Nice to be in Key West!

You know you are in Key West when you see people walking around with their parrots!
This friendly guy's name is Mango!  He is a yellow-naped Amazon parrot!

1/29/19.                                  Yay!!!    70 degrees and sunshine!!!
     We left Marco Island at 7:30 am.  The weather had finally stopped blowing enough to make a safe crossing to Key West.  Seas were about one foot and winds from the NW, which was great for traveling.  The sky was blue and cloudless.  We were soon in beautiful green water, with the sun’s reflection off the water, sparkling like diamonds! We saw plenty of dolphins and unfortunately loads of crab traps!  Karl had to stay pretty vigilant to avoid them!
     I am always amazed when we go offshore, can’t see land for many hours and then suddenly we spot our destination!  Karl gets it right every time!  First he uses the paper chart to find our longitude and latitude from beginning to the end destination, plotting a course.  Then he will enter the information into the Furunos, which are the 2 GPS plot charters.  We have autopilot which is so helpful.  It is so nice, but he had to keep dodging the crab traps, which meant taking it off the autopilot quite a bit.  We traveled a little over 100 miles, took us about 5 hours.  Our boat can go about 18 knots, which is  a little over 20 mph.  It is always exciting to spot land and trees and buildings up ahead!
     We decided to try something different this time in Key West.  Usually we stay in a marina very close to Duval Street in the heart of Key West.  We have done most all the touristy things to do in Key West. We kept hearing good reviews about Stock Island Marina, which is located on the other side of Key West, out of the crowds and much more dog friendly.  When we first arrived, we were greeted by the sounds of jets flying overhead.  Come to find out, the commercial airport is very close by, and the navy base is close, too!  At first we thought we could not stand the noise, but decided to give it a try.  It really isn’t as bad as we initially thought it would be and the marina is very nice.  A shuttle runs every hour to take you to town, which is only a few miles away.  We plan to go into town.