Pretty boats and a pretty bird

One of these pretty boats is mine...after declutter and detailed.

Some of these boats are meant to go a bit faster.

And one is of my new buddy Isabel.

I'll let you figure out what is what.

Live updates of Key West Race Week are here: http://www.premiere-racing.com/KWRWLive/

 

Come on, you know you want her.

 

Sunsets and race boats.....sigh...

 

Bunch o'Melges

The clearer picture is not too flattering to the blog author.  We'll just leave that alone.

Really busy...being unemployed

In a move that many people probably question my sanity considering the political and economic climate...I quit my job.

Long story short.  I can get a job easy enough, I'm not afraid to work, however, my sanity...priceless.

So, let's suffice to say, my job wasn't really working out for me.  Very unsatisfying and uncomfortable at the same time.

But enough about that.

I never realized that as a voluntarily unemployed person, I would be so freaking busy.  Our house has become a weird version of Hoarders meets Pawn Stars.  This just won't do.  So, I'm on a major campaign to purge, it goes to charity, or it goes in the garage for hopefully a very lucrative garage sale.  The rest can be picked up by our local junk dealer to do with as he wishes.

However, the spouse sent me down to Key West to detail our HemiD for sale.  Yep, you heard correctly.  She's going on the market.  It'll take a while to sell her, but that will give us time to build the kitty for a bigger boat.

In between standing on my head detailing 'THE HEAD' and rubbing down every surface of the boat, I did take time to scout out the Key West Race Week set up and venture about town.

Being unemployed, for now, does not suck.

It ain't all about the restaurants

Sometimes its a good yummy grilled dog and some conch fritters and cheap Copa wine.  (I couldn't take pics of the Danger Dog (hot dog wrapped in Bacon, deep fried and served Chicago style or my regular grilled dog with all the fixings plus cheese) mainly because I was rapidly covered in all sorts of cheesy gooey mess.

Also, the fun loving owner of the Conch shack, thanks so much for the dogs!

Not as bad as I feared.

Good for absorbing alchol!

Not sure what the spouse was reading, but it was entertaining.

Dinghy Cruising

Not much wind, so we decided to goof off in the dinghy.  An extra application of sunscreen should have been applied, whoops.

Mostly around the surrounding channel and a quick buzz to the Navy marina (go away, Navy property, you must not see us playing on the beach and having cookouts)

Boat's name is Happyness. Don't look so happy.

Cruising through the mangroves.

Navy marina with their cookout area/beach over on the right.

Osprey family on a abandoned power line less than thrilled we were checking them out.

Pelican 1, Me 0

We decided to go out for a dinghy ride, which was quickly diverted back to the boat after a annoyed pelican (we had gotten to close to his piling evidently).

So, as he flew off he decided to release a payload and it was mostly on me.  In case you have never had a pelican crap on you, it's pretty much like being nailed with warm mayonnaise that smells like rotting fish.  Good times.

Of course, because I owe the spouse a few good chuckles, he took some pictures.  I had got most of the loveliness off my arms by the time he grabbed the camera.

I should be grateful I didn't get it smack in the kisser.

YUCK!

The Turtle Hospital in Marathon

In all the years we have been coming down to the Keys we have never stopped to take a tour of the turtle hospital.  We have often heard calls over the VHF when people are trying to get in touch with the Florida Parks and Wildlife due to injured turtles.

Visiting the hospital was a very interesting experience, and truly makes you more aware of who you are sharing the ocean with.  There are only 7 species of sea turtle in the world, and many of them are endangered. 

Some of the functions the hospital performs are surgery, laser surgery, rehabilitation, release and when all else fails humane euthanization.

To learn more about the Turtle Hospital of the Keys (there are many throughout the world), visit turtlehospital.org

The surgical suite.  There is a vet that donates his time to help the turtles.

Some of the patients in recovery, due to them being cold blooded reptiles, the anesthetic
procedure is a lot more complecated.

One of the patients in a recovery tank.

The permanent residents in the tidal tank.

BeBopping around on Bikes

We took the bikes out for some adventuring, it was nice to get the handlebars up and less pressure on my bruised hands.

Note to self: When visiting a botanical garden in the tropics, make sure to wear 10 gallons of DEET, I got demolished by noseeum bites.

Wasn't able to take pictures because they were closing early for Christmas and we got chased out.

However, just outside the gardens were these Cuban chugs. A testament to what lengths people will go to for a chance at the American Dream.