| 12/20/05 |
We pulled up anchor in the Dry Tortugas
this morning at 5:30 a.m. and followed-our bread crumb trail on the
chartplotter out of the Dry Tortugas in the dark. We had a north wind about 10-15 knots, so it was perfect for sailing and heading to Key West. We had a stowaway with us aboard from the Dry Tortugas to Key West. No, it was not a Cuban.....It was a bird on our bow sprit! He would fly off to get some fish, then come right back. We arrived at Key West about 4:30 p.m. and immediately filled up with diesel. What a relief! We are full now! We are staying at the Key West City Marina in the Key West Bight. They charge you $2.25 a foot, plus your bow sprit and dinghy on back, so that adds up to about 45'......One place was $3.00 a foot. But, we will stay one night so we can get the salt water washed off our boat from the crossing and wash clothes. It is time. We will anchor out beginning tomorrow. We walked around Key West a little this afternoon, but we are too tired to enjoy much. Stopped to eat some pizza and headed back to the boat.
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|
12/21/05 |
We woke up this morning and
went to check in at the marina. We had arrived after they closed last
night and they told us to tie up to the gas dock. After we checked in,
they said, "Check out time is 11:00 a.m."........so, we rushed to wash
our clothes in the Laundromat and Sonny washed the caked salt off the
boat real quick.
We also walked a block away to an internet cafe and downloaded the updates to our website: www.sailingvalentina.com If you go to the Log tab, it will be the information we have been sending out from the boat frequently. If you go to the Islands tab, we have downloaded some photos from the Dry Tortugas. As often as we can, we will update the website with photos. We have added quite a few more to the distribution list today, so please remember to only send text back to us at N5OTB@winlink.org and start a new email, rather than reply to ours. It is sent over radio waves and very slow. No attachments or forwarding, please. (Thanks!) So........the wind is blowing hard today. It is 20-25 mph. After we left the fuel dock, we went to pick up a mooring buoy until the wind subsides some. Tomorrow, we plan to go ashore into Key West and explore the island. There is supposed to be a parade at sunset at Mallory Square, we want to be sure to catch. Christmas and New Year's is a very busy time at Key West. The marina told us there will be a lot of boats coming in this week. Seasons Greetings from Key West,
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| 12/22/05 |
We went to Key West today to
explore the island. It is a fun, nice, place. It kind
of reminds me of New Orleans, but, clean and decent. There
is a lot of culture, arts, and street people who perform on the streets.
We watched the sunset on Mallory Square with thousands of other people
and watched the festivities on the square.
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| 12/23/05 |
We have really enjoyed Key
West. We went ashore today to run some errands. We
hopped the bus to the Post Office, but, our mail has not arrived yet.
We will try again tomorrow. We had to get some new screws to
repair the wind generator, and we ate at Pepe's, the oldest restaurant
in the Keys. Kay is baking a chocolate cake for us for
Christmas Day. (Well, maybe before....) We watched the
sunset on Valentina.....beautiful sunset....more enjoyable.
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| 12/24/05 |
We had an enjoyable Christmas
Eve Day We just finished our dinner on the boat on a beautiful Christmas Eve in Key West, Florida. Sonny grilled steaks and baked sweet potatoes, with chocolate cake for dessert. (We did have some left!) We went ashore today to check our mail, but, still no mail package. We will try again later. I guess with the Christmas rush, our mail from our forwarding service was delayed. We will stay in Key West until our mail arrives. We will be able to put the wind generator back up tomorrow, so we will be completed with that project, and can generate some power from the wind. Just wanted to wish you a very Merry Christmas..... . |
|
Christmas Day
|
We spent Christmas Day
visiting with our kids and family on the phone. Sounds like
everyone had a very good Christmas. We sure missed all of them.
We exchanged our Christmas gifts. Sonny wanted a thermostat to see what the temperature is in the boat, and Kay wanted a toe-ring. The store was closed yesterday for the toe-ring, so Sonny made one for Kay out of a bread wrapper until Monday. It works pretty good. Our lifestyle has become somewhat simpler...... Today was Kay's day to be "Captain of the Dinghy". It was my first dinghy drive, since we have been cruising. We went to the other nearby islands exploring. There are still a lot of sailboats sunk nearby and some have washed ashore onto islands from the last hurricane season. We took our trash ashore and was going to walk to Taco Bell for a bean burrito for Christmas, but it was closed and went to a nearby restaurant and shared the special of the day, Prime Rib and Lobster.....and of course, some Key Lime Pie. It was a delicious Christmas dinner, but, we ate too much! The wind generator is purring like a champ. When we hooked it up this morning, we were down 75 amp hours and now we are down to 34 amp hours, so it is catching up. And there is an abundance of wind here. |
| We will move on to Marathon. | |