We woke up to a nice sunshiney morning! And toasty. But there was a bit of a breeze, so we actually sat out in the cockpit for a while to enjoy our coffee. It was fun to greet people walking by. The fella on the Aquila from Clearwater came over and chatted a bit about The Great Loop. He saw our Gold flag 😁. He said they’re contemplating doing the Loop, but thought their boat was too tall for THE bridge in Chicago. (19’6” is the clearance of the lowest fixed bridge on the entire Loop.) He knows of April & Larry on One Eye Dog, so I told him he needs to talk to them, because they’ve done it in their Aquila. Like many people we’ve talked to this year, they had planned to go to the Bahamas earlier this year…. like us…. and couldn’t go because of Covid. It’s really a common story among us Floridian boaters!
We watched a big Leopard Sail Cat next to us get ready to depart. It’s a charter rental boat, and the owner was on board teaching the family how everything works. It looks like two adults and maybe four teenagers on board. They cast off around 2:00. Hope all goes well for them!!😳
There’s lot of music and fun coming from Dante’s today. The Key West Express Ferry from either Ft Myers or Marco Island got here around noon, so it brought some partiers. I saw people walking by with suitcases, too. I guess that’s a fun way to come to Key West for a weekend, rather than drive down!
We took a walk over to West Marine. It is VERY near our location, which is handy. I like their face mask sign, referring to distance as a fathom. 😷. Mechanic got the battery terminal pieces that he wanted. He looked back on his repair log and found that this battery was new in Feb. 2016. It’s a big 8-D. (Picture a carry-on size suitcase full of lead.) It’s probably getting tired at 4.5 years old. They have such a short life span in the Florida heat.🥵
We walked past Dante’s on our way to and fro. It was a-hoppin today! Like everywhere, you are required to wear a face mask to enter the property. And then… apparently enjoy at your own risk. Perhaps alcohol kills the virus? Ha! That reminds me of something I forgot to tell you. When we were at the Rum Bar the other day, someone came in without a face mask on. The bartender signaled to her to cover her face. She did, then ordered her drink. Then he asked her if she wanted it ‘to go’. She said – ‘I can take it with me to walk down the street?‘ He answered, ‘yes of course! You can walk down the street naked if you want. It’s Key West!’ We all laughed (because it’s so true!) But you better wear a face mask when you enter an establishment. We’ve seen other signs on doors that say “No shirt, no shoes, no mask, no service”. Perhaps bottoms are optional. 😏
In the afternoon, I suggested that we go explore and do something. After all, why be in Key West if we just sit on the boat? So we took a stroll to ‘Key West First Legal Rum Distillery’. We have been here before, but it’s always fun to do some tasting! On the way, we saw this awesome little vehicle. This is PERFECT for life in the Keys! It’s a tiny Ford pickup truck! 😁
On to the distillery. We were the only ones there when we arrived. We tasted just a few of their rums. They probably have 10-12 styles. We tried one that was aged in charred oak barrels like bourbon. One that was made with glazed pineapple, which would make AMAZING rum cake!! And then one that was make with coffee beans that tasted like espresso. Yum!
They offer free tours of their distillery, which we didn’t do, but here’s a quick peek.
The people on the tour showed up in the retail area, so it started to get a bit crowded. I think they have a seven person limit in here.
I really liked the coffee rum, so I bought a bottle to take home. It will be amazing on some ice with a bit of cream! ☕️. When we went out the door, there were people waiting to come in.
We decided to take this back to the boat, then continue our adventuring. I told Kenny that I could sit him down in a bar on the way, and I’d take it. So we stopped in at the Conch Republic Restaurant and Conch Bar. It’s right at the boat harbor, and I’m not sure we’ve ever been in there. We found a nice spot in the shade where we could feel the breeze. (You can see Kenny in the corner of the building with a white hat and white shirt.). We ordered a couple of drinks, and I took the rum to the boat.
This was our view from our corner spot. There are LOTS of tour boats that run in and out of this section of the marina. Day time booze cruises, sunset cruises…it is a busy harbor.
By the time we finished our drinks, it was late afternoon, and it was really hot outside. Places were starting to get pretty busy with the Saturday dinner crowd, so we just went back to the boat. We can adventure when it isn’t the weekend. Or maybe tomorrow with some cloud cover it won’t be quite so hot. We spent the evening cooling down, some simple dinner, and chillaxing. Mechanic fixed the battery, and I enjoyed the sunset.
I’m still working on where we should go from here. I texted April (One Eye Dog) and Debbie (Gypsies Palace) for ideas. Debbie used to live in the Boca Raton area, so she knows the greater Miami area very well. They had some great (affordable) suggestions on where to stay, so I will keep devising a plan. We leave here on Wednesday, and we KNOW we don’t want to be anywhere near Miami on the weekend. Crazy weekend warrior chaos on the waterways should be avoided at all costs!