Key West (& Melbourne) for a Couple of Days

We got up at 0645 yesterday to get underway for Key West and were tied up at the dock at Boca Chica Marina by 1015.

By 11am I was on my way north in the rental car... taking laundry, various boat parts to be returned, and a few items we wanted to leave back at the house. The stops (Marathon Power Systems, Key Largo West Marine, and RPM Diesel in Ft. Lauderdale) went OK, but the traffic was horrid in Miami/FtL. I seldom go thru there on a weekday--man I'd hate to live there! There was a big nasty afternoon storm system moving through also, so that made it even more fun.

Dave spent the day running around Key West with his friend Dave Whall (propane refill, stops at several marine stores, Radio Shack, etc). He got a personal weather briefing from the NWS office in Key West. The weather guy told him that it looked like the current weather would hold thru next Friday. So we are on track to leave Monday for Belize.

I made it to Melbourne Yacht Club about 7:15... just in time for a beautiful shuttle launch. We watched it on TV in the MYC bar and then went outside to see it go up. It was picture perfect--wish I'd had my camera in my pocket.

When I walked in the bar at MYC about half the people said "Hey, what are you doing here" and the other half said "Hey, I've been reading you blog and I know why you're here". It was fun both ways. I got kidded a lot about "fast trip around the world"

Nicki showed up a few minutes after I did, and got to go through a round of "I remember when you were running around here at 5 years old." with all our old friends (she's 21 now). We had a nice dinner together at Longdoggers.

I'm in the Melbourne area for today and I'm headed back in the rental car at the crack of dawn tomorrow. (need to have it back by 11am). I think Dave plans to stay at the marina Sunday night and then pull out for somewhere (direct to Belize or out to Dry Tortugas) early on Monday. He needs to send me up the mast to put back the stuff we took off to get under the bridges, and do a rig inspection before we go offshore.