Stock Island - Key West

From our Marathon departure, we had a glorious run back down to Bahia Honda.  Sunny, warm, and light winds.  Had one of those remarkable dolphin encounters with as many as 3 at one point, surfing in our bow wave. The last one to depart did the roll, look, and then jump and splash Judy as a "good-bye" to the social encounter.

We anchored at Bahia Honda and swam, checked the anchor set, and cleaned a bit of stainless steel near the waterline.  The wind came up overnight, so the night was a bit sloppy, and cloudy and very dewy in the morning.  The humidity is back.  We departed about 1100, and headed southwest, for Key West.  Decided to not make use of the mid-way anchorages as the refrigeration doesn't seem to be working 100%, and would like to have it looked at in Key West. Our track is shown in the image from Navionics, with the boat located at Stock Island.

Navigated thru Spanish Key channel, with very calm water, and to the north side of the Keys for the run down to Key West.  A bit roll-y out here so ran for an hour at higher speed to make the ride more comfortable.

Arrived at Stock Island, which is just east of Key West, late afternoon and got squared away.  Contacted the refrigeration mechanic and arranged for service not the next day, but following.  The marina provides a shuttle service to Key West, so took advantage of that mid-morning for a familiarization trip.  Shuttle drops at the old town harbour, and we walked part of old-town to get acquainted.  Found the Truman little white-house and the Customs house museum but decided to leave these to when we had more time to see them well.


Lunch was at "First Flight", a restaurant in the building that was Pan-Am's first office. After a bit more walking around town, we headed back to the marina for a swim and dinner.  Interesting location, right between the Key West Airport, and Naval Air Station Key West, so some very noisy aircraft movements at times.

Today, the refrigeration mechanic arrived, and checked over the system.  No major issue.  Concluded a bit of debris in the Freon line was clogging the full exchange, and topped up the freon.  System appears to be working well.

After an early lunch, we got the shuttle back to old-town, and visited the Museum at the old customs house.  Excellent museum.  A bit of Key West history, the Florida East Coast railway, the USS Maine sinking, and Hemingway, of course.

Note the steep pitch of the roof.  US govt building code in 1890 required this pitch so that snow would not stick to the roof, and that applied everywhere!

Walked old town a bit more and headed back to the marina.  Tomorrow we move the boat over to a marina in Old-town harbour, and Tristan arrives the following day for the weekend.  Will be much better positioned there for access to the sights and sounds of Key West.