Margaritaville

Wednesday, February 3, was a cold and windy sail back to the Marquesas Keys, with 4-to-6-foot following seas. Just another lovely day of playing dodge-pot.

Thursday, February 4 was a gorgeous day in the Marquesas. Todd made water and we basically rested-up and relaxed after yesterday’s sail. A delicious dinner of beef and broccoli was served on EWWE2.

Anchor-up at 8:45am on Friday, February 5. A rough ride in rocky seas only lessened slightly when the sails went up. Fifteen knot winds, heeling 20+ degrees, and beating into 3-to-4-foot seas, all while trying to see and dodge crab pots at a speed of 8 knots made for a VERY sporty and exhausting sail. We were two tired pups by the time we reached our anchorage in Key West at 2pm. No cooking for Tanya – medicinal cocktails and leftovers for dinner. Our cell phones also had a workout loading hundreds of emails and a number of texts that had piled up over the two weeks that we were “disconnected”.

Saturday, February 6. Our Key West anchorage at Garrison Bight is nice, but very muddy holding. Based on anchor alarm readings and general positioning, during the night we begin to suspect that our anchor is dragging. By mid-morning we decide to pull her up and reposition. Dinghied ashore for lunch at Schooner Bar and Grill with Eric, Wendy, and our friend Tony Maselli from Marathon Marina who came to town to do some carpentry work on EWWE2. Scrumptious mahi sandwiches.

Sunday Funday, February 7. Went ashore with Wendy and Eric for general exploring and another yummy lunch – this time at Caroline’s. We highly recommend the shrimp club sandwich and the Macon Bacon salad.

Monday, February 8 – through Thursday, February 11. Fun days just enjoying our anchorage and the Key West vibe. Wendy and I did laundry at Hilltop Laundry. Todd and Eric took Casstaway’s generator in for service. We had nice hot “Hollywood” showers ashore. Iced tea and people watching. Grocery shopping at Publix and the local Fausto’s Food Palace, which was a pleasant surprise. Another delicious lunch at a sidewalk table. Cocktails and red beans and rice for dinner aboard EWWE2, and grilled teriyaki pork loin on Casstaway.

Captain Todd suspects that a crab pot float we inadvertently smashed in a losing round of dodge-pot several days ago may still be lodged somewhere beneath the boat. Donning his snorkel mask, he takes a gander and sure enough, a sad-looking beast wrapped tightly around our propeller shaft, which required some knife skill to release. Just think of us next time you enjoy a crab or lobster dinner.

Naval Air Station Key West is located near Key West on Boca Chica Key. The station is a training facility for combat fighter aircraft and other aerial and sea forces from all service branches.  One of its annexes, the US Army Special Forces Underwater Operations Training Center is located on Fleming Key, which borders our anchorage. We have enjoyed watching air and sea exercises conducted right around our boat – lots of helicopter activity, night parachute drops, and underwater drop-offs and land rescues.  

Time to pick-up our “refreshed” generator on Friday, February 12. Wendy and Tanya take the opportunity ashore to do a little shopping. Joe Kuntz and Rebecca Shamblin, more friends from Regatta Pointe who have their sail cat, Just Us, in a slip here, join us for lunch as we re-visit Caroline’s.

Anchor up at 8:30 am on Saturday, February 13, for the first leg of our trip back to Marathon. A short sail and overnight at Newfound Harbor.

Sunday, February 14. A beautiful day on the water – both sails up, averaging 7 knots with 12 to 14 knot winds. We make it to our anchorage just outside the channel to Boot Key Harbor by 1:30 pm, with EWWE2 about an hour behind us. A lovely way to spend Valentine’s Day!