It’s Friday, and very cloudy. Everything outside is soaked to the bone. Time to pull up the carpets to dry out again. I guess we need to investigate a new kind of deck covering for out there; something that drains better! While I was out there, the dockmaster came over and said we could move back to our originally assigned spot, A-26. YAY! The center console boats would be gone by 11:00, and then we can have our spot back for the rest of our stay. That is great news! At around 12:30, we pulled our lines and tootled over. Here is our new view. Yes – we are right on top of Dante’s Pool and Restaurant. And it’s the weekend, so there will be some paarrrrtyin goin on. And lots of people watching from our viewpoint.
And here are our dock neighbors. Three Aquila catamarans are docked here. They are such nice boats – same as our friends One Eye Dog. The boat closest to us is from Clearwater, the middle one (missing from the picture) is from New Orleans, and the furthest one is from Longboat Key (Sarasota). They are cruising together. All is well, and hopefully this spot won’t be so rockyrolly. Even the dock hand said he looked out at our boat this morning and saw us bobbing around and wondered how we tolerated it.
With our calmer location, I was able to get in a 30 minute pilates workout. I need to try to not let all of this fun island eating and drinking take over my body completely!
When I was done, it was Mechanic’s turn for the floor… to go down to the basement. He wanted to change the fuel filters. It’s been a few hundred hours, and they were starting to show that they’ve been busy cleaning fuel. So down in the hatch, with a fan blowing the air conditioned air down.
I went for a walk to find out if we can dispose of the filters somewhere. There must be something with all the working boats around here. Sure enough – behind the marina’s bathhouse, there’s a recycle facility for all kinds of things. Sweet! While I was out, I captured a couple of shots of our Girl.
There are tides here. Right now it’s a pretty level step from the dock to our gunwale. Sometimes it’s a step up to the dock, sometimes a step down. I’m just so glad that we don’t have to try to get from our swimstep up to the dock!
Oh! And we were able to get my most very favoritest Key West treasure. It’s a Key Lime Mango Poppy Dressing. It is so good in things like fish tacos, or on spinach with apples, craisins, pecans and feta cheese. Yum! It was a must purchase while we’re here… (more than one bottle). 😁
We had a nice sunset with a little bit of a breeze. We set up our chairs on our upper back deck and listened to the music from Dante’s. It was a really nice evening out on our deck, enjoying a sundowner drink and people watching. And actually pretty comfortable, considering the temperature and humidity!
It isn’t going to cool down much tonight. Here was the temperature after sunset. 85 degrees, feels like 96, with a low overnight of 82. Summer in Key West. 🥵. It didn’t really feel THAT hot.
Surprisingly, our boat still rocks in some waves clear back here in the back of the basin. We get the big swell waves, but at least we don’t get the slapping waves. It’s good. We were also surprised that the music at Dante’s ended at 9:00. I remembered it going later than that before, but maybe at reduced capacity, they aren’t partying as long. It actually got pretty quiet over there in the evening.
Tomorrow may be another trip over to West Marine. Earlier today when Captain started the engines to move over to this spot, Miss Laverne didn’t want to start. So he had to start Miss Shirley and then jump cross over to Laverne. Weird. Dying battery? He mentioned that one has been in there since we replaced it right after we bought Island Girl, five years ago. Batteries usually only last 3 years in Florida. Hmmm. Upon further investigation, he is thinking it might be the battery terminal connections. They look pretty scruffy, so we’ll go pick up some new ones today. Because she’s a boat, and she likes bling. 🤨