Happy Holidays!

We’ve been having a great time in Key West!  We spent the first couple of days settling in, housekeeping and provisioning.  It felt great to walk and bike around the island.  

My Mom arrived on Saturday and so began the holiday season!  We started off her visit with a bang and went on a dolphin watch boat ride. We don’t have our dinghy down and even if we did, we don’t know where the local dolphins live and play. We went through a small operation so there were only 6 of us along with two guides. The day was perfect, sunny and gorgeous. In no time at all we found about 8 dolphins having a great time playing. There was a baby among them and he/she was leaping out of the water and then the adults would follow. Mom has never seen them up close and I was so happy that we went out.  I got very lucky and managed to get a decent photo. I think this was the baby!

Dolphin jumping

Saturday evening we went out for dinner at a great Cuban restaurant and ended up dining in an old cistern next to the old cigar factory. The ambience was great, like a big party, and we had a ball.

The boys

On Monday we went on a walking tour of Key West and in the evening we went on a Holly Trolly, a trolly tour of Christmas lights around the island. Tuesday we went to the Butterfly House which Martin and I had visited back in 09’.  It didn’t disappoint. Mom and I enjoyed the birds as much as we did the butterflies!

Christmas Eve my Mom and I walked around town in the morning. I made stuffing in the afternoon and we all went to Vector for dinner. Sean & Louise grilled an awesome dinner and we enjoyed the holiday evening together. Martin celebrated in true Key West style, with as many drinks as hands J

On Christmas day, Martin put together a traditional Christmas dinner including a turkey and brussels for the five of us.  After dinner we spent hours playing Cards Against Humanity. That made for a rather, um, untraditional holiday ;)  It was a day for feeling gratitude - spent with family and friends, sharing presents, eating, drinking and celebrating.

Feeling the holiday spirit J

Martin enjoying the day

My Mom is very talented, she made us this turtle wall hanging. We Love it!

The next few days were filled with walks around town, a ghost tour, visiting the Hemingway House, Nancy Forrester’s parrot sanctuary, the Little White House (where Truman often stayed), sunset drinks and a house tour organized by the Old Island Restoration Foundation. The house tour was amazing and one of the participating homes was the one that won the holiday lights show. I wish we could have taken pictures (not allowed as they are private residences). Here’s what the weekend looked like:

Ghosts and Ghouls

Blissed out at sunset

Another gorgeous Key West sunset

I swear he’s smiling for the camera!

My Mom left on Monday morning and I was missing her as soon I as I got back to the boat.  We had such a great visit and a wonderful holiday, it just went by way too fast.

We plan to be in Key West for about another week to experience a raucous New Year’s Eve (we’re really just hoping to stay awake until 12:05am)!  Then we’d like to visit the Dry Tortugas.  These are a group of islands about 70 miles west of Key West. There’s a national park there and we hear that it’s very beautiful. If I get the courage up, I may even jump in (72 is very cold for me!) and go for a snorkel J

Boat Business: We’ve been mostly relaxing though we have taken care of a few things, including...

Hydraulic Leak. Just before Christmas, a tech from Abt came out to take a look at our hydraulic leak.  He found that the fitting was leaking at the crimp and needs to be redone. This falls under warranty work so we’ll get that done the next time we’re in Old Port Cove. In the meantime, he said that we should be fine (no catastrophic failure seems imminent) and explained to Martin how to operate the hydraulics so that the least amount of pressure is being places on the hoses.

Gray tank smell.  I think we have this one figured out. Since Steve and Martin spent the day checking everything out and correcting the valve, we’ve had little to no smell. The other day we caught a whiff, just as the wind shifted back from the north. I think we’ve addressed all of the problems. Now we just need to relocate the exhaust so it doesn’t get blown back down into the boat. That should be easy to do.