Total
Miles Traveled 1713
I
believe this cruising season has been effected by weather more than our
previous years, especially with the wind.
We spent 6 days in Marathon waiting on the strong northeast winds to decrease
and the seas to calm down to our comfort level.
Although we were stuck there, we were in a mooring field with great
protection and spent the entire time with our good friends Randy and Sherri,
visiting the city and meeting new friends.
On
Friday January 19th we had a one day weather window to make the 45
mile cruise on the Atlantic Ocean side of the Keys to Stock Island. We had a 10-12 mph wind and 2-2 ½ foot waves
on the stern so we had a good ride and averaged 8.5 to 9 mph…..almost had boat
hair at that speed. When we arrived at
the marina we were greeted by our friends George and Meg from “Veridian”, they have
been here since December. We traveled
with them from Columbus, MS to Panama City before they continued south while we
held up to visit family and friends during Thanksgiving and Christmas.
We
were also greeted by this manatee, just a few slips down from ours.
During
our first week here, we had visitors from Indiana: Merrill,
Jan, and Tim, and we spent a couple of days visiting Key West. We really had a great visit and wish they
could have stayed a little longer.
Hurricane
Irma hit the Keys hard but amazingly enough; they have really bounced back
since landfall at Cudjoe Key September 10th. Some
of the damage still present on the break wall in the waterfront district.
There
are several loopers staying in the area and one of them has organized a
volunteer group to help with the cleanup efforts. We volunteered to help last Thursday on US 1 with
14 other volunteers and during the two hour period, we filled 72, 55 gallon
garbage bags with debris. Some of the
bags were not filled to the top due to the weight of broken glass.
Friends
that we met before entering Canada in 2016 also have arrived at our marina,
Mark and Jody on “GypSea”. We’ve had a
great time with them and George and Meg exploring Key West.
Stopped
for lunch at Bo’s
This
is musician Jimmy Buffett’s personal recording studio located at the
waterfront. We haven’t seen any activity
yet while passing by. Notice the security
cameras around the building?
Several
charter fishing boats display their fresh catch along the waterfront.
The
Blue Heaven Restaurant is a cool place to have a meal, cold drink and the occasional
live entertainment.
This
safe is in their courtyard, looks like it’s been here awhile.
Cruise
ship at Mallory Square
This
is a cool mural painting on this antique shop.
We
have made it to Turtle Kraals once so far.
This is the home of a turtle race, they have four box turtles and line
them up at the starting line, everyone is given a number 1-4. The winning turtle has a number painted on it
and if your number wins, you get in line with other winners and select a key
from a wooden board. After everyone has a
key, you line up again and see if your key opens the lock on the treasure
chest. If all the selected keys do not
open the lock, the pot increases $50 for the next race. The races are three times a week and the pot
can grow to $500.
A
winner opened the treasure chest lock, the race before us so the pot was $50. My best mate had the winning turtle, but her
key would not open the lock….. it didn't matter how hard she tried.
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