Conch Harbor Marina back to Garrison Bight, Key West

We've moved - from the marina back to the mooring field. The distance (as the crow flies) is about a mile, but the trip up and around Fleming Island and back down to the mooring field is four and a half miles. We decided that we'd rather pay one tenth the price out here on a mooring now that we've had time to investigate Key West a bit.

We spent the morning walking around town a bit more with John, Betty and Kathy (Pete is in Philly on a quick business trip). We found Faustos Gourmet Grocery and were pleasantly surprised at the variety of stuff they had and prices weren't bad. We purchased our first bottle of Heinz 57 (now that WAS expensive) and a few other things. The guys were happy to carry our goods back to the boats while we gals headed for the Commercial Kitchen Store and Artisan Bakery. What a great place, made me sorry I didn't have a full kitchen to stock with all sorts of clever and innovative cookery! The aroma from the bakery pervaded the Kitchen Store, so we made a few purchases there also. Our entire morning trip was plagued with rain showers, but it didn't slow us down.

The sun came out for a brief period around noon as we pulled away from the dock and we made the one hour trip around to the mooring field with no trouble. The skies clouded up again as we picked up our mooring and the wind was whistling quite a bit as we took the dinghy in to sign up with the dockmaster. By the time we headed back out the sun was out and it remained so for the rest of the day. We might have been able to see a sunset today, but Fleming Island blocked our view.

We spent the afternoon working on the dinghy. We moved the motor up to the rail, drained the gear lube, replaced it with new lube (which included manufacturing a replacement plug for the one that dropped in the drink!) , removed the hydrofoil stabilizers (a dinghy guru told Dan they aren't necessary - - - we'll see), repaired a broken hasp of the bow locker, and began the long awaited installation of a depth sounder. We hope it will help us find our way through shallow spots in the Bahamas AND back in the Chesapeake! Dinner was just the two of us! It's been a while since that happened. After studying the weather, we have decided to put off leaving until Thursday. ~~~_/)~~~M&D

The sky was forever changing this morning, we saw a rainbow before heading off for our walk, and the sun trying to burst through these clouds was a bit more dramatic than this picture shows.

It was gray and dreary when we picked up our mooring next to Valhalla again, it's easy to spot unoccupied boats -note the white sail cover, green waterline and resident cormorants. The sky had cleared by the time we returned from checking in and I was finally able to get a picture of a frigate bird-one of Dan's favorite birds.

Unfortunately the warmer weather isn't making my flowers very happy. My arrangements were lasting up to two weeks in the cooler climates. I had to change the last one after four days!