Days 100 and 101 - The Pirate Wench

Miles cruised 0, fuel purchased $0, slip fee $133, daily high temperature 83*f, daily low temperature on 77*fToday (New Year's Eve) is day 100 of our Great Loop Adventure 2,200 miles behind us and 4,400 more to go. Key West is filling up with New Years Eve revelers. The town will have 50,000 party goers by Thursday night.Finding a slip in Miami is proving quite challenging. We were warned by fellow Loopers that we should have booked a marina nine months ago. We will stay in Key West until January 14 and then cruise to Dry Tortugas for a few days. We will spend a few weeks on the Atlantic side of Key West at the Stock Island Marina. We plan to be in Miami on February 8.Dale and I went tarpon fishing with Tom Hauert. Tom had arranged a fishing guide out of the Hurricane Hole Marina on Stock Island. This is the same Hurricane Hole that Priscilla and I tried to reach by dingy a few days prior. Captain Rick has been in Key West since 1970. He is originally from NYC. We saw alot of tarpon and Dale had one hit on his line. Dale was fishing with live bait. Tom and I were fishing with plugs. We didn't put any fish in the boat but Tom hooked a seagull that tried to eat his plug.Captain RickFishing not catching.I met a fellow Looper while I was doing laundry. Sharon and her husband Mike had been at the Looper rendezvous with us. They have a Searay 510. They had done the Loop a few years ago in a Searay 280. When they bought the bigger boat Sharon was concerned that they might spend too much time on the boat and be AWOL from church. Mike named the new boat Church Service so Sharon would always be at church. Sharon and Mike own a trucking company in Missouri. I asked if the severe flooding has caused them any problems with their trucking business. She advised the trucks were safe but the interstate exit that they used was flooded so the trucks had to go an extra 40 miles to get on the highway.The New Year's Eve Dachshund parade is an annual favorite in Key West.Two of the parade participantsOn New Year's Eve we walked Duval Street in the maddening crowd. Sloppy Joe's had the giant conch shell set up and ready to drop at midnight. Several staff on the roof of Sloppy Joe's were throwing Mardi Gras beads to the ever growing crowd. It was too crowded and too loud for us. It was only 10:45 pm. Instead of going to watch the transvestite in a giant high heel shoe drop, we headed over to Schooner Wharf to watch the wench drop from the 100' main mast on the sailing yacht America 2. The dock area was already filling to capacity with revelers. We had the revelation to get our dingy and float right next to the America 2 in the middle of all the action. All four of us motored over in the dingy and we were in the front row. Two other dinghies joined us. It was a stirring sight to see that pirate wench drop 100' in 10 seconds for the countdown to the new year.The midnight transvestite drop.The giant conch shell dropThe pirate wench dropWe returned to our dock and hung out for a while greeting our fellow boaters at the Galleon Marina as they wobbled back to their boats. We are the first boat on the dock so they all have to walk past us. Several of the captains were being carefully escorted on both sides so they would not fall off the dock. Steady as she goes skipper.Bonus photoCarl (Chef) Wooden - quote of the day