Captain’s Log – Thu 5/22/25
It’s been a whirlwind trip to Key West! We arrived midafternoon Tuesday at Galleon Marina, stopping first at the fuel dock for 12.3 gallons of diesel. Just as we were checking in, we saw our friends from the St Pete Sailing Association leaving on Bumbugo. They were heading home after the Bone Island Regatta which is a race from Sarasota to Key West. We got the AC running as soon as we got to the dock. It was 97 degrees and took several hours to cool down the boat. We put up the shade tarps to help it out. Then it was time to cool off at the tiki bar.
We eventually worked our way up Duval St to Margaritaville where I had a cheeseburger in paradise along with several boat drinks. Cheers Jimmy! We’ve been living out the songs you wrote!
We then continued our crawl around Duval St, making many new friends. I find the t-shirt shops absolutely hilarious here.
The old Smokin Tuna is now The Alamo. Definitely not as fun as Smokin Tuna was, which I understand is moving to a new location. But it was a Tuesday…
Alicia wasn’t a fan of Hog’s Breath which is one of my fav’s for live music, so headed over to finish the night at Sloppy Joe’s with a very fun young crowd, dancing the night away until the wee hours.
We finally found our homing beacon to get us back to the boat
On Wednesday we got up for Key West morning which is just a bit before noon. 😆 We went to tour the Hemingway Pilar Distillery. I tried to tour it the last time I was in KW but it got cut short as the electrician showed up to fix an issue on the boat. I highly recommend the tour, it covers the history of rum, pirates and Hemingway with his canteen of rum. There is a speakeasy in the back which seemed like a good place to stay out of the afternoon heat. Did I mention it feels like a 100 something here?
The must stop place for us is Blue Heaven. We’ve been going there for what we’re thinking is about 17 years, give or take. Math is hard in Key West. 😆 Banana Bread Foster for dessert, need we say more?
Back on Duval St, we ran into my crew member Kelsey with the Crew of Wings from Davis Island which actually won the Bone Island Regatta. They were heading out to dinner so we steered them to Blue Heaven.
We were a bit late for sunset. The famous Mallory Square is condemned. We caught the tail end back at our marina. We were fading fast after last night’s Duval Crawl and the early start at the distillery so called it an early night.
After brunch on Thursday, we had to get the boat ready to head home and hit the grocery store. Tomorrow will be an 80nm passage to Marco Island. That’s a long day, probably 14 or 15 hours depending on the wind. Must take it easy tonight and get some rest.
After a melting walk down the boardwalk, we had cocktails on Wings with our friends for happy hour before going to dinner. We opted for somewhere air conditioned instead of the usual open air restaurants. It was 100 something again. Definitely time to head back north to the refuge of our pool and air conditioning.
✌️❤️⛵️
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