#38 Wasting away…

Another week in Margaritaville..

I realize it’s only been a few days since our last post, but I have pictures to share! And stories to tell. (And we are pinned down for maybe 24 hours by high winds and rain as a front passes over us.) No worries, we won’t overload your inbox. We’re having fun doing them, and hopefully some people are enjoying them.

A guy could get used to this. It is a slower pace here, for sure, in many ways. Walking everywhere lets you slow down in such a refreshing way. You get to really see everything as you pass by, unlike when you are in a car and the world zooms by while you look through glass, as if it’s all projected on a screen. Sure, car travel can be enjoyable, but this. This is elemental, earthy, it feels natural like walking on grass or on a warm sandy beach with bare feet. Which we did the other day. The scooters are a lot like walking and at 13 mph are convenient, simple, effective and fun. We used them last night to go to a docktails gathering, where we met new Loopers and reconnected with some folks we had run into before, including Bobcat, Ohm Sweet Ohm, Salty Mitten, Enchanted Circle, Roam, and Summer Breeze.

We walked down and watched a cruise ship come in the other day. Interesting to see a floating skyscraper, lying on its side so that it’s long rather than tall, come in to dock while little boats scurry around it, catching dock lines and pushing it into place. Looks like a queen ant, attended to by her minions.

Speaking of big boats, we are surrounded by 100 footers. Just to pick one, ZIGGY, parked just off our starboard side. 116 feet, built in 2021 in Taiwan, 10 guests, 5 crew, fuel capacity 5000 gallons. 5000 gallons means it costs around $20,000 to fill ‘er up. With two MAN diesels rated at around 2000 horsepower, and burning around 200 to 250 gallons per hour at 20 mph, (that’s 12.5 gallons per mile), it costs about $1000 to move 20 miles. The owners, the Zeiglers, started with one Ford dealership when he was 28 and now own 35 dealerships across four states. (I should have gotten into the car business, perhaps.) You can charter one of these for around $150,000 a week. Plus tips and fuel.

Beginning to look at weather windows, we’ve got to catch a couple of calm days to make our next jump but the fronts have been coming frequently. We’re only moving 35 miles this next jump, up to Bahia Honda State Park for a few days. Not that this compares to weather at home, with “polar vortexes” and “bomb cyclones” and “2000 mile wide potential catastrophic snow”. Sheesh. They no longer just tell you it’s going to get cold, they have to scare you at the same time.

One of the most rewarding and fun things about all this is the teamwork with Cheryl. She keeps the ship, well, shipshape, notwithstanding the times I dump the clean laundry in the ocean, organizes the social aspects, and keeps us organized in so many ways. That skill and passion of hers has made this far more easy and enjoyable than it might have been. We have laughed till our eyes watered at some of the absurdities of boat life. And let me tell you, there are a few!

The photos and videos keep piling up, so much to see and take pictures of that I can’t keep up. But here’s a few. The band is one we like, they play around the island on a regular schedule. The places they play are bars/restaurants, kind of like “Open Chord” in Knoxville, but here you can have supper on the boat and walk to a show, then stagger walk home after some music and several a couple of drinks. At home you have to plan for traffic, drive, park, have a designated driver, and commute for 20 minutes each way. Not here. I kinda like this island life thing.

Take a look at those boats rocking. Imagine 24 hours of that, trying to cook, sleep, read, watch TV. That’s one of the absurdities I mentioned. 🙂

They had a casting call at the end of the dock the other day for this TV show, based on a novel by Carl Hiaasen, (if you’re not familiar, give him a try, he’s one of my favorites) but unfortunately for us they only wanted locals.

The view from the top of the Pirate Museum Tower is great.

We rented a golf cart and had a beach day.

The cruise ships now are so big you can’t even get the whole thing in a photo.

Some of these gift shops here are just amazing. One has giant pieces of art, with price tags in the tens of thousands. I did not buy anything, although I saw some cool stuff!

There is a great restaurant hidden in those trees, BO’s Fishwagon. See the dragon?

That’s Dan, the previous owner of our boat, and new friends Arch and Melissa from M&A, just down the dock from us.

And a photo of Jimmy Buffet’s old recording studio, taking up prime real estate right on the waterfront. No wonder there’s a battle over it.

https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/jimmy-buffett-recording-studio-key-west-c5c666bc?st=ygYnDa

A sailboat that somehow managed to run into the seawall hard enough to hole and sink the boat.

The giant cat that lives on the houseboat next to us.

There are neat hidden garden paths all over, leading to private residences and back yards.

Fish hanging around the boat, hiding from Buddy the shark.

And some manatees off the dock wall.

“Languor is underrated. It is not possible to be immobile in modern urban society except by dint of constant effort. Holding on tightly to the riverbank and fighting the current is not languor. Nobody likes that. But bone-lazy idleness, hours and hours spent staring at the sky and remembering books and birthdays and great kisses; this is pure pleasure that eludes the productive in all their confident superiority. Languor is sunny and hot.”