Key West - Part II

Key West – Part II

The second half of our stay in Key West has been fabulous, fun, and filled with friends and family.

My Mom arrived a few days after we returned from England. We had a list of activities that we wanted to explore and boy did we! Our friend Moose told us about the show, The Producers, which was playing in town. I was able to get tickets (the show sold out every night as I understand) and we had a great night out. The show was fantastic and we all agreed that we hadn’t laughed so hard in a very long time.  We enjoyed a pre-show dinner at our favorite Cuban restaurant which just happened to be next to the theatre.

Martin and his new hat at Meson Pepe

We thought it would be fun to tour the island from sea as well so we took a 90-minute jet ski tour with Fury. I laughed/screamed so much that I had a sore throat. It was a bit windy and we had an awesome and thrilling time.

Mom, ready to go

Mom, tearing up the bay

Martin, stretching out his legs

Whenever we’re in Key West, Mom and I like to visit the KeyWest Butterfly & Nature Conservatory. I got a few fun pics!

This is an Atlas Moth. It had a 7-8 inch wingspan. They only live for about a week so we were very fortunate to get to see it.

Atlas Moth

To keep it interesting and enjoy all that Key West has to offer, we took Mom to a drag show. Can you believe, she’d never been to one!  We met the girls before the show and took a couple of pictures.

Elle, Mom and a photo bombing Inga

Mom and Inga

Elle is very good at splits

It was hard to make reservations for a few activities because of spring break – lots of things were sold out. So I was especially happy that we were able to sign up for a trip to the Dry Tortugas. We spent a week there last January and thought it was amazing though it was cold and windy (we got weathered in, that’s why we were there so long). So we thought we take the “quick way” this time and fly out so Mom could experience it and we could get some snorkeling in.  The water was *very* cold but we did get in and do a bit of snorkeling. The flight was amazing – the views were beautiful and we saw dozens of turtles. It was a most amazing day!

Martin really enjoyed the plane ride and even got to sit in the cockpit on the way back

Martin & Mom ready to fly

Garden Key

Blossom in her slip at The Galleon Marina

We also enjoyed just walking around town people watching and taking in the sun and fun…

A local tree

Mom and a tasty mango drink

With so much going on, we didn't get much quilting done, however, we did manage to finally watch the final season of Downton Abbey and get a bit of hand applique done. 

Our second week back we were joined by my cousin Jeff and his family, Amy, Jake & Kelsey for a few days.

Jeff & Amy

We had a great time with them! We walked around Duval & Mallory Square, had an amazing breakfast at Blue Heaven, and toured El Galleon, a full size replica of a 16^th century Spanish Galleon. It was only here for a few days so we were really fortunate to get to see her.

Sailing into the sunset at Mallory Square

She’s Huge and stands taller than any ship in the bight

Cool pic of her lines and rigging

A fool, bored or completely crazy?

We enjoyed dinner out with serious head gear…

Kelsey

Jake being very serious

Amy

Who is that man?

Mom

Addition to the hat...

And of course we enjoyed hanging out on Blossom…

Kelsey

Jake & Martin

Jeff & Amy

We’ve also been having a wonderful time with our friends Rick and Michelle from Ghost Rider. They arrived this week too.

Ghost Rider coming in to the Bight

One evening we had a barbeque on Blossom with the whole gang and Rick & Michelle. Dinner for 9 in the cockpit and we all fit!

Now it’s Tuesday and all our family has headed back north. Rick and Michelle will be here for a few more days though and we’re looking forward to spending more time with them. We had a wonderful dinner last night aboard Ghost Rider (home made bolognese, omg it was fabulous).  This morning, Michelle and I decided to test out the new SUPs.  We checked out the Bight and even ventured out onto the other side of the breakwater!

We were surprised to see quite a bit of under water life around the inside of the breakwater. There were some gorgeous Queen Angel fish and a squid! I wonder if his air bladder wasn’t working because he stayed on the surface and didn’t dive down to get away.

We're rockin' it!

Michelle paddling and Martin on the bow

Squid

We've had a great time in Key West and we're looking forward to the next few days, continuing to enjoy the town. We'll also be provisioning and wrapping up any business that needs to be taken care of since we'll be out of the country for 2 months. The current plan is to head out on Saturday for the Bahamas, weather permitting. We'll be finalizing our route this Friday. I’ll get one last blog entry out before we leave with info about our Bahama trip.

Boat Business: We’ve been trying to wrap up our to-do list before we head out.

• Snaps. Martin finished adding snaps to our window mesh screens. We just put them on the corners. Those, along with the suction cups should work really well.
• Air filters: We changed out all the air handler filters and added an anti-mold tablet to air handler pans while at it.

Looks like Blossom is eating him alive!

• Anemometer. Our anemometer, or “windometer” as I refer it, has been changed out. The old one was giving us some very strange readings, either under reporting wind velocity or showing wild variations in gusting winds.
• Changed transmission oil on the main engine.
• Reorganized the lazarette.
• Tempered water loop. We’ve found that we have a leak in our AC system but haven’t been able to track it down yet.

Key West, part 1

Photos, en route to Key West, a beautiful...

...morning and start to our passage

...afternoon, still so calm

...sunset

We left St. Pete at sunrise on February 29th. The forecast was for calm seas and light wind and that’s what we got – it was a gorgeous 28-hour trip. We did have a bit of excitement in the night when one of the inverters decided to take a little break. Of course it was at night on my watch!  Suddenly we lost engine room blowers, the nav computer and charts went dark and a few outlets failed. The biggest concern was the engine room - without the blowers on it heats up quickly. So we tried to open the laz door and hatch temporarily to keep it cool. But the laz hatch wouldn’t open. Martin had the inverter back up and running within minutes and everything came back on line. The ER did manage to heat up almost 10 degrees in as many minutes. Other than that hiccup, Blossom ran great and it was a beautiful cruise. We spotted lots of dolphin and one enormous turtle. We arrived at The Galleon Marina in Key West late morning and Martin did a great job maneuvering Blossom’s 18 foot beam into a 19 foot wide slip. We cleaned the boat for 2 hours, slept for 2 hours and then were ready for Key West.

Bird Rocks – see the poo? Ick

Just before dinner that evening we had a “bird emergency”. There’s a rocky breakwater directly across from our dock. I had noticed a young pelican making strange movements when we arrived into our slip but I thought he was scratching himself on a rock. That evening I saw that he’d become completely ensnared in something and trapped in the rocks. It looked like he was likely to drown in the rising tide. Martin indulged me and we dropped a kayak. I paddled over and found his wings were totally wrapped in fishing line. I cut away what I could, losing half of our kitchen shears in the process, and he swam away. Well, then I needed a shower before dinner. Crawling over bird poo covered rocks was a bit disgusting… After the drama we went out and had a great dinner with Moose & Kathy (who we met for the first time back in ’09 here at the Galleon). We ate at a local restaurant that agreed to cook the fresh snapper that Moose had caught that afternoon. It was awesome!

The next day I did a bit of research and discovered the Key West Wildlife Center in Key West. They’ll come out and collect the hurt pelicans. In retrospect, I should have called them. They could have freed him and would have kept him overnight to make sure he wasn’t hurt, was fed and ready to go back out on his own. Lesson learned.

The next few days we decompressed and settled in. We thought that Blossom was looking “dim” so we spent 2-3 hours a day over three days washing, drying and polishing our stainless. Dang, we have a lot of stainless – rails, scuppers, hand holds, our Blossom sign…  Now we’re sparkly shiny and protected (the metal wax also protects the metal).

View to the west at sunset

Our "backyard" view

With no boat docked behind us (we were told that the boat that’s usually in that slip is in the boatyard), we have the absolute best view imaginable off our cockpit and fly bridge. We watch all the work boats (diving, tour, tall ship, sunset cruises, etc) coming and going from the Key West Bight. There’s a Coast Guard and Naval Air Station right outside the bight and we watch the goings on over there as well.

USNS Lawrence H. Gianella leaving its dock with 2 tugs

 Evening activity on the Fly Bridge

Apparently Key West is a training area for Navy Seals and one evening we got to watch some sort of exercise. A couple dozen snorkelers, all dressed in black, were dropped off a boat just as the sun set. They then made their way along the shore in the night.

Stealth Navy Seal Snorkeler

One day we were pleasantly surprised to get an email from fellow Nordy owners John & Tina who had just arrived in Key West after visiting Cuba for two months. We all went to lunch and had a great afternoon together. The next day we went over to have dinner with them aboard their beautiful boat, Sockeye Blue, and met Calvin & Donna, of New Fidelity.  Both couples have done extensive travelling and it was great to talk with them about their experiences, they’ve seen and done so much!  It was a fabulous night of molkky, bocce ball, and most excellent homemade pizza.

 Bocci Ball

Guinea fowl – very strange looking birds

We’ve really enjoyed being in Key West again – sunshine, tourists, good & bad music playing every evening J And I love the roosters! Hearing them in the morning brings back wonderful memories of our favorite diving destination, Sunshine Getaway, in Curacao. We went for walks every day, sampled some great restaurants, got the bikes out and even did some shopping.

After a week in Key West we left Blossom secure in the marina and headed out to visit family in Leeds. We had a fabulous, if short, visit and thoroughly enjoyed Martin's brother's 50^th birthday party. Ed's wife Jo went all out and threw one heck of a James Bond theme party. Just check out the photos! 

Ed & Jo

The Queen was in attendance (with corgi of course)

There were several distinguished guests

Love spurned L

Seriously, Jo made this cake herself, everything is edible

And it even looks like Ed!

Dancers

Fab decorations

We were only there for 4 days, but did so much. Martin's mum Carole prepared an awesome Friday night dinner for us all. Martin and Ed teamed up on the golf course and they tore up the green (figuratively J) and won. Of course there was the fabulous party (what happens in Leeds stays in Leeds) and a family celebration on Sunday at a lovely Italian restaurant. Then boom, it was Monday and we were flying back to the states.

It’s hard to see but his hat has horns and a light on as he paddles his home-made SUP!

Spring seems to have sprung in Key West now and we returned to 80 degree sunny weather. It’s just gorgeous. The town is hopping with spring breakers and it’s a great place to be. My Mom is coming to visit for a couple of weeks (yea!) and we’re looking forward to enjoying the town with her. She and I have some serious quilting plans as well. If I’m lucky I’ll have a photo or two of some finished projects by the end of the month!

And then we’ll be off – heading to the Bahamas around the end of the month. We have family and friends coming to visit us in the Exumas the month of May but where we’ll be and exactly what we’ll be doing before then is still being decided. We have a few ideas we’re playing with but we’ll likely be going south to the out islands and then working our way north to Nassau where everyone is flying into/out of. More details to follow as we iron out a few ideas we’ve been working on J

Boat Business: We started working on our short list that we’re trying to get through before we depart for the Bahamas. 

• Cleaning: Washed the boat. Cleaned & polished all our outdoor stainless (see above).      
• Rattling: Tied down the long VHF antennae that have been rattling in the wind.
• Snaps. Martin added some snaps to our fly bridge canvas. We have suction cups on all of our canvas and they’ve been working really well. But the canvas over the helm and side seat are a bit problematic and in strong winds I’m always checking on them. I’ll sleep better on windy nights now.
• Relocated our life ring. Martin relocated our life ring from behind the stairs to the fly bridge to the starboard side of the boat deck.
• Relocated storm windows. With the life ring moved, Martin moved the storm windows from the lazarette to the boat deck, behind the stairs to the pilot house. The windows are in the laz now and make accessing the inverters difficult. They also cut off air circulation to the inverters which tend to create a bit of heat themselves (they can fault due to the heat). The idea is this will free up air flow in the laz and help keep the inverters cooler.
• Adjust hatches. Several of our hatches had to be tightened so they'd stay partially up.
• Spares. We’ve been ordering all sorts of spares that we’d like to have on board for our trip to the Bahamas.
• Provisioning. We’ve begun provisioning for the Bahamas. Anyone who knows us knows that we’re never short on food J