Day 81 - 25 February

Today we plugged into the local culture. After some minor preventive maintenance and some free coffee from the Marina office...at $2.50.foot, something should be free! We joined the Marathon Cruisers' net and caught up on the cruising gossip as it happens here in Marathon.

We took our dinghy through the huge, tightly packed mooring field in Boot Key Harbor and ended up back at Docksiders for lunch. On the way back to Windreka, we detoured out the entrance channel and headed for Pigeon Key...or Cayo Paloma in Spanish...about 1.5 miles to the west. We spent a pleasant several hours on a guided tour of the island and its significance.

The island is said to be named for large flocks of White-crowned pigeons which once roosted there. During the building of Henry Flagler's Overseas Railroad Key West Extension, a major construction depot was located there, the jumping off point for construction of the Seven Mile Bridge. A number of buildings from the Flagler era remain on the island. They are now part of the Pigeon Key Historic District. The island was originally only a slab of coral until the construction of the original railroad bridge when some 500 workers were housed and fed on the island until the railroad bridge was finished. You can read the story on the Wikipedia web site at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigeon_Key

Pigeon Key has a fascinating museum operated by Monroe County. The museum tells the story of the construction of the original railroad bridge joining Florida and the Florida Keys to Key West. The story can be read as part of the history of the Seven Mile Bridge...that parallels and replaced the old railroad bridge...at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Mile_Bridge.

The railroad bridge, originally known as the Knights Key-Pigeon Key-Moser Channel-Pacet Channel Bridge, was constructed from 1909-1912 under the direction of Henry Flagler as part of the Florida East Coast Railway's Key West Extension. The bridge was damaged by the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, and refurbished by the United States Federal Government as an automobile highway bridge. It had a swing span that opened to allow passage of boat traffic, near where the bridge crosses Pigeon Key, a small island where a work camp for Flagler's railroad was located. Hurricane Donna in 1960 caused further damage. The present road bridge was constructed from 1979 to 1982 but the majority of the original bridge still exists.

It was a smooth trip to Pigeon Key but a choppy return and we got soaked. However, the tour and time on the island was well worth it. We ended the day as we started it...looking out to the west and planning the next leg of our cruise to Key West. Earlier in the day there was a manatee chewing on the sea grass just behind Windreka and coming up for a breath of air before returning to his breakfast. The manatee was gone by sunset, but we didn't need anything more than to watch the sun setting on another pleasant day in the lower Keys.