Key West

Day 207, March 5th, 2010

There were several things we hadn't had time for the last time we went to Key West. So Sharon and Reg and John and I caught the 8:12 bus again down to Key West. John and I were wearing light fleece sweaters, thinking it would warm up as the day went on. It didn't. It was pretty chilly, not too bad while the sun was shining but got downright cold when the sun went down.

However, we had a great day. We started off with a breakfast buffet on Duvall Street. Then we visited the Custom's House Museum. Lovely statues surround the building by J. Seward Johnson. Very much in the genre of Norman Rockwell. They are really charming. There are more inside too. Other local artists are featured in the museum as well. Also displays on Ernest Hemingway and Babar (the artist has a home and works in Key West every year).

Then we walked over to Mel Fisher's Maritime Museum. Its all about Mel Fisher's discovery of the Atocha treasure. The ship went down in the 1600s. Mel Fisher started looking for it in 1969 and 16 years later found it on the sea bottom in 19 feet of water just past the 3 mile limit in International waters. Gold and silver coins and all sorts of precious artifacts. Amazing. Reg had read the book some years ago, so he really was excited to get a chance to look at it. Sadly Mr. Fisher lost a son and daughter-in-law during the discovery process when their boat was lost in a storm.

We walked around the beautiful Mallory Place - a lovely public area looking over the anchorage.

The we visited Harry Truman's Little White House. This house used to be a duplex, part of the officer accommodation for the Naval Base in Key West, but was converted to a lovely summer home for Harry Truman where he spent 6 months of his presidential office and ran the country in 1949. He grew very fond of Key West and loved the relaxed life style. He went back several other times for extended vacations before his death. Other presidents have also spent time there: Eisenhower, Kennedy, Clinton, and others. It was also used by Collin Powell for a Mideast summit. There is still a private suite there which is used for dignitaries today. It was closed as part of the Navy in 1974, bought by a private individual, and then gifted back to the US Government because he felt it should be kept as an important historical landmark. Its been renovated and furnished as Harry Truman and his family would have used it in 1949 with many of his personal items. We really enjoyed this tour.

After eating fishing chips at "B.O.s" which is just a funny little shack outside, and getting gradually more and more freezing cold, we caught the bus back to Marathon, arriving home at 10:00 p.m. It was a great day.

Sports Day!!

Day 206, March 4th, 2010

I'd walked passed the baseball diamond several times and thought what fun that looked. It was announced on "the Cruisers' Net" on the radio in the morning that all were welcome so I set off at 9:30. John didn't think his ankle was quite ready so he stayed home.

It turned out to be good fun. They have special rules for girls. We get to be safe to first base. However, I hit two fly balls, both of which were caught. The third time up to bat I hit a worm burner onto the grass and walked to first base! There were only about 3 women. Some of the men are pretty serious. It was fun.

In the afternoon, John and I, Sharon and Reg and another couple, Bill and Laura from "Monkey Girl", played bocce ball. All that curling seemed to help a lot - John and I won two games and came second in the third game. Bocce ball is fun!

In the evening, it was back to Dominoes on Pea Soup. John won!

Another Day

Day 205, March 3rd, 2010

Laundry day in the morning. Very pleasant really - good company, always someone nice to chat with! We all laughed when we agreed that it must be pretty sad when you are entertained by doing the laundry!

Made a big pot of macaroni cheese with wienies in the afternoon, in preparation for Wednesday's Meet & Greet! (There are always lots of people but food seems a bit thin if you're at the back of the line!)

John dropped me off early at the marina so I could join the meeting for "Relay for Life". Many of you will be aware of this annual event that occurs all over. It involves fund raising for Cancer Research via sponsored lap walking over an 18 hour period. The event in Marathon will be held on April 9th. We won't be here but other fund raising events are going on as a wind-up for the event itself. The team already have raised $2,500.00 from cruisers in Marathon. I thought it might be interesting to join the team and help out.

John then joined me for the Meet & Greet. Its always fun and there's lots of opportunity for meeting new people and having a laugh with others. (My macaroni cheese and wienies disappeared within five minutes!!)

Just another day in Marathon

Day 204, March 2nd, 2010
The weather forecast wasn't good. Thunder storms were expected late morning and continue all afternoon with high winds.

So we left the boat by 8:30 and walked up to Publix to get some fresh vegetables. There were dark clouds overhead and we were quite sure we would get caught in the downpour before we got back but it didn't happen. In fact the sun was shining quite nicely on the walk home. We got back to the boat and spent a quiet afternoon.

The bad weather blew threw. We later heard Homestead got hit soundly with it but all was pretty good in Marathon.

Sombrero Reef

Day 203, March 1st, 2010
Did you say "Rabbit" this morning?!! For Good Luck!!!

We had a lovely day today. Sharon and Reg joined us aboard Periwinkle. We motored out of Sisters Creek to the ocean side and then to Sombrero Reef, about 3 miles off shore. It was coolish and a little chop. It took a little while but we finally found the mooring buoys at the reef.
The guys didn't feel like it but Sharon and I got our wet suits on and piled all our gear in the dinghy and dinghied over to a mooring buoy closer to the reef. John and I had bought this fancy dinghy ladder back at the St. Petersburg Boat Show and had never tried it out, but it looked good. In the past I have had great difficulty climbing back in the dinghy from deep water.
To say that I look like a beach whale is as close as it gets but in the past I've never made it back in the dinghy without first reaching shallow water! Just don't have the upper body strength I'm sad to say! So I was a little nervous that I would be able to get back in with the ladder but it looked possible! Sharon has another method - she ties a long line from the far side of the dinghy, dangles the line across the dinghy into the water and then climbs up the line! I didn't try it but couldn't see how this would made much difference to me! Anyway, we got the rest of our gear on in the dinghy and jumped overboard. The water was choppy but warm and the visibility wasn't too bad. We saw lots of lovely fish - yellow tailed snapper, angels, parrot fish and barracuda. There was lots of corral too, but the colours were somewhat masked. It was lovely though and we swam up to a pontoon boat on another mooring buoy and chatted with them a bit (from Quebec). After about half an hour it seemed to be getting more choppy, so that we had a little difficulty seeing the dinghy as it was hidden between the swells. So we decided to swim back and try getting back in!!! I was okay - up first time on the ladder, but I must admit I still did the beached whale thing! Then Sharon climbed up her line in the blink of an eye!!! My ladder cost us $100.00!!! I shall be really cross if I try the line and can make it into the dinghy!!!

We got back to Periwinkle feeling very brave and congratulating ourselves on our "Girl Power"!
We made spaghetti for lunch and sat in the cockpit and watched all the dive boats arrive. Lots more people went snorkeling. It was fun.

We sailed back to the harbour going the long way round as it was low tide. Lovely wind and it was really pleasant. Realised as we motored back to the mooring buoy that we hadn't taken any pictures!!! Sorry.

In the evening we went over to Pea Soup and played Mexican Train Dominoes. As usual I lost miserably. John won! I think its time we played Scrabble!!

A Gold for Canada in Hockey!!

Day 202, February 28th, 2010

Fiddled and diddled around in the morning. We had a broken cleat on the starboard side of the boat for a long time. John happened to find an identical cleat in the flea market Saturday morning for $3.00! He was able to get the old one off and the new one on without a problem. Its nice to have that midships cleat back available again.

At 2:00p.m. we met Sharon and Reg and walked to Boatman's Resort & Marina where a whole bunch of Canadians were meeting to watch the Hockey game - Canada vs USA! It was great. About 50 of us turned up, along with about 15 or so Americans. Even I enjoyed watching the game (I never watch hockey!). It was very exciting at the end when the US tied it up 24 seconds before the end of the third and then Crosby scored the winning goal for Canada in overtime. There was some loud cheering!

Marathon

Day 201, February 27th, 2010

First thing after breakfast, we dinghied into the marina. John went off to West Marine to buy a "cavitation wing" for the outboard. This looks like a big flat plate thing thats attached over the propeller. It changes the water flow over the prop., giving lift to the stern, and results in better gas consumption at slow speeds, reducing wake. While he was doing that, I walked up to the post office and sent off a parcel to my little Abby in Winnipeg. We each had a shower at the marina on our return and met up again to go back to the boat for the afternoon. The morning was pretty good with some sunshine but the rain clouds had return by the time we got back!

In the evening, we actually got dressed up and went back to the marina for a dance!! First time I'd worn something pretty in a long time! We had a great time. All proceeds went towards the American Cancer Society. It was lovely old time 70s music, with lots of swing! The company was good. Boaters' hours 7:00-9:00!