Farewell Key West

Today, Monday Feb 12th, we FINALLY moved from Key West to Marathon.
The winds were high from the east , so we took the inside bay route (vs Atlantic side).
The waves were reasonable, about 2 footers, and the crew was comfortable during our mostly 18mph ride. We left Key West about 8am, and arrived in Marathon about 2pm. Our route was about 70 miles, with the last 2 hours being very slow due to very shallow water (4-6ft) & dodging hundreds of crabpots.

Here is our GPS Track from Key West to Marathon, notice all the little islands we had to navigate around. It was a very fun ride, Linda & Rick had their 1st experience with dolphins swimming along the side of the boat.

Here is the GPS Track for the total trip so far, I love this chart !

We will spend the remainder of February slowly working our way up the Keys.
Rick & Linda will be with us for the ride up to Miami.
The next blog post will show photos of our current digs in Marathon at Faro Blanco Resort & Marina (Very Nice !).
We will be at Faro Blanco for 1 week.

The posts below will show the last few days at Key West.
You may recall that Jerry & Lori Scheller left us on Wednesday Feb 7th.
On Thursday Feb 8th we were joined for  a 1 day Key West adventure by one of our Fiat/Chrysler coworkers Pat Morin & 1st mate Emily.

Pat & Emily were on a 4 day hiatus from the Michigan snow, and a little vacation from their 2 year old daughter staying with grandparents, since Emily is now pregnant with their 2nd child.
Pat & Emily had a hotel room in Islamorada.
Pat knew that me & Rick were in Key West and we talked them into driving down for a day visit.
We gave them the quick Key West 1-Day tour, complete with ; a few hours at the pool, walks to Duvall Street/Mallory Square/Sunset Pier, & dinner at Schooners Wharf.

During the last few days at Key West, Jonell & I had the following fun with the Spraggs ;
1. We went on a 2 hour self guided walking tour of about 35 of the old homes in Key West. We printed an on-line map called The Pelican Walking Tour. The printed materials give you a home by home map, and a little history for each house.

2. We went for one last Duvall street bar crawl, complete with visits to The Bull & Whistler Bars. We started on the 2nd floor balcony of Whistler Bar for some people watching from the balcony. The Bull Bar is on the 1st floor, The Whistler Bar is on the 2nd floor, and The Clothing Optional Bar “The Garden of Eden” is on the 3rd floor with the palm trees

After having drinks at The Whistler Bar (2nd floor bar), we went across the street and had drinks at a place called The Flying Monkeys.

While we were at the Flying Monkeys Bar, we looked across the street at the bar we had just left, and mentioned that we had inadvertently forgot to explore the Clothing Optional Bar on the 3rd floor.

Well , someone had to confirm if this Clothing Optional Bar was real or not.

We spent the final Key West night with a Wonderful Dinner at a place called The Grand Café.
The Spraggs, very graciously treated for the final Key West dinner.

Farewell Key West !