Log 12/30/12-1/5/13

HAPPY
NEW
YEAR!!!!

December 30, 2012 Ugh . . . Donovan and Beth got up to leave us this morning at 5-ish. They're stopping on their way out to finally get in some kite boarding time. Bummer - feels like they just got here!!! Oh well, all good things must come to an end. Had kind of a slow day today (thank Heavens!!), but got over to the Key West Yacht Club for dinner. And a delicious dinner it was! Talked to Carl (and Patti) McMackin (a friend from our Yacht Club), and plan to meet up with them tomorrow. Vey neat! Slow day, got some laundry taken care of and pretty much vegged out for the day. guess we needed that. . . . . . December 31, 2012 Oh my - New Year's Eve!!! How the heck did this get here already??? Got together with Carl & Patti late this morning, and went to the "Walk Your Wiener Parade" in town - absolutely hysterical!!! There are claims (most likely false) that the dachshund is the "official dog" of Key West, but that's probably just an excuse to have a p-rade!! But it was very funny to witness! Carl and Patti know "Gino", who participated in the parade accompanied by his wife. In Leapord costumes. Wow! You gotta check out my pics to understand. . . . . Adorable dogs involved though. . . . 12-31 Walk Your Wiener Parade Went to lunch after the p-rade - more yummy food!!! After that, had a little tour of town that we hadn't seen, to include the "Chugs" display - again, check out my pics. "Chugs" are the Cuban refugee boats as recovered on Florida Keys shores. Amazing! The took us over to the military base to do some provisioning (e.g., pick up more beer - leaving soon, don't know when we can do that again!). We then went over to Carl and Patti's place to relax a bit - what a great condo! We can see why they love it down here so much!! Thank you, sooooo miuch, for your hospitality, Carl and Patti! This is what having friends is like!! Got delivered with our goods back to the boat for a little resting-up time to prepare for tonight . . . . Got our act together, and got up for heading into town. Because we're now over in the City Marina, it's a bit of a hike. Called for a cab (first really rude folks I've found over here!), and waitied for 45 minutes before giving up and hoofing it. Took half an hour, but we arrived at Schooner's to witness the "Lowering of the Wench". The owner's wife dresses up in pirate wench garb, and is hoisted to the top of a huge sailboat mast - and subsequently lowered at midight in "New York Ball Dropping" fashion. Awesome! And we had front row seating, right on the dock in front of the boat!!! What a great night!!! I took a video of the "lowering" - enjoy!! 12-31 Lowering of the Wench Super terrific time!!!! They have other "lowering" events here, but we chose this one for our New Years. Awesome night! January 1, 2013 HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!!!!! Can you belive it's 2013 already?!?!?!? What the heck happend to 2012? Of course, I gotta say, 2012 wasn't so good to us, so "good ridance!", I say. May this year be much better to us, our family and our friends. Didn't do a whole lot today, but we did bike into town for breakfast. Oh My - more awesome food! Went back to Harpoon Harry's (against Christopher and Michelle's advice, cause it was the first watering hole we hit by bike this morning). Had wonderful Bloody Mary's, and I had a lobster omelet that was just FANTASTIC!!!!! Sorry Chris & Michelle - I would recommend it, even if it is "just a diner"! Ended up hanging out about town for a while, eventually ending up at the "Hogs Breath Saloon". (Again - see photos - cute chicks (don't think I've mentioned that there's roosters and chickens ALL over the place here!), and incriminating "touristy" photos). Had a drink and purchased a couple of shirts - neat little place you gotta see if you're in Key West!!! January 2, 2013 Scheduled to leave today . . . . walked back over to the Key West Yacht Club to obtain a burgee to add to our collection before we pulled out just before 11 a.m. Headed back over to the Key West Bight Marina, with hopes for one more night here at the heart of Key West - and were able to get a slip there for the night. Had to hang out for an hour before our slip was available, so we just drifted, and Matt "fished". Well, he dropped a line in the water. Changed the lure 3 times. In 20 minutes. Then gave up. Called the marina and got the "ok" to head on in (yeah!), so there was no fish today. (Surprise!!) Covered all of 8 miles today, and tied up shortly after 12. Low key (no pun intended) day today, went over to Schooners for dinner with Sailor. Met up with folks that we had docked next to last week who came and sat with us during dinner to chat. Meeting new friends every day for all these months is absolutely AMAZING!!!! We had sooo many friends before we left on this trip - that number must have quadrupled by now! People are great!!!!!! January 3, 2013 Got up and headed in to the Post Office this morning, had to mail off a special package to our friend Dee Hedges at home. Found out he was injured during damn Hurricane Sandy and wanted to cheer him up some. Matt mentioned his new "shackle" earring to him, and Dee said he'd been wanting one. So we went into town again specifically to pick one up for him and got it on it's way. Pulled out of Key West Bight Marina about 9:30 this morning, heading over to Marathon today. Arrived there 43 miles later about 2:30 in the afternoon. Was a little choppy on the water today, but weather reports have building seas over the next few days and we wanted to get in before it got nasty. A little bumpy, but we've been thru much worse, so really no big deal! Fueled and tied up at Marathon Marina. They assigned us to slip #44 - we slowly made our way in there to find a sailboat in slip #44. Called back on the radio, and they said "oops, sorry about that", and had us come into the wall in front of the office. Got all tied up and situated, then plugged in our power cable. Matt checked our power meter and found that one leg of the power was WAY over voltage. Didn't want to burn the boat up, so we brought it to the attention of the dockmaster, who called in their electrician. Matt showed him his multi-meter readings, and the electrician agreed that "something was not right". So we spun the boat around and re-tied up so that our power cord could reach a different (correctly wired) power tower, and we re-settled in. Good this time! Went up to their restaurant, the "Lazy Day" for a fantastic dinner (making a note of the awesome salad I had - gotta repeat it! Crab, avacado and asparagus with ginger dressing . . . . superb!!!). Went "home", watched a movie, and hit the sack. January 4, 2013 Good to have another "do nothing day". Need a little time off now and then! Got up and had some breakfast on board, got a load of laundry done, then went up and lounged by the pool for a spell (it's hot down here!!). Pool was awesome, a gently sloped walk-into design, just enough for relaxing, and then lounging in the chairs with books. Yeah - it's a tough life!!! Walked over to the Castaway Restaurant for an awesome lunch. Came back to the boat and just hung out doing nothing for a change. Eventually departed to go watch the sunset at the marina - turned out to be a bit of a bust due to the clouds. Oh well - I'm sure we'll have plenty more good opportunities!!! Walked over to the Lazy Day bar for a drink before dinner. Had a couple of beers, and the bartender came over with a treat of a Strawberry-Jalepeno Margarita! Wow - never heard of such a drink! Yummy, but I had to drink it (it was a little too much for Matt with the Jalepeno . . . . oh well!). Later tonight, we actually ordered Chinese food, delivered to the boat. Very nice change! And cheap, to boot!!! Gotta pull outta here tomorrow though - way too expensive to hang here much longer. Oh Lord - I'm sitting here, updating this log, at 8:30 tonight. Matt just turned on Archie Bunker on TV (we have cable for a change). Can't believe I'm listening to Edith and Archie and company in the background! Ya never know what you'll put up with when you aren't used to having any TV available!!! January 5, 2013 Stalled pulling out this morning, as we're in no hurry. Going only a couple of miles to get to a cheaper location to hole-up for a week (yucky weather coming in for a while!). Raining this morning, some fog going on out there, no rushing required, we'll just hang out for a while! So we finally chugged along just before noon, and cruised all of 10 minutes over to Burdine's for lunch. Been there before - wonderful food overlooking the water. . . . can't beat it!! Pulled out of there about 1:00, and headed over to the other side of the key to our new marina - Harbour Cay Club. Matt found this private club on the web (cruisersnet.com - GREAT cruising website!!!). It's not listed anywhere on our charts or cruising guides because it's a private club. But they will rent slips where members are not around for the time you're looking for. We were fortunate enough to find space for our boat there - it'll cost us for a week what we just paid at Marathon Marina for 2 days!! Got in there about 1:30, and some very helpful folks met us at the dock to help us tie up. I got the 50 cent tour of the facilities (think it should have been a $1.00 tour!!!), which are great. No bar or restaurant here, but lots of them in walking distance. I walked Sailor out to the end of the road leading into the club to discover we were directly across the street from 15th Street - where we walked to yesterday from the Marathon Marina to go to lunch! Got settled in at the marina, and got our cable box set up with the help of Jim and another boat neighbor (folks are fantastic here!!), just in time to walk over to the little Tiki Hut to join the 5:00 cocktail party - which apparently happens every night! Had a great time sitting with a whole bunch of folks, and were treated to the blowing of the conch horn at sunset - wow! this guy did a great blow!!! If this happens every night, next time I'll be prepared and bring my camera to try to capture it on video! Superb night - finished at the Tiki Hut and returned to the boat to munch on leftover Chinese food from last night. Doing some TV tonight - thanx to the local cable hookup. So glad we found this place - it was referred to as a "local jewel" on cruisersnet, and we have to agree with that description!!! Love to all! Happy New Year! I'll keep up my logs, though it sounds like this week might be a little lame (sorry! it can't all be a great adventure!!!)