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!

Making Ourselves At Home

  If you own a boat, and you are not busy, you are not taking care of it. I don't mean you have to be doing something every minute of every day, but finding at least something to do for a couple of hours a day should be easy to do.

  The picture above is one of our gray water sump box, and installing the deck plate on the cover of it was one of my little projects I did lately to make life easier on the boat. Even though doing boat chores is necessary, I'm always looking for ways to make the chores easier.
  The gray water sump collects the water on our boat from three sinks, two showers, and the condensate lines from the two air conditioning units, and then when the float switch detects enough water in the box, the pump kicks on and pumps the gray water overboard. This eliminates extra through hull fittings on the side of the boat.
  The sump box needs to be cleaned out regularly, because the liquid soap we all use goes down the drain as suds, but eventually turns into little hard bars of soap, clogging up the pump, or making the float switch not operate properly.
  Since we have owned Swing Set, I've replaced the original switch with one that is free floating, (the original switch was one of those that operate inside of a little blue box, and the box always gets gummed up with soap residue and the switch won't float.) I've replaced the pump because the original just quit, and I've replaced the Plexiglas cover with a Lexan cover. The Plexiglas cover cracked because Plexiglas is more pliable than glass, but not as forgiving as Lexan. I also replaced the cover gasket, and exchanged the 12 nuts on the cover screws with wing nuts, making it easier to remove them to service and clean the box.
  But I was in the engine room of a 52 foot Sea Ray recently and noticed that the sump box on that boat had a screw in deck plate on the housing cover, and I liked that idea, so when we were in West Marine last time, I saw this see through deck plate and decided to install it in our sump box cover.
  Last week I removed the cover, held the float switch up to pump out as much water as I could, then used our wet vac to suck out the rest of the water and all the hardened soap scum from around the switch and the pump. Then I scribed a circle around the deck plate after placing it where I wanted the hole to be, used my jig saw to cut the hole, then drilled the holes for the screws to mount the deck plate. Once I put a bead of silicone around the hole and inserted the screws, I installed the cover screws and wing nuts and my job was done.
  The deck plate unscrews from the frame and has an o-ring to keep odors in. (The sump box stinks.) Next time (usually every six months) I have to clean out the sump box, it'll be an easier job.

  If you've been reading this blog, you do know that it's not all work for us. Neal and Cindy had some friends down visiting from Tennessee and we all met at Dante's one Saturday afternoon.
   Holly is relaxing under her own shade umbrella, just like the one we bought in George Town last summer when we were in the Exumas. One of the locals we have been seeing at Dante's on a regular basis gave this umbrella to Holly as a gift when he noticed that we were having some difficulty keeping her in the shade during our visits.
  We've been riding the 4.5 miles to Dante's on our bicycle on the weekends to enjoy the pool there. It's a pretty flat ride, but when the wind is blowing in from the East like it has been, the ride back to Stock Island at the end of a long afternoon at the pool is taxing, to say the least.

  Speaking of the bike, here's our final generation of our mounting system. The brackets are nearly invisible. I used the rods from two Magma Grill bow rail mounting units. We can turn the bike upright, hook the front wheel onto one rod, and then swing the back end of the bike up and place the frame of the bike right onto the other rod, which is positioned at the top of the "triangle" formed by the frame, shown just up and behind the crank in the photo. An Ancra tie down strap will be used when we are in transit, and pieces of cut "pool noodles" keep the bicycle frame from getting scratched on the flybridge rail.
  Last Sunday the wind had died down and we took the dinghy on an exploration trip of the bay side of the keys. The waters just north of the lower keys is full of mangroves and little islands, just waiting to be explored in a little boat. You have to use a little boat because most of the water is too shallow for anything but a small boat. We were looking for a beach just off the tip of Snipe Point, about 14 miles to our northeast.
  I was using my iPhone to navigate and we found Snipe Point with no trouble. We were at a rising tide, and the beach was under water, but as we approached the point, we saw what appeared to be some dinghies floating in the trees along the shore. When we got closer we got a whiff of a terrible stench, and then we realized that we weren't looking at dinghies, but instead were seeing the carcasses of three or more small whales, rotting away.
  We found out later that it was against some law or another that the carcasses couldn't be removed, and had to just sit there and rot. We won't be making any more trips to Snipe Point anytime soon.
  We took a circuitous route back to Stock Island, only getting lost once, maybe twice, but eventually finding the A1A bridge we had to go under to get back to our side of Stock Island.

  Like many parts of the Florida Keys, anywhere you have a free anchorage, you usually have derelict vessels. The eastern side of Stock Island is no exception. I took about a dozen photos of some of the worst looking vessels we saw in a "managed anchorage", and there were dozens more that I could have taken photos of. In my opinion, these people are just bums that just happen to have a "home" that floats. It is not an unfair assumption that most of the vessels in areas like this have no means of propulsion. How would our highways and roads look like if car owners could just abandon their vehicles wherever they happen to break down? This topic deserves more coverage than I'm willing to devote to here.

  Last Tuesday we finally got our new generator installed! Here is Mark de Jong, owner of Marine Diesel of the Florida Keys, directing the fork truck operator over at Oceanside Marina as he gently slips or long awaited new Westerbeke generator into our engine room without a hitch.
  The generator has been delivered for a while now, but since we had to wait for the wind to die down, last Tuesday was the first day that wasn't a weekend, that we could take Swing Set over to Oceanside, and it was still a little blustery out.
  Mark agreed to let me install the control panel in our salon, run the wire harness for the generator, mount the coolant overflow bottle, and install a new anti-syphon valve, saving us quite a bit of labor costs, so we aren't planning on hooking up the new generator until after Christmas. But that's OK, it is a small worry off our shoulders just getting the new Westerbeke sitting where it belongs, since we had paid for it weeks and weeks ago.
  Stock Island Marina Village continues to fill up. Last night a boat just like Swing Set came in and the owner came over to see our boat. His boat is two years newer and he and his wife just got it. They sold their home in Georgia and are going to make Stock Island Marina Village their new home. We have plans to get better acquainted soon over some cold, frosty beverages, and discuss some of the improvements we have made to Swing Set that George and Donna may want to make to their 1998 model.

  As boats come in, and reservations for slips mount up, I knew our chances to change slips were diminishing, so for a variety of reasons, we moved Swing Set to a new slip two days ago. Our cockpit faces the east now, instead of the west, and the hotter afternoon sun isn't beating into the cockpit at the time of day when we have usually had our fill of sun, so that alone makes the move a good one. We also are now in a dock sitting right between the laundry and the showers, but between the two we have a view of the ocean from our flybridge. Our bicycle is also in a bike rack just at the top of the dock ramp. I think we're going to like this slip better.
  Stock Island Marina Village is having a holiday party this Sunday and all the boaters are invited, food and beverages are free. How could we miss that?
  We may also have some friends visiting over Christmas. They are on a cruise and when their ship returns to Miami, they just might drive down and spend a day or two with us and we'll be happy to see them. (Don, Kris, and their daughter Katie visited us in Marathon last Spring.)
  In early January, Rosie's two cousins and their husband and wife will be staying at one of the "boatels" here at the marina for a week and we can't wait to see them. Rosie's cousin Rose Ann and her husband Denny have been close friends of both of ours for a long time.
  If you are so inclined for Holiday Greetings, or Merry Christmas, here it is coming at you from both of us, the closest thing to a Christmas card that we'll be sending out.
  We can't believe we are nearly at the end of our first full calendar year of living on the boat. Hope we have many more.

An Eventful Week

  Swing Set is just about in the center of this picture. The marina is slowly filling up, a big rush will take place just after the holidays, so we're happy so far with our choice of slips. We are on the end so we don't get much foot traffic, and the end "T" is extra wide so there is a lot of room between our boat and the boat on the outside of the "T". Eventually we'll have a boat right next to us as these are double wide slips, but we could get lucky and have a skinny boat in there.
  The new laundry is just off of our dock, and there is a huge bathroom on the end of the laundry building that has a shower big enough for a party. We can only dream.
  Our new bike is locked to a bike rack not too far away, (We can see it from the boat) and we have a nice cover for it. We had to buy a motorcycle cover to find one to fit, and it took an extra large cover to do it, but it fits just fine. We should be able to keep our bike looking nice.

  Holly got a new haircut on Monday, in between various other chores. Grooming Holly ourselves saves us a lot of money, plus the groomer is just one more place we don't have to travel to. No telling what kind of riff raff Holly may have to associate with at a groomers anyway.
  Late on Monday afternoon we got a message that our friend Marco and his wife Deby, along with their daughter, Danita, were on their way to Key West for a couple of days. It was too late for us to consider going out once they got settled in, so we planned an outing on the boat for the next day.

  The family showed up right on time. It was to be Danita's first boat ride and it was her birthday, one year old. Holly wasn't used to Danita, and Danita hadn't been close to a dog before, so there were protests from each of them, but it worked out for the most part.
  We took a slow ride over to Key West Bight to show Marco and Deby the downtown area from the water. We came back late in the afternoon and then rode over to The Hogfish Grill for a late lunch.
  The next day we loaded up Holly on the bike for a ride downtown to the library. We wanted to get some new movies because it will be a while before the cable T.V. is operating here at Stock Island Marina Village, and going to bed at 8 o'clock is getting ridiculous.
  Holly has a pet carrier that we bought in case we need to fly back to St. Louis, or take a car somewhere, so we put her in it, and strapped it to the bike so the carrier wouldn't go flying out if we crashed. But I made a mistake. I left one of the zippers open on one end of the carrier so Holly could stick her head out and enjoy the ride.
  We were pedaling towards A1A on Cross Street when we came over a little bridge over a canal and I saw a guy on the side of the road next to a bike laying on its side. The guy was struggling to get up, and he was in pursuit of a dog, judging by the fact that he was calling it.
  As we got nearer, and we were going at a fair clip, I could see that he hadn't had an accident, but he had just laid the bike down in order to attach the dog to a leash, so in passing I asked him if he was OK. When he answered that he was, Holly spied the dog and went nuts, barking and trying to get at the dog. In doing so, she squirmed out of the opening on the carrier, and I didn't notice it.
  The following sequence of events happened in just split seconds, but in retrospect, they seem like they were minutes apart.
  I heard what sounded like a block of wood hitting the pavement. Rosie yelled that Holly had fallen out, I saw that Holly had fallen out, and we both heard Holly yelp in the most disturbing manner. It's the sound no pet owner wants to hear, either from their own pet or another's.
  I quickly stopped the bike and Rosie was off in a flash. I turned to see Holly on her feet with a car coming in her direction, but Rosie was waving for the car to stop and it was indeed slowing down, but there was traffic coming from the other direction too.
  I put the bike on the kickstand, not believing now that I took the time to do so, but what I didn't do was panic. Think about it; would an ambulance driver arrive at an accident scene and jump out of the ambulance while it's moving and let it crash into a tree or go off of a cliff? No. The ambulance has to be in one piece in order to get the victim to the hospital.
  Rosie was scaring Holly by yelling her name and telling her to "come here". Holly was shaken up and was dashing around on the street. The cars were stopped, but you never know when someone will get inpatient and try to dodge around the stopped cars.
  One command that Holly understands, and will invariably listen to, is the command to "sit". I stayed as calm as I could, given the circumstances, and told Holly to "sit", so she sat, and I picked her up. Rosie and Holly were both shaking as we searched Holly's body for an injury and we didn't see anything. We then checked her teeth and didn't find any damage to them either. Once we got to a safe spot, we walked her around and decided that Holly survived her fall from the bike without a scratch!
  Whether she likes it or not, Holly's rides in her pet carrier will be done with all of the zippers closed completely. We cannot believe our good fortune that Holly was not injured.

  At mid-week, Rosie and I took the dinghy out to explore some more. In the photo above, we are anchored just off of Boca Chica Key. Some local boaters gather there on the weekends, but even on the weekdays, Jet Ski tours stop there to give the riders a breather, or maybe just to eat up time, as they promise a two hour ride.
  We found a nice quiet spot to anchor in the mangroves just between Stock Island and Boca Chica, and we know there are many more neat places to explore on the "bayside" of both of these keys, and around the keys just to our east, or as most people think, to our north, because A1A is considered to run north to south, but isn't so on our end.
  We've been in contact with our generator guy. The generator is in, but the marina where we need to go to get it installed is full with boats along the sea wall where we have to use a big forklift to install the 400 pound generator. We are in no hurry, but we'd like to get the installation behind us, and get our expenses for the matter put to rest, as we have other work to do on the boat that will affect our budget.
  Meanwhile, we're getting used to our surroundings little by little, organizing our dock space, and waxing, waxing, waxing the boat. The little chores never end.
  One of the chores is grocery shopping, and we made our first trip to the grocery store on the bike. We kept filling up the grocery cart, and I kept saying that we were getting too much stuff, and once we got everything bagged up at the checkout, I knew we were in trouble.
  I stuffed two big bags into the basket over the front tire. (This basket is attached to a better place on the frame, not the handlebars.) We had our one pannier full and Rosie had our knapsack on her back, stuffed to the gills. We for sure had exceeded the total weight limit for our Yuba bike, and I could barely steer it home. Next time we're going to fill our bags while they are in the grocery cart so we know where we stand right off.
  Last Friday night we took the dinghy over to Hogfish for a few beers. We barely putted into the harbor over there and was tying up when some guy comes up to the dinghy and tells me to go a little slower next time coming into the harbor.
  I laughed, because I thought he was kidding, as we were going slow enough to not have a wake. He said there was people sleeping and we were keeping them awake. It was 6:30 in the evening! I finally said, "Are you serious?"
  He said he was, but had a crazed look on his face, so I just said, "OK, thanks pal", and he left.
  I do know this: A lot of the local fishermen around here have an axe to grind with the owners of the new marina where we are docked now, and it doesn't take too much sense to figure out that anyone coming in at night in a dinghy is from the new marina, so I think this fella just wanted to take his displeasure out on us.
  We left like church mice, and we'll be in stealth mode in the future as well, but if he wants to make an issue of our presence some other time, it may get ugly.
  The Hogfish has a reputation as being a bit "shady" and being a "rough and tumble" kind of place. We've been there enough times to realize that it's true, but I have news for them. We're from Fenton, Missouri, and we've been in Joe Clarks on a Friday night. Enough said.
  On Saturday we took the bike downtown to Dante's to use the pool and just hang out. We had a nice afternoon. The place was crowded and the weather was great. We spent four hours there, and were going to stay and watch the SEC football championship game, but there was no way that that was going to happen and I was going to pedal our bike back to Stock Island. We made the sensible decision to leave before the game and got back to the boat before dark.
  Some folks we met last year in the Dry Tortugas had their boat at A & B Marina while we were there for the last two months, and they moved it over to Key West Harbor Club last month. Neal and Cindy called and said they were coming down and wanted to have dinner.
  We met them on Sunday night over at the Key West Harbor Club. It's a very nice place. The rent over there is similar to the rent here, but there is nothing nearby to go to in the dinghy if the weather is bad, or on foot for that matter. We may just be rationalizing, but we think the members may be a bit stuffy for us over there.
  But Neal and Cindy aren't stuffy. We had a little dinner and then joined them on their 58 foot Sea Ray Sedan Bridge for a nightcap. We don't get on many boats of this caliber, and this one is a beauty. At ten o'clock we went back to Swing Set and threw rocks at it.
  On Monday I did some more waxing and we took Holly to the dog park here at the marina. They have two fenced in areas, one for large dogs, and one for small dogs. We're pretty sure which area Holly would pick, but we took her to the small dog area anyway. It was funny seeing her walk in the grass because she doesn't get to go on grass much. We tried to get her to run around, but she mainly wanted to be picked up and held. Our buddy.
  While at Dante's last Saturday, I was talking to a restaurant owner and we were discussing ways to cook on the boat. We both like to prepare our steaks in a cast iron skillet, and he told me about a method he uses to make a demi-glaze sauce for his steaks.

  I grilled our steaks while Rosie baked some potatoes and steamed some corn on the cob. Once the steaks were done, I put them in a glass plate with a lid, and then threw a stick of butter in the skillet. On top of the melting butter I poured some red wine, about a cup, and let it cook down and thicken. Once it got thick enough, and before it could burn, I poured it over the steaks for a mouth watering topping. I've been cooking with beer too long!

  This morning I perfected our bike mounting system. I used the Magma Grill mounting rods that we bought last week, after I had covered them with clear hose, and clamped them to the rails on the aft end of our flybridge. You can see the finished product in the picture above.
  The rods from this angle are invisible and as sturdy as can be. The bike slips straight on them and one holds up the front wheel at the rim, and one is placed at the top of the triangle formed by the center post and rear frame, just behind the crank. We think it will work great if we ever travel on our boat again.

  We had lunch today over at the new location of the Shrimp Road Grill. The Grill trailer has been moved over to the Tiki Hut. The hut is huge and there is about eight big picnic tables to eat on, and ceiling fans provide a nice breeze.
  There's going to be a bandstand built and most of the walking areas are paved with multi-colored bricks. Oh, and the food is moderately priced and delicious!
  Rosie is posing next to the Christmas tree under the Tiki Hut. It will be the closest thing to our own Christmas tree that we'll have this year, but as I write this, Rosie is decorating the boat with little Christmas type crap that she has smuggled aboard. This is something she likes to do and I don't discourage her. I may even look around the salon when I get done with this blog and tell her how nice it all looks. Yes, I lie when I have to.

Stock Island Marina Village

  During our last week or so in Key West Bight, at A & B Marina, the change of seasons was evident as the temperatures dropped into the brisk 60's at night, and generally were in the upper 70's during the day. Absolutely horrible.
  We had some wind too. Gusts were in the mid 30 m.p.h. range and not many boats were venturing out. Even the tour boats were staying in port for the most part, but there were a few unscrupulous operators happy to take their customers money and plop them into the ocean for a few minutes for "snorkeling". Load them up with rum and shoot the canon off a few times, and the tourists come back happy.
  Last week we went to the Tropic Cinema to see Captain Phillips, starring Tom Hanks, a story about the hijacking of the container ship Maersk Alabama off the coast of Somalia. The movie was riveting, and should get Mr. Hanks another Oscar.
  Although we didn't feel threatened at all during our Bahamas trip, I may revise our weapons arsenal and get something with a longer range. But, then again, maybe not. I can just imagine blasting away some poor fisherman approaching the boat to sell us some lobster or something.
  Going to the show is a nice diversion, something we didn't do when we lived in our condo with a nifty home entertainment system. But now that we're more or less settled in one area, we like it, especially when the theater is as nice as The Tropic.
  Thanksgiving Day started out rather blustery as Key West standards go. We began our day with a lumberjack breakfast and were lounging around reading our books when Chris from Eaton Bikes called and said our new Yuba bike was ready to be picked up!

  We walked the bike over to the parking lot of a school near Eaton Bikes to practice riding our bike. Because Rosie basically just perches herself on the seat behind me, I wasn't sure how the bike, or me, was going to handle the weight. I needn't have worried. We both took to the bike like ducks to water, and we cruised by Eaton Bikes where most of the staff was waiting for us to go by on our inauguration ride. I shouted "We're on a NEW bike!", as we rode past. They seemed to get a kick out of that. Probably thinking, "There goes a nut job".
  We gave the bike a good trial, riding to the eastern end of Duval Street where I took the picture of Rosie above, with more clothes on since last December, in Marathon.
  Notice her helmet. We both have them. Yes, I know it looks dorky, but we believe in bicycle and motorcycle safety, always have. We'd rather look dorky than suffer from brain damage from an accident. We're struggling with what we have as it is.
  We got back to the boat and Rosie started cooking our Thanksgiving dinner. Some boat neighbors invited us to a potluck dinner of sorts on the dock, but we had already bought all of our groceries and were looking forward to a nice quiet dinner alone.
  We had a cheap bottle of wine, roasted turkey breast, mashed potatoes, gravy, yams, asparagus, and cranberry sauce. Rosie did another great job of roasting our turkey in the convection oven. It only took 45 minutes to roast, and it tasted delicious! We didn't have desert, and didn't want any. It was an early night for us.
  On the day after Thanksgiving, we loaded up Holly in her new pet carrier and placed her in the huge basket mounted to the frame on the front of our bike and went on a long ride over to Stock Island Marina Village.
  They had us on their schedule as coming in on the middle of the month for some reason, so we're glad we popped in. We also picked a new slip, a bit further back into the harbor by one dock. I wanted  the finger of the dock on our port side as we back in, and I wanted to be on the end slip, but not on the outside, so we picked what turned out to be D20. Look for us.
  By the time we got back to A & B Marina, I only had a severe cramp in my right calf muscle, and my ass felt like someone had been using it for a punching bag. Rosie said she felt fine. Sure, she only has to sit on the back and squawk like a parrot occasionally, I do all the pedaling. It's safer this way, though. Trust me. Rosie has the bridgework to prove it.
  But our ride was a success. Holly rode with her head poked out of the opening in her carrier and she got lots of comments as we made our way down Duval Street. At various stops, we also got inquiries about our bike, as unusual as it looks, and obviously designed for a passenger that is not required to pedal. The women seemed to like this part best. One guy took a picture, just of the Yuba name, so he could order one. I think we're going to like our new bike.
 

  We had good weather, albeit with a slight breeze, for our four mile cruise over to Stock Island on Sunday. In the picture above, we are entering Safe Harbor.
  The yacht just off our bow is "Platinum", said to be previously owned by Mick Jagger. The yacht has seen better days, but someone is working on her. I think it's now owned by Oprah Winfrey. May as well start that rumor.

  Due to the northerly breeze, we got Swing Set snuggled in with just a bit of difficulty, but with the assistance of  a new dock neighbor, we did so without major incident.
  Swing Set fits just right in her slip. We have enough room behind her to drop the dinghy, hopefully with enough room to squeeze between us and a neighbor when we get one. Otherwise, we'll put the boat in bow first. Using the dinghy is a priority.
  You can see how I've mounted our bike on the aft railing on the flybridge. When we bought the bike, I ordered some aluminum brackets for holding ring buoys on a bow rail, with intentions of holding our aluminum bike, as it weighs less than 40 pounds.
  I don't like how the ring buoy holders work, and I'm already on my third generation of a bike mounting plan. I've ordered two new holders that are used for mounting Magma Grills. They attach easier to the rails and are more solid. The rods are 1/2" stainless steel and are beefier than the aluminum ring buoy holders and won't bend. I'll cover them with vinyl tubing so they won't mar the paint on our bike. I'll post pictures of that setup when I get it done.
  We got settled in and visited the office to check in. There is a sailboat on our dock and the owner has a large Labrador Retriever that was roaming free, and I asked about the policy on leashes at the marina. Might as well get any unpleasantness out of the way with the neighbors right off the bat.
  The policy is that dogs must be on a leash, plus there are two dog parks here for letting pets run, and Monroe County has a leash ordinance. The girl in the office said she would speak to the owner of the dog about keeping it on a leash, but as we passed him on our way back to Swing Set, the opportunity arose to discuss his dog.
  Claude, (pronounced "Clode", like in "rode") is a very nice French Canadian fellow and he totally understood about the leash law. In fact, as far as he was concerned, the law in the total United States says that all pets be on a leash at all times, and he only had his dog "Rosie" (go figure) roaming on the dock because no one else was around. I told him that it did not matter to us as long as Rosie (his Rosie) stayed down by his boat. I just wanted to make sure he knew what the rules were. I also let him know that I knew that people didn't come to Key West to adhere to a bunch of rules, and that we could work it out. We are just concerned that Holly, not being the most social animal, wouldn't be on the receiving end of a dog bite because another dog was running free. Pets not on leashes has been our biggest bugaboo in Key West since we've been here. I've had "discussions" with dog owners two other times. They did not go well.
  Back to the boat, we had a little lunch, and then dropped the dinghy in the water for a dinghy riiiiiiiide!
  We had a slight chop just off the southern side of Boca Chica Key for a five mile ride to Geiger Key. We wanted to visit Geiger Key Marina, a little hole in the wall that is home to a pleasant tiki bar restaurant, fish camp, and RV park.
  We spent a couple hours there, meeting some locals and getting some tips about the veterinarians in the nearby area. It was a very nice experience and we can't wait to go back.
  It was nearly four o'clock when we got back to Swing Set. One of the staff was making rounds on the docks. We met Mike and learned some things about the marina that we weren't aware of, one being that the cable wasn't working yet. That was a bit of a disappointment, but not the end of the world.
  We had a great dinner of leftover Thanksgiving vittles and turned in early with our beloved books, and spent one of the most quiet nights we've had in a while.
  There is a Navy airport nearby and we've heard some loud jets a couple of times, but overall it's quiet here at Stock Island Marina Village. One thing we won't miss here is the loud music played all day long in and around Key West Bight, especially the guy over at Schooner's Wharf. Having some music in the background during the day is not too bad, but this guy over at Schooner's plays every afternoon and he is terrible. Imagine a fella that is still playing music two years after he has been pronounced dead, and you'll have an idea how this guys music sounds.
  I've stalled around long enough. Rosie is out washing the boat, and I have chores to do too.   We're also waiting to hear from Mark at Key West Diesel. Our generator should be coming in today and we'll try to get it installed this week some time. Once that is done, I have to address the issue of our port engine that is still overheating.
  We have time, though. We don't need to get in a hurry because this is a pretty good place to hang our hats for a while.

The Dust Settles

  A week ago yesterday the last of our Key West visiting friends got together at a local Cuban restaurant, El Siboney's, for one last time before they all left. In the photo above, there is Bob, Papa John, Pat, Rosie, Me, Carrie, Dave, Maureen, Darryll, and Joe.
  We're not sure if everyone liked their dining experience, but Rosie and I like El Siboney's. Their prices are reasonable, and the place isn't fancy. It's located off the beaten path on Catherine Street, a few blocks north of Simonton.
  We had another dinner with half of the group on Friday night. (Bob, Carrie, and Dave left to drive back to Missouri on Friday morning.) It was supposed to be a pot luck affair to get rid of leftovers from the refrigerator, but we wound up being treated to fresh strip steaks, baked potatoes, pork and beans, peas, and carrots. The only thing missing was string beans. Thankfully.
  John and Pat drove by A&B Marina on Saturday morning on their way out of town and dropped off a case of Bud Light. As they drove away, Rosie was in tears, and I was itchin' to get the beer on ice.
  It was a whirlwind month and a great time with great people. There's a good chance we'll do it again next year.
  The downside was that Rosie and I ran ourselves down and both got sick. We spent the next few days taking cold medicine and laying low. We hadn't been sick at all since leaving St. Louis 18 months ago, but we also haven't been staying out so late or around so many people. It was bound to catch up with us.
  We had recently gone to the local library and was able to get a membership for only $30. Our official Florida residence is in Clay County, so we couldn't use the Monroe County library for free. We have no problem paying an annual fee to join our local library because they have not only a great selection of books, they also have a pretty good inventory of DVD movies. We spent the next several nights staying in to watch movies and turn in early with our books.
   I finally read "To Have and To Have Not" by Ernest Hemingway and it was fun to recognize some of the places around Key West that Hemingway had written about so long ago. I wouldn't name the story as his best, but it just seems appropriate to read this book while living on a boat here.
  Speaking of the boat, on Monday we took Swing Set out for a cruise. We had very little wind, so we went over to Stock Island to see how things were coming along over there. There was a big sign on the new office announcing that they were open.
  We backed Swing Set into the slip that we picked out to stay in come December 1st, and we were glad we did. I decided that the slip next to it would be better suited for us due to the finger pier being on our port side instead our starboard side. I have better visibility from the helm on the port stern quarter, so having the finger pier on that side will make backing in easier. I always say it's the little things that you need to pay attention to.
  I contacted the harbormaster and requested to be placed in the slip we picked and he said that there shouldn't be a problem with it. As time goes on, I'll probably want to move again for some reason or another. That's the beauty of living on a boat.
  Because we had some calm days, we decided to take the dinghy out for some exploring on Wednesday morning.

  We took the dinghy out of Key West Bight, heading south around the cruise ship docks and Mallory Square, past Fort Zachary State Park to the Southernmost Point. You can see the famous landmark behind Rosie in the photo. Holly seemed very interested in it.
  Then we ran east toward Boca Chica Key, with intentions of running to Geiger Key for lunch at Geiger Key Marina, a place recommended to us by some of our friends who went there twice for lunch.
  I kept going around bends along the coast of Boca Chica, promising to only go around one more, when I told Rosie that I was getting uncomfortable going so far in the dinghy when we could visit Geiger Key once we move to Stock Island in a few days. I sometimes listen to my instincts. I should do it more often.
  We motored back to a gathering spot of sorts for local boaters, just off of Boca Chica, on a shallow spot with nice soft sand, that, at low tide, there is a beach. There wasn't much activity on a Wednesday, but we did talk to some folks on a Jet Ski tour who said that there is usually many more boaters at this spot on the weekends. It's just a little distance from our future location at Stock Island Marina Village, and we intend to make it a hangout. We have heard that clothing may be optional on this beach. We won't let that stop us.
  We had a couple beers and enjoyed the scenery for a bit, and then went into Safe Harbor past the new marina where we'll be staying, and then over to The Hogfish Bar. We wanted to visit The Hogfish with our friends when we took a ride in Swing Set a couple of weeks ago, but they don't have docking for transients, but we can always find a spot to dock the dinghy.
  Holly is welcome at the seating "outside", which really isn't outside because it's under roof. The have these barstools wide enough for three people to sit at, which we like because we can sit Holly between us while we eat. We spent last New Years Eve at The Hogfish and we like the atmosphere. I think we'll be visiting there a lot.
  Just West of Safe Harbor is a channel that takes you over to the bay side of Key West, but along that channel is a canal that, on the charts, looks like it would go over to the bayside too, only to a better spot, which is on the West side of Sigsbee Key, closer to Garrison Bight.

  The canal runs central through the heart of Key West. The airport was on our port side, and some modest homes were on our starboard side. But then we came what looked to be the end of the canal. Mangroves lined each side and their branches covered the 12 foot width. There was a couple of homes along the way, but soon there was nothing but trees and marsh. When we started seeing "campers" (in this case, means "homeless") and the approach of a low water bridge, I knew this canal wasn't going to be a route for us to take to the bay side of Key West.
  The bridge was only 18 inches off the water, much shorter than the air draft on our dinghy, so we turned around. It was an interesting trip, but we won't feel the need to do it again.
  Back out to the marked channel, we took it north under the A1A bridge and out to Florida Bay. We had to go past Sunset Marina and around Sigsbee Key over to the mooring field at Garrison Bight. Then we took the route under the bridge to Fleming Key and back to Key West Harbor and then to our harbor in Key West Bight. At least I knew we had an "inside route" from Stock Island over to Key West Bight if we wanted to visit downtown in the dinghy, avoiding the prevailing easterly winds.
  The Key West Film Festival had taken place over the weekend. Our feeling low prevented us from attending one of the films being shown at The Tropic Cinema, but we did go to The Tropic on Wednesday night for a movie. The Tropic is a real gem. If you're in Key West and want an evening out that doesn't consist of Sloppy Joe's and strip clubs, take in a movie at The Tropic, if for no other reason but the popcorn.
  We did a few chores on the boat on Thursday, but toward late afternoon we took the dinghy back out for a cruise. A friend had mentioned a sternwheeler that had found its way to Key West recently, and we wondered if it was still in the area, so we went over to the City Marina at Garrison Bight to see if the Barbara Ann was still docked there.

  We found the Barbara Ann just where she was docked last January, although with an addition of some new windows and another door or two. She still touts "Port of St. Louis" on her stern, but I would venture to stay she'll never see that part of the country again. Barbara Ann has more steel cables holding her in her slip than the S.S. Admiral.
  The City Marina at Garrison Bight is home to an eclectic mixture of floating homes and houseboats in various stages of repair. While we find it very interesting to look at, we wouldn't want to keep our boat in this marina. I would bet that there isn't a square foot of shiny fiberglass in the whole place, and nearly every "vessel" has a bilge pump going twenty-four seven. The Barbara Ann is not one of those. Yet.
  We exited Garrison Bight and took the long way around back to Key West Harbor along the shoreline of Fleming Key. It was a wet ride as the wind had picked up some, but it was fun.   The dinghy is our favorite way to have fun, and while Swing Set seems more and more like "home", the dinghy is our essential method of transportation, and something we don't think we could do without.
  We meandered our way through Key West Harbor. It too is an eclectic mixture of boats, but only the primary type of vessel is a sailing one. We saw our "Prairie Dog" friends from last December. Their boat was even loaded with more junk than it was back then. They weren't at home, not like we were going to stop for a chat anyway.
  Another fella out on his sailboat, albeit without sails, and a dinghy tied up to the stern that was defying all efforts to sink, was trying to wave us over. It wasn't an "I need assistance" type wave, but an "I see somebody to have a beer with and I have no beer wave", normally one I find hard to resist, but we have found reason to avoid people who live this way on a sailboat, or otherwise on any decrepit vessel, for the same way we avoid socializing with people who live, say, on a park bench. They may be nice folks, but their seeming succession of bad choices that may have wound them up in their predicaments were choices that we also choose not to become part of. While I'm sympathetic, you're not dealing with Mother Theresa here.
  It was getting close to sunset, so we cruised around Tank Island, now called Sunset Key because the owners of the multi-million dollar homes built on it didn't want to be living on such a commonly named place called Tank Island, and we drifted along the western shore of Key West and Mallory Square.

  We waited on the sunset and watched all the folks lined up along Mallory Square, and along the upper decks of the cruise ship "Majesty of the Seas", a Nassau registered ship that has seen better days. I post this photo for the followers of this blog who would rather see pictures than read my writing.
  Our day was a good one. We found out that our new bike will be arriving from California next week, and that our new generator is also on the way. We have a large deposit placed on the generator and I was beginning to get a little worried about it coming.

  This photo is not of the best sunset we have seen in our travels, it's just one more. But one more sunset hopefully means one more sunrise. String enough of them together and you wind up with a life. If you're lucky, you can eek out a good one.
  We burned our running lights on the dinghy and got back to A&B Marina after dark. The fellas in the beautiful Buddy Davis sportfishing boat near us appeared genuinely concerned that we had been out so late, saying that they were giving us another thirty minutes before calling the Coast Guard. My money says they were more concerned about Rosie than me. What do you think? Always have a pretty woman by your side and money in your pocket, and somebody will usually come looking for you.

We Get Company

  When we first started out on our adventure a year and a half ago, one of our goals was to be here in Key West during Fantasy Fest and the Powerboat races. We spent so much time on the inland rivers last summer, we began to readily see that making Key West in time for these events in 2012 would mean skipping by some really fun spots along Florida's West Coast, so we set our sights on being here this year. We're so happy that we did.
  In the last few weeks there has been over forty people down here visiting for some reason or another. Some of the folks we feel are close friends, and some we had a mild acquaintance with, but we feel like we became closer friends with most of them due to the fun times we had with everyone.

  Now before you start thinking how popular we must be to have all these people travel all the way from Missouri, Illinois, and Kentucky to see us, we can only claim that one couple actually made the trip just to see us, the rest came because of Fantasy Fest, the boat races, and because Key West is a fun place to visit.
  Having all these folks visiting was no ordeal for us because we didn't (and won't) arrange accommodations or transportation. Two sets of friends rented houses here in town for a month, and they had most of the people staying with them off and on. I commend them for the work they did in hosting so many of their friends. We were just able to reap the benefits.
  Since our blog is about boating and living aboard, I won't chronicle our activities here in Key West too much, but for anyone dreaming about casting off and living aboard their boat, I have some insight and want to share it.
  Many months ago I decided to gut our second state room and make an "office" out of it. Anyone who has read our blog from the beginning knows this. (The rest of you, please catch up.) Of course we wanted a nice place to use our desk top computer, and have room to store tools and extra parts, but the other thing was that we didn't want to have guests aboard to stay overnight. The reason is that we like to run a tidy ship. Anyone coming on our boat would have a hard time realizing that we have been living on our boat for so long. As they say, "there is a place for everything, and everything is in its place". This is impossible to do with more than two people living on this boat. OK, two people and a small dog.
  Sure, two people could sleep on the floor in the salon, but we've done that before and our schedule is usually different than that of others, and we don't like to be walking over anyone if they want to "sleep in".
  The other thing is that if we are on the hook, the systems on our boat are taxed as it is with just us, two or more people onboard just adds that more usage to the water, waste, and power systems, plus there never seems to be enough room in our small refrigerator either.
  But sure, we like friends to visit, right? But to have visitors, you have to commit to being in one place for an extended amount of time. Last year we were moving around a lot, and had we adhered to the travel schedule of friends wanting to see us while they were "in the area", we wouldn't have been able to adhere to our loosely knit travel plans, and while we were somewhat flexible in that regard, twice we had to draw the line and commit ourselves to set departure dates.
  The other criteria for having friends and family come to visit is to be in a place where people like to visit. Sounds simple, but after a day or two, your visitors may want to strike out on their own for a few hours, and you'll probably want them to, so you'll want to be in a place where there are things to do for them. We've had friends visit while we were at Kentucky Lake, Marathon, and Key West. No problem there.

  Another consideration about having friends visiting while you are on a boat is having room for them all if there is a large group. We took the photo above when we decided to have a dockside happy hour. Even with our generator out of the boat, at times the swim platform was submerged. With a group this size, going out on the water was out of the question.
  On the subject of running a tidy ship; we know that when guests first come aboard, if they are boaters, and most of these folks in the picture are, they want to remove their shoes, but everyone wants to remove them right inside the transom door, but our cockpit is small enough without everyone having to step over a dozen pair of shoes, so we asked everyone to line them up in the salon under our settee, so their shoes weren't a trip hazard. We also had to insist that everyone use the bathroom at the marina. Our holding tank would have lasted about an hour with this many. When it got dark the men used more convenient methods.
  Again, most, if not all, of our friends are boaters, so no one was severely disappointed that we never left the dock. The weather wasn't co-operating anyway as we had a good deal of wind.
  The week earlier, with another group of friends, we were able to go out on the water. We took eight guests, which made it ten with us. Ten people onboard Swing Set for a cruise is manageable, any more than that and it becomes a chore for Rosie and I. Know how many people you can safely cruise with on your boat, and stick with it. You and the Coast Guard will appreciate it.

  I told about our snorkeling trip with Ryan and Aimee in my last blog, but I didn't have this picture, so I wanted to include it this time. If I was going to have an advertisement for chartering guests on Swing Set, this would be a good picture for it. Rosie and I are always hopeful that when we have guests aboard our boat that they have a good time. People who have a bad boating experience never forget it.

  Holly just had her second birthday! We mark Halloween as Holly's birthday as we don't really know what day she was born, and Holly really doesn't care. We took her to breakfast with us to Pepe's and she was presented with a ceramic bowl filled with ice water for her enjoyment. She didn't get any special treats or birthday cake. We don't want to spoil her.
  We spent many nights out with our friends during that last few weeks, and had many late nights and lots of fun, but in every case, as we walked, or weaved, our way back to the boat, we always looked forward to seeing our pet and Holly never failed to make us feel like we were missed.
  We also look forward to seeing our friends again, whenever that may be. They also made us feel like we are missed, and they all made us feel like they wish they were doing this too.