It Looks Like the Last Day in Boot Key Harbor

Day 16: March 15, 2013

We  must be getting soft.  We slept in until 7:15 this morning.  It was another windy night but we seem to be getting used to at this secure mooring.  We both slept quite well.

Another sunrise over Boot Key Harbor

The breakfast fare included bacon, eggs, blueberry blob muffins and V-8 Juice.  I think we are out of blueberry muffin mix so we will have to switch to strawberry.  We cleaned up the dishes and ourselves and settled down for another day of reading. [ The wind was strong enough that I didn’t want to try taking the Dink to the marina.]

I finished my novel as did Janine so I started working on a navigation course provided by the US Power Squadron.  It is pretty much a review of what I have been doing for years but I do pick up a few items that are new and of convenience to me.  Janine is also taking a USPS course on Cruise Planning.  Like me, it is mostly review but there are a lot of things that I do that she hasn’t paid attention to so it broadens her horizons.  We have joined the Power Squadron that is located out of Parkersburg, WV, a unique group in that the majority of the members with whom we have associated are sailors and of a similar mindset as Janine and me.  This organization offers a number of courses that one can use as he progresses through his boating adventures.

Lunch was different today.  We had brought along a package of microwavable barbeque pork to be used for sandwiches.  We open the container and heated it on the stove (something we can’t do while sailing).  The sandwiches were really good and I must admit, we both enjoyed the change.  But don’t worry, we will be back to our standard fare tomorrow.

Potluck at the Chickee

For supper, we walked to the Keys Fish Market and Marina and had a wonderful fried grouper sandwich with fries and coleslaw.  The price was right and the food was great. While we were eat on the veranda, a great egret daintily arrived on the isleway. Someone had evidently fed it previously. Quite interesting to observe.

On the way back to the boat, we bought a couple of bags of ice, acknowledged a pot luck gathering under the Chickee at the marina and headed back to the boat in Damn Dink.  And, like happened several nights before, the battery died about 200 yards from Panache so I got to burn off a few calories rowing. 

We packaged the Dink for towing, filled our ice chests, and headed in for an evening of reading.  The weather forecast looks good for tomorrow so we plan to head for Key West.

We noticed an interesting phenomenon that occurs around sunset.  It seems that it is a tradition to blow a horn.  I stuck my brass horn out the back hatch and blew it last night and Janine pointed out to me that they were probably blowing conch shells.  Theirs sounded much more mellow than my flat brassy toot.

Back in the cabin, Janine spent the remainder of the evening reading for a while then a competitive game of dominos.  And then bed.