Wed, Feb 24, 2010 - Key West, FL

At 7:45 am we motored around Fleming Key to Key West Bight Marina where we fueled up, filled the water tanks and pumped out the holding tank. We had arranged for a slip at their dock for the night since we were without a dinghy. Besides, there were supposed to be more high winds and storms coming in the afternoon and since it was our last night with Mary and Joel, we thought it would be nice to be close to downtown where we could go out to eat and visit Mallory Square for the sunset celebration.

At 11 am, Garrison Bight Marina delivered a new Yamaha outboard motor. Gale and Joel walked to West Marine to shop for a new dinghy and to replace the safety equipment that was lost. Maureen and Mary took Lucy for a walk and then joined the guys at West Marine to see how they were doing. Everyone was ready for lunch by then so we took a break and walked up to Duval Street where we found a table on the porch at the restaurant Bagatelle. As we were finishing our meal, Gale and Maureen both recognized a familiar face from back home. Jane (Joslyn) Gruis and her husband were walking down the street looking for a place to have their lunch. We spoke to them for a few minutes and said we had just been commenting that if you were ever going to run into somebody you knew, this would certainly be a likely place for that to happen.

After lunch it was back to West Marine to finish shopping. We rolled the dinghy to the dock on a cart, lowered it into the water and Gale used the oars to row himself and Maureen around a couple of other docks to our slip.

Joel and Gale spent the afternoon working on attaching the motor and getting the dinghy rigged up so it could be hoisted up on the davits.

After four very long, hot and welcome showers, we met for drinks at Turtle Kraals restaurant. From there we walked over to the Raw Bar for oysters on the half shell and some conch fritters. During our dinner, the storm hit with high winds and rain. The wind kept up all night with intermittent rain showers making it very difficult to sleep as we banged against the dock. Again, we missed the Sunset Celebration at Mallory Square.