Rats, Skating and Marina Communities.

The rat has jumped ship, I guess it wasn't up for the cruising lifestyle, either that or being surrounded by food with no water got to it but I havent seen it since I dropped hook in Key West, of course I bought a rat trap, that may come in handy if the Fun Police come aboard.

I have returned to Islamorada from my week in Key West, I was planning on staying a week but only made it six days. Key West seems to have the moto of "Leave your dollars and GTFO", not a very hospitable town down south there. I was lucky not to be boarded by the Fish and Wildlife Commission (aka "Fun Police"). Two nights in a row they were out in the anchorage with three boats boarding everyone that had interior lights on and writing tickets like it was the end of a fiscal period. FWC is basically park rangers without jurisdiction so they take it upon themselves to be general water cops, in my few dealings with them I have yet to be questioned about fish or game. Fortunately Waltzing Matilda has black out curtains and red lights inside, so I went into stealth mode and they left me alone. If i were to get boarded there is nothing they could write me a ticket for but I have an aversion to black soled jack boots on my white deck, shoes aren't allowed, guns aren't allowed, thugs aren't allowed on board, neither are rats.

The trip back to Islamorad is always slower than the trip to Key West, Hawk Channel has a 1.5kt current heading SW and the winds tend to be from the NE, combine the two and you get to tack, lots and lots of tacking. My first day away I towed a nice vintage British bilge keeler to the northwest channel and hung around till he got his sails up, the owner was sick of getting tickets and despite a broken motor headed to better cruising grounds. I tack back and forth in Hawk Channel until an hour before sunset and took refuge in between Stock Island and Boca Chica Key in a well protected channel bordered with mangroves and inhabited by a few derelicts and one very (drunk) friendly live-aboard.

When I finally made it to Marathon I had been at a 20 degree heel all day, motorsailing with a dog that was unhappy as she kept falling out of bed and sliding across the deck, I was planning on going to a little gunk hole I learned about but it was 5 miles more, I was tired and the sun was setting in an hour. I stopped at the same friendly fuel dock-marina that I've frequented and met a pair of couples looking at charts on the dock. We struck up conversation and I was able to point to some great anchorages as well as warn some evesdropping sailors that were headed to Key West about the Fun Police. The younger crew are new to cruising, mid 20s with a really neat steel hull, junk rigged, mono hull that has a greatest motor of all time, a Sabb type G (same as me!). I towed their dinghy back to their vessel, Ginger, and rafted up with them, new cruising friends were made by the 2nd bottle of wine.

I was planning on leaving the next day but since I don't like to be in a hurry or make plans the skipper of Ginger and I decided to go skateboarding since we were anchored right by the city park. We took our boards to the Marathon skate park with high hopes, especially since I was so disappointed with Key West's skate park, turns out Marathon offered the exact same disappointment. Both parks are closed most of the day, they open at 3PM (presumably so kids will not ditch school to skate) and are surrounded by high fences, they have more rules than ramps and seem to be managed by the baseball commissioner. I guess they don't realize that grown ups skate, we don't want to do it when it's hot or when there are loads of little kids around, some of us like to hit the park early in the morning. Some of us have been skating fro years without some park's commissioner (Fun Police) lording over the key to the park, some of us might even have a good time.

I left late the next morning via Sister Creek out of Boot Key Harbor so that I could see if it is passable and make a waypoint on my GPS to find it again, Ginger's crew took the long route with another couple they met and we planned to rendevouz at a gunk hole I had read about, that is until the wind died. I spent an hour drifting sideways at 1.5 kts until I finally fired the motor and got into the channel entrance. Ginger and their friends went back to Boot Key Harbor.

It was a nice gunk hole, it would have been nicer sans no-see-ums, but I got a good nights sleep and was out with the crab boats before sun rise. The wind was still not co-operating, there was NO WIND! and hot, really hot, but I don't complain about the heat after the Mississippi River passage. As I passed the bridge on the north end of Long Key I watched the water change from mucky brownish green to the beautiful azure blue of the Atlantic, I finally made the bascule bridge in Islamorada at 15:30 and after docking Waltzing Matilda at the 104.9 Beach House I stowed her gear and dove off her starboard side to take a swim..... Ahhhh that feels good, afte two weeks of afraid to get in the water it was nice to see clear water again.