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 50th 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
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