Ya know yer in Key West when…

April 18

Yep, Key West was our bogey for this leg of the journey. We made it as far as Marathon Key and absolutely LOVED Marlin Bay Yacht Club. At $50 a day less than Stock Island Marina on Key West it was a no brainer. Only a $1 shuttle ride to LaLa Land from our marina cinched it for us. Took a number of photo’s of Key West and they follow. I know, I know, I know we did not get a photo or the Southernmost place in the US. You’ve all seen it so what the heck.

The sunset was just amazing even though the photo’s were shot out of a bus window. Our plan was to leave Marlin Bay this morning 2 hours before high tide, but it seems I erred on the timing. So just off Islamorada we are in a uber low tide especially with a full moon on the way. So we got off the ICW, dropped the hook in 7 feet of water (WB draws 4.5 feet) so that only leaves 2.5 feet between the bottom and $13,000 worth of props and shafts.

And at one point

Interesting feature of our sonar, we programmed in our draft to the nav equipment so that 1.1 foot of depth is what we actually have between the bottom of the propellers and the bottom. Plus a little fudge factor as well. Time to stop and smell the seas.

Which brings me to a really bad pirate joke that I shared years ago with friend Marney Brunner’s son Michael who was in his early teens at the time. Ready?

What’s a pirates farovite letter? Most people ( like YOU) would say “RRRRRR”

Ha! Ya might think so, but it’s really the “C”!!!

God, I kill myself…

OK, you’ve been punished enough

We have the full force of the wind blowing on us which is only 12 mph but even that makes for a bumpy time. With sunset just shy of 8 pm we are gonna wait till about 6:30 when the tide will bring in a little more water so we can get to the west side of Cotton Key where the island will protect us from the wind out of the east. Only a 2.5 mile ride.

While underway today we heard a number of Coast Guard broadcasts on the VHF regarding a boat in flames near Islamorada. As we got closer we say the smoke.

Burning fuel and fiberglass make quite the column of smoke. We also heard a broadcast about a 40 foot sailboat being single handed by a fellow sailing from Mexico to Tampa who had not checked in. It is critical when traveling by boat to file float plans with someone at home. Tell ’em where your starting point is and where you are going. If possible, check in along the way. I had mentioned this really cool app called NEBO that tracks your vessel in real time so Haley or Nick can see where we are at any given time. If we are underway it even tells them how fast we are going.

Gonna wait about another 30 minutes before we move a coupla miles to the anchorage. In the meantime I had Deb take this photo.

While still at Party Mart one of our beer vendors gave us a bunch of beer T shirts. Had a bunch of silly things put on the back and tried to sell ’em. Not one of my better ideas.

Favorite one is

Many of you are probably thinking this is a Donald Trump quote. Does sound like ‘im, right?

Ya just can’t believe the amount of salt that accumulates on a boat when traveling in wind and wave. This is a close up of the cowling, that area between the flybridge and the forward windows at the lower helm. All of those spots are salt that dried after some spray. We have a slip in a marina tomorrow night on Key Largo where Whisky Business will get a serious bath.

Spent the night in Barley Basin and resumed our way to Key Largo at 8:30 AM on a rising tide. We wound our way thru mangroves and fretted over the shallow ICW. Also there were lots of crab pots right in the middle of the channel.

We arrived in Key Largo around noon at the Anchorage Hotel and Marina. Same price per foot as Marlin Bay. What do you think?

Wreck on the left of the photo is “Queen Anne’s Revenge” The hull is made of concrete (concrete?). No one wants to foot the bill for removal so it stays. Staying here at the Anchorage till Saturday morning as there is some serious weather coming thru on Friday. Time to relax.