Log 88; Day 239; Jan. 15, 2009; Key West

This is proof we do have bikes...and do ride them. Here we are riding down Dubal street.

Here we are at lunch at Cheesburgers...catchy name.

The men folk having dinner aboard "Livin Easy" at 48 Sea Ray. David; Tom; BK; and Tim

And the ladies...Lynn; Rodie; Monica; Deb

Log 88
Day 239
Thursday, January 15, 2009

7:00 AM EST
Location: A&B Marina, Key West, FL
Weather: 64 and windy

It got down to 64 last night, with winds of about 15 to 20 MPH. NOAA weather is reporting waves of 4 to 7 feet now and predicting them to go to 6 to 10 feet over the next couple of days. The forecast calls for the winds to let up somewhat late Saturday or early Sunday.

We had a great day in Key West yesterday. After finishing the log, I walked to my new neighborhood family restaurant, Harpoon Harry’s, and had breakfast. Most of the same folks I saw in there the day before were there again. Obviously locals. Walking back I just strolled the dock area, but there was not much activity. Back at the boat, although it was windy, the sun was out so it felt nice. I got the bikes off the boat (for only the 3rd time since we left in May) and Deb and I took a nice bike ride. We wanted to find where Deb’s sister, Annie, will be staying when they come in early February, and also look for another perfect cheeseburger. We did both. Riding a bike in Key West is fairly easy. Because there are so many people who do it, the traffic is “somewhat” tolerant. But, neither Deb or I, enjoyed riding on Duval Street, because it is so busy and the traffic can be a little challenging at times...so we rode on the side streets when we could. As it turns out Annie’s room is a little less than a 10 minutes bike ride from our boat. A quaint little spot, like so many bed and breakfast places in Key West. For lunch, as we were riding down Duval, Deb spotted a place called Cheeseburgers of Key West. We just had to stop. The name was catchy. The place was cool. The cheeseburgers...not so good. Oh well...we’ll keep looking.

Back at the boat as I was walking down the dock I stopped and talked to a guy (David) who was one of the three boats who came in when we did on Saturday. All three couples seemed very nice, and we had made small talk with each of them as we walked up and down the dock over the last 3 days. Anyway...this time David and I got into a much deeper conversation about electronics on a boat, one thing led to another, and he invited us for dinner on his boat, to which I happily accepted. It turned out the they (David and Lynn) were cooking for their friends on the other two boats (Tim and Monica; Tom and Rodie) and we joined them. We had a great time. All three couple were very nice, and it was like we were old friends (I even stayed up past 10 PM). After dinner everyone came over to our boat to check it out, and shortly after that, we called it a night.

Today...not sure. No plans yet. I’m sure I won’t be going fishing, because of the winds. Maybe a bike ride to a lunch spot somewhere. I have some boat chores to do, but really not a lot of motivation to do them for some reason. Must be the Key’s disease (just lazy all the time) they talk about. Speaking of boat...we put it up for sale starting today. I’m sure it will take several months to sell (hopefully not years) so we’ll see what happens. We are by no means ready to quit cruising yet, but at some point we knew we had to do this, and after a lot of talk, we decided now was the time to begin that process. We plan to cruise until it sells...when it does, we’ll take off the boat whatever the buyer doesn’t want, and rent a vehicle, and come home. We’ll figure out the rest, as it happens.

I’ll keep you posted.

Bob