I failed to mention that, as fate would have it, a friend of Tim's is down here to get married on May 1st. Pete is an almost-retired Army National Guard officer, whom Tim has worked with. After we washed the salt off the boat, filled up the fresh water tanks and cleaned up a bit, we met Pete and his fiance Vicky downtown. Most of the eating/drinking establishments here have live entertainment in one form or another. In one of the places we went, the guy that was singing sang a special wedding song for them. We enjoying watching the locals and visiting and parted ways before supper. We walked down to a restaurant on the pier to watch the sunset, along with a whole bunch of other folks. Tim ordered some conch fritters. He said he won't be ordering them again. After the sunset we headed back to the boat. Since we've been sleeping 'on the hook', without electricity, we've not used the air conditioner. When we got back to the boat tonight it about froze us out. It did make for a nice night of sleeping, however.
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| Panoramic view of the pier |
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| Pete and Vicky |
Ate breakfast at the marina snack bar. $38. Ouch. But, we already figured out that everything here is expensive. Our normal dockage fee has been between $1-$1.50 a foot. Here it's $4 a foot. It does go down to $3.25 if we stay more than 3 nights. There are a lot of "Everything is $5" stores all over the place, so I guess not all is expensive. :)
Each day we've been here, local fishermen catch and clean their fish right on the dock which runs along the back of our slip. There are several cats that come out hoping to get a bite. There is also a white heron that, according to one of the marina workers, has taught herself to not be afraid of people. He said it has taken her quite awhile to 'socialize' and you still can't get very close to her, but she will walk the dock while fish are being cleaned and watch. The marina worker said she is building a nice nest in the rocks which serve as the break wall for the marina and he is hoping she finds a mate and they stick around. Once the fishermen have cut their filets, they take the remainder of the fish (spine/head/tail, etc) and dangle it above the water close by. Very large tarpon are waiting and will jump up and swallow the fish carcass whole. The tarpon look an awful lot like carp to us, but we're told they are tarpon. Big. Ugly.
Another couple that Tim knows (Col(R) John and Sam), from St Augustine, came down to surprise Vicky for the wedding. While we were waiting for Pete and Vicky to get done kayaking, we all had a little lunch and toured the Turtle Kraals museum. In the mid to late 1800s Key West was the center for turtle processing and canning. At that time, turtle soup was considered a delicacy in parts of the United States and especially in Europe. Turtles caught throughout the Caribbean were shipped to Key West, kept alive by cruelly placing them on their backs aboard the turtle schooner ADAMS. Upon arrival in Key West, turtles were kept in dockside corrals called 'kraals' until they were slaughtered and processed into soup. By 1970 the turtle population had been devastated. Through the courageous efforts of visionary conservationists, in cooperation with the Governor of Florida, the first catch size regulations were enacted on March 23rd, 1971, establishing that any turtle smaller than 41 inches was to be released. Turtle canneries went out of business, and the turtle trade came to an end in '71 with the passage of the Endangered Species Act. The curator of the museum was a very friendly, knowledgeable individual. He has written a book (available on kindle) that supposedly his agent is delivering a hard copy of to Michelle Obama. He's hoping if she likes it that she will mention it to Oprah. He said "hey, you never know.." Now, back to the surprise for Vicky.....
Tim, Joe and I played a small role in keeping the secret and making arrangements for a 'surprise meeting'. After the surprise we came back to the boat and ate a little supper. The boys went up to the local Tiki hut and listened to the entertainment, and visited with some of the local 'crews' that work the snorkel/dive/cruise boats. I stayed 'home' and worked on the blog and found a Royal's game to watch on TV. Lucky, they are playing Tampa Bay for a 3 days series and I'm hoping I can catch at least one more game.
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| Tarpon |
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| Sam and John |
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| Turtle Kraal Museum Curator |
Wednesday, May 1
Happy May Day!! Well, the big wedding on the beach is today. The guys are getting ready, as I type this. We met John and Sam for lunch today. It's been raining mostly all day, but about an hour ago things started clearing up. The wedding is at 7, and it looks like it will be nice for the ceremony.
Well, we're back. Decided to rent a 4 person electric car to drive to the beach and maybe do a little site seeing while we had it. It was nice to not have to walk the 2 miles to the beach for the wedding. The ceremony was very nice. Very nice, indeed. Best wishes to Col and Mrs. Peter Seaholm!
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| Our little smart car |
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| Colonel and Mrs. Peter Seaholm |
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