Day 116 - Exodus — Captain Father John

Miles cruised 10 miles, fuel purchased $0, slip fee $133 same as at the Galleon. daily high temperature 79*f, low temperature 71*f.

Friday night the rain stopped and the wind died down. The wind will be light until Saturday night so our cruise to Stock Island should be relatively flat.

We watched several of the KW race week sailboats go out to practice in the pouring rain and high winds. I have always been of the opinion from my sailboat racing days that the more practice the crew gets the luckier we were in the races.

Dale, Andy, Priscilla and I wandered down Front Street and ended up at Kelly’s micro brew. They where hosting a wedding rehearsal dinner for 200 people. Priscilla suggested that the kitchen was probably focused in getting 200 plated dinners out in 15 minutes and we might not get the best service there tonight. We wandered further up Duval Street to Pinchers where it is 2-4-1 happy hour all day. We sat on the balcony with a great view of Duval Street and the Aqua Bar. The Aqua Bar is a transvestite haven so we observed many interesting interactions.

Andy embracing the 2-4-1 Key West lifestyle.

Saturday morning we bid farewell to the Galleon Marina after 32 days of opulence. We will miss our unlimited clean towels, swimming pool, hot tub, sandy beach and easy walk to everything in downtown Key West. It was a magical place to spend the holidays.

Today was a good day to make a move. The winds were light and the seas were flat. It would have been a good day to go a long distance but we only had to go 10 miles from Key West Harbor to the Stock Island Marina. We spotted several Loper boats as we pulled in including Mitzvah. John and Jan spent Thanksgiving with us at Port St. Joe. It turns out they were on the pier next to us on New Year’s Eve watching the Wench drop from the main mast of the America 2. Small world. We were in our dingy with a front row seat.

As we enterered the channel for the Stock Island Marina we spotted an old friend. Captain John’s Greyhound V was in the boatyard. This is her final resting place after being condemned by the USCG. She has a for sale sign but that is not going to happen.

There are also many sailboats at this marina for Key West Race Week. I saw the Beneteau 40.7 Vayu from Chicago. They must have shipped that boat by truck. She has much too deep a keel to do the rivers.

We had dinner at the Shrimp Road Bar and Grill on Stock Island. The Shrimp Road Bar and Grill consists of a food truck, tiki bar, picnic tables and a small music stage. “Hammock chairs swing invitingly from the sturdy, shaded beams of a towering tiki hut. Frosty beer bottles battle the afternoon humidity while bacon-wrapped shrimp sizzle in the lunch truck kitchen.” It is a short walk from our dock but it is deep into the “third world” lifestyle of indigent live aboard sailors. Perhaps we are spoiled after staying at a five star marina in the heart of Key West. The marina itself is state of the art with new docks and facilities but there is a nearby dock where the live-a-boards are tied up Mediterranean style. They pick up a mooring ball on their bow and back into the dock so they have to get on and off their boats from the stern. Everyone of them has a story that could fill a book. But they are just scary enough that I am not ready to pursue it. Yet.

Bonus photo

Carl ( Chef ) Wooden – quote of the day.

“The cure for anything is salt water – sweat, tears, or the sea.” – Isak Dinesen

Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke (Danish: 17 April 1885 – 7 September 1962), aka Karen Christenze Dinesen, was a Danish author, also known by the pen name Isak Dinesen, who wrote works in Danish, French and English. She also at times used the pen names Tania Blixen, Osceola, and Pierre Andrézel.

Blixen is best known for Out of Africa, an account of her life while living in Kenya, and for one of her stories, Babette’s Feast, both of which have been adapted into Academy Award-winning motion pictures.

Peter Englund, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, described it as “a mistake” that Blixen was not awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature during the 1930s. Although never awarded the prize, she finished in third place behind Graham Greene in 1961, the year Ivo Andrio was awarded the prize.