HELLO KEY WEST
30 December 2010 | Key West, FL
Cheryl
TUESDAY - DECEMBER 28TH
Left Coconut Grove Sailing Club mooring this morning with a temperature of 39 degrees!! We turned the stove on to heat up the inside of the boat a little before taking off this morning, left at around 8:45. For the first time since leaving Lake Superior I have my long johns on in addition to sweat pants and jeans. That is just the bottom half - I have 5 layers on top and 2 pairs of socks. The good news is that it is bright sunshine and the wind has died down so it should warm up a little. Next 5 days high temp should be in the 70's.
The Sailing Club we just left was very convenient to the downtown area of Coconut Grove. Can't say much for the restrooms/showers there. Yesterday we went to see True Grit, Bill was disappointed - I think the John Wayne version was more to his liking.
Plan is to anchor off Pumpkin Key tonight then head through Angelfish Creek Inlet out to the Hawk Channel tomorrow morning. There has been lots of conflicting information concerning Angelfish Creek Inlet - not only water depths but also a phantom rock that may be on the outside of the Inlet. Hopefully we will not be one of the boats that discover it. The Hawk Channel runs down the Keys between the islands and the coral reef, this will be our route down to Key West.
As usual, plans changed. We got to Angelfish Creek Inlet right at high tide. We hailed TowBoat US from the radio to get advice on us going through. He said we should be okay but to watch when exiting, to stay to the north side as there are rocks on the south side. We made it through with no problem. Lowest depths were 5.5 feet at the entrance and 6.5 feet at the exit with much higher depths in between. So, we did another all nighter. This all nighter I can gladly say was very uneventful - no strong winds, no mechanical problems, no seasickness. We did 3 hour watches, which works best for us. The cockpit enclosure helped tremendously. With keeping warm and out of the wind the challenge was to stay awake.
WEDNESDAY - DECEMBER 29TH
We arrived in Key West at around 9:00 am, tired but glad to finally be here. We are now at the Key West City Mooring Field. There are lots of empty mooring balls, most are way the heck out there. It is a very long dinghy ride to the dinghy dock. There is some chop in the mooring field so our dinghy ride was a little wet to say the least - actually very wet. Thinking we will need to wear our foul weather gear from now on each time we want to go ashore. I'm not happy at all about this mooring field but hopefully after I get a good nights sleep I will put it all into perspective and remember that it could be much worse - I could still be working in the frozen north.
I have read many negative comments about the restroom/shower facilities here - I can happily tell say that they are great now - very clean, look new and are individual private showers so no communal bathing which makes me happy.
THURSDAY - DECEMBER 30TH
Our plan is to stay here for a month. My daughter and son (Laura and Chris) arrive January 5th so we will go to a marina for the first and last night they are here. Slip fees at a marina are very expensive here, cheapest I can find so far is $3.00/foot per night.
The City of Key West provides a free pump out when staying at the mooring field. We are waiting now for the pump out boat to arrive. After that the plan is to dinghy to shore (wearing foul weather gear) to do some laundry and take the bikes to the dinghy dock to lock up so we don't have to transport them back and forth each time we want to use them.
Expected high temp today of 71 degrees.