This evening, I am heading back to Captiva for the weekend. But I’m not taking Freedom.
Instead, I’ll be a passenger on the Key West Express, a 170-foot-long jet-powered catamaran. At 34 feet, her beam is wider than my boat is long!
This boat completes the trip in half the time it would take me on Freedom, and it only costs $75 each way. (Plus $25 for Guinness) My fuel alone would be $100 each way, and the marina cost would add another $200. So it is too easy to “take the bus (and leave the driving to us.)”
The Express will drop me at Ft. Myers, where Connie will pick us up. We leave at 6PM; should be in Ft. Myers by 9:30. I’ve packed three new books for the trip, and I think it will be a fun experience. I hope Guinness thinks so, too; he will be wearing his Service Animal vest, but he still has to be in a crate while we’re underway.
Key West is oriented east to west (DUH). Our marina, and most of the places we’ve visited, are on the north shore.
Today, we Uber’d over to the south shore. About a 15 minute ride. Pathetic, I know, but I figured we’d ride over and walk back…and it is HOT today. About 80 degrees and humid.
Anyway, it was a home run: beautiful beaches where Guinness could swim and run off leash, plus a great lunch at Louie’s Backyard, a KW institution. We ate on the outside deck. Looking south, nothing between us and Cuba.
Grilled octopus, gorgonzola profiteroles, and a bottle of Provencale Rose’.
We stopped on the way home to say a prayer for Cathy at St Mary Star of the Sea.
Decadence and devotion. Kind of bi-polar, I admit. Kind of perfect.
Not the Super Bowl game I expected, but what a shocker! TB just shut KC down!
Of course, it was fun to watch Brady, Gronk, and AB execute those familiar Boston plays, but wasn’t the TB defense astounding? I saw a stat that said Mahomes was pressured on 52% of his dropbacks: a Super Bowl record.
OK – the KC offensive line sucked. But TB OWNED them, RIGHT?
I was fortunate to be invited to a SB party at Kiera and John’s house. Steve and Jane (my Beach Haven friends) were there; also my friend Barbara, whom you met earlier; and a couple I met for the first time: John and Candy. Her salad was awesome!
Outdoor entertaining at its best…comfortable, covered seating on a huge patio with built-in TV, bar, etc. Enough food for an army: Yellowtail snapper, steak, chicken, salad, multiple dips, snacks, and lots of bevs. Everything done perfectly. These folks are all so generous. And so kind.
I had to leave Guinness behind; he spent the night on a neighboring boat with another Doodle named Murphy. All went well from what I’m told.
Anyway, not as much fun as Philly/Boston, but I enjoyed it. “The Weekend”? Not so much. Everyone likes his music, I guess, but he’s not much of an entertainer, is he? I have to say that I find his music AND his performance rather ordinary.
We had a quick look at several Florida West Coast towns last month. Certainly not exhaustive by any means: we never made it to Tampa / St. Pete, or Anna Maria Island, or Longboat Key. Nor did we see Ft. Myers Beach. But of the towns we saw, albeit briefly, I believe Venice and Key West have a lot to praise.
Sarasota is certainly affluent, and it enjoys a great deal of support for the arts. The plus, of course, is that it has museums and theater and music venues. It can seem a bit like a big city, but within it are many small neighborhoods within walking distance of the water. Very livable.
Naples struck me as flashy, with some great restaurants; it’s busy like Sarasota.
Captiva has the most beautiful beaches, but there aren’t many restaurants or any other type of entertainment venues. This is probably unfair, because I am essentially comparing a single resort (South Sea Island Resort) to cities. Still, where would I buy?
Marco Island has beaches, but dogs aren’t allowed! And t is essentially a planned real estate development.
Venice is smaller than Sarasota or Naples, but it has a cute downtown, restaurants, and beaches (including a great dog beach).
And of course, Key West. The magic here is the blend of authenticity and artifice. This island town was not created by a developer; it grew organically. Through multiple cycles of boom and bust: pirates, wreckers, spongers, shrimpers, the Navy, the Railroad, and finally, US1.
The indigenous architecture is charming (although some of it was built more recently in the authentic style.)
There are authentic schooners in the harbor. Sure, they are there to carry tourists on sunset cruises, but it’s the tourist trade that keeps these beautiful old ships afloat.
There’s a pleasant rhythm to the day; the schooners and party catamarans leave at the same times every day, with the same running commentary: “Hey! How’s everybody doing on the Party Cat today?”
Each afternoon, when the fishing boats come in, the crews clean the catch at the docks, and the pelicans and a group of 4-1/2 foot tarpon gather around to be fed.
It’s amazing that 4-to-5-foot tarpon are commonplace. And we saw that manatee again, and we measured him from the dock. He is not 6-feet, he is 9-feet long. Big animal.
******************************
Of course there’s also a lot of silliness. Like this boat.
Let’s just say that Key west has a unique identity, and that’s not true of most towns in the US.
But no matter which West Coast town you choose, they ALL have those wonderful SUNSETS!
I’m sure many of my readers have thoughts to add to this opinion piece. I just thought I’d pass my thoughts along for what they’re worth
Then we went to a waterfront Farmer’s Market that is managed by Sean, a friend from the dog park. The usual stuff: jewelry, island apparel, curios, art and food. A nice diversion.
Then cocktails and wings on Sunset Pier:
Today, we had to run some errands, and my friend Patricia (also a dog park friend) was kind enough to run us over to a boat supply shop and the pet food store. She is a long-time KW resident, and she gave us a tour of the entire island – much more than we have been able to see on foot – complete with a running narrative!
The weather has returned to normal: sunny with a light breeze. Very nice. Another day in paradise.
Things are gradually returning to normal in Key West: the wind is slackening and the temperature is slowly rising.
How have you all fared?
My friends from Beach Haven suffered water damage/flooding in both their restaurants, and they had to fly home to deal with it!
I finally got a haircut today – first one in 3 months. I looked like Albert Einstein on a bad hair day. Much better now.
BTW, you may recall that I was concerned about all the boats out in the Key West anchorage – it’s pretty much just a big area of open water, and they were totally exposed to the 35-mile-per-hour north winds during the gale Monday and Monday night…I talked to a marine tech down here who had his radio on Monday night, and he heard a number of distress calls to the Coast Guard and TowBoatsUS. Dragging anchors, crossed anchor lines, etc. I am so glad we were safe in our slip behind the rock jetty.
We are getting some routine maintenance done (changing the oil and the oil filter) and hoping to get the refrigerator repaired. That’s an interesting tale of self-inflicted pain…It is a drawer refrigerator, and it has a plastic pin that locks the drawer closed during heavy seas. Unfortunately, the pin was broken when I bought the boat, and I never bothered to replace it. As a consequence, the drawer opened on one of our crossings, and ice formed on the cooling plate. In my haste to break the ice away, I used an ice pick and punctured the plate, which I learned is almost paper-thin, and the freon escaped. Stupid. All I had to do was turn the unit off and let the ice melt. The unit is built in Italy by Verifrigo, so it is questionable whether I’ll be able to get the new part within the next three weeks.
Oh well, that’s the least of my problems…the freezer still works. And the drawer now has a nice new stainless steel pin.
“For want of a nail, the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe the horse was lost. Etc.”
I realize that those of you in the northeast are getting hammered by a record-breaking nor’easter, but it is amazing to look at this storm on weather radar: it stretches from Greenland to Cuba! I’m not sure I’ve seen anything like it – it’s massive. I wonder what Phil the Groundhog has to say about that?
The impact in Key West is primarily dropping temperatures and a LOT of wind. It began with a rain squall yesterday morning and it has been blowing a gale for almost 24 hours. (30-35 knot gusts) Since the Keys are primarily oriented east/west, the wind out of the north is sending waves crashing into the rock jetty that protects the Bight, and spray is bursting into the air. That’s something I hadn’t seen here before; it’s generally breezy but mainly placid.
There are 50-100 boats in the open anchorage field north of Key West Bight; I can only imagine how uncomfortable that must be. And a little scary. Pitching and rolling, and hoping that the anchor or mooring ball holds!
It makes me realize how lucky we have been with regard to the weather; we have always managed to be in a safe spot. As we are now: we are snug in our slip: our lines are tight, and our inflatable rubber fenders absorb most of the movement. It’s a little rocky, but not enough to disturb our sleep.
Nevertheless, in the middle of the night, Guinness woke me because he started hearing a strange noise, and in the pale light from the dock stanchions, I could see that the halyard has come loose from an adjacent boat, and the metal fitting on the end is slapping our radar mast. Not good for either boat. The other boat is unoccupied, so I will have to climb up on my cabin roof (in a 30 mph wind) and grab the halyard it as it swings by, and secure it. I am definitely waiting for sunrise to undertake that little feat of gymnastics.
**********************
Well, that’s done. I was able to grab the halyard without getting on the cabin roof. The sun is breaking through a gray overcast, and that always makes things look better.
**********************
Today, I am going to rent a bike with an enclosed trailer for Guinness. That should enable us to run some errands to distant spots (like the pet store). We’ll see how Guinness takes to it. Another day in paradise…
It rained this morning – from 9:30 to 10:30. I think this is the first rain we’ve seen since we’ve been in Florida.
It gave me a chance to think back on the past several weeks, as we traveled up Florida’s west coast.
Here are a few photos from Cabbage Key:
Here’s a shot of my friend Connie on the patio at Cabbage Key – you can get a sense of how pretty the islands are there.And here’s an interior shot: the walls, ceilings, and columns are completely covered with dollar bills glued there by visitors!Finally, a shot of Guinness on the Cabbage Key nature trail.
Download
Rod & Guinness' Amazing Adventures 