Greetings from the Conch Republic

Hi all-
As I write this, we are happily anchored out in Key West Harbor after a fun-filled day.
We left Naples Friday afternoon and sailed through the night, arriving Saturday morning. It was pretty windy – but relatively uneventful until about 7:00 am when we approached Key West Harbor.

As we entered the entrance to the harbor and fired up our engines, they didn’t work too well…. Since Lucy and Sally sleep on top of one of the engines, and Heidi sleeps over the bin of spare parts, it was a loud, rushed, rude awakening for the girls (Mom and Dad were navigating and steering). After some quick repair work (water pump belt), we got one working fine and motored into the harbor. In Key West, there are several anchor spots and a pretty big mooring field. We decide to pick up a mooring ball. Sounds pretty simple, however, with one engine, 25-30 knots of wind, ripping current and a ton of boats – it was anything but. The boat motors fine quickly with one engine, but has very little maneuverability going slow – making a challenging task. After 3 or 4 failed attempts, we finally get one. Unfortunately for us, the lines on it were very tangled, and snagged the boat hook. Try as she might, Mom couldn’t get it loose and the sea ate our hook. Ugh. It floated away from the mooring and dangerously close to two boats. On the third circle through that minefield, Heidi was able to grab it. Phew – things were looking better. After that debacle, we decided maybe we should just drop an anchor. That went very smoothly (should have done that first!)

There was, however, a bright spot in our mooring field adventure – Mom had a conversation with a sea turtle. During the second go-around to retrieve the boat hook, Mom saw a sea turtle surface and said “Hi Sea Turtle”. The turtle looked right at mom, waved (rolled to one side and flapped a flipper), and squeaked “Eeeh!!!”.

The rest of the day, we stayed on board, cleaned up from the passage, checked and fixed both engines (all good now), and laid low – it would have been a really wet ride into shore with the wind and waves.

Today (Sunday), we woke up to a brilliant, blue, clear sky and a bit less wind. We also all woke up in great moods – highlighted by Sally singing her new hit single “Its a blue, blue, blue, blue day” – sung at full volume. Lucy also serenaded the surrounding boats with a call of “Good Morning Harbor”, and Heidi quietly enjoyed her tea. After a good breakfast (Thanks Dad), we headed into shore.

Willie was very happy to go ashore. Turns out, there are lots of good smells on Key West – an interesting combination of chickens, 6-toed cats, crazy people, and a few spilled drinks.

We first walked from the harbor on the north shore of the island to the Southernmost Point in the US.

After that, we walked down US-1 to the end of the road – Mile 0

We then wandered around a bit more and then headed to the boat for lunch.

After lunch, the girls tried their luck at fishing off the back of the boat. No fish tacos tonight.

In the afternoon, we headed back to shore without Willie (pretty sure he slept on the couch). We walked around some more, went to the Little White House, walked down Duval St, made the pilgrimage to Margaritaville, and hung out at Starbucks for a little while to download movies catch-up with some friends.

Hanging out on the grounds of the Little White House

A few highlights / interesting moments…

We saw a bunch of chickens and a cat that looked a lot like Cleo (our old cat).
We saw a cruise-ship tourist eat a free sample of soap (in his defense, it looked a little bit like candy if you squinted). He then returned the 4 other samples that he grabbed.
We then saw his horrified wife and shocked sample giver react to this display.
We saw a guy on a bike break into a spontaneous dance when he passed a car blasting music.

Back on the boat, we saw a beautiful Key West Sunset.