Tourist Time
17 February 2008 | Key West
We departed Marathon on Friday, the 15th, and headed for Key West. We had another good day of sailing with northeastern breezes and made it to the Key West City mooring field by mid afternoon. The mooring field is huge and mostly empty. We now know why. Although it's a reasonable place to moor, there is a mile-long dinghy ride to get to shore in pretty open water. Murphy has not been thrilled by the ride, nor has Dad.
However Key West has been an interesting stop and we enjoyed walking all the back streets by tiny old million dollar houses. We also did the obligatory walk down Duval Street to the Southernmost point in the Keys. There are a series of houses and hotels here that each declare themselves the southernmost something. It's pretty humorous. We grabbed a picture of the famous southermost buoy, Jim is standing off to one side as we refused to wait in a long line of tourists to snap a picture with the buoy itself!
We also finally saw the white-crowned pigeon. After searching in parks, along mosquito-infested trails, and along mangrove swamps, Jim looked up along a street in Key West and there it was. As is often the case, the best birding is along the road. Go figure.
During one of the long dinghy rides, we were treated to a flying skate. I've never seen one leap out of the water before and this guy was nearly as big as a kitchen table. Murphy and I both jumped. We've also seen frigate birds and skimmers and maybe sooty terns, though the jury is still out on that one.
Today we had someone from a car call out to us and ask if Murphy was an Irish Terrier. We crossed the street to talk to them and discovered they were neighbors off of Merry Point Ferry Rd that we had met before with their Irish Terrier. Once again the world is so very small.
Tomorrow we're going to head out of Key West and maybe turn back north. The weather is supposed to deteriorate over the next few days and this is no place to be with a norther and a long dinghy ride.