The Cruising Adventures of Wally and Darcy: April 7-18, 2017 The windswept Keys promote land exploration; forays on the water will have to wait.

Elegant dinner with other Manatee owners at Key Colony Inn

Dollar bills cover the walls and ceiling at No Name Pub and Pizza on Big Pine Key

Long before daybreak, the bantam roosters across US Rt 1, the Overseas Highway, sound the reminder that another day is about due. It’s grown to be a comforting sound that I’m going to miss when we leave the Keys. Not far across Pip’s Bay, the whine of a chop saw and the tat-tat of a nail gun are proof that the Cuban men who fabricate lobster traps are on the job. It’s barely light. Snatches of their conversations drift across the water as their pile of flat sections gets higher and higher. Trucks begin to roll up and down the highway; the Cuban drivers sounding their horn in a greeting as they pass by the nearby Cuban Cafe and its many patrons. Cafe con leche, flan, menudo, and sandwiches of fish, pork and beef head the list of preferred specialties. As you can tell, it has become one of our favorite eateries. In the canal between us and the Fanny Keys Condominium, a work barge and a personal pontoon boat putt and purr by as they deliver workers and materials to the luxury island home being built on the small island just off shore.

La Nina Cuban Cafe

Harbour Cay Clubhouse

Our boat bikes waiting for an adventure

We had two days to dinghy around before the 15-20 mph winds swept in and stayed. It’s been 13 days and no end of the blow in sight for another 5 or 6 days. We are hoping to have a trip out to the Sombrero Lighthouse Reef for swimming and snorkeling before we depart. In the meantime, we are enjoying the slivers of land around us. The first time we visited Key West was 2009. We cruised the length of the Keys on our Harley, camping for 4 nights on Sugarloaf Key at a KOA Kampground... $60.00/night for a tent site with no power or water hook-ups! I still wear my Key West Hog’s Breath Saloon shirt that proclaims “Hog’s breath is better than no breath at all!” Last week we were chauffeured the 48 miles from Marathon to Key West by Dotty and Mike Brady, owners of a slip here at Harbour Cay Club and owners of another Kady-Krogen Manatee Cool Beans. Our first stop was at the Key West Garden Club’s lush flora tucked inside and around the historic oceanside Fort West Martello Tower. Surprisingly, in place of an admission fee was a donation box. We made sure that we supported the outstanding work in progress. Lunch was at Eaton Street Seafood Market... grouper and crab cake sandwiches... simple, fresh and fabulous! By early afternoon we were at the NOAA ECO Discovery Center. It featured a 3-D video of the Dry Tortugas coral reef and ship wreck dive sites, and an aquarium of local reef specimens. Later, at Key West’s historic seaport, we visited the Dry Tortugas National Park/ Fort Jefferson Museum. We hope to visit that area 70 miles west of Key West someday, either on our boat or an a day-cruise tour boat. All of these spots of interest were free of charge and very family friendly.

Loved the sentiment on the apron

There is a saying among Kadey-Krogen Manatee owners, “If you’ve seen one Manatee, you’ve seen one Manatee.” Built between 1984 and the early “90’s, each of the 99 trawlers was tailored to the desires of the original owner. They were assembled by several different boat-building families along a stretch of Taiwan’s shoreline. To appreciate the variations on a theme, we two Manatee owners here at Harbour Cay Club decided to have an Engine Room Soiree, complete with hors d’eourves and dinner on board. Cool Beans was the host on Tuesday night; Summertime on Thursday with the Key West trip in between. It was quite surprising to see how differently the space under our salon and galley floors had been put to use. Engine, transmission, fuel filters and gauges, water system, battery banks, generator, air conditioner system... all there but in very different configuations. Would any other trawler owners other than the Manatee owners be thrilled to revel over each other’s power plant set-up?!?

Easter Sunday found us celebrating Our Lord’s Resurrection at Marathon’s Sombrero Beach. We arrived around 6:30 and by sunrise at 7:01, several hundred worshippers had gathered. Three local pastors presented the Good News with music and scripture.

We returned to Harbour Cay Club for an Easter egg hunt, followed by a scrumptious brunch festively decorated by the co-op members. The leftover traditional ham went into a ham and bean soup and ham sandwiches. In fact, there was so much food left from the Sunday brunch, we continued to visit the club house for three more meals before the food was gone!