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DAY 9 -10
Cruise Day 9, Monday
May 30th
Never mind, we just got
up early and carried on the way we had the other mornings, turned
the generator back on after a few hours of it cooling down and sat
on the aft deck before we started to pack up to leave for Key West.
Everything was checked and battened down and off we went at
around 10:30 a.m. – at least we can plug into shore power for
some much needed Air conditioning at night. The seas were more rough
than they had been throughout the trip – about 3-4’ waves and the
water would even make it up to the bridge at times and that is 16’
straight up from the water line. All seemed to be going well and as
per usual, Barry went down to the engine room to check things out to
make sure all is as it should be. Well, of course it isn’t – there’s
water coming from “somewhere” and he can’t tell where it is coming
from. Just as we are about to enter the channel to Key West, he
found that the aft holding tank compartment was FULL of water and
the carpets, drawers and mill work SOAKED. It wasn’t until we were
successfully docked at Conch Harbor Marina that he was able to fully
investigate and informed me that I had left the two port holes open
and for the last four hours and the aft cabin was a holy mess. Oh my
God! I was horrified – how could I have left the windows open
(remember these were the windows that wouldn’t open). At any rate, I
started to mop up the mess, squeegee the carpets and bale out the
compartment…. Not exactly what we wanted to be doing and it took
hours. I was finally able to figure out that when I had tried to
open the port holes, I had unlached them and never put the latches
back into position, therefore, allowing the crashing waves to push
them open as they smashed against the hull. It never occurred to me
that the windows were still open (they weren’t technically, right?)
because they “appeared” to be closed. Boating can be fun but boating
is serious business as well, and as the Captain pointed out, you
must always be aware of the criticality of everything on the boat.
Good thing it was a 4 hour trip and not a 9 hour trip! Needless to
say, the windows will be the first thing I check from now on. After
fighting with the carpet and getting a lot of the water out of the
carpet and the compartment, we went to Monty’s for a drink and
something to eat…we were even to tired to get into the pool. Seeing
as how we were hooked up to shore power, we didn’t have to worry
about the A/C going off or the generator shutting down, so we both
looked forward to a nice sleep before we head out for home in the
morning.
Cruise Day 10,
Tuesday May 31st
Welcome to Key West
(again)…. It was nice to wake up at the Marina after a nice air
conditioned sleep. Salty managed to connect with Cloe again and he
got quite comfortable jumping on and off the boat and wandering
around the dock. We didn’t have to go to West Marine or do anything
in Key West so we headed fueled up and off we went around 9:30 am in
calm waters. The scenery is obviously the same out in the Gulf
today, some bigger boats than usual cruised by, some Shrimpers and
the odd smaller boat either coming or going from the main land. The
trip home didn’t seem to take as long as going down to Key West and
the dock was a welcome sight…Salty leaped cooperated very well in
his “harnessing” routine but once he was unleashed – he headed
straight for the pool – where else? We docked at 6:00 pm and
concluded one more cruise with a whole new respect for boating,
anchoring and all the work that needed to be done to get ready for
the next trip!
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