Monday April 1: Leaving Banana Bay

Today is finally the day to leave Banana Bay. The weather forecast is good for the next few days so after we fuel up this morning, we'll start our journey up the coast of Florida.

But first, the trip to Key West on Saturday. It was a great weather day and with Frank and Valerie offering a ride on their boat to Key West (instead of the $1.50 bus) it was time to go!

Our cruising speed was 45 mph - mostly the same as the speed limits on the roads going to Key West. We passed both places we had spent a night in our boat but instead of it taking over an hour to get there, it took us only 10 minutes!



Shortly after an hour we were approaching the marina at Key West - probably about 55 miles by water.

I was quite surprised how smooth the ride was. Somehow I thought with the 1 - 3 foot waves on the ocean side that we would roll, bounce, pound - SOMETHING other than the relatively smooth ride we had.

Don't get me wrong - I wouldn't want to travel like that all the time. I'm quite happy with our slow 8 mph :-) Frank really had to focus on the path ahead as the crab pots came up much quicker going 45 mph than they do at our 8 mph! He handled the boat well.

Frank and Valerie agreed to join us for lunch and then we said our goodbye's. They will be returning to Banana Bay today but not until late afternoon.

Next on the agenda was the Conch Train tour of Key West.

I feel like we've been on it enough to give the tour ourselves but it was still fun and the guide we had was one of the best.

Although it's a 90-minute tour, the time really passes quickly and it's a great way to get an overview of the city and the history of it as well.

Peter and Cheryl had been to Key West last year but didn't take the train tour - this time they missed nothing including souvenir t-shirts from the Hog's Breath Saloon :-)

Time to head back. So we're waiting at the bus stop about 5:30 or so as I'm watching the bus approach on their web site. Finally the real bus turns the corner at about 5:30 and the sign on it reads "Out of Service" - what the????

Apparently the bus had stopped at 5:05 pm and the next one was due in at 8:35. Really???? So what were we to do but go back to Duval Street and find some dinner. We ended up at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville restaurant. Good food and music so all was well. (I had nightmares that night about how this poor planning had happened!)

Still we had time to kill so Steve being the nice person he is walked all around until he found a place that sold cards!

It was Euchre on the post office brick wall until the bus was finally due. (I shouldn't say but the guys won with a great comeback :-(  )

Late arrival back to the marina at 10:30 or so. Definitely not the plan of the day but it was still fun nonetheless.


Yesterday was spent enjoying the last day here with a quick kayak ride and last minute shopping. Bikes are on the flybridge, kayaks are now stowed and off we go :-)