The Red Tug Boat Is Gone, Really Gone

  I'm starting this post with a picture that was taken by "Ferd" when the Fenton gang was down here a couple of weeks ago, just because we like the photo so much.
  Ferd is Sharon's boyfriend and Sharon is the pretty woman smiling between Rosie and I when we spent the afternoon at Schooner's Wharf.
  Now, I'm not a reporter, so I don't have to research the facts, and I won't because then this becomes work and I'm not looking for more work. But the facts, as I know them, about the red tug boat that I wrote about a couple of blogs ago, is that we woke up one day and Tilly was being escorted out of the channel into Safe Harbor, as promised, one month after it came here.
  The boat, when we first saw it, was named "Tilly" and if you Google "Tug Tilly", you'll find lots of stories about it, but Tilly was tied next to a sea wall at the marina next door, and mangroves had taken root in the barnacles that had grown up to a foot thick at the waterline.
  As I have stated before, one morning we found "Tilly" tied up just a few yards away from where we first saw her, at a T-head on F dock here at Stock Island Marina Village.
  News reports say that the boat had no engines, and that some local shrimpers helped the owner float that boat to the dock here, and the staff member who "checked the boat in" had been called and told that an 85 foot motor yacht was coming into the marina. There was some cardboard hand made signs in the pilothouse windows advertising Tilly as having a new name, "Sea Gypsy". I can only assume that the reservation made for this vessel was made under the new name.
  The staff member told me first hand that he took cash for the slip rental for one month, which for a boat this size would have been over two thousand dollars. I can only assume that the money was taken without seeing the boat. I assume this because SIMV doesn't have a policy requiring vessel owners to provide proof of ownership, registration, insurance, or anything else when reservations are made. Maybe they need to rethink that.
  So, having paid up front for a month's rent, the marina allowed the boat to stay, but the owner was told that when one month was up, he had to go. The marina manager told me this first hand too.
  The boat owner, soon after he arrived, made an attempt to bring homeless folks onto the boat to start a commune of sorts, but marina policy doesn't allow subleasing a vessel once it is here, so a stop was put to folks going onboard.
  You saw the pictures of the little outboards attached to the stern of Tilly, but I'm not sure how the conversations went with the owner and the new dockmaster, but the owner had some things to say in the media that don't ring true to me in regard to how he was "made to leave" the marina.
  One thing I know is that if the marina doesn't take your rent money, you have to leave, and my personal belief is that if the marina wants you out, you're out. Period.
  Another news story says that the owner was duped into buying the boat, but I don't see how this is a problem for the marina here, but think about it from this perspective; let's say a guest comes to your house, under false pretenses or not, and decides to stay the night, or a week, or a month. Maybe forever. Don't you have a right to kick the person out?
  What if someone parks a camper in your front yard, likes the view, and decides to stay a while, rent free. If the camper fails to start, do you have to allow this person to stay until he decides to repair the camper so it can be driven away under its own power?
  Once Tilly was out of the channel into Safe Harbor, an anchor was set (so I've heard), but the anchor dragged and the boat drifted west, endangering other vessels, especially at night because no running lights were on the boat.
  Various tales have been told about how the boat sank, but sink it did, in 35 feet of water, inside the reef near Sand Key.
  There is a lot of finger pointing going on, but the marina is keeping mum. Probably best that they do, because the boat owner just looks like an idiot in the videos and news stories that we have been seeing.
  Too bad the boat had to sink before the boat owner was able to fill it full of ex-patriots and head to Cuba to escape this horrible country, but for our part, we hope SIMV (Stock Island Marina Village) is not held to blame for any part of this fiasco. The Coast Guard has issued their stance as being that "the sole responsibility of a vessel is that of the owner, floating or not".
  Estimates for salvaging Tilly and removing it from the sea bottom are being reported as being $500,000 or more. I don't think the owner has that kind of money, or any money for that matter.
  We have contracted with a nearby sail making shop, Geslin Sailmakers, to re-upholster our dinette, and to make a new sun screen for the windshield on Swing Set. I'll be letting you know how that goes.
  We also had the seals, flush ball, flush cartridges, and shafts replaced on both of our toilets. Perry, the Head Honcho, came on the day he promised to come, and did the work in just under two hours. It's work I've done before, but I wanted to establish a business relationship with Perry so that when we have that real nasty job come up that I cannot, or will not do, Perry will already know us and he'll come to the rescue.
  Perry wouldn't take any money on the day the job was done, and we saw him a few days later and asked to get a bill. We did get the bill and, as promised, he only charged us for one hour labor, and at a reduced "local rate". His price for parts was a tad more than I found them for online, but try to get a computer to fix your toilet when it breaks.
  So far we have a good relationship here in Key West with Key West Engines for our main engines, Mark's Diesel of the Keys for our generator, an electrician, a small instrument technician, a canvas shop, and an authorized Sealand dealer in the Head Honcho. We are also becoming familiar at the local bars and restaurants. No doubt, right?
  We were in Hogfish last weekend and a woman we knew from years ago came by our table and we all recognized each other immediately. We hadn't seen her in over ten years and it was a pleasant surprise. She had a friend with her who is a local cop and he told me to drop his name if I ever got into trouble. This is invaluable networking!
  Last week we were contacted by one of our blog readers who were staying in their boat in Marathon. Jack and his wife Pat wanted to take the Lower Keys Transit System and come for a visit, so we spent a couple of hours with them onboard Swing Set. They're leaving their boat in Fort Meyers for the summer and going back to Arizona for a while, and then making the trip over to The Bahamas next winter and wanted some first hand advice about it. I hope they got it.
  Also last weekend we got a call from some friends that were down in Jupiter to see the Cardinals in a spring training game, and decided to drive down to Key West for a couple of days. Mike and Sherry were just here in November for a week and here we got to see them again! What a great surprise that was. Even better was them stopping by on their way out of town to drop off the beer they didn't drink while they were here. Somebody pinch me.
  Yesterday we got another visit from some friends that were also just here in October and were in for the afternoon aboard a cruise ship that was in port for the day as part of the "Kid Rock Cruise".

  On the left is Renee and Jeff, who are friends of Jeff and Sandy next to them. Jeff and Sandy are friends from LaGrange, KY, but we know them from boating up on the Mississippi. We took this picture at the Lazy Gecko, just one of the stops we made downtown on a too short visit by Jeff and Sandy. Always good to see them.
  Rosie and I have been discussing our options, and we became increasingly convinced that Key West, and Stock Island Marina Village will become our home for the foreseeable future, so we decided to get a small scooter to get around on the island.
  Scooter parking is free anywhere around here, and it seems like everyone has a scooter. We went to the local Yamaha dealer and ordered a new Zuma 125. It should be here by this weekend. It's still small enough to stick on the boat if we want to go somewhere else, but it's also a best seller, so we shouldn't have any trouble unloading it in the future if we want to. I'll show you pictures when we get it. We already bought helmets, not something that folks wear down here, but we might value what little brains we have more than the other people down here do.

  I'm closing out the blog with another photo taken by Robert "Ferd" Frank. It's a picture of "Coconut Row", which is the south pier at SIMV. Ferd took some other photos on his visit to Key West and you can see them on his website, ferdworks.photoshelter.com.

Even Setting Still, Things Break

  When the Fenton gang was here last week, Robert "Ferd" Frank was nice enough to take some photos, and even nicer to send them to us once they got sorted out.
 I explained to Ferd, that even though I do take a fair amount of photos on our travels, I like it when we have company and someone else is doing the camera work. I can then concentrate on the "captaining duties". There is distraction enough when the boat is loaded with passengers, let alone me having to drive and take photos too.

  Just look at this photo that Ferd took when we were all at the Hogfish Bar!
  Check out his website at ferdworks.com for more of his spectacular photos.
  As indicated by the title of this blog, we still get systems failures on the boat even while parked here dockside. Like I told Eddie, one of the Fenton visitors, when he asked me how much do we work on the boat; I told him we are usually working on something every day.
  The latest thing to go wrong was found when Rosie flushed the toilet in the master head yesterday morning. The pedal wouldn't actuate smoothly, and the ball valve wouldn't seal, making the vacuum pump continue to run. My previous experience tells me that the shaft that connects to the ball valve was probably broken. This happened two years ago and the shaft and ball valve seal kit I bought at our local boatyard had some whiskers on it, meaning the dust was so thick on the packaging that I knew it was the old style, also meaning that the shaft was made of the original plastic, and not the bronze ones now sold.
  But the kit was in hand and available, so I bought it and put new seals and the kit in myself, but also knowing that the shaft would probably fail again in a few years. We are apparently at that point now.
  We rode our bike into town last night and arrived at Key West Marine Supply just after they had locked the doors for the day, but one of the staff unlocked the door and asked what we needed. I told him I needed a seal kit for a Sealand marine toilet, and he told me that I needed to contact Head Honcho of Key West for parts. I told him I knew Perry of Head Honcho, thanked him for opening the doors for us, and then rode over to the still open West Marine store just down Caroline Street, to see if they had what I was after. I was not surprised to find that West Marine did not have what I wanted, so I planned on calling Perry first thing in the morning.
  Another thing that broke was our hand held VHF radio. Our current unit is one we've had for about 17 years. It's an ICOM radio that I've been nursing along since we left St. Louis. I've had to discard the lithium battery and resorted to AA batteries instead. I've also had to do some soldering on it too, but I tried to use the radio when we were out on the dinghy last Sunday and the radio was on strike. I began to search for hand held VHF radios on Amazon.com., but first I decided to try fresh AA batteries, but of course we were out of that size.

  Which brings us back to our trip into "town" on Monday afternoon. Late afternoon, as you can tell from the photo above. Rosie is posing along North Roosevelt Road which has been torn up now for almost two years, but the road work is nearing completion.
  Palm trees line a section of scenic road for about three miles, and the new concrete bicycle and side walk have been completed for a couple of months now.
  It's a four and a half mile bike ride for us to downtown, but it's bike path nearly the whole way. Key West is very bicycle and scooter friendly. There are lots of places to lock up bikes, and scooter/motorcycle parking is free everywhere. Car parking is expensive, so it makes sense to ride two wheels.
  What doesn't make sense is the habit for everyone to not wear protective head gear. We wear ours; our feeble minds cannot afford brain damage too. I mean more brain damage.
  Our main reason to bike into town was to see a movie at the Tropic Cinema, but now we had a mission to visit Home Depot and the marine supply stores mentioned previously. I keep a running list of stuff we need at the store on the iPhone, so that when we get to any store, I can check the list and make sure we don't forget anything.
  One thing on the list was a wider paint scraper for scraping barnacles off the bottom of Swing Set. Strunk Ace Hardware had a dandy eight inch wide stainless steel scraper for a mere twelve bucks, which should work better on the bigger hull sections than the three inch one I've been using. Anything that will make scraping barnacles easier is money well spent.
  Our light in the Norcold refrigerator has stopped working, and the lamp base was found to be broken. New parts from Norcold are cost prohibitive, and shipping for the parts was more than the parts cost, so I decided to just install a new 12 volt light in our fridge, so it was another thing on our list, but except for high priced units at West Marine, I didn't find anything I wanted to buy at any of the places we went to. Amazon would be pressed into service when we got back to the boat.
  But we did get the scraper, some batteries, a small flashlight, some Soft Scrub, some stainless steel brackets to hang another mop handle when we want to, and some holding tank treatment solution that we found much cheaper at Home Depot than anywhere else.
  We saw a very good movie, American Hustle, and had a pleasant ride back to the boat, although we'll be much happier when the street lights along North Roosevelt are working. Even with the lights we have mounted on our Yuba bike, it is a very dark ride home from downtown.
  Once back to Holly and the boat, I tried the new batteries in our ICOM radio and found that that wasn't the answer. I didn't think things would be that simple, but I wanted to at least try easy before spending money on a new radio.
  I found a nice new ICOM unit on Amazon, plus a little 12 volt LED light for the refrigerator that I think I can make work. I also bought two shaft and ball seal kits for the Sealand toilets we have, but still planned on calling Head Honcho this morning.
  I got hold of Perry at Head Honcho this morning to find out if he would sell us parts and he said he would. He did suggest that we replace both shafts on our toilets because, like I already knew, the plastics ones are crap and the bronze ones will last. Perry knows us from just being around so much, so in order to establish a business relationship with us, he offered to replace the shafts and seals on both toilets for a one hour rate.
  I also thought it fair to employ him in this mundane task, knowing full well that we're going to have to call him at some point to do a chore on our head systems that we would rather not do, such as replace duckbill valves on the vacuum tanks, or unplug a line to the holding tank.
  Even though I already ordered two new shaft and ball valve kits from Amazon, we'll keep them as spares for when something breaks and we're in The Bahamas. Maybe even have them on hand for someone else who may need them. Boat neighbors are extremely pleased when you are in a remote area and you have a part they need.
  Speaking of having things for boat neighbors, the captain of a luxury yacht staying here at Stock Island Marina Village, "Line Drive", walked over while Rosie was mopping the decks and asked her if she had a Magic Eraser. Rosie had a slightly used one and promptly gave it to him. Magic Erasers, if you don't know it, are standard issue on the list of cleaning supplies of anyone who knows anything about cleaning boats. They are like little sponges with a slight abrasive mixed into the sponge. They do a great job on vinyl!
  Later, the captain comes walking over with a bottle of wine, repayment for the Magic Eraser. He said that he was in dire need of the Magic Eraser, but was in no need of the wine. I had no doubt about that; the wine cellar on his yacht was probably bigger that our master stateroom.
  One disappointment today so far has been my failure to contact Chuck Sherman at Canvas Works of Key West. Chuck came aboard our boat a year ago to discuss some new upholstery for our dinette, so we wanted to line that work up, and also talk about a new sunscreen for the windshield, and also begin negotiations for a new flybridge enclosure. The number for Canvas Works of Key West is no longer in service.
  I know where his shop is, or where it used to be, so I'll go over there and see what's up. There are other canvas repair businesses around here, but the other close one doesn't have good reviews. Our tax refund will be substantial enough for us to get the ball rolling on some new upholstery and the other things, so I better get busy and do some networking.

Staying Warm in Key West

  Here's my two Valentines, celebrating Valentine's Day at Hogfish after a day out riding around in our dinghy.
  Four locals who joined our table helped make it a fun evening. My girls don't need fancy.

  A week ago we met up with some of our friends from Fenton who were in Fort Meyers and drove down to Key West to spend a couple of days.
  We were able to get out on the boat on Monday with the seven visitors, three of the four women in the group are riding up front with Rosie and Holly. We were able to make a hot loop through the Key West Bight and past Mallory Square before tackling some headwind when we set our course to return to Stock Island.
  We finished the night at Hogfish and everyone liked the place and the food. The next day we met up with them at Schooner's Wharf Bar and killed a nice afternoon before we all took in dinner at the Rusty Anchor where we found Katie, half of the sailboat duo of Katie and Jessie, on her first day on the job. She has mastered the chore of serving crackers very well.
  The big red tugboat is finally gone from Stock Island Marina Village. The last we saw of her was as she was being escorted out of Safe Harbor under the power of those two 9.9 horsepower outboard motors, one mounted on the stern, and one on the bow. We don't know where the scow wound up, and we've looked. We heard a rumor that the owner wanted to take it out past the reef. Anywhere closer to shore and there isn't enough depth to fully sink her, the boat being so tall. He'll be spending some prison time if he sinks it without the proper permits. You wouldn't believe what it costs to legally scuttle a boat.
  On the subject of scuttling boats, it occurred to me that it may become necessary at some point to require boats to pass some sort of inspection periodically to prove sea worthiness. I can hear the uproar now from all the boat owners who don't want another expense, but the growing number of derelict vessels on our coastlines is a problem that will have to be dealt with at some time or another. How would you like our highways to be lined up with junk cars as people drive them until they just leave them abandoned where they quit?
  Last week we took our bicycle in for a "tune up", which was a complimentary adjustment of the limited number of adjustable things that one can find on a bicycle. We spent the time waiting at Dante's, and the bike was finally returned to us about three hours after it was promised. The one thing that I asked them to do was to adjust the rear brake as it was a little spongy, and they didn't do that.
  The fella in the service department offered to dispose of our receipt for the work, but as I told him, the receipt was really the only thing we really wanted, as now we had proof that the bike was in for the "tune up" just in case we have some major problem before the one year warranty is up. I might have had a few beers while we waited at Dante's, but I didn't completely lose my senses.
  We are increasingly becoming convinced to lay down roots here in Key West. The luxury of having convenient services and access to goods is definitely spoiling us, and even though we don't consider ourselves "old", living on the boat is a whole lot easier while tied to the dock. When we start to feel wanderlust again, we'll both know it, and we'll do something about it.
  We do know that in our near future will be another trip to the Dry Tortugas, if for no other reason but to give our new generator a workout. It still only has a little over an hour on it, and that was put on it at the factory.
  Our current adventures have mostly been taken in the dinghy!

  Last weekend we took the fourteen mile ride out to Snipe Point. The dead pilot whales are gone and with a southeasterly wind, the lee side of the point was calm and the water was clear.

  By mid afternoon, as the tide began to cover the white sand beaches, there were a fair amount of boaters out soaking in the sun. The water here, although not even close in comparison to the gin clear waters of The Exumas, was about as clear as you're going to find in the Keys.
  We snagged a crab pot with the outboard on our way back. I was staying well clear of the markers, but the long polypropylene lines were floating on the surface of the water, well away from the markers and I didn't stay downwind from them. No damage was done, to our dinghy anyway, and we were soon underway. So far it's us 2, and crab pots 0.
  It hasn't been all play. I had never removed the lower gear case housing on our Mercury outboard motor, but with help from the internet, I was able to pull off the lower unit to inspect the raw water impeller, as the little telltale water stream stopped telling. The hard part was trying to figure out how to disconnect the shift linkage when removing the gear case, so I went to the nearby Mercury dealer for some advice. I didn't get any advice as they were short staffed, being a Sunday at the time, but I did buy a new impeller while I was there.
  I dug into the information available to me on the internet again and found a real nice service manual in PDF form. Even though I had to page through each of the over 350 pages to find the information I wanted, I learned how to easily disconnect the linkage and I removed the lower gear case housing and then the impeller cover. The impeller looked OK to me, but I did find out that Murray Marine sold me the wrong impeller. I put everything back together and changed out the gear case oil for good measure, and they used a wire to poke out the hole where the water stream emits from the powerhead, something I learned while cruising the internet while I was looking into why the Mercury wasn't spitting out water.
  The task wasn't a waste of time because checking the raw water impeller is something that needs to be done annually anyway. Plus, the gear case oil change was long overdue. I took the purchased impeller back to Murray Marine the next day and swapped it out for the correct impeller so we could have a spare. Now that I know how to do it, swapping out the impeller, even if done on a beach somewhere, will be an easy chore.
  Yesterday we took the dinghy out again to a closer gathering spot just off of Boca Chica. Our dock neighbors, Ben and Katie, joined us later in the afternoon when they came out in their dinghy. Even though they had been at Stock Island Marina Village longer than us, they didn't know about the "Boca Chica Sandbar", and were happy to have found it.
  For our part, we're going to keep promoting it to anyone looking for a good "beach spot", in order to cultivate this sandbar into a social mecca. It may take time.
  Yesterday we heard that our marina is charging full steam ahead with the plans for a boutique hotel, restaurant, and pool. Ground is supposed to be broken this summer on the project. We can't wait to see how it shapes up. We hope the rent doesn't go up when the project is completed, but it will provide a place for our traveling friends to stay if they come to visit.
  Part of the attraction of staying here is that we are getting a first hand look at all the improvements in the area, not only here at Stock Island Marina Village, but around here on Stock Island in general. With the increase in transients and long time slip renters, there is an increase in customers for businesses around here, and the smart money will capitalize on the situation. The Stock Island "old timers" who want to keep the status quo will just be disappointed, and in our view, the status quo is nothing but "run down and dilapidated".

  Can't finish the blog without another picture of Holly. Robert "Ferd" Frank took this shot when the Fenton gang was all out with us last week and I thought that it is too cute not to post! Holly can't wait for her next dinghy riiiiiiiiiiiiide!

We Get Some More Company

  Stock Island Marina Village had their Grand Opening and Kingfish Tournament on the last weekend of January and the festivities started on Friday night and ran until Sunday afternoon.
  In addition to the fishing tournament, there was live music all weekend, two great complimentary cocktail parties on Friday and Saturday night, and a free breakfast buffet on Saturday and Sunday morning. The Sunday buffet included as many Bloody Mary's as you could stomach early in the morning.
  The colder weather of January passed through and February has turned out to be very pleasant, weather wise.
  We had some friends from Missouri come and visit us a couple of weeks ago, and they stayed on a boat over at Oceanside Marina for five nights. Tim and Andrea said the boat was comfortable, and they got to have a true Key West experience by living for almost a week on the 32 foot Bertram.
  We were able to get Swing Set out a couple of times while they were here, and on the last day, Todd and Debra, who live here in the Keys, joined us for a cruise up to Saddlebunch Key.
  We were poking our way into the shallow anchorage between Bird Key and Saddlebunch Key when two trailerable trawlers came up on our stern, also making their way into the anchorage.
  The captain of the second C-Dory called out "Hey Mike!" and then shouted over that they had been following the blog for some time and were surprised to see us and just wanted to say hello. Nice to know that my efforts are appreciated.
  No sooner did Tim and Andrea cast off to head back to the winter chill of Missouri, that we got a message saying that Steve and Krista were coming down for a few days. They're a couple we met in Kentucky and they bought a condo here in Key West and visit when they can.
 We met with Steve and Krista at the Conch Republic for happy hour and had a good time with them. They're a fun couple and we hope to see more of them when they come down to visit.
  One morning I decided to walk over to Key West Diesel next door, the local authorized Caterpillar dealers. I talked to Celeste over there and explained our problem with the port engine overheating and setting off the temperature alarm.
  Celeste had some good input, and following her advice, I bought two new thermostats and went back to the boat to install them.
  Another thing she mentioned was that if I was running a 50/50 coolant mix that I should weaken the mix to 30/70 to help the engines run cooler. Because I lost some coolant when I removed hoses to replace the thermostats, I just topped off each tank with tap water when my repair was done. It wasn't scientific, but it got the job done.
  My trouble shooting tasks at the beer factory over the years taught me to never change more than one thing at a time when trying to solve a problem, but reality is that if you have to do service, or maintenance, you try to address as many things as you can while the equipment is torn apart, or while you are already paying someone for a service call.
  That in mind, I also switched out the temperature sending unit on the port engine with the one on the starboard engine, to see if the alarm migrated to the starboard engine.
  So now I had actually changed three things about our engines, and if the problem solved itself I wouldn't be sure what exactly fixed it, unless the starboard engine started alarming. In that case, I was prepared to buy a new temperature sending unit. As it was, the two regulators and gaskets were only $40. Not much to lose.
  We had known that a co-worker of mine at the beer factory was coming for two weeks in her RV, and the time had come. Renee was staying at Leo's Campground, not but a half mile away, so I texted her and asked if she and her two friends with her wanted to go out with us on Swing Set to test my work.

  In the picture above, we had returned from our cruise and were acting silly. Marsha is on the left, Renee is in the background with Nancy in front of her. I'm not sure who the other two people are, but the guy is threatening to give the girl in the bikini a knuckle sandwich.
  Our high jinks certainly was not an indicator of the success of the sea trial after my repair, as Swing Set didn't run like I had hoped.
  She went on plane, but even given my gradual increase in throttle, the engines wouldn't take any fuel. I'm not sure if it was the distractions, or liberal application of Bud Light, but it wasn't until that night in bed when I realized that our fuel filters were most likely clogged up. Had I been thinking clearly, all I had to do was switch from one set of Racors to the other to see if that would solve the problem. But as it was, I did it the next morning, and while I was at it, I changed the filters on the offending units. I checked my maintenance records and found out that we had been running on those filters since July. It was time to do it anyway.
  The calm weather was still holding, so with fresh filters in place, Rosie, Holly, and I set out to give the motors a good test.
  I set a southeast course in a very light chop and pushed the throttles forward. We ran at 22-23 miles per hours for forty minutes without an alarm on either engine. Our temperatures on both engines stayed under 205 degrees, which is within the specifications for these Cats.
  I was a little disappointed in our speed at cruise because normally we get 25 miles per hour at 2500 RPM, so we were off the mark by 2 or 3 miles per hour, but I also knew that we were due for a bottom cleaning.
  Our new friends, Neal and Cindy were due to come down from Tennessee last weekend, so to kill some time while we waited, I decided to scrape our hull.
  I had a new dive mask I was wanting to try out anyway, so I got all my barnacle scraping stuff together, got our Hookamax fired up, and went beneath the boat.
  The barnacles weren't too bad, but the hull was full of little white squiggly creatures, sort of like worms, which certainly could have slowed our hull speed down some. But the most glaring addition to the bottom of the boat was a nylon crab pot line loosely wrapped around the portside propeller. Yeah, that will slow your speed down some.
  I easily removed the offending line and spent the next three hours scraping the hull with my three inch paint scraper. I also inspected our shaft and trim tab zincs, noting that they should be good for a few more months, but I also decided to inspect the bottom of the boat more often in the future so that I can minimize the amount of time I'm under the boat. I also want to minimize dinner time for any sharks lurking around in the harbor.

  The fella that owns this boat doesn't concern himself with optimum running performance. In fact, the motors in the boat don't run, thus, the vessel was temporarily equipped with two 9.9 horse Yamahas. No fear of violating the No Wake zone here.
  When we first came to Stock Island Marina Village, this boat, Tilly, was tied up to the sea wall next door at DDD Boatyard. I noticed the thick barnacle growth, and the amount of rust on the hull, and figured that this boat would most likely sink in her slip at some point.
  As we have later found out, the owner was previously at Robbie's Marina, and having not paid his slip rental, was kicked out and he moved to DDD.
  He apparently didn't pay his rent there either, so they simply untied his boat one night and it drifted the 100 feet or so over to Stock Island Marina Village, where the marina manager was not very happy to discover that one of the staff accepted the reservation for "an 85 foot motor yacht", and accepted a cash payment for one months rent on a vessel named "Sea Gypsy", identified by a cardboard sign in a pilothouse window.
  The outboard motor setup was installed to make sure the boat left in one month, but now the owner says "he ain't leavin'", so the new dockmaster here removed the motors, not wanting to lose them forever. Not sure how far he'd get with that setup anyway.
  The vessel has drawn lots of visits from Customs Officers, to the Florida Water Conservation agents, and the Department of Environmental Protection. By the looks of the owner, the DEA ought to come around too if they haven't already.
  I have no respect for anyone who lets a boat go to seed, so we hope they can get this guy to move on in a month. If they want a world class marina here, having derelict vessels like this one tied to the docks is not the way to go about it.
  But other things are just peachy here at Stock Island Marina Village. We were doing our regular morning mop and maintenance on Swing Set one day when a fella walked over and introduced himself.
  "Arch" found our blog on the American Great Loopers Cruisers Association website some months back and has been following it. We had traded some messages a few times, and Arch wanted to come over to introduce himself and let us know that he found the marina here by reading our blog. Another satisfied customer!
  Last week the marina hosted a Reggae Party in honor of Bob Marley's birthday. There was live music from noon until the wee hours. Draft beer was ten bucks for a bottomless cup, and there was a shrimp boil and fried fish dinner, all you could eat, as many times as you wanted to go up to get some, for another ten bucks per person. What a deal!
  I was preparing to deploy our dinghy last Sunday when a small sailboat was slipping into the harbor and I heard someone call my name. It was Katie, on the sailboat Louise! She and Jessie arrived and were planning on staying a month or two, maybe longer if they find some decent employment. There is a link to their blog on our cover page, "Katie and Jessie On A Boat". Pretty good reading and very good pictures. Check it out.
  Yesterday we had a short, but very enjoyable visit from a couple who both still work at the beer factory and are down here in Key Largo for a few days. Jeff and Merinda drove down to see us just for the afternoon. We had dinner over at Hogfish before they had to drive back to Key Largo.
  Merinda has been reading our blog for about a year and they hope to do something similar when they get to retirement. We're happy to be an inspiration to them and know that we'll see them occasionally as they acquire their "on a boat" experience.
  Today it's very windy out, and it's been raining a good deal, so it's a perfect day to do some blog writing and wait in patient anticipation for the fried chicken and mashed potato dinner that Rosie has planned for us this evening. Neal and Cindy from Chattenooga are going back home today, they'll be back in a few weeks, but we won't feel guilty about laying around and reading our Kindles this afternoon. We'll top off the night with another movie from the library. Doesn't get much better than that.
  This Sunday, some friends from our old homestead in Fenton, Missouri are driving down from Fort Myers to spend a few days and want to get together. We can't wait!
  There is seven of them and they'll fly out on Wednesday, and we'd like to have them out for a cruise, but the weather prediction for wind is only allowing a window for Sunday afternoon. We hope they get here in time for a sunset cruise at least, otherwise it'll have to be a dockside party. Those are good too.
  My immediate list of chores had gotten shorter. In the last three weeks I've waxed the entire boat, addressed our engine overheating problem, scraped the bottom of the hull, replaced four gas struts on our trunk lid and flybridge hatch, (also replaced the gasket on the hatch), repaired some gel coat scratches on the bow and on the portside hull, and replaced a tiny spring on one of our davit winches, which required me to completely disassemble the winch to install the spring. I never thought I'd get the thing back together. I also fixed Rosie's hair dryer. There is a limit to my talents and I reach it regularly, but it doesn't keep me from trying new stuff.
  We are really looking forward to a short visit from some good friends in St. Louis next month, and we found a doctor in Key West so I can get my wellness checkup in early April.
  We want to find a weather window for a short trip back to the Dry Tortugas, so we'll keep an eye out for that. We won't give up our slip to go there, because it's looking like Stock Island will be our home for at least a few months more.

Some Small Successes

  I may have resolved our port engine overheating issue, but then again, maybe I haven't. The water temperature has dropped considerably since I last ran the boat at speed, which was on December 1st, but after running more Barnacle Buster through both fuel coolers last week, we did see improvement in our running temperatures when we took Swing Set out last Sunday for a spin.
  But let me back up. Last week I pulled up the carpet in the salon so I could access our engine room, and as I was rolling up the burlap backed carpet, I scraped a knuckle across the rough surface of the burlap and immediately opened the skin on my left middle finger not 30 seconds into my project. Normally I at least get to enter the engine room before I cut myself.
  Band-Aid in place, I then put on the gloves I bought to protect my hands during chores like this one, and then hooked up my hoses to run the Barnacle Buster through one fuel cooler and then cross over to the other one. I had inadvertently omitted both coolers when I ran the Barnacle Buster the last time and since learned that it was a mistake that could still be causing our overheating problem. I do know that I didn't want to include the heat exchangers this time around because I didn't want to replace the engine zincs again. (The Barnacle Buster will eat up the engine zincs.)
  I ran the concentrated solution for four hours, let it sit overnight, and then rinsed it out the next morning. I buttoned everything up, started both engines to check for leaks, didn't see any, and then all we had to do was wait for a nice day for a sea trial. My hands did not suffer any more injury. The gloves will be common procedure in the future.
  Another project was to replace the screen on our salon door, which I had previously mentioned. It required me to remove both solid doors first. There is no other way to accomplish taking out the screen door. Having never removed both doors, I wasn't sure how to go about it, but one method that usually works is to just start taking out screws until something comes apart. This method worked this time too.
 Once I had the screen door out, I actually started to go on line to learn how to install new screen, but the directions that came in the screen package gave me sufficient insight as to how to go about installing the new screen. I should try this more often, as most times the instructions that come with products are rather revealing. In several languages.
  If I have ever, in all our years of home ownership, replaced screen on a window or door of this size, I don't remember it, but my first attempt was satisfactory, if not downright commendable. We now have new "no see-um" size screen in our salon door, minus the bug. (Our friends who have been aboard Swing Set know about "the bug".) Now, if Rosie can avoid running into the closed screen door, I may be able to avoid repairing our screen door for many years to come.
  Last Sunday morning I took the last handful of change we had on our "change dish" and bought a bag of ice at the marina office. The nice girl there wasn't too happy about sorting out two dollars worth of change for the $1.85 bag of ice, but hey, I was giving her an extra 15 cents. In fact, when I buy ice, I just give them two one dollar bills for each bag so I don't have to get the fifteen cents back each time. (I remember scouring the river banks back when I was a teenager, just to find soda bottles to redeem for the two cents. I was ecstatic when the price jumped one summer to three cents!) If  you're too young to remember any of this, go back to playing Candy Crush on your iPad.
  With beverages chilling nicely, we headed out of the harbor and pointed the bow of Swing Set towards Cuba. Once we achieved normal operating temperature, I pushed our throttles forward and put Swing Set on plane and left her there for fifteen minutes, way past time when the port engine began to heat up previously. Both engines stayed well under 200 degrees, so I considered my test to be a success, but we are fairly low on fuel, so when we get fuel and I can run longer when the water temperatures rise a bit, I'll certainly be testing the engines again, maybe when we make a run to the Dry Tortugas in April or so.
  We were well out past the three mile discharge zone, and since we were in need of a pump out, I raised the engine room access hatch in the cockpit and went down to open our Y-valve and pumped out the holding tank. Take that Miami!
  That task completed, I turned around to give a visual once over to both engines and got a surprise. Not a good surprise, but one that made me a little sick.
  The starboard engine had oil sprayed over it on the port side, and oil was just beginning to run down toward the aft bilge. I grabbed a big towel that I normally keep in the engine room and dammed up the oil. I grabbed another towel and began to wipe down the engine so I could determine what had failed. I was soon relieved to discover that when I had re-installed the raw water hose to the starboard engine fuel cooler, I had knocked the dipstick loose. Running the engines under load had caused oil to escape from the dipstick hole with the increased pressure. The lucky part for us, (and there always seems to be a lucky part) was that my concern over our fuel onboard prevented my from running longer on plane, and therefore puking more oil out of the engine. I really felt like we had dodged another bullet.
  Relief settled down upon me like a soft blanket. I soaked in the warm fuzzy feeling for a few minutes before heading back into the lee side of Boca Chica Key where we could set in the calm water and enjoy the sun, and more than one or two cold Bud Lights. No more harm was done that day, even though the contents of our holding tank were bobbing along in its northern path. The beer cans were brought safely back to the marina and deposited in the proper recycling bin. We do what we can.
  We took the dingy out on the next day, a holiday for most folks, but around here it always seems like a holiday as it's a vacation destination. We ran along the southern side of Key West toward Fort Zachary, with our target being a small beach on the most western end of Fort Zachary State Park, a place we have been to numerous times.
  I pulled into the shallows, just along the fence line for the Navy yard, where some long ago abandoned fence post footings provide a place to tie the dingy up in order to keep the waves from washing us up onto the beach.
  Some officers of some sort were running off some woman who had committed the grave error of crossing the imaginary fence line over to GOVERNMENT PROPERTY, in order to lay out her beach blanket and sun her butt, a most grievous offense.
  I ignored them, seeing as how we were not officially "on the beach", plus there were the normal ten to twelve other sun bathers just a few feet away, on the other side of the imaginary fence line, on the side away from the GOVERNMENT PROPERTY.
  I paid no heed to the action going around behind us, behind the big fence of the GOVERNMENT PROPERTY sign, where the two naval officers were joined by a Key West policeman, but soon enough I heard footsteps on the gravely beach, and a voice calling to us.
   "Are you Mr. Arliss?" I heard a voice say.
  I turned around and saw a huge policeman with an automatic weapon strapped across his chest. He was flanked by two servicemen in fatigues, standing with legs spread, yet at ease.
  "I'm not Mr. Arliss", I said.
  "Well, your boat is registered to Mr. Arliss", is what I was told. News to me.
  "Then there is a mistake, I'm afraid, because this is our boat, but I'm not Mr. Arliss".
  "You've been told to move along, this is a restricted area".
  "No, I haven't been told to move along, unless you consider your statement, just now, as us being told to move along." I tend to get picky in these situations.
  "Mr. Arliss, you need to be 100 yards away from this area."
  "I'm not Mr. Arliss."
  "But your boat is registered under Mr. Arliss."
  "Then your system is messed up, because I can assure you that this boat is registered to me, and I'm not Mr. Arliss." I don't suppose it occurred to the officer to ask me what my name was. I would have gladly provided it.
  "Do you have a chart?" is what I was asked next.
  "Yes, I have a chart." I looked out to the water, over to the very nearby sunbathers, and then said, "You're saying I need to be 300 feet away from this beach?" Hoping he would notice the sailboats filing past, certainly less than 300 feet away, plus the very obvious sunbathers, just on the other side of the fence, some of them actually leaning up against it.
  "Yes, this is a security issue, and the sign clearly says to stay 100 yards away from this area."
  Now, I hadn't even had my first beer, so I wasn't thinking as clearly as I could have been, but I decided to be co-operative, seeing as how we were outnumbered, and there was that huge automatic rifle to consider. "I'll tell you what. We're leaving. But only because you don't want us here. We're not hurting anything, and you and I both know it. Are you going to allow us to leave in a timely manner, and not get rushed?" I asked him.
  "You may leave in a timely manner", we were told.
  "Thank you", I said, and then we gathered up our stuff as they left, most certainly to return with the heavy artillery if we were still there in ten minutes. I'm running out of places I can go. (I hold no grudge against the officer, just doing his job. Someone somewhere complained at some point for something. Who knows?)
  I don't say that "we're" running out of places to go, because I'm sure Rosie is welcome anywhere. It must be my appearance, or my attitude. I don't plan on changing either.
  Given "the bum's rush", we ventured to the north side of Key West, which just a day later, was the lee side of the island. The water was glass smooth and we explored some areas we haven't been to before, and then we went to the shallow gathering spot just off of Boca Chica until late in the afternoon when the clouds rolled in.
  Yesterday we wanted to take a trip to the grocery store, but just as we got ready it started to rain and the rain did not let up until nearly sunset. It was a real drencher. We played gin rummy all afternoon, and then grilled some spare ribs in the convection oven before settling in for a movie.
  Some strong winds blew in last night and we could feel the boat gently bouncing around in the slip, and this morning there was another chill in the air as a front moved in. These are times that we are very happy to be at a dock and not bobbing around in a remote anchorage in the cold.
  The marina is buzzing with activity. The grand opening is this weekend and a big fishing tournament and live music is planned for Saturday and Sunday, after a ribbon cutting ceremony on Friday. The bocci ball courts are finished, some new sod and palm trees have been planted, and the sand volleyball court in being prepared.
  Pleasure boats continue to come and go. Just yesterday some folks who were leaving came by with an armload of supplies; butter, eggs, cheese, yogurt, etc. Turns out we didn't need to go to the grocery after all.

Even The Weather in Key West Can Be Disagreeable

  As anyone who might be mistakenly reading this blog may know, the very northern part of the United States was deep into a deep freeze during the first part of  this year, and even though Florida escaped the most frigid temperatures, even Key West's climate was less than desirable for the last two weeks. But we managed to have some fun, and I was able to scrape together some boat related items to pass along for this blog, which is getting increasingly harder to do with us camped here at the dock.
  We were able to get out in the dinghy on the weekend just after New Year's Day. We didn't venture out too far because a front was due to arrive, and I wanted to be able to high tail it into the harbor if the weather started to turn.
  We gathered up Holly and slipped on over to the south western tip of Boca Chica Key, where there is a somewhat shallow spot just off the shore that has a nice clean sand bottom, just a few inches of water, and enough activity in the way of Jet Ski tourists and local boaters to provide a modicum of social activity.
  We talked to a few locals who came over to meet Holly and we also met the owner of Hurricane Hole Marina, who added some juicy tidbits to our knowledge of the area.
  I'd say we had a full afternoon before the clouds rolled in and we scampered back into Stock Island Marina Village just as the weather turned sour for the next couple of days.

  The much anticipated visit from two of Rosie's cousins arrived on January 8th. In the picture, Rosie's cousin Don is on the left, then his wife Michelle. Then it's Denny and Rosie's other cousin Roseann. We were at the Conch Republic, having all taken the taxi downtown from Stock Island.
  While we were there I got a message that another acquaintance was in town from St. Louis with a friend of his and we were soon joined by Joe Boyer and his friend Vickie, who lives in Orlando. We finally cashed in our chips at the Hogsbreath Saloon, much later that evening than we should have.
  The group was staying here at the marina in one of the "boatels", which are just little floating motel rooms. The location was great for us, as it allowed us to visit with everyone when we wanted to, but they also had their freedom to do what they wanted, leaving us out of some of the touristy stuff that we've gotten our fill of.

  Roseann and Denny were visiting us in the cockpit of Swing Set one afternoon last week when we saw one of the staff here showing a couple around the facility, coming onto our dock, but stopping short of getting within howdy do range.
  The principal character was none other than Jimmy Buffet. He flew in on his seaplane to scope out the marina. One of the things he did was buy some Landshark Beer. Poor fellow. I didn't take this picture above, Jimmy is on the left. I call him Jim.

  We took a full contingent out aboard Swing Set last Saturday and caught a late sunset just off the cruise ship dock. Seven went out and six came back. We had to drop off a seasick Michelle in downtown Key West. We managed to carry on without her well past sunset. Her husband was not callous in the least. He tossed her cab fare as she stepped off the boat and blew her a kiss. Vickie, Rosie, and Roseann were shedding tears about it just before I snapped this photo.
  The rest of the week was filled with some of those other touristy things I have spoken of, and the week long visit was winding down but I wanted to get back out in the boat one more time before our guests left. Last Tuesday looked promising, so I called a friend who was visiting in nearby Sarasota (Seven hours away by car) and told him to come on down because if he wanted to get out on our boat, we wouldn't be able to wait until Wednesday, the day he had originally planned to arrive, because of another weather change. Being flexible due to the weather is just part of the process in these parts.
  Our other visitors (Joe and Vickie had left for home) had other plans, but I may have sensed some reluctance in regard to them coming out, so we invited a local couple who we have been seeing around town to join us. When Dan arrived promptly at 1 P.M. after an eight hour drive from Sarasota, Todd and Debra had joined us and were waiting in the cockpit of Swing Set.
  We made a quick departure from the dock and set a course for some reefs two miles south so Todd and I could do some snorkeling.
  As we were leaving the harbor I had tried to play some music from the iPad at the helm and it wasn't working. My quick diagnoses was that I had a bad wire on the cable plugged into the head unit in the salon. When problems arise, I tend to fixate on them, so the trip out to the reef was mostly enjoyable to everyone but me. Then it got worse.
  The Garmin GPS unit that we had just gotten repaired locked up. One more thing to occupy my brain pan. Then it got worse.
  We had a very loud escaping air sound and within a few seconds, (admittedly just after soiling myself) I realized that one of our automatically inflatable life vests had deployed just behind Debra's head. She may have done some soiling herself. So that gave me another thing to think about while Todd and I were bobbing about, trying to snorkel in some fairly rough seas.
  We anchored in seven feet of water and the visibility wasn't bad, even with the wind. There wasn't a whole lot of things to see, but there was an abundance of conch on the ocean floor. When we ever get a taste for large snails, I'll know where to get some.
  After our short snorkeling session, we took a pleasant cruise toward the sun, turning homeward in time to get back to port before nightfall. My concerns over the stereo, GPS, and the task of re-arming the life vest were diminished in direct proportion to the number of Bud Lights I took in. Who says beer is bad for you?
  That evening, Dan came over with us to the Red Grouper to hang out with Denny, Roseann, Don and Michelle. They had gotten a good head start in the cocktail department and it was to be potluck night in an attempt to eat up the groceries that had purchased just after arriving a week ago.
  All four of them had spent the day out on two scooters Don had rented. They did more touristy things and had a great time. The stories flowed freely and it was soon after nine o'clock when I asked when we were going to eat some of the vittles they had been promising. I know from our history with Roseann that strong hints need be dropped if one wants to get fed. Denny existed on Cheezits and catsup in his early years.
  Hugs and tears were shared all around as we left to go back to Swing Set, with promises to meet up in the morning before they all left to return to The Great White North.
  At ten o'clock Wednesday morning, here they all came down to the dock, arms full of grocery bags with junk no one got around to eating during their week long stay. We had hit a gold mine.
  Dan took some pictures of the rest of us and the good-byes were short. The waterworks started right away for Rosie, and I was only able to see them up the dock ramp before my emotions got the better of me. I hate good-byes.
  Dan had a car, of course, and he took us on a shopping spree for some bulky items that would have taxed the capacities on our bike. We went to Home Depot, Walgreens, Key West Marine Supply, West Marine, Radio Shack, and the dive shop in downtown. In between all this, we had lunch at Bo's Fish Wagon, a eclectic restaurant near the Historic Harbor Boardwalk. It's a place we had been wanting to visit. Now we can say we did.
  When we got back yesterday afternoon, I re-armed both life vests with kits I bought at West Marine. This is something that should be done every three years. I had forgotten, but the one life vest had not.
  Dan and I also figured out our stereo problem, even though I had bought a new cable at Radio Shack. After an extensive continuity check with my handy Ohm meter, I finally decided that one of the pins on a jack I was using had some minor corrosion. A quick use of fine sand paper did the trick. Another problem solved. I was not looking forward to running a new cable.
  Last night we had an impromptu dinner of leftovers, thanks to our guests, and then Rosie, Dan and I played three games of dominoes, with each of us winning a game. How polite.
  Dan slept on our sofa in the salon. His girlfriend had stayed in Sarasota, so sleeping arrangements were easy. I teased Dan about him taking up my napping spot, but we've known him and his ex-wife for lots of years and it was a small consolation. I still resisted his attempts at serenading us with the guitar he lugged onto the boat. My friendship does have boundaries.
  The cold front has moved in and we got buffeted around in our slip last night. We all slept good with the drop in temperatures, even though Holly barked in earnest every time Dan would make the slightest noise, if you call snoring and farting slight noises.
  The three of us went to El Mocho this morning for a cheap breakfast. El Mocho is a Cuban restaurant here on Stock Island it was a very popular place this morning. We snared a table in quick order. Rosie and Dan had Chorizo omelets and I had the regular special of three eggs, hash browns, a half pound of bacon and a pile of Cuban bread. Rosie and I had big cups of Cafe Con Leche, and even though Dan was facing an eight hour drive, he was satisfied with the one cup of coffee he had before we left the boat this morning.
  Dan dropped us off back at the marina before heading out. He wanted to do a little more sight seeing before heading back to Sarasota, and then eventually back to Boyne, Michigan, where he lives.
  It was nice to have visitors who we knew were coming weeks, if not months ago. Dan had actually wanted to come earlier, but I told him we'd be pretty busy with Rosie's cousins, so he waited, but stayed flexible with the weather situation.
  Rosie and I spent the rest of the morning in relax mode, but I also solved the problem with the Garmin unit by rebooting it. Another success!
  I have a self induced list of chores waiting ahead of me: I need to wax the boat hull, run Barnacle Buster through the fuel cooler on our port engine, replace the screen in our salon door, (this involves removing both solid doors, a pain) plus a  bunch of little things that have been accumulating, which they always do.
  Before we know it, it's going to be February when some other folks are coming down. Spring is right around the corner.

Happy New Year 2014

  One of the boaters took a drone view of Stock Island Marina Village the other day. This is a very good shot and I'll use it to describe our surroundings.

  First of all, Swing Set is pictured just right of center, in the third row of boats from the bottom of the shot, on the right. Yes, that little speck is us.

  On the far left is Hawk Channel and the Atlantic Ocean. Cow Key Channel is at the top of the picture, and we take it to pass under A1A into Florida Bay, which can be see in the upper right.

  Down the center peninsula is first the dock office and ship's store. Right behind it is the showers. Almost dead center of the photo is the new laundry room.

  The peninsula on the far left is the original docks for what used to be Safe Harbor. They call it Coconut Row now. The docking is Mediterranean Style, which is docking backed up to a sea wall. Some "slips" have a small dock next to them, but all have a mooring ball to which you have to tie your bow to. The rent is cheaper on Coconut Row and it's a good place for cruisers on a limited budget. Like us, but we're splurging.

  Behind the new docks is where the new hotel, pool and restaurant is planned. We hope that this part of the project comes to fruition.

  Lastly, two boat yards are on the far right.

  We think Rosie was the second customer to use the new laundry facilities. The machines take a card that is assigned to you and a card machine in the laundry loads up your card when you stick it in the machine and you feed currency into it. This eliminates the need to save quarters. The washers and dryers read the card and how much money you have on it. Each load takes two bucks. Rosie typically has two washer loads and two dryer loads per week, so we spend about eight bucks per week. We think that's a good deal in order to have freshly washed bedding and towels. Oh, and clothes, when we wear them.

  Here's the three boatels that Stock Island Marina Village currently offers to guests. The middle one is brand new and when we took this photo, it hadn't been furnished yet. These are cozy little units and neat as a pin, as they say. They each sleep four, utilizing a sofa sleeper. They come with a kayak and a fine porch to really capture the Key West flavor for a minimum three nights stay. You can book them through the Stock Island Marina Village website. They fill up fast.

  But we don't spend all of our time at the marina. On one of our last calm days, we took the dinghy five miles up Hawk Channel to Geiger Key Marina. We stayed late into the afternoon and took this photo before heading back to Stock Island while we still had light. It's a good dinghy ride and the tiki hut bar is a fun place to spend a couple of hours.

  Christmas Day was the second anniversary of Holly being our pet. Here, she's outfitted in her Christmas attire. This was the highlight of our Christmas Day, but one of our dock neighbors gave us a little card and a small package of cookies. We spent the day relaxing and then made some nice steaks and watched a movie. Perfect.

  On the Saturday after Christmas we took our bike downtown to Dante's to spend the day at the pool. The first hour or so we sat in the light rain, but by noon the sun came out and the place filled up with patrons.

  Some new friends, Neal and Cindy, had just flown in from Tennessee and joined us late in the afternoon. It's nice to have some regular friends down here, even though they don't live here full time. Most likely better for them.

  We take the bike downtown once or twice a week, or at least to the shopping centers on North Roosevelt. We visit the library regularly, Strunk Ace Hardware, Home Depot, West Marine, and Key West Marine are also frequented on a regular basis. My legs are getting a workout and my muscles are getting harder. Either that, or rigor mortis is setting in.

  There is a bike path running down nearly the entire length of A1A and our bike route is mostly separated from any cars, but drivers down here are used to sharing the road with bicyclists. Many of the residents here only have bicycles for transportation. If you don't count the dinghy and Swing Set, I guess we are two of them.

  There is a shuttle that runs on a limited schedule from the marina and we took it downtown on New Year's Eve, but it only ran until 11:30, so we had to find a cab back home after all the famous Key West activities were over. There was not a cab to be had at one o'clock in the morning, so we joined a long queue to catch a city bus back over to Stock Island. The experience did not go well, but we did finally get back to the marina eventually.

  I am not going to go into detail about what happened on the city bus because the story would be an indictment on myself. I will say that I made a strong objection to the driver of the bus deviating from his route to drop off some bus riders to their personal residences. Bus company authorities were called to deal with me, to which I voiced yet another complaint. I suggested that the bus company representative call the police, to which he obliged.

  When several of the Key West police officers arrived, and before they escorted us off of the bus, I made an appeal to some of the other passengers to back up my story, or I knew I was going to jail for at least the evening.

  As I was telling one officer what had transpired, one lone woman was corroborating my story with another officer and I was vindicated. We were offered to have a cab called for us, but the police also could not get a cab, so one officer was assigned to give us a ride back to our boat, compliments of the Key West Police Department. Ask me if we'll be riding city transportation again anytime soon.

  On New Years Day, while I was contemplating my good fortune at an experience that could have gone horribly bad, I made us a big pot of Hungarian Goulash from my paternal grandmothers recipe. The dish is a stick to your ribs cold weather favorite of ours and even though the temperature reached 80 degrees, it was blustery and cloudy, so we dug into our goulash at dinner time as though we had a foot of snow out on the ground.

  Yesterday we took the dinghy out as the wind had let up some. Neal and Cindy invited us out on their 58 foot Sea Ray Sedan Bridge for a sunset cruise so we met them at A&B Marina after taking the Cow Key Channel over to Key West Bight.

  Mark Miller, the dock master there, let us leave our dinghy at the docks there while we went out with our friends and watched a beautiful sunset, which I don't have a picture of.

  I used our little Garmin that I had put a bracket for on the dinghy to get us home long after dark. I almost put us into "the bushes" once, as Rosie called them, when I was temporarily blinded by the bright GPS screen, but Rosie was on watch and we avoided a close encounter with some low lying mangroves.

  Today it's a chilling 69 degrees and the wind is howling at 30 miles per hour. The sky is threatening rain and we're going to hunker down and hibernate this afternoon. Everyone here at the dock is still happy that we all aren't sitting in a foot or more of snow up north somewhere.

  After an afternoon spent on the couch reading our books, the leftover goulash we have waiting for dinner will be a welcome dish, perfect for a frigid afternoon. Brrrrr!