Days 272 -280
Key West FL

Key West week two. After Bonnie & Evelyn left we had a few days of relaxing and catching up on boat stuff. In addition to the everyday stuff like cleaning, I had a couple boat projects to do. One of my favorite quotes from Uncle Kenny (Turn The Paige) "If you are not fixing at least two things a day on your boat, you are falling behind". One of the most important things I had to do was replace the Depth Sounder Module in my navigation system. The one I replaced would randomly stop working. For some reason it is very important to know how much, or should I say how little water is underneath us. Of course the old one would stop working when we were heading into shallow water. Because of the age of my navigation system, it is not always easy finding parts. I was able to find a used replacement module, and so far it seems to be working. We will not know for sure until we are underway for a day or two. I also had to mount two rings to secure the dinghy. I had been tying it to the back railings, but that interfered with the back isinglass. It is important to work on these types of projects when we have longer stops. It can be difficult to gets parts and supplies to get projects done when moving every couple of days. We were also able to get a broken zipper replaced and a broken bow railing welded.

The highlight of Key West was when my daughter and son-in-law, Rebecca and Zach arrived for 4 day visit. As much as they wanted to visit sooner, scheduling a visit to a moving target is very difficult. We have been planning their visit for a couple of months.

They started their visit on Saturday by joining us at a Looper's gathering in Marathon for their 13th annual sunset celebration. There were over 150 looper's and a perfect sunset. We also did lots of the tourist stuff with them. Rebecca and Zach also found a few new places for us to go to. The first was Nancy Forrester's Secret Garden, which is educational sanctuary for parrots. (IE She is a crazy bird lady). It was very educational and fun. The parrots are very smart and trainable. The next was Santiago's Bodega for Spanish Tapa's which were delicious! One of the days we spent on the beach at Fort Zachary State Park. I was well aware of the park and beach but I have never been there before. It is a wonderful beach to visit with a reef right off the beach for snorkeling. Angel and I will definitely go back. On Wednesday they had to head back home and to work.

We also worked out our plans for the first three stops when we leave Key West. Once again we will be traveling with Dan & Cheri (Cheri Baby II) and wanted to coordinate our stops and make sure we could both get slips.

After they left we spent the day relaxing hanging out on the boat, and at the pool. The next week will be a slow relaxing week.