#35 Key West!!!!!

Butch: We are here! After something approaching 2000 miles of boat travel since Knoxville, (I’m too tired to add it up right now), we are here. We’re both happy to be here and also happy to stay somewhere for a while, we have reservations for a month, and we feel both exhausted and elated. (I would like to point out that we had reservations here in KW starting January 10th, and even with our one month delay, we were only one day late.) So this will be short, just a photo collection from Clearwater or so to here. More writing (and pictures) to come when we are rested up and have explored the town. It is way cool to be back here by boat again, it’s been a lot of years since I rounded that outer channel marker and came to Key West. More later!

Cheryl: We had an incredible visit in Venice. In addition to the people I mentioned in our last update, we also met up with Maria & Vince, Denise & Greg, Debbie P, Deb O, Norma & Ira, and John & Barbara. So happy to spend some time with them all. It was sad to leave but new adventures awaited us, so off we went.

We anchored out at a beautiful stop in Pelican Bay for a night then headed into Ft Myers. What an awesome location! Our marina was right on Ft Myers Beach and just steps from bars, restaurants, shops, the beach, and a cute little farmers market. Butch’s friends (who have Looped twice), Dennis and Dana picked us up in their brand new truck and took us out to dinner and to Walmart (always a welcomed stop!)

Butch promised to move heaven and Earth for he, he’s doing it one concrete block at a time (see photo). His efforts have been greatly appreciated. And while we’re at it, check out that Scooter video…let’s make it go viral!!! It took him forever to learn his lines! hahahaha

We left Ft Myers after two short days then sailed to Marco Island. We filled up with fuel (see our Go Fund Me page…just kidding- kind of) and rested up for our next Gulf Crossing.

This crossing was 105 miles of beautiful open water but not as far off shore as our last crossing. For the first half of the trip, the seas were smooth as glass. Swells and chop picked up during the second half of our voyage. Crab pots were the order of the day. Dodging them is like driving a car 20mph in a parking lot while trying to avoid cracks in the concrete. Those darned pots are everywhere and dodging them is a strenuous hours-long game of cat and mouse. But, overall we couldn’t have asked for a better travel day!

(Butch here. When we get home I’m going to scatter crab pot buoys in Cheryl’s driveway so she can relive the experience.)

We arrived this afternoon in Key West only one day late for our original reservation! With all that we’ve experienced, I find that amazing. We are now snugged (and I mean that LITERALLY- see video) into our slip. Getting me on and off the boat is a team effort (see same video) but we’ll try to rectify that in the next couple of days. I’ve recommended a zip line, Butch is still debating that one.

We’ve already hooked up with friends Dan and Loretta who sold us our boat. They have a new and very impressive ride that they live on in Key West each winter.

Butch lived on his sailboat in Key West for a few months at various times in his life so is excited to show me his old stomping grounds. I’m ready and totally excited. The fun continues!! Wish you were all here!

A shout out to all our new Looper buddies on Potomitan, Lake Effect, and Barefoot Get Aweigh. Safe travels!

“For this indeed is the main source of our ignorance- the fact that our Knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite.” Sir Karl Popper