Jib Notes

As you all know by now, Jeremy and I have been living on a mooring ball in the only mooring field in Key West. The field is located around Fleming Key, which is not as near to the fun part of Key West as the marinas. Our experiences here are a mix of good, bad and mundane. Sometimes Jeremy will work all day and I will fill my days cleaning, cooking, and working on projects. Sometimes life is chocked full of meeting new people and trying new things. Regardless, it is always a learning experience.

The latest adventure in Quixote the boat cat's life involved a little swim. One night a couple days ago Jeremy decided to work in the cockpit for a change. This turned out to be very fortunate for our mischievous furball.

Most of you know that we have jokingly referred to our former 3rd party, Bill as Captain Ron. Bill came to Florida in hopes of joining us on an amazing sailing trip to the Bahamas. Unfortunately, I think he got more than he bargained for. Most of his vacation did indeed resemble a bad comedy. It started with 2 inexperienced sailors plus a boat in disrepair and ended with high northern winds ruining our chance of crossing the gulf stream. Bill did indeed live up to the nickname as he battled the worst that Murphy's law can dish out and we even had fun every once in while.:)

This blog is about our adventures in Key West and I apologize in advance for its length. Key West, for those who are unfamiliar with it, is a unique place. It is a tourist town that is like St. Augustine, only wilder and less classy. The general mind set here is party with a capital P. You will see the ghost tours, art galleries, and trolley tours typical of St. Augustine, but you will also see strip joints and clothing optional bars.

I have had some wonderful experiences recently. Experiences that make all the hard work and excessive spending worthwhile. The best of these experiences have occurred during our recent "night watches". The three of us, after much discussion, agreed to do a straight shot to Key West from Sarasota. That meant sailing through the night. We split the night into 3 shifts with me taking the the first shift(9pm-1am), Jeremy taking the second shift(1am-5am), and Bill taking the early morning shift(5am-9am). The first night we sailed all 3 sails in order to make use of the light wind.

Jeremy and I have been pretty fortunate when it came to sailing. Every day we have taken Tillicum out it has been ideal weather. Our luck could not hold out forever. We have now officially sailed our first storm. What possessed two novice sailors and one experienced seaman to take to the water on day with rain and winds blowing 30 knots? Well, it started with a trip up to the manatee river to get hauled out. We managed to find a cheap boat yard that would paint our bottom coat and allow us to do some of our own work on the inside. The day started out rough right from the beginning. We got a late start leaving due to me taking too long to get supplies and engine trouble, which included snapping a belt and springing a leak in our fuel line.

Thus far living on a sailboat has been very interesting and full of surprises. Lots of these surprises have been like surprise! Your heater doesn’t work or surprise! There is a leak in the water lines. Fortunately we have had several pleasant surprises as well. We recently discovered that having steps on the mast is wonderful and I love that Dolphins like to swim next to your boat. One other pleasant surprise is how well our cat has taken to life on the boat.

Living on the our new sailboat has been quite nice so far.  Our marina is beautiful and the people are friendly despite the fact that most are of the older, yuppy variety.  It has been especially nice running in to people who tell us how beautiful our sailboat is.:)  One of the nicest features of the marina is its location.  It is great to be in walking distance from everything.  Car? What car?  We have a car?