Mallory Square at Sunset

Mallory Square is a unique and wonderful place. It fills up every night with street performers of every type and description. There are polished acts to guys playing with a bunch of stray cats asking for money to people who have a musical instrument and sometimes even musical talent. We wandered around for several hours taking in the highlights. They are all licensed by the city and define their space with thick rope. They make no bones about being entertainers and expecting money to be put into their buckets. They were well worth the contributions.
This guys wrapped and locked himself (with the aid of people in the audience) with over 40 feet of chain and 20 locks. He then contorted himself until he was completely free of everything including the straight jacket. It made my shoulders hurt just watching!!

This guy performed a highwire act and juggled. This was especially impressive considering he was on the sea wall with a steady 20 kt. breeze.

This guy was an amazing athlete. He did quite a few tumbling feats. This one was his grand finale. He leapt over this girl bent over the bike and through a hoop. He gave God full credit for his ablities.

Another amazing tumbler. This guy really worked the crowd well. this was his leap through the "Flaming Hoop of Death".

This is the same guy as below. He had the dogs do tricks then climbed a tower and juggled flaming torches.

He had two cute dogs doing a bunch of different tricks. The basset stole the show just because he could get it to obey him at all.

Key West

These are pictures of this huge, privately owned sailboat that was tied up at the city dock. If you click on the picture of the fact sheet you'll see her dimensions. We figure that the wench pictured below is worth more than our sailboat and there were several of them!!! The picture of the deck area is only 1 of 3 entertaining areas. She has a permanent crew and when we walked by they were all hard at work polishing the shiny stuff. What a life.

One of the several schooners operating out of Key West Harbor.

A cannon from the wreck of the Senora de Atoche wreck. It was salvaged by Mel Fisher and Spain is still trying to claim the entire cargo. He had a decade long battle with the US and state of Florida. It is a very interesting museum.

Bars of gold also from the same wreck.

Yep, we made it. The line was very long so we looked and left.

Boca Chica Marina and the Keys

This beautiful bird is always around the marina. There was a calm patch of water so it was a great mirror image.

These are about a million yellow tails all crowded up on the ledge. We wondered what they were doing until we saw the barracuda waiting to eat them. Today we saw a huge tarpon in about the same spot. Yesterday while out dinking around, a tarpon came out of the water. Its silver scales in the sunlight were magnicifant.

This is Bahia Honda State Park. There is supposed to be good diving and snorkeling off the shore. It is still too windy and wavy to find out. Maybe soon....
Story on the bridge. Click on the picture to make it easier to read.

David and Bill looking like they're trying to figure out how to fix this old bridge.
This is the roadbed of the original Hwy 1 bridge between two of the keys. It looks like something from an end of the world movie.

If you click, it should be clearer. It is a map of the keys and surrounding waters. It is very shallow here. Usually we get nervous with only 3 feet of water under the keel. Now I don't sweat it until it's less than .9 feet. As long as we float, it's ok.

Beautiful coconut palms with way too much wind. Funny thing for sailors but it needs to be a little less and coming from the right direction so the waves will be more manageable. We keep busy seeing the sights and goofing around with the dingy.

This is a bridge that we had to come through. You can see the remnants of the original overseas railroad. The road was washed out by a hurricane in the 30s and then the government extended US 1 on the same route.

You can see what constant exposure to salt does to even very thick steel.

This is a lagoon near the marina where we're tied up. We went snorkeling in there yesterday and saw a lot of young coral, fish and a large vehicle that apparently made a wrong turn.

The day we came down was very blustery. This is only an idea of what conflicting currents and 4-6 foot waves look like. We raced down under gybe alone at an average 6.5 knots. Unfortunately it was downwind so it was another rolly-poly ride

Catching Up-Time at Vaca Key

We had a great time at Marathon Yacht club. We walked all over to see things and there never seemed to be another chance to get over to the library. Our friend Bill Geyer and our new friends Elizabeth and John Cover were in the marina across the way on moorings. We managed to get together for potlucks on one of the boats and breakfast in town a few times. The Marathon city runs this huge mooring field and they do it quite well. There is a sailor's net every morning on the VHF radio and it is a community unto itself. Many people are permanent live-aboards down here. With the price of real estate through the roof thanks to investors it is a viable living alternative.

The computer was in the shop for several days but once I had a connection I was able to load most of the things I need back on it so as long as I can find a place to sit and work, I can add to the blog.

This is the oldest house in the keys. It was built by a free black from the Bahamas. It is about 100 years old.

These are all pictures from the Natuaral History Museum/Nature Preserve on Vaca Key. This was about a 2 mile walk from the Marathon Yacht Club. So many of the places in the keys remind us of Okinawa so we're really enjoying the time here.

WOW, What a Ride!!

We are now safe and sound in the Marathon Yacht Club marina. It is a small but perfect place to rest and recover from our crossing.

First, this part of Florida is very shallow. Second, the waves were much larger than forecast and the winds were stronger and more prolonged. Third, it was a great sail until....

Ok, going back to part two. Coming out of the Naples Bay opening, we hit very large breakers and pounded our way out into the Gulf. Once there, we hit waves of about 6 feet. Fortunately Sanctuary is built to handle that but it does make for a wild surfing ride down the waves. Once we were about 10 miles offshore, we headed south and had a tail wind all the way down. That may sound great, but sailboats don't ride very well at that angle. They are much more stable, if heeled to one side, if sailed a bit off the wind. That meant that we wallowed in the troughs for the next 20 hours. We put up the spinnaker and had a great sail for a while. The winds kept building instead of the forecast easing so we decided to douse the big (over 900 sq. ft.) sail. Unfortunately, we were about 10 minutes too late and a gust hit or something and we lost control of the sail and it wrapped a few times around the forestay (the metal line running from the top of the mast to the bowsprit) and all hell broke loose. What that meant was that we couldn't lower sail and we couldn't douse it either. For the next hour we worked to solve the problem all the while trying to figure out backup plan A, B, C, etc. I was working to keep the boat into the wind so David could unwrap the sail. He was hooked into the jack lines but with the bow now faced into the wind, the foredeck was about like a bucking bronco. It was a huge risk to him but he stuck with it and for the next hour he wrestled with this huge bag of air and demonic force until he could straighten it all out and get it back on board. He was completely exhausted to the point that he let me do the sailing for the next several hours. He's now on the boat catching up even more. I had about a solid hour and I'm running on adrenelin but I know I'll crash after lunch.

To add to our woes, the laptop has decided to be awful and is stuck in loop from hell. According to my very patient and knowledgeable tech support staff, AKA Greg, I will have to reload the operating system. Chances of finding that in the keys may be tough so the last of the pictures may have been posted. I will have to depend on the kindness of local libraries for internet access. If you ever see pictures again, you'll know I was able to find a local shop that is affordable.

For now, we're going to recover then tomorrow we'll start exploring the keys. Please keep us in your prayers. They saw us through a pretty rough crossing and I think we used them all up.

Congratulations to Craig, Mary and Christopher Lewis (David's sister and her family) on the addition of Alexander Cole. I hope I got that name right. He arrived in the wee hours of this morning.

Naples- Again

Yes, this is all one house. Again, I needed some distance from it to get it all in. As my daddy would say, "Isn't it a shame people have to live in shacks like that!"

My "man-eating" pod from back on Cabbage Key. It is pretty viscous looking but we've managed to tame it.

Mariah on the way into Naples Bay.

Some of our Marina mates.

Naples Yacht Club. It was large enough to require some distance to get most of it in the shot.

Musing on the Voyage

If Florida is truly in a recession, you couldn't tell it from the water. The boats are large and well equipped and the houses are huge. Of course, they may have for sale signs out front but we have seen no shortage of money flowing around. The prices of food seems high too compared to our part of the state.

Venice was another very toney club with valet parking and strict dress code. I was especially impressed with their women's shower room. They had the good taste to choose the exact family of lighting fixtures that our favorite youngest daughter, Martha, chose for our bath!

Along with all the display of wealth on boats, we do see some scurvy dogs out solo sailing. Some more scruvy than others. One guy had a braided beard hair that seemed to go to his knees. He and his boat both looked in need of a good cleaning. I think he must have run away from home and regular hygeine. Others are just out for an adventure. We've seen them all ages and types. We heard about an 83 year old that is out to cross Lake Okeechobee and sail up the coast of Florida. Our friend, Bill Geyer is an experienced solo sailor and a great source of information. We're doing ok keeping it together with two of us but solo is another huge level of difficulty.

It does seem like power is the thing down past Tampa as opposed to sail. I think it is a factor of shallow water and narrow bays. Unless you go in the gulf, you won't get much sailing in around here. Even small boats would have a problem with the thin water. They would be pulling their center/dagger boards all the time.

Naples

I don't have too many pictures yet of Naples. My jaw is still dragging the ground in awe. The homes here are way beyond the level of McMansions, they are pure examples of ostentation. We used to rich just having a boat, any boat, but this place makes us feel like we came from the projects. No denim is allowed outside the dock area and shorts are only allowed in small areas of the club. It is by far and away the most elegent place, outside of museums, that we have ever been inside. David even admired the fit and finish of the millwork, high praise indeed. I've never seen anything that compares to his level of quality. They obviously hired another perfectionist. The down side of all this wealth is that they appear to be boring people. Every club has Happy Hour and as mentioned in the last post, we try to contribute whenever we can. This Saturday, however, we were the only ones in the bar and we shut it down at 7:15. The bartender stayed late so we could finish our drinks. We told him about our little ol club in Ft. Walton and he actually wished this club was like ours. So did we! Of all the clubs we've visited, Bradenton is the only one that has a chance of luring us away but no club can compare with our level of sailing opportunities. Our bay is definitely the best for sailing.

Pictures From Diana

After 3 weeks in a small living space we still like each other.

Pictures of Sanctuary.

Diana and Jerry Moore. Able mates on Mariah.

These are pictures from our time in Tarpon Springs from Diana Moore's able picture taking. We enjoyed a Happy Hour that included the harbor master Ted. He entertained us with stories and lots of good Polish humor. The picture below includes all our fellow panhandlers and Ted. Happy Hour is an ancient tradition for mariners and we observe it as often as possible!