May 31 Update Coming Soon...

Craig and crew had a safe passage across the Gulf of Mexico. He is situated in Watergate Marina in Kemah, Texas. This is my last night in Tallahassee, Florida. I leave tomorrow afternoon to drive to Destin, Florida to visit my good friend Deborah. I'll spend the night and then proceed to Kemah on Wednesday.
See Skip's blog for the crossing:

http://www.skipsphotos.blogspot.com/

May 19 Party over Here (Tallahassee) Party over There (Key West)

I am in Tallahassee enjoying long hot showers and quality time with my parents. I can't show back up at Dell-Perot with trashed out, sun and salt-soaked hair, so I did a Loreal color job because a) I'm worth it, and b) there was some gray (the horror....). Today my mom treated me to an Aveda salon cut and some serious shampoo and conditioner. Work has not fully intruded into my life yet but it is creeping in. This evening I have a conference call at 7pm. Right in the middle of patio happy hour. Can you believe that?? We are going for shrimp and oysters tomorrow evening, before the oil invades the famed beds of Apalachicola Bay. More to follow on a comparative analysis with Texas gulf coast crustaceans and bivalves....

http://www.oysterguide.com/maps/gulf-coast/apalachicola

Dave and Skip have made it to the boat. Correction. They have made it to Key West. I just called Craig and they are "discussing" travel plans at a "meeting" at Turtle Kraals on the boardwalk. The boys leave tomorrow for the now 6 day trip across the Gulf of Mexico. It is 850 miles! The oil slick continues to spread and reportedly, a tendril of oil has now entered the Gulf Stream Loop Current. It is on its way to the keys, so it is time to get out of there.

If you don't have the link, follow their progress at:

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=01jO48fsx9ND6WJvd9aBHK68Fp0tv63qu

Fair winds and following seas!!!

May 7-12 Key West, Florida

Pulling out of Bahia Honda on May 7th, we made the run to Key West. The winds were a brisk 3 knots and the seas steep at 1 foot. Iron jib did most of the work for us. Matt donned pirate gear for the trip.

We have had a great time here in Key West, enjoying the sights, sounds and local restaurants.

Street scenes in Key West. This guys would stand perfectly still and then shout unpolitically correct epithets at unsuspecting passerbys, just like R. Lee Ermey of Full Metal Jacket fame. He was a scream. There were a lot of clearly foreign people on the street. Full volume. "Welcome to America. Speak English!" He didn't win any prizes from them but the rest of us had a good laugh. I was afraid to tell him I was from Texas.

Sunset in Key West, at anchor off Fleming Key. The boat is S/V Worth W8N4.

Chickens (ground hawks) roam the streets of Key West. This was my first time to encounter an entire family.

Watching the performing artists at the sunset party at Mallory Square is one of my favorite things. Many of them are fixtures on the square and even though we have seen them before, they always entertain...the cat man, the escape artist and a variation of the tin man. However, I met one enterprising individual who hid around the corner of a walkway and would jump out, screaming "booga booga" at unsuspecting strollers. Hilarious.

It is with mixed feelings that I tell you this is my last blog of the journey. I leave on Friday to go to my parents house, visit with them and finalize on-boarding (a job? gasp!)with Dell-Perot. As per my prior experience, they are still very good to me and I am excited to rejoin my colleagues. It looks like my first assignment may be Beverly Hills. Early June. As Craig says, just where a shopping-deprived woman needs to go. It is also exciting to contemplate the prospect of actually seeing the houses that Craig and I have been shopping on-line. People take pictures of the wierdest things, but I digress. It will be great to be close again to family and friends. We also have friends waiting for us in Kemah, so all in all, we are excited about the future.

The boys arrive on Wednesday May 19th to head across the Gulf of Mexico. Pray for good weather, contained oil and fair winds.

PS. Did I tell you that my baby sister got ENGAGED??? I love him. He took me to see The Cult when I was back in Texas. And then bought babes a beautiful sparkly! I would post a picture but you would be blinded and I can't be responsible for that. A wonderful catch on both sides!! Yoo-hoo!!

May 6 Bahia Honda State Park

Today we motorsailed to Bahia Honda with very light winds. We were joined by Matt and Linda on S/V Worth W8N4 who also had cruiser friends Jim and Arlene on board for the day. The anchorage is bounded by the old US1 bridge, with a cut out for sailboat entry, and the new US1. After lunch on board their boat (chicken ceasar salad, bean salad, cocktail shrimps and bread), we went to the park to explore.

S/V Worth W8N4 underway.












Going through the old bridge. In the center photo, you can see the old train tressle and water supply line on the lower deck. With progress, they added the wider portion on top to accomodate cars.

This boat picture is for Skip. And you know why!! For those who don't, check his blog at http://skipsphotos.blogspot.com/ and find the pertinent post.

Hiking up to the top of the old bridge.

There is a naval station and Coast Guard station down the way in Key West. They like to buzz the beach on exercise manuevers.

We also took a short walk through the butterfly garden. The Florida Keys are home to a wide variety of butterflies, some of which are not found anywhere else in the United States. We saw one, pictured below. As I strolled the garden, listening to birds (eat butterflies) and looking at iguanas (might eat butterflies if omnivores), I came to a quick conclusion as to why we only saw one. I'm not a smart girl, Jenny, but I do know butterflies.....

Then we went to one of the beaches. Matt may be the only person I have ever met that can have a great day and a bad day within the span of 30 minutes. Did not wear shoes into the water. See video below. I should add that he is a good sport for letting me post this video. I'm really not that mean. Could have been YouTube!!

Sunset in Bahia Honda. Lot of lightening in that cloud, but fortunately it did not come our way.

May 1-5 Miami to Marathon

We are in the mooring field at Boot Key Harbour City Marina in Marathon, having arrived Sunday afternoon. It was fun to pass by Marathon Marina, where we stayed prior to departure, and have the folks there wave to us. Once we got on the mooring ball, it was great to hear from Matt and Linda Norwood on S/V Worth W8N4, our marina neighbors at Marathon Marina. We had a nice afternoon happy hour aboard their boat and it was great to catch up with them. While we were gone south, they traveled in their boat up the eastern seaboard and then traveled by car/camper to Maine before returning to Marathon.

Matt and Linda were very gracious with their car and the following afternoon, took us on errands to the grocery store and such. The grocery store no longer has a dinghy dock due to construction. The store was a big hit. I remember when I first got here thinking how expensive it was compared to Dallas, and now from this side, it was crazy cheap. Plus, I could find ANYTHING I wanted. With $200, which down island gets you about a week's worth of basic provisions, I bought so much, plus some fun special things, that I could barely get everything tucked away on the boat. We are accustomed to $6 for a six-pack of diet coke. Here, that got us a 20 can case!

We joined Matt and Linda that evening at Dockside, a local watering hole and restaurant to enjoy a nice meal and some tunes. We had had a couple of down days, relaxing on the boat. Today we went to Cruiser's Day at the local cinema. They show old classics and the price of admission is a can of food for the local food bank. Today they showed Rear Window, an old Alfred Hitchcock movie. Excellent! Movie popcorn, fountain cokes and air conditioning...a perfect afternoon! Here are some pictures from the last few days.

Stilt houses and the light house on the way out of Biscayne Bay. The pristine waters of the Florida Keys.

Many of the buildings in Marathon and Key West have murals painted on the exteriors. Incidentally, Boaters World is now out of business but there is a brand new supersized West Marine here in Marathon. Easy enough to understand since we personally financed it with our pre-departure preparations. This is the Tree of Knowledge at Boot Key Marina, a place to swap stories and tell lies.

Hanging out with Matt and Linda at Dockside Bar:

Views of the mooring field at Boot Key Harbour City Marina:

Sunsets are special in the Florida Keys and this was a really good one tonight. A boat returned to the harbour this afternoon, S/V Go Lassie Go. It is the catamaran that appears just below the sun. He stands on his hardtop and plays his bagpipes as the sun sets. When the sun disappears from site, everyone claps, whistles and blows their boat horns.

We are leaving in the morning for Bahia Honda, a beautiful stop on the way to Key West. We will be traveling with S/V Worth W8N4 as they are going to Key West for the month.

We keep a close eye on news of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as it is impacting the transit to Texas. I get off the boat on the 14th to head to Tallahassee, hang out with my parents and make preparations to go back to work. (Houses to buy and such.) Skip and Dave Damm are coming on the 19th to help Craig get the boat across the Gulf. We are already changing plans to leave now from Key West, at a sharper angle to Texas, than the previous route planned from Fort Meyers. Boats stupid enough to try to transit the slick will be prohibited. Plus, one can not take a boat like this through crude oil because the oil would suck into the raw water intake that cools our engine. Imagine oil running through your car's radiator. Not good for combustion engines!

Otherwise, all is well on Hakuna Matata. It is great to be back in the Keys and we are praying that the oil does not get into the Gulf Stream and invade this beautiful part of the country.