Sunday 26 February, 2012
We are docked at Key West Bight Marina, right in the centre of the town's Historic Seaport. It's a perfect location if you don't mind a bit of noise! The restaurants and bars are full and fun - we just missed 'Happy Hour' in the Schooner Bar when we arrived for lunch a couple of minutes after 12 p.m. yesterday. 'Happy Hour' there runs from 7 a.m. until noon! We'll know for next time.
We sailed down to Key West last Thursday - a clear blue day with a nice 15 knot breeze. We managed to sail most of the way, just turning on the motor to get us into the Marina before it closed for business at 5 p.m. We will be here for a week, and have been re-visiting our favourite haunts from last year's visit. We have rented bikes, as we left our bargain buys back in Marathon for our return.(Bill eventually bought one off the 'cruisers' net' too!)
We've already crossed off some of our favourite activities on our 'to do' list: watching the sunset at Mallory Square while being entertained by an assortment of jugglers, fire eaters, and, this year, performing cats; strolling on Duval Street to see the sights more than the shops (though the shops aren't bad!); visiting Fort Zachary State Park beach; exploring the Truman Annex area and the 'southern White House'. There's still more to do and enjoy though.
Key West has such a colourful history and it's still evident today,in the faces and characters of some of the locals, particularly in the dock areas. These crusty individuals could have been walking around a century or more ago, when the town and its' inhabitants lived off their wits and the spoils from wrecked ships. Pirates in books and movies have been polished up and sanitized into romantic and dashing heroic figures, but down here in the docks they look and act as they probably did before Johnny Depp came on the scene. With their beards and sunburned bare chests, their rugged and smoke-thickened voices, these fearsome characters get around on ancient, barely sea-worthy, skiffs filled with sacks of this, and that, and the other......but nearly always a dog. We watch from our pristine plastic boat as they come and go to their floating and vulnerable homes anchored some way out of the sheltered harbour.
We'll start to head back towards Marathon at the end of the week, and we'll probably have a couple of nights on the way at a peaceful anchorage in Newfound Harbour, near Big Pine Key - the perfect antidote to a week in Key West!
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