March 4 - It all started with "Jim, have you ever seen a boat sink?" I'm getting ahead of the story so we will have to work up to that one.

Four or five days ago we looked at the calendar and figured out pretty quickly that our time in Key West was almost over. We had just taken Julie, a friend of Anna's, out for an afternoon sail and then we figured out we needed to get the boat ready to head north. I had been putting off removing the motor mounts on the engine so I could grind out a little on each bolt hole so we would have more adjustment for the engine alignment. The picture of one of the motor mounts is to the right. It is hard to see but it is the thing under the hoses at the bottom. You have probably figured out that it is no easy task to remove these. I'll make it short here because I am going to write up the entire procedure for all Gemini people in about a week. When I got the front two mounts out, I looked at them and I didn't think they were good enough to put back in and trust them up to the Chesapeake. So I took them over to a friends boat who has much more experience in these things than I do and he agreed. Next was the "easy" task of picking up some new ones. I took them to the local marine dealer and he couldn't get them, I called the local Westerbeke dealer who wasn't there (thank goodness) and then called Engines One and talked to their Parts Manager. What I found out was the engine mounts listed in the Westerbeke book aren't the ones used in the Gemini. Probably everyone in the world knows this except me (I'll bet not!) but the good news is I called the right people and new ones are on the way but it will take a week for them to arrive in Key West. So, I had to put them back in otherwise I would have the front of the engine hanging off of the main sheet for a week. What if another storm came and I needed the engine? That was why everything went back together. It is also why I will write up the procedure in a week when I have actually done it all.

Ultimately, we started making progress again and then the stern was coming up so much that we were all sitting on the back trying to bring it down. Arno had to switch the pump to the bow and put a smaller pump in the stern to get the rest of the water out of the boat. We finally figured out why it sank after we pumped enough water out. First it was the rain water that you would have though would have been pumped out by the bilge pump. Problem was, the bilge pump was stolen and the hose for the pump was cut. Yep, that is one of the holes we had to plug letting water in the boat. The entire process took three hours and I'll bet we were only five minutes from the boat being on the bottom. I don't like boats sinking because they will put pollution into the ocean so I guess I'm still trying to be a good guy but this time I didn't almost die trying. (See the past log where I tried to save another boat. It is the December 27th entry towards the end.)

This time I got to meet Arno and he is a really nice guy. He will probably receive nothing for his efforts unless he ends up owning this derelict boat and that wouldn't be compensation.

You can see from the pictures below we ended working into the early evening before the successful conclusion.

By the way, the boat is still floating.

I don't know how many of you got to see the lunar eclipse last night but it was really cool. We had been invited with a number of other cruisers over to Tom and Susan's boat. You might remember that it is the BIG one. As we were just starting to serve ourselves dinner from the potluck, the moon began to rise and it was in total eclipse. Just too cool. The last one was 3 years ago and here we are in Key West on the water enjoying this one with new cruisers. Last month we made mention that Dave and Betsy were our first cruising friends and we have having a blast meeting more and more people. The night was spent eating, drinking a bit too, and talking of where everyone was going next. Several people are leaving after this front moves through today, Sunday, for Mexico and then further south.

Well thanks to time delays in the digital cameras and multiple shots, we did get a group picture. There are two couples here from Canada in addition the rest of us from the States. Of course when you bring people together with a common interest it always makes a great night. It sometimes is even better with a little wine or at least I should say it gets louder as the night rolls on.

Thanks again to Tom and Susan for being such great hosts on Juanita.

We will be at anchor watch today because of the front that is moving through. This is the same front that all the tornadoes came out of up north. Fortunately, it seems to have decreased significantly so there should only be 20 knots or so of wind with some gusts and may build a bit more tonight. Something we both laughed about today was we think of 20 knots or so with gusts as not a bad front! I guess we are getting more experience.

I've updated our budget page and you can read about it here. For the rest of today, I have to get our tax stuff ready to go and then next week we will be back to finishing preparations for the boat so we can leave on the 15th "ish" based on the weather. We will be hoping for another front so we can make it east. As you might know, with the trade winds from the east, we have to pick our window for leaving.

Bottom line is we are running out of stuff to write about down here so it is time for us to move north. By the way, I'm not interested in saving another boat for your reading pleasure.

 March 7 - We spent most of the last 2 days on the boat with the winds. They actually weren't as bad as two weeks ago and only got up to 20-25 knots. We set up an appointment day before yesterday to have our taxes completed so Deb decided to go with me for the bike ride. We both wore our rainsuits for the dinghy ride in and out. Overall it wasn't as bad as I have been in before and we didn't take on water getting back out.

Yesterday we went in to do laundry, pretty exciting stuff we are doing isn't it, and when we returned we decided at about 3:30 we would throw a few lures. We had heard the fishing was improving so why not find out. (And I thought I was out of things to write about!) We started by catching a couple of small grouper which we kept in hopes we would have enough for dinner. We found by experimentation the location of an old wreck within casting distance so we fished that with our jigs and the fish started getting bigger. Deb would catch one and then tell me she couldn't reel it in so I would go up front and reel it in. Sometimes it would wrap up in the wreck and break off. At that time I would give Deb my pole and go back to tie on another lure. Of course before I finished or as I was finishing, it would all start again. We broke off on four fish after landing seven and we really had enough fish. However, I decided to get a bigger rod with bigger line and see if I could catch one of the fish that was breaking us off. I caught and landed, with Deb's help on the gaff, the snowy grouper you see to the right that measured 26 inches long. This was the biggest we caught with 3 others being very respectable fish. Tom and Susan stopped by and after we talked for awhile and Tom caught a couple of small groupers, we went over to Tom's boat where we cleaned the mess of fish and of course had a fresh fish dinner. The fish was excellent I don't think you can get it much fresher.

The other good news is my motor mounts have shipped and should be in sometime today. We have plans for the afternoon so at worst case I should be able to pick them up tomorrow morning and get the front mounts installed before we get into more exciting things like taking Jimmy Buffett (our bird) to get his wings trimmed. Who knows, perhaps there are still stories in Key West.

The next day, I got my engine mounts in and installed. For anyone interested, I have created a separate page outlining the procedure since it would bore anyone but Gemini owners. Click here if interested.

Bottom line is I am very happy with the result! Thanks again to Engines 1 and Performance Cruising (Will.)

We then took Pat and Paul out to see the Legacy. You can see that they are in the process of setting something up so they can remove the beached Legacy from the position it has assumed. We won't see it removed since we are leaving on Thursday, we hope if weather cooperates. Key West has provided us with great entertainment, the opportunity to get into cruising and a place to host our many guests.

We will finish up this week getting everything ready to leave and then we will start up the East Coast on a very slow exploring trip. Although are ready to leave Key West, we are also very comfortable here knowing where everything is and having made a large number of friends. While we have enjoyed Key West, it is time for us to resume our cruising.

For those following our progress, things are about to get more exciting with new anchorages and places to visit.