Marathon – Boat Duties

Lots of books to trade

One thing about marinas is that they are generally located in flat areas ideal for a morning run. I think the maximum height of Marathon is about 12 feet and the area around the marina is flatter than that. So I dinked in the morning for a 30 minute jog before breakfast. The temps are still in the 60’s in the morning but it never got much warmer today, not much sun – lots of wind still.

With over 200 boats in the mooring field and more at anchor, the city marina is a huge gathering place for boaters. As in all marinas, there’s a trading library for books used by all except at this marina it’s especially large given the size of the clientele. They also have small rooms off to the side with LCD panels for TV viewing. They even have a small workshop with tools for boat projects.

Nice viewing area with theater seats

As the price of doing laundry has risen, the method of payment has changed. It used to be that you kept a large collection of quarters on hand to feed the washing machines but now they’ve gone to smart cards which have an embedded chip that records credit payments. You take it to the cashier and give her some amount, e.g, $10 and you use it instead of quarters for feeding the machines. However, there’s one huge catch, if there is any money left over when you’re done, you don’t get a refund on the remaining amount! I’ve run into this method at three places now, good for them, bad for us.

We plan on renting a car for sightseeing and reprovisioning sometime in the next few days, weather depending.