July 1 to July 9

Key West and Few Repairs

On Sunday, we said goodbye to the Dry Tortugas and moved on to Key West. Although we wanted to spend more time there, we were running out of fuel and water. We also needed to get Shaun, our crew, to land to get on a plane back to Houston (he didn't seem that interested in leaving).

With all the preparation of leaving Houston, we completely forgot the fact that we would be getting in to Key West just before the Fourth of July. The Galleon Marina was already full with a large waiting list. Fortunately, we were able to dock at the Conch Harbor Marina until the fourth and then move to the City Marina for Independence Day.

We had a great time in Key West. We got a chance to try out our new bikes and spent an evening watching the fireworks from a beach on the Atlantic side. Despite the fact that Key West was fun, we were anxious to keep going to get to the Bahamas before the hurricane season gets too ugly.

After the crossing, we had a few repairs to take care of. The genoa and mainsail had to be repaired (minor stitching), and now we really needed to get the fuel tanks cleaned. We located a sail maker and fuel cleaner at the Oceanside Marina on Stock Island (a few miles east of Key West). Then we found a boat yard in Marathon to permanently fix the leak at the bobstay.

The bikes have worked out really well. It sure beats that BMW (ha ha)!!!

Shaun's bike had some stylish baskets

Terri get's to be in The Cat Man's show.

Fourth of July at the beach - Key West style.

When the sail maker has a small shop, bring the job outside.

The filters start off white. He used 12 of these to clean the fuel and tanks.

We never like this view....