see. Going around not an option.  By then we were convinced that they were some kind of markers for fishing as there were crab pots everywhere as well.  And then as we got closer ... paddle boarders!!!  We were laughing and talking to them as we were trying to weave our way between them.  About 1430 the Coast Guard came on the radio with a notice to mariners regarding a paddle boarding event in Key West.  A little late with that message boys!  Weather was good and we had good wind, for awhile anyway.  The water is much clearer on this side you can see huge fish swimming- we have seen several Tarpon.  We pulled into the Marathon Marina at 1600, got all tied up and the boat sprayed

down.  Looked over at the famous seven mile bridge and lo and behold there was a waterspout.  Its an over the water tornado essentially.  Winds in the area are up to 50 knots!  Shortly thereafter the storm hit and we were thanking our lucky stars that were not still out there (although we would have had good wind!!).