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

St. Pete

St. Petersburg on the horizon

We’re back! A few friends have asked why we’ve been quiet on the blog. One reason is that we were so busy in St. Petersburg that I never sat down and got it done! I’m also better at posting as we’re leaving for a new adventure as a way to wrap up and process our visits. Since we were in St. Pete so long, I should have posted while there. I’ll be better next time!

Last year we came to St. Petersburg for a couple of weeks to check out the city. We liked it so much that we planned to come this year and stay for a whole month. We even rented a car so we could experience the city to its fullest. Well, our visit was amazing! We did so much and had such a great time, I’m not sure where to begin so I think I’ll let photos do most of the talking.

We stayed at the Municipal Marina which is located downtown, in the heart of the city. It’s a great marina (though we couldn’t access wifi when we were there) and we took advantage of the location, visiting the Saturday Farmers Market and a weekend Arts Festival, enjoying drinks and sunsets on the fly bridge, walks in town, more than a few frozen yogurts, and bike rides along the bay.

Foggy day

Cool day (thank you Pam for the blanket!)

Bright and sunny day with a big girl anchoring in the basin

Neighborhood osprey on her favorite perch in the marina (she was eating a fish but you can't see it in this photo)

Fellow Nordy, Ghost Rider sitting pretty on a gorgeous morning

Saturday Market

Sunrise over Tampa Bay

Sunset over St. Pete’s

Our time in St. Pete was extra special because we got to spend a great deal of time with some very awesome folks. Kristina, Atle, Diane and JP made us feel like their home was ours - magical :) I can’t say Thank You enough to everyone. Some people we met last year (we met several people out cruising who were from the St. Pete area) and some we just met on this trip and others were visiting St. Pete as well. We dined, danced, drank and laughed a lot. We had tours of St Pete and Gulfport, were introduced to the St. Pete Yacht Club, enjoyed an evening at the symphony, the Disney and Dali Exhibit (the Dreams of Dali: Virtual Reality Experience was Amazing!) and several local restaurants. (One of my favorites serves “authentic Thai-Mex” and it was really good, thanks Jim!) I didn’t get pictures of everything or everyone but this gives a flavor of what we did…

An evening on Blossom with Rick, Michelle, Kristina & Atle

Diane, Anne, JP, Mart and me enjoying the Tampa Bay Symphony at the Palladium

Rick & Michelle at Dali

Me and Mart at Dali

Nom nom nom, cotton candy, a perfect dessert!

Party on B! Margie, Jim, Peter & Mart

Bob & Sandy, dancers extraordinaire

“The Burg” burger. Yup, a gyro-burger. It was super tasty and just as healthy as it looks, I'm sure!

Of course I can’t leave out the online wine tasting classes we enjoyed with Kristina, Atle, Diane & JP (and MoMo) - "The Noble Grape", "Bubbly" and "Port & Fortified Wine". Tastings and dinners and a whole lot of fun...

Bubbly

Ports

MoMo enjoyed the tasting parties as much as we did!

A wine bottle graveyard? No, this is the glass recycle bin at the marina. I swear these weren’t all ours!

We also were able to visit with family while we were here. We went down to Longboat Key and spend a great evening with Penelope, her son Sydney, her sister Sally & Sally’s friend Chris.  One afternoon, Brenda and Syd came up to see us with their grandsons, Jake and Zack too. What nice young men!

Jake, Zack, Brenda, Martin & Syd

Later in the month, my Aunt & Uncle got away from the cold up north and came down to visit family living very close by. We shared a wonderful day together!

Bill, Rae & Me

We manage to get a lot of kitty-time too. Ringo, the marina cat came to visit (just a day after the 2-year anniversary of George’s death, I was happy to have a cat aboard that day.)  Our friend’s cat MoMo was also very happy to keep us company and we visited some very large cats at the Big Cat Rescue in Tampa Bay.

Ringo (the marina cat) visiting Blossom

Me & MoMo and Martin

MoMo in training as a “QI” (Quilt Inspector) And yes, I actually have 2 quilts nearing completion!

 Big Cat Rescue, he was pretty chill

This poor guy is a rescued, strange hybrid and has lots of health problems

The cougar was waiting for her "treat" (medication hidden in meat)

View from the Dali Museum. Building the structures for the Grand Prix

We couldn’t have enjoyed our time here anymore than we did. We leave with many wonderful memories and several dear friends. One thing we know for sure – we’ll be back!  J

Boat Business:

• Nav Mode. Our autopilot stopped working in navigation mode around the time we arrived in St. Pete last year. Martin was never able to get it back on track. Basically, we would snake back and forth out of control. On our way up (on the outside) he cranked up the counter rudder and voila – she ran straight as an arrow. This is awesome because it’s much more chill to run off shore and overnight in nav mode!
• Downstairs speakers. Martin called our electronics guy, Bryan, and was able to fix our radio. There are three inline amplifiers between the radio and the speakers which, along with some internal settings on the radio, needed to be configured correctly. Along with much swearing (the amplifiers are in places inconvenient for access), Martin was able to get them playing nicely together.
• 9K Gen. Well, we had an expert come out and work on it for several hours. Nothing was really found to be broken, though. We ran the gen two nights, 9 hours each time and it never over heated. (Last time we ran it, it overheated in about 45 minutes). We have no idea – just happy that it seems to be working again.
• Hydraulics. Steve from ABT came out and performed a bearing service on both thrusters and fixed the port side leak.
• Dinghy. The dinghy got a good wash and Martin replaced the locks we had on the compartments with hasps that we’ll lock using weatherproof combination locks.
• SUPs. Both of our inflatables developed pin hole leaks on seams that we cannot seem to fix. So now we have 2 gorgeous hard boards and a very pretty & colorful boat deck!

SUPs

• Fuel. We took on over 1000 gallons of diesel and topped off our gas tank for the dinghy. Getting ready for the Bahamas!
• Tightening hose clamps. After our brief trip over to the fuel dock we spotted some coolant in the front bilge. Martin hunted it down and found a loose hose clamp between the keel cooler and the main. That was an easy fix.
• Water Strainers. A couple of our strainers were leaking slightly on top through the wingnut that clamps the lid onto the strainer. Another easy fix using a little gasket maker.

Sarasota

Blossom in her slip at Longboat Key Club Moorings, the marina and grounds are beautiful 

And whoosh – two weeks have passed! Ultimately we had a very lovely visit in Sarasota though we were a bit disappointed that we didn’t get to do all we had hoped. I ended up getting sick with the cough/cold that’s been going around. It started the day we arrived and I just started to feel “myself” yesterday! Then we had some not-so-nice weather (including a tornado touching down 4 miles away). Fortunately, however, our time in Sarasota was also punctuated with several wonderful get-togethers with friends and family which ultimately resulted in a fabulous stay!

Swans on the golf course lake

We started off with a bang – hunkering down in anticipation of the storm to come the evening of our arrival.  Martin and I were both practically comatose on Nightquil but we were both up at 3am which seemed to be the peak of the storm. With our fender boards down and extra lines we didn’t experience much movement at all. We were well protected by the Key. The next day we learned that a tornado had touched down just south of us on Siesta Key, travelled inland and killed two people. It was a tragic storm.

Our first few days we stayed in, cozy with the nasty weather outside, trying to fend off the virus. Our first outings were with Joe & Holly, our friends who had told us about Longboat Key Moorings. We were so happy that we were able to get together with them before they headed back north. One evening they invited us aboard Scamper (their gorgeous Fleming) for cocktails. Then we went to a restaurant down at St. Armand’s square, the big social/retail area just south of the marina. We enjoyed fabulous food and company!  Martin was able to get out and enjoy a game of golf with Joe too. He had a blast and was pleasantly surprised with his game, especially given that he hadn’t played in about 30 years! We’re looking forward to seeing them again, maybe up north on the east coast next year.

We also got to spend a lot of time with family while were here. We enjoyed a lovely dinner with Martin’s family, Penelope, Syd & Brenda the first we arrived down at St. Armand’s Circle. The following week, Penelope’s sister Sally and her friend Chris were visiting, as were my Dad & step-Mom. Penelope graciously hosted us all one evening. She prepared a marvelous dinner and we enjoyed sharing the evening with our two families. The next day Martin’s family came over to Blossom for tea and we got a great picture of the four cousins!

Penelope, Sally, Brenda & Martin

We plan to rent a car in St. Pete’s for a week or two so we’ll be driving down to Sarasota soon to visit with them again!

We also had a great visit with my Dad & step Mom, Annette, who came to visit us for us for three days. Ironically, all four of us had had the same bug this month so we all took it a bit easy! We did get out and about a bit though and we went to see the Ringling Museum, Mote Laboratory and St. Armand’s Circle while they were here. The three days flew by!

At Ca’ D’Zan (Ringling’s house at the museum)

A small part of the huge circus model

Osprey

Lunch time for the resident manatees and turtle at Mote Laboratory

Enjoying a cocktail on a cool evening on the fly bridge

Another highlight of our trip was getting to know new friends, Don & Nancy. They’re local to the area and took us out to lunch at the Sarasota Yacht Club – which is gorgeous! We were happy to have them over one evening and then check out the club restaurant here, Portofino. Don is a very experienced boater and has a wealth of local knowledge.  He talked with Martin about the tight pass north of here at Jewfish Key (we’ll be going through there on our way to St. Pete’s on Monday) and told us how to get into the inlet here at Sarasota.  Our last day in Sarasota was a memorable one thanks to Don & Nancy. They picked us up on their center console with friends Mike & Sandy. We had an awesome tour of the bay, docked at a restaurant, Mar Vista, on the north side of Longboat Key for lunch, then visited their beautiful N55, Odyssey. Don is an amazing craftsman and has done some professional grade work on their boat. Poor Martin, I took pictures - his “honey do” list got a bit longer that day J It was such a fun day and so nice to leave Sarasota on such a high note. I have a few photos from the day but no pics of the gorgeous ladies. I need to get better about taking people photos! They’re sorely lacking from our time in Sarasota.

Martin, Ron & Mike

Cruising up the bay

My favorite bird, cormorant on a mooring ball

Pelican row, can you see them all?  Oh oh the smell, the smell that surrounds them! (ick)

One of the few outings we had on our own was on a Saturday, when the winds happened to be blowing a sustained 30+ knots, and I had cabin fever. We decided to get out and about so we Ubered into town to check out the farmer’s market. Then we walked back across the Ringling Bridge to St. Armands Key. Unfortunately, there were some victims of the high winds.

Boat ashore on the east side of the bay

Boat ashore on the west side of the bay

The wind was howling, check out those trees!

There was a third sailboat that grounded in the middle of the bay on a shoal. They were pulling her off 2 weeks later as we passed by with Don, Nancy, Mike & Sandy.

Success, she was pulled of the shoal!

Although we spent two weeks in Sarasota, I’m sorry to say that we didn’t really get to know the area as I had hoped we would. We have several activities still on our “to-do” list so we’re simply going to have to visit again!

And now it’s Monday, and February, and we’re off to St. Petersburg, Florida. I really enjoyed our time there last year and I’m looking forward to getting to know it better. Both Martin and I are feeling better and we’re looking forward to exploring and reconnecting with friends here. On to our next adventure!

Boat Business:

• Flag up. We forgot to take in our flag during one of the windy storms and an eye loop bent. Martin fixed it up and it’s back flying on our stern.
• 9k Gen. After much consulting with Northern Lights guru, Bob Senter, (he’s fantastic!) we have a tech coming out to help trouble shoot it next Thursday. Seems we might have a couple things going on there. Will post when we know what’s going on…
• New headsets. Rick & Michelle recommended Sena headsets (one of our Eartecs died) so we got a pair and gave them a try on our way to St. Pete’s. They’re cordless and wrap around the back of your head – very comfortable and loud. We like them a lot (thanks guys J
• We have very firm plans for the Bahamas in May with multiple guests coming into Nassau, so I went ahead and reserved slips at the marinas there for pick-ups and drop-offs. It’s still a ways away but I feel good knowing we have everything all set up.