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.