Describing Key West to anybody that has not been here is a lot like describing a new kind of food to somebody who has never had a bite of any of the ingredients. Let's just say we are in paradise and leave it at that.

The marina that we are in is 3/4ths people that came here years ago for a short visit and will now never leave. I can see how it happens to them and we discuss getting scooters and signing a year lease every day even though we are sure we do not want to stay.

It is funny what comes over you when you get here and time disappears. One couple that has been here for 10 years also owns a house in Orlando near the kids of course. They stayed there for 3 months this year and decided to come back and sell the boat. Then they got here and could not do it. This place has that kind of magic.

Not to worry folks we should be moving on soon. I do not know where we are going but we have to try some more living. Still I think that our travels could end right here some day.

Upgrading Paradox.

Our time on the hook on the way down here showed a major flaw in Paradox's design. She carries a lot of energy sucking instruments that drain her batteries quickly. Making matters worse she has a giant diesel generator that cannot burn less than a gallon per hour even if all that we are doing is charging our batteries and the batteries can take 3 to 4 hours smelly hours to hit a full charge.

The solution is that we are adding 2 135 watt Kyocera solar panels to Paradox's dinghy davits. They should provide about 50% of our power requirements. We will still run the generator in the evenings to watch TV, make water and cool her down with the A/C before going to bed, but we will not have to run them as much. I would like to add some more panels but it seems too expensive to create a place to mount them.

You know when we are here Dad and I do not even mind pumping out the heads. Wierd!

After the upgrade and Thanksgiving

We plan on checking out the scene in Marathon. The city there has an entire bay set up with balls for hundreds of cruisers. They have project rooms and tv rooms, showers, and dinghy docks. They have a cruiser's net that meets on channel 69 every morning to talk about things to do together. There is taco Tuesday and a large number of professional musicians sail their boats there. There are parties and strange subcultures. There are no docks and Paradox will need her shiny new solar panels for certain.

Very sincerely, I wish you were all here.

Peace and love from the keys.