Work and Play 2-7-09

We were hoping to catch a bigger case of Keys Disease or laid-back island attitude but we are still pretty much engaged. Like a house, boat projects are never done, but unlike a house, our boat home gets rocked by waves and is doused daily with corrosive salt by air and water so a lot of maintenance is required. And, when you have a classic teak trawler, this increases geometrically to get “Baby Grand” looking grand again after almost 6 continuous months of wear. We don’t get paid and instead keep paying as “ a boat is a hole in the water into which you throw money.” We don’t have a boss although Bob does refer to me as the Admiral.

We have been busy the past 2 weeks swabbing the decks, washing the fiberglass, windows and canvas, polishing the chrome, and cleaning the cabin and bilge as well as laundering all bedding, rugs and pillows. We changed the oil and filter as well as the transmission fluid. Big on our list is replacing the macerator pump which has now “crapped out.” You will notice that we are not posting pictures of all of these activities as our hands are usually too grimy and wet to hold a camera.

We rented a car for the weekend of 2/6 to 2/8 and went all over. We started locally in the Marathon area and took an excursion boat out to Pigeon Key which is perched under the Seven Mile Bridge. It was used as a dormitory area for the workers who built the Flagler East Coast Railroad from 1908 to 1912 and then for the bridge tenders and painters who kept it maintained until the Labor Day hurricane of 1935 destroyed the RR bridge. Interestingly, all the housing structures have endured through countless storms with its Conch architecture unlike the multi-million dollar coastal homes which are regularly decimated. Pigeon Key is now run as a non-profit organization with educational opportunities for all.

We also toured Crane Point Nature Center, a 63 acre site with nature trails, a butterfly meadow, wild bird hospital with Dr. Quack presiding, the George Adderley Bahamian house built of “tabby” in the early 1900’s when this area was jungle ,and a history museum. In the midst of the Keys development, it is special to find a piece of the real FL Keys. We ended Friday with a great dinner at Key Colony Inn with Charlie and Jeannette from “Highlander.”

We will be journeying to Miami on Saturday for an opera and will be touring the Bill Baggs State Park, the Fairchild Tropical Gardens and Vizcaya on Sunday.

Loopers, Loopers Everywhere 2-3-09

We want to thank Joe and Mary Beth Amelia on Pot o’Gold for organizing the Looper get-together at the Marathon City Marina last night. The weather was not very promising but 66 people from 34 boats showed up by dinghy, on foot, by bike and car for the chance to meet each other.

Everyone has a different story but all share a love of the cruising lifestyle. Veteran Loopers from the 1990’s like the crew from Lady Margaret, and Jim originally from Grand Haven MI, have not returned yet to a land-based home. We met 2 couples from Germany and Holland who have boats here in FL and are planning on doing the Loop soon. Bob and I are still relatively new on the Loop which we started in 9/08 and it was fun to meet Jamie and Frank from TX who just started their Loop in 11/08 aboard a Marine Trader 34. It was fun to meet up again with loopers we’ve cruised with like Jeannette and Charlie aboard Highlander and to meet veteran loopers who have helped us out through emails and Channel 16.

So much of looping is sharing with others—information, help, parts, recommendations, food, beverages and camaraderie. The party was in full swing from 5-6:15pm and could have gone for hours, but the clouds darkened, thunder boomed and all raced to get back to batten down their boats. We look forward to seeing everybody again soon.

Sunset in Key West 2-1-09

We had a great day down in Key West today, and although it was too cloudy to see the green flash at sunset, it was memorable. We took the 8:20 am bus down from Marathon-- 50 miles at a cost of $6.00 round trip for 2 senior adults—we cannot beat that price doing it by boat.

This is our very first time here and getting orientated via the Conch Tour Train is definitely the way to go. What a colorful history this island has had—a 1622 Spanish galleon sinking off shore with a multi-million dollar treasure that was discovered in l985; a relaxed President Truman in a Hawaiian shirt, smoking a cigar and playing poker vacationing here in the “Little White House”; 3 Civil War forts; a colorful former Mayor Sunny waterskiing 90 miles to Cuba before the Castro Rebellion to illustrate the need for a continued Navy station presence; Ernest Hemmingway writing his great novels here from 1931-1941 and holding forth at Smokey Joe’s watering hole; the town’s history of salvaging the booty, and secondly the crew, from shipwrecked vessels off the treacherous coral reefs which helped establish it as the wealthiest city in America in 1850; and its boom to bust cycle in sponging, cigar-making and fishing which reduced it to 80% unemployment in 1935 only to resurface again with tourism helped greatly by its media-grabbing declaration of Key West as the Conch Republic after the border patrol shut down Highway 1 in 1982. The real treasure of Key West is these free-spirited people who will push the limits on just about everything.

Key West is packaged beautifully with blue green water surrounding land with 12 colors of bougainvillea, over 30 varieties of palm trees and unique architectural homes crafted by ship carpenters who built houses like furniture and boats with wooden pegs and tongue and groove boards. It is a place where chickens and roosters run freely, where graves are above ground due to the hard coral ground and the whole town prays annually at the St. Mary’s Grotto so that hurricanes will continue to avoid a direct hit here. It is said that the termites hold hands during hurricanes so that the island does not blow away.

We loved Duvall Street and had lunch at Fogerty’s while listening to “Elvis” across the street at Whistle Bar, but sought a quieter place at Fort Taylor State Park with its great views and it is the most southerly point of our travels. Key West has 133 bars which were all full for Super Bowl Sunday. Go Steelers.