Key West - Yet Again!

February 18, 2012

We took another trip to Key West, this time in the car that we rented towards the end of our stay in Marathon.  A car is expensive, but so much easier to restock provisions, refill propane, etc.  It also expands our entertainment options beyond those available by walking or taking the bus.

In that we had done most of the major tourist destinations in Key West on previous trips, this was a very laid-back visit.

We started by going to Cafe Moka, a nice coffee shop on the south end of Duval St. We grabbed our favorite table near the street (sound like we have been there before?) to people watch on Duval Street.

Next we went to the southern-most point, a major photo-op location.  At these types of places I often try to get a picture of people taking pictures, which is harder than you would think.  This is my best shot; if only the woman in the black and white dress had been a little farther to the right.  If you look closely you may be able to see that the woman taking the picture is holding two devices side-by-side; the two girls cell phones perhaps?

Then we walked to the West Martello Tower, an old fort that has been taken over by the Key West Garden club.  It is another great place to hang out.  This is view of the beach from a shady bench on one of the high points of the fort:

After all this excitement, why not visit the cemetery. As is true in many island locations, most of the burials are in above ground crypts.

If I were to buried in Key West, I would want one of the sites with a little roof;  it would be much more comfortable in the hot summer sun don't you think?

We saw a few memorable headstones. Since the writing may be hard to read on the pictures,  I will transcribe some.

In memory of Thomas Rohmer.

Born in Nassau N.P 1783

Died at Key West Fla Sept 8th 1891

Aged 108 years

A privateersman in the war of 1812

A good citizen for 65 years

To our beloved Sir Knight

Wm. H. Edgar

Eminent Commander of Baron Commandry No 3

We don't know what these titles mean.  Also check out the symbol higher on the tombstone below - looks like a skull and cross-bones to us.  Anyone want to reseach this?

A missionary from England.  Died at age 31 - how sad.

And our favorite:

God is indeed good to us as well!

Tom

Marathon

Monroe County, FL

Dolphin Research Center, Marathon

February 15, 2012

Although we have spent quite a bit of time on boat maintenance and getting ready for the next portion of our trip, we have done some fun things including going to the Dolphin Research Center http://www.dolphins.org/.  This center has only dolphins that were born in captivity or for some reason had to be taken out of the wild and treated and kept in captivity.  None of them would be able to survive on their own in the wild.  This is the place where they advertise that you can swim with the dolphins.  We chose the General Admission which allows you to see the dolphins in their pods and go to any of the presentations that are done during the day.

We did attend two presentations, one about babies and the other which was a show of the juvenile females interacting with some of the people who had chosen to get personal with the dolphins.  The presentation on babies was a good place to start, since it not only taught us about the babies, but it also gave us some of the inside scoop related to the Center.  One thing we learned was that each mum chooses another female to act as a nanny for her child.  This helps the mum with the work of raising the baby dolphin and it helps to mentor the nanny for when she has a child.  Also, when the dolphin is first born, the umbilical cord snaps and this is the signal that the baby needs to go up and take its first breath.  At that point, the baby doesn't really know how to breath, so the mum has to teach it to slap its upper body on the water.  This allows the baby to breathe until it learns where its blowhole is and that it doesn't need to bring its whole upper body out of the water to take a breath.

The inside scoop included the fact that the juvenile males (who had been in two pods separating the older ones from the younger ones) had broken down the 'fence' that separated them, so they were all together now.  There was now a struggle to determine who were the dominate males, and part of this included raking which is essentially scratching the others and leaving what looked like tattoos on their hide.  The hide is very tough and thick, so these rakings did not draw blood (and would heal in a short period of time) but they did cause many people (who had not heard the story) to be concerned for their welfare.

We happened upon a couple things that were really more interesting than the presentations and  shows.  The first was a trainer performing an 'enrichment' excercise with the juvenile females.  In these excercises the dolphins are exposed to new objects and experiences. 

The juveniles were Gypsi and Cayo who were 5 or 6 years old, and Luna who was only two. 

Gypsi







Cayo



Luna

Juveniles normally stay with their mum until they are between 2 and 7, depending on the temperments of both the mum and the baby.  Luna, being very inquisitive, left her mother when she was 1 1/2, and she was definitely the most adventuresome of the three juveniles.  The trainer was trying to introduce a squirt gun which would also blow bubbles.  Luna was the first to actually go up and touch it, and she loved to have water squirted at her.  None of the 'girls' liked the bubbles.  Luna was fairly new to this pod, and the interactive show proved to be a bit difficult because she had bonded with Cayo and wanted to do everything with Cayo.  Because of this, we were able to see a 'time out', to try to settle down the three juveniles.

On the other end of the age spectrum, we saw a very experienced trainer working with Molly, who is 50 years old. 

Molly

The trainer held up a toy, and two assistants held up toys, one being the same and the other different.  The goal was for Molly to point at the two that were the same.  She had about a 60 - 70% success rate.  When someone asked how Molly was doing with the training, the response was that she was doing well considering that she is 50.  It's true also in the dolphin world that you can't teach an old dog new tricks.

If you ever visit the Florida Keys, the Dolphin Research Center is definitely worth a visit.  We have seen many dolphins in the wild, and we love every minute, but we also enjoyed learning more about them and why they act the way they do in certain circumstances.

Joyce

Marathon

Monroe County, Florida

Frozen Seacock

While enjoying the great weather here in Marathon, we had to wrestle with a frozen seacock.

Notice - Experienced boaters can skip the following paragraph:

A seacock is a heavy bronze valve that allows you to close a thruhull on a boat.  A thruhull is exactly what it sounds like, a hole thru the hull.  Thruhulls can be most importantly classified as above or below the waterline.   If a hose connected to a below the waterline thruhull fails, in the absence of a workable seacock, water will enter and in fairly short order sink the boat.  Seacocks are very important.  A picture of a seacock follows:

The seacock in question is on a 1 1/2" thruhull below the waterline through which our sewage is discharged after going through our Electro Scan marine sanitation device.  Simply put, it is a mini sewage treatment plant.  But the Florida Keys are a 'No Discharge Zone' in which no waste can be discharged treated or otherwise - very stupid rule IMHO.  In this configuration all our waste goes into a holding tank to be later pumped out into a sewer system (which in the Keys is a whole other story).

However, being compliant law abiding people, we shut down the Electro Scan and closed its discharge seacock.  Last week I (Tom) wanted to flush it out more thoroughly and went to open the seacock. No go - it would not budge - it was frozen closed.

Now being frozen closed is better than being frozen open because the above boat sinking scenario is less likely, but it does, however, render our Electro Scan inoperative.

Fixing this problem is complicated by the fact that if you removed the seacock with the boat in the water, the boat would sink. In the worst case, you need to haul the boat out the water to fix the valve, not an easy or inexpensive task on a 23,000 pound boat.

So after a little internet reseach, I pulled the hose from the discharge side of the valve, removed a drain plug (no water leak with the valve closed) and began to bathe the innards of the valve with a product called PB Blaster (on the label - 'as seen on TV').  It usually takes a day of so to work, so religously each morning I tapped lightly on the valve and tried to open it up - no luck for over a week.

We had almost given up and were ready to schedule a haulout, when without much hope, I again repeated my morning ritual of tapping and trying to open the valve.  Totally unexpectedly, it cracked open!!!

At this point a small amount of water was leaking from the drain hole.  My mind refused to shut the valve - for crying out loud it had been stuck for over a week.  I quickly analyzed the situation- if I open the valve completely, the water will not be able to come out the 3/8" drain.  Even the slow-witted reader will identify the weakness in this 'plan' - remember the hose I removed from the 1 1/2" outlet of the valve.

Well opening the valve stopped the small leak from the drain, but water began to gush from the outlet. Then I finally conceded to closing the valve, but not before several gallons of oily water filled the bottom of some of our storage compartments.

Well the story ends well.  After reattaching the hose, and applying some grease through the drain plug, the valve works fine. 

Moral to the story: 

• PB Blaster is great stuff, although it make take longer than you think; 
• If you try to open a valve, always assume it will open, regardless of past history.

Tom
S/V Barefoot
Docked in Marathon, FL

Key West - Truman Little White House

January 31, 2012

We took yet another trip to Key West from Marathon - this time by bus and staying overnight in a B&B.

The Lower Keys bus is quite a bargain at $4 for which you can ride between Marathon and Key West or anywhere in between. It is, however, a typical bus route and the stops and side tracks turn a trip of less than an hour into almost a 2-hour trip.  On our trip back, the bus was filled to capacity, primarily with people who work in Key West but live further up the Keys (it is very expensive to live in Key West).

Our visit was very laid-back, with a lot of time hanging out in gardens or coffee houses just relaxing.

Our primary tourist activity was a tour of Harry Truman's Little White House (http://www.trumanlittlewhitehouse.com/).  The tour far exceeded our expectations.  Jimmy, our tour guide, is a native Conch (born in Key West) and as a 12 year old paperboy, tried to sell Truman a newspaper on one of his daily walks through town.  Jimmy had many entertaining stories about Truman and Key West.

The house was exceptionally accessible, nothing was cordoned off by velvet ropes, etc.  It was very interesting to stand next to the bed he slept in or the desk he used while in Key West.  One of the things that really interested me (Tom), was that on the back of the famous 'The buck stops here' sign, it read 'I'm from Missouri'.

We were very impressed, both by the numerous very important decisions that Truman had to make (most notably dropping the atomic bomb on Japan) and by what a humble and down-to-earth person he was.  Truman was Roosevelt's running mate for his fourth term and became President when FDR died less than three months into the term.  This really highlights the fact that, during an election year, we do need to consider the credentials of the Vice President, and that they should not be treated as a figurehead.

Truman loved to play the piano, in fact he once said that "My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth, there’s hardly any difference".  Once when he was vice president he was coaxed into playing the piano at a Press Club function.  Somehow, a 19 year old Lauren Bacall ended up sitting on the piano showing off her long legs.  A very famous photograph of the scene is somewhat reminiscent of a piano player in a house of ill repute.  When his wife, Bess, saw the picture she said that it was an inappropriate image for the Vice President of the United States.  In deference to his wife, he never again played the piano in public during his time in office.

When his second term was complete, Eisenhower offered to fly Harry and his family back to Independence, Missouri on Air Force One.  Harry declined the offer saying he was no longer in office and didn't deserve any special treatment.  He bought a regular public ticket for himself and his family and rode the train back home.

After his term as president, he had many offers for jobs and other engagements which he declined.  "It isn't me you want," he told them. "It's the presidency, and that doesn't belong to me. It belongs to the people."

After our tour, we both felt that what we need in Washington today, is more men and women like Harry Truman!

Tom
Marathon
Monroe County, FL