Thurs, Feb 11, 2010 - Key West, FL

We slept better but it was still a little rocky. Mid morning we saw the young woman from the little yellow sailboat we had drifted down on Tuesday night rowing over to us against the current and the waves. We invited her aboard and she asked if we were feeling secure now. We talked about the storm and learned that our boat had taken out one of the shrouds on her boat and she thought it would cost about $40 to replace it. We gave her some cash and she seemed satisfied with that. After she left, Gale marked one of our anchors with a float and let it go so we could retrieve them one at a time. We started the boat, pulled up the Danforth anchor and then motored over to the float to catch the line to the Fortress anchor and hauled it up. We were surprised that we didn’t have any difficulty with the retrieval.

The forecast for Saturday was for storms and high winds so we motored over to the City Marina at Garrison Bight to rent a mooring ball. Tying up to the ball was an adventure in itself! Ordinarily, Maureen stands on the bow and snags the pennant (line) on the mooring ball and secures it to a cleat on the bow. These balls had no pennant – only an eye hook to thread a line through. Even on a calm day it wouldn’t be easy to perform the maneuver so with a little wind and waves, it was dangerous to try grabbing the hook from the bow and hanging on long enough to secure a line. The Captain sized up the situation and determined that the First Mate would try to hold the boat in position while he lowered the dinghy and used it to take the line to the ball. The plan worked well and at 1:00 pm we were tied up and secured with a primary and secondary line.

We headed into the marina by dinghy and found a nice, new dinghy dock with a locked access gate. We registered at the office and were told they had just received notice from the National Weather Service that we should expect 60 mph winds tomorrow afternoon and a Gale Warning would likely be issued.

While Gale used the shower facilities at the dinghy dock, Maureen and Lucy took a short walk. We noticed a man on his bicycle coming into the parking lot and heading toward the bike racks. Before he got there, he passed out and ran into the curb and a couple of cement posts. Since Maureen didn’t have the cell phone to call 911, she went looking for someone to help. She found a gentleman who walked back with her to the scene and he was able to shake the man awake and get him on his feet. The guy was about as drunk as one can be and still stagger around upright. Surprisingly enough, the drunk walked over to the seawall, climbed over it and knocked on the door of a boat moored there.

After Gale was finished with his shower, we walked downtown and met up with Brad and Alicia, Gale's niece and her husband. They suggested we stop at the Raw Bar for a couple of drinks, some oyster, and conch fritters. After a nice visit, we dinghied out to Blue Heron in the dark.