City of Marathon Marina

The City of Marathon Marina and Ports works out of 800 35th Street at mile marker 49, next door to Marathon Community Park, and it manages Boot Key Harbor, one of the busiest cruising stops in the Florida Keys. Hail the office on VHF 16. They are open 8 to 5:30, seven days a week.

What makes Boot Key work is the shelter. The harbor tucks in behind Boot Key with two ways in, the main West entrance and a South entrance by way of Sister Creek, which is why boats have ridden out weather here for generations. Ashore, the dinghy dock, water, showers and laundry are open 24 hours a day, and monthly dinghy dockage includes a weekly holding tank pump out. Dinghy dockage runs $25 a day or $260 a month plus tax. Worth knowing before you plan around it: the mooring field is for full time live aboards, there is no wet storage, and there are no reservations.

The city also maintains public boat ramps, so trailer boaters get the same access to the water, and the marina is a designated Florida Clean Marina under the state's program for facilities that protect the water they sit on. Four miles straight out from Boot Key lies Sombrero Key, a Sanctuary Preservation Area in under 30 feet of water, marked by the Sombrero Key Light that has stood there since 1858. Reach the marina at (305) 289-8877 or marina@ci.marathon.fl.us.