Tag Archives: Key West

Adiós Key West

10 Friday Jan 2020

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We had planned to stay a little longer in Key West but a weather window opened up for us to tackle the only ocean portion of our trip back north.  So we left at sunrise for a 6 hour passage up to Marathon about mid way up the keys.   This time the outside passage wasn’t as smooth and peaceful as our passage down in November, but the winds were fairly light with small choppy seas that did make spotting all those crab pots lurking out there a bit more difficult.  We arrived at the marina an hour before the big winds started, which helps to keep the docking drama to a minimum.  

We’ve been to Key West several times by land but the last five weeks allowed us to explore a lot more and really get the vibe of the place.  We had some very good food and drinks, met locals and tourists from all over.  Pictures speak louder than words………

The traditional Christmas tree in Key West

We saw a lot of Christmas decorations. This was my favorite.

Fort Zachary Taylor with the Disney cruise ship in the background.

The Banyan trees throughout Key West provide great outdoor space for restaurants.

Key Lime pie

Half Shell Raw Bar our favorite place for oysters. $10.99 a dozen for happy hour!

A pup checking out his sunglasses in the mirror.

Southern most point in the US 90 miles from Cuba.

Gary claims this was The Best daiquiri he has ever had. Mine was a Japanese Old Fashioned also very good.

The Captain ‘At Ease’ while a cleaning crew work on a charter boat in the humid heat.

At Ease docked at Stock Island Village Marina in the Florida Keys.

Key West, Miami and Passage to Georgia

23 Tuesday May 2017

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We liked Key West during our visits in the 90’s and yes it is touristy, but we still like it.  Good food, great bar scene and lots of people watching.   A bit pricey for cruisers, but while we were up north we put Sereno over at Stock Island Marina on neighboring Stock Island where it was a little more reasonably priced.  Good marina with shuttle service every hour to the heart of Key West.  After having limited places to eat for so long, we roamed Key West hitting the spots we remembered and a few new ones.  A favorite was Half Shell Raw Bar where we got a dozen oysters for $9.00 during happy hour along with our first Stone Brewery IPA in a long time.   We had so much fun and so little time there we forgot to take pictures!

After racing back to Key West from the wedding, we found the nice weather window to Georgia was going to be interrupted mid way by some serious looking squalls coming off the east coast.  Faced with staying in Key West for what was predicted as three weeks of strong easterly trade winds, we quickly got ready in a few hours and headed out for an overnight passage to South Beach Miami to wait for the squalls to pass over us.  Not a bad place to spend Mother’s Day.

By Monday the bad weather passed so we continued our passage to Georgia.  Unfortunately the seas were a bit rough both nights which made sleeping on our off shifts a bit tough.  But the days were beautiful and in the early morning of the third day we sailed between Jekyll and St Simons islands, under the Sidney Lanier Bridge and into Brunswick Landing Marina our home for this hurricane season.   The US Navy used this area as their hurricane hole so we are fairly confident Sereno is in a good place.

Passage to Key West

30 Sunday Apr 2017

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Third time is the charm.  Our first attempt at leaving the Cayman Islands North Sound area was squashed due to weather.  Then we saw a window for Isla Mujeres, Mexico and left early one morning.  When we entered North Sound back in February it was shallow over the reef but we had no problems.   We set our chart plotter to record our track in so we could follow it upon leaving.  Despite following the track we grounded out three times and hit our rudder.  We anchored and Gary dove under the boat but facing a two night offshore passage we headed back to the marina, hauled the boat out to check for rudder damage (none just a nick), rechecked back in with customs and immigration sigh…..

Finally a week later we got a long enough weather window to make the four day passage from Grand Cayman to Key West.  Based on a recommendation from the marina, we hired a pilot boat to lead us out of North Sound.  The appointed time of 6:00 am on Sunday rolled around and the pilot is a no show.  No surprise there.  Always up for a challenge and having no desire to go back to customs and immigration where we were now on a first name basis, we threw off the dock lines and headed out.  Staying exactly and I mean exactly on our track and right at high tide, we made it over the reef with no problems.  The difference?  The water was much rougher and we were a few hours from high tide the first time around.  Ahhh finally out of the Caymans and heading back out on the water!

We had hoped to use the easterly trade winds to help get us to the west coast of Cuba, but as luck would have it the winds were dead calm with the exception of Sunday night when for 12 hours they were right on our nose.  The calm conditions returned Monday morning right when we needed them the most for the Yucatan Channel and heading east in the Florida Strait.   We enjoyed a good sail into Key West riding the Gulf Stream.  In fact, if Gary hadn’t realized just how much the gulf stream was pushing us east when we wanted to go north east, we would have overshot Key West and ended up in Miami instead 🙂

Not long after leaving Grand Cayman this little guy joined us in the cockpit for a much needed rest.  Look at those calm seas.

Our passenger for a while

Sereno will be staying here for a few weeks while we drive up to Pennsylvania for our nieces wedding.  Once back, we will continue our trek up the east coast of Florida to our summer stop in Brunswick, Georgia.  Later than planned, but we’ll get there.