Race Week in Key West

This week was race week in Key West which if you can believe it actually turns the town even crazier - not being racers or even sailors ourselves didn't stop us for a minute (did you actually think it would??) One of the days earlier this week (we really don't keep track of the days), we headed into town with the Muircu crew Brett and Jill to check out the festivities. We started at Irish Kevins to see our friend Bil Krauss who gave Brett endless amounts of grief over his hat and festive shirt.....guess there weren't enough tourists in town for him to bust on (although we were all taking bets on how long the girl from the cruise ship beside us was going to remain vertical - not too long was our collective conclusion and it was only about 1:00 in the afternoon!!!)

Bil Krauss at Irish Kevin's

The Gang at Irish Kevin's

From there we grabbed a quick $1 beer from Guy Harveys on our way to BO's Fish Wagon for seriously good fish sandwiches - yes it looks like a haven for homeless people but it actually has great food!!

BO's Fish Wagon

The Gang Eating Sandwiches at BO's

We strolled the race week tents and booths which were just getting up and running, passed a signpost telling us exactly how far away from Portland, ME we were (as if the 80 degree temps in January weren't enough of a reminder!!)

Portland, ME 1768 miles

and walked the docks (after a short detour into Schooner Wharf to hear Michael McCloud - of course) We wound up seeing Tom Weaver on his boat which was docked at the AB Marina in a seriously prime location. In addition to being an amazing sailor, Tom designs and builds Eastport boats so was there showing off his latest design - a 32 footer. Of course we joined him on board for several coldies because after all, people are more interested in buying a boat if they see people having fun on it - so reluctantly we obliged and had to share a few cocktails with Tom (he only had to run out once for more beer!!!) What a seriously beautiful boat and from what we hear a fish magnet to boot (Tom took the new owner out fishing last week and caught among other things 16 tuna when no one else in the marina caught anything!!!!)

The Gang on Tom's Eastport 32

The next day we decided to pseudo participate in race week by taking Gypsies out for a spin - the weather was finally picture perfect - light winds, calm seas and warm!!! So with the crew of Muircu we eased Gypsies out of her slip for the first time in a month (yippee was she happy - although the Bootser was not - she eventually curled up on the settee to sleep her way through the day!)

Bootsie Sleeps Through Our Excursion on Gypsies

and headed out beyond the reef for several hours of trolling with visions of fresh mahi and tuna dancing in our heads. Alas such was not to be - not even a nibble - Tom later told us we had to go out a bit further to find the fish - good to know for next time!!!

Doug and Brett Discuss Boating After They Failed at Fishing

Jill Enjoys the Pleasures of Powerboating

Not wanting to head in we brought Gypsies inside the reef and anchored where we could see the races - we wound up near one of the race turns and then right at the finish line for the last race of the day for Tom and Regan's division! There truly are few more spectacular sights than a group of sailboats out on the sparkling turquoise water flying their colors!!!!

Let the Races Begin

Flying Colors

More Flying Colors

Not wanting the festivities to end after successfully steering Gypsies back to her slip (no mean feat with the shallow channel and currents!), we headed topsides for an improvised cocktail party!

Post Cruise Cocktails, a Long Time Tradition on Gypsies

No sooner had we sat down with our first coldie of the day when word spread around the dock that there was a sunset party on the top of Coconuts (our friends Louis and Terry try to have Wednesday sunset parties when the weather cooperates because the top of their deck is so high you are above the mango trees and the views of the sunset are unbelievable!!!)

Some of Our Dock Mates at the Sunset Party - Sonya, John and Shawna
Sunset from the Deck of Coconuts

The first time we meet the Coconuts crew we found out not only were they from Maine but they were good friends with some folks we knew up in Islesboro who also have a house down here in KW, Marni and Roger Heinen. We hatched a plan to surprise them with the fact we knew each other so they were invited to the sunset party and we all had a good laugh when they saw us - it continues to amaze me sometimes what a truly small world we live in!!!

The Sunset Cocktail Party on Coconuts - Roger and Marni are in the Middle

Because it's been so cool and windy down here the past several weeks we haven't had much chance to go see Scott and Dave play so our dock gang remedied that on Thursday night. Just after a spectacular sunset,

Sunset from the Deck of Gypsies

the gang all headed down to the sunset pier where we wound up meeting up with Tom and Regan and Brooke, one of the original "wicked sisters" Scott wrote a song about (but not before we passed this classic car which somehow seemed to fit right in with the vibe of KW - half class/half pimpmobile!)

A Purple Classic Car

Scott and Dave were great as always

Scott and Dave

and even got Tom and Regan out there to dance (seriously Tom was the poster child for white men can't dance but we gave him lots of credit for having fun out there!!!)

Tom and Regan Dancing

Part of the Gang at the Sunset Pier

The Rest of the Gang

A Bunch of the Race Week Group at the Sunset Pier

No night can really end in KW at 10 so off we went with Scott, Dave, Brooke, Tom, Regan and our dock gang to Hogs Breath for some key lime pie shooters (or a taste of heaven in a little plastic glass as one of our dockmates Sonya was heard to utter) - with some rocking music by DeBlois Milledge the gang all rocked it until it was time to head back to the SIG (short for our Stock Island Ghetto)!!

Yesterday after more fun and games (or in our case errands and boat chores) the boat crowd took over the pool and hung for the afternoon in water which resembled a spa treatment - it was so relaxing that we were hard pressed to come to a decision on how to spend the evening. That's easy - party on Gypsies!!!!

Cocktail Party on Gypsies

We had a great night up on the flybridge while all around us the fishing boats came in for the weekend kingfish tournament based out of our marina - we're talking serious fishing boats (many with three or four 300+ hp engines!!!) Then it was on to Hogfish, a local Stock Island open air eatery down on the water for some seriously good fish tacos and salads (and of course a couple pitchers of Blue Moon!) Man it's a good thing this place has a health club - now if we'd only use it more often!!!

Dinner at Hogfish Bar & Grill

Today we are headed out with Brett and Jill to sail on their friend Ron's big sailboat - yippee another day out on the water!!! As Brett has mentioned, we're all boat whores - we'll go out on anything (sail, power, trawler, kayak, you name it!) The key is to be out on the water and down here in KW it's all about the water!! (and of course the music!!)

It's All About the Music

One of the things that we love so much about Key West is that music is everywhere - and a lot of it is really, really good!!! Blues to bluegrass, rock to "trop rock" (think Buffett and his many wannabes and copycats), jazz to country and pretty much everything in between can be heard streaming out from local open air bars, park bandstands, concert halls and even impromptu sidewalk performances. There is almost always someone playing around town to satisfy every kind of musical taste. The other night we had the unbelievable experience of seeing Peter Mayer perform at the Studios of Key West which is a local center for the arts in the old armory building. Along with 200 other fans, we were treated to an evening of just awesome music - for those of you who don't know who Peter Mayer is, he is the lead guitarist for Jimmy Buffett's Coral Reefer band - but don't let that fool you!!!! The evening was not a knock off of Buffett tunes - Peter is an amazing musician in his own right and when on his own, he sports a more folksy type of music which reflects his early influences of being born in India.

We've seen Peter play before among other places up in New Hampshire when he did a Hurricane Katrina relief concert with our friend Scott Kirby - once again this had a relief aspect to it in that he donated the proceeds of his cd sales to the Haitian relief effort. Our friends Brett and Jill had never seen Peter or really heard of his music outside of Buffett so they were in for a real treat. After a wonderful Cuban dinner at a local hole in the wall cafe (which abound down here and are usually pretty authentic...meaning great food!!),

The Cuban Restaurant

we spent the next 2 1/2 hours listening to Peter's amazing music - he has just come out with a new cd with his brother Jim (also a guitarist in the Coral Reefer band) where he picked his top 15 or so Beatles tunes, dusted them off and gave them a new lease on life (I know this is heresy but I'm not a huge Beatles fan (I was always the rebel who loved the Stones) but even I was blown away by his renditions of their songs!!!)

Peter Mayer at the Studios of Key West

Our friend Scott, fresh off his gig at the Sunset Pier, showed up to play several songs he co-wrote with Peter and the place went wild!!

Peter Sang One Song...

Then Scott Sang a Song

If the night had ended there, it would have been a great evening but as is usual when we're out with Scott, the evening never ends that early (11:00 pm is an early evening down here!!) So off we went for nighttime cocktails at Louie's Backyard (Scott wrote a great song about Louie's called "My Cathedral" since it is this wonderful deck sitting right out over the water close to the southernmost point where you feel so close to the stars you could reach up and grab them!!) Scott and his wife Michelle showed up with some of their friends and you guessed it, Peter!! So we got to hang out with ... well, a real rock star...except that he is one of the nicest and most unassuming guys you could ever hope to meet. Super nice, super talented and gorgeous to boot - sometimes life just isn't fair!! Reinforcements showed up about 12:30 in the form of Tom Weaver and his wife Regan who are down here for race week (we're talking more than serious sailors - can you say America's Cup!) Tom's been down in KW for a week but Regan just pulled in that night after towing their race boat down from the Chesapeake so she was raring to go! We made it to about 1:30 am before reluctantly calling it a night (which after all we thought was pretty darn good especially since we had been out until 1 the night before at the tranny show!!!)

Saturday should have been a day of rest and recovery but there was too much happening around town - so we hopped on our bikes (yes we still don't have Doug's scooter yet...not going there) and headed into the KW Seafood Festival!! We ran into our dockmates John and Shawna and proceeded to have a ball

We Met Up With John and Shawna

- we wandered the local beer and seafood tents sampling the wares (we headed back to the beer tent several times because after all it was a hot day and we wanted to support the local economy (we're the local stimulus package)

We Wandered the Festival with John and Shawna

all the while listening to the cool sounds of a local band (which included Bubba Lowballs - well that's just our nickname for him after we saw much more of him than we ever wanted to on stage at the Wharf one afternoon! - why is it always me huh Bob and Stef???)

We Watched a Local Band Play

What a riot it was to watch the local dogs who were out in force drinking beer from their owners mugs (you regularly see dogs bellied up to the bars around here especially at Schooner Wharf) - ya gotta love KW!!!

This Little Long-hair Chihuahua Was Seen Drinking Beer Earlier

For some reason my picture taking ability seems to have shut down at this point as I realize I have no pictures after this point (I think it was just that I had to put my camera away in my backpack to ride down to the wharf and just forgot about it...yeah, yeah...that's it!) From there we hit happy hour at the Raw Bar down on the wharf - this is a huge find as they have 50 cent oysters and $6 pitchers of Shock Top!!! While imbibing at an outside table we were able to see the Saints game through the window and liked what we saw - John is a Ragin Cajun from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette so it's all about the Saints. I don't think they will ever be called the aints anymore after destroying the Cardinals!!! Go Saints - since the Pats are out, they're my team now - I'm on the bandwagon!!!

That evening we got to connect with DeFever boating friends of ours from Marathon, Robin and Jim Roberts of Adventures. Despite Robin's being slightly under the weather we had a great time catching up with those guys over some tasty Mexican at Salsa Loca to the music of Clint Bullard and the Indy game (we like Robin even though she is a hardcore Giants fan and admits to liking Peyton Manning - ugh - the things you put up with in the name of friendship!!) They were headed back to Marathon and were wonderful enough to toss our fold-up bikes in the trunk and drive us back to the marina - yippee!!! After making plans for many more KW excursions (the tranny show, seeing Scott perform, dinner at our yacht club, etc), we waved goodbye knowing we'd see each other again soon!! When we got back to Gypsies we were hanging out on the docks with the Muircu crowd when John and Shawna rolled in - they actually had to bike home - ugh!!

Sunday was finally a day of rest and relaxation - after all there was football to watch!! Bootsie was in heaven - mom and dad were going to play with her all day!

Bootsie Just Loves Football Day

Despite having to watch the Chargers and the Jets - two of our least favorite teams in the world - we had a great day chilling out, munching good apps and maybe even a coldie or two! Who knows what today will bring although it is the start of race week and we've been invited down to Tom and Regan's boat any evening - maybe we'll take them up on it or just cruise into KW to partake of the race week festivities - decisions, decisions!!!

Aqua-holics

When we moved down here to Key West for the winter (and maybe longer), I wondered how I'd continue to get material for the blog - I mean how often can I write about days/nights out at our favorite bars or seeing our favorite musicians?? After awhile I figured that would get stale - not of course to us because we're living the fun life, but to all the readers of our blog who have come to expect us to write about all the different places/experiences we've traveled to or seen. So I promised myself that I'd only write when there was something fun to say and cool or humorous pictures to show. Maybe I'll write less often than before, but that's OK because when I write it will be because we want to share a new experience or place! Well last night's experience just about screamed for a blog entry!!!

What started out as a fantastic drinks/dinner experience on our friends Brett and Jill's sailboat Muircu with their hometown friends Jan and Bridgette, evolved into a true Key West one of a kind (maybe) experience. But first I need to do dinner justice - Brett truly outdid himself making lobster salads that looked so beautiful no one wanted to destroy the masterpieces by eating them - but not for long as we dug right in!!! Thanks for a fabulous dinner guys!

Cocktails in the Cockpit on Muircu

Brett the Master Chef

Dinner

While we had planned on first hitting the Sunset Pier to hear Scott play, the cool weather and our timing caused us to rethink our plans and hang out for some additional cocktails on Muircu. Then we all piled into their van for the trip into town where we hit the "tranny show" at Aqua - now for all you that don't know what a "tranny show" is, it is a singing and dancing show by a group of heavily made up and costumed transvestites at a gay bar. Yup, I can imagine your thoughts....keep reading!! Our first experience was on the sidewalk outside of the club where Jill and Bridgett almost weren't allowed in because they didn't meet the height test - they didn't come up to the Swedish bombshell Inga's rather enormous chest protrusions (this is a family blog after all). Now I've heard of having to be a certain height to ride the go-karts or the roller coaster but that usually involved a yardstick as a measuring guide...welcome to KW!!!! As it turns out, Inga (who you'll see more of in a minute) is an ex-NFL player - gotta wonder what her/his teammates think of her now. Some NFL'ers go on to be sports commentators or coaches - but I bet not many have chosen Inga's post NFL profession - too bad, she was a riot!!!

Next we were met by our very upbeat shall I say waiter Chris who seemed to be having more fun dancing and frolicking around to the music than any of the patrons - how come gay bars always have the best dance music??? We grabbed a banquet along the side by the bar although once the show started, not many of us stayed seated - it's a very interactive event shall we say.

The Beginning of the Show

Our MC for the evening was Reba McEntire who was so screamingly funny I seriously had to wonder if I was getting out of the show without wetting my pants - she especially focused on a tranny show virgin who shyly admitted to being straight - she proceeded to tell him that he shouldn't be embarrassed by that, that he had been born that way and they'd all accept him for who he was.....he was to get lots of attention throughout the night (not only because he blushed a deep shade of purple every time the dancers would lap dance for him but because instead of tipping them ones he was handing out fists full of them!!! newbie!!!)

Reba McEntire

Well Reba was followed by a progression of costumed lip synching singer/dancers one funnier than the next. Inga was at one time the pirate wench swigging a bottle of rum,

The Pirate Wench

then the cowboy gal with a bottle of beer and a rubber chicken (don't ask and I won't tell)

The Cowgirl with the Rubber Chicken

and finally the crooner in baby doll pajamas singing about a big bone and passing around a joint for all to take a hit off of (none of us inhaled if you were wondering but only in KW could they get away with this!!!)

Inga and Her Bone

Reba was alternately Celine Dion, Lady Gaga and Faith Hill while Maya (truly the one who could pass off (almost) as a girl) came out on stage as JLo and finally Tina Turner!!!

Faith Hill Approaches Jan

Our Introduction to Maya

Maya Dancing

Maya as Tina Turner

Maya seemed to really dig Doug as she kept coming back for a shake and shimmy right in front of us!!!

Maya Seemed to Like Doug

I have to admit that we were all a little envious of Maya's butt - but where everything else went that he was anatomically sporting was a mystery to us all in such tight, skimpy costumes!!! One of the dancers told us in no uncertain terms how they "hid" things but you'll just have to attend a show to find out because the explanation was a little too graphic (albeit unbelievably funny) to discuss on this family blog!!! By the time Tina came out for her final number, the boys (and Bridgett who really seemed to get into it) were out of dollar bills and Jill had decided she wants to become a transvestite and is actively looking into finding a school for such things!!! It was time to leave!!!

The Gang Getting into the Show

Jill Enjoying Tina Turner's Act

The Boys Give Tina Their Dollars

Jan our fabulous designated driver took us safely back to the marina and reality - although as we've always known, reality can be a very warped thing down here in KW. Mid-way through the show Doug and I were thinking how much fun we'll have bringing Bob and Stephanie here when they come to visit us!!!! After last night, we now realize that no trip to KW is complete without at least one visit to the "tranny shows!!!!" Visit at your own risk......

Tonight we are hitting a Peter Mayer concert - Peter is Jimmy Buffett's lead guitarist and a really great guy on top of that! We met Peter when he played up in New Hampshire with our friend Scott Kirby a couple years ago. This is what we love about KW - there's always some great music to hear whether it's at a gay bar or in a concert hall or just out on the pier!!!

Arctic Cold Front Sits Over Key West

What is wrong with that headline???? It's not supposed to be this freakin' cold in Florida and especially not in the Florida Keys - we're as far south as we can possibly be while still being in the US but obviously we're not far enough south to avoid this cold!!! As if the temp itself isn't miserable enough, on top of that we are having consistent 20-30 knot north winds which have brought the wind chill down below freezing for the past several nights!! Now I know that the whole country is experiencing cold weather and most places are even colder than here (and God knows we used to live in Maine so at one point we were used to the cold) BUT we no longer live in Maine for a reason!!! Besides at least when we lived up in the frozen tundra we had the clothes to bundle up in - down here it takes a lot of layers of tee shirts and shorts to stand up to 30 degree temps!! I broke out my fuzzy crocs the other day when it just became impossible to wear flip flops anymore!! At least we have heat on the boat (unlike many of the homes here in KW - why would they need heat??) so can take the chill off every so often and we've broken out the blankets - Bootsie just sleeps under the covers on our bed if she can't be in our laps with her favorite baby blue fuzzy blanket!!! We are supposed to have at least another several days of this unbelievable weather and then hopefully it will start to warm up and we'll all get a chance to thaw out!!!

Mostly we've been hunkered down here at the dock with everyone trying to stay dry and warm but we have been sneaking in a little fun here and there (I know that's a shocker, but....) We had an amazing dinner on Muircu with Brett and Jill last week and then we had a wonderful dinner the other night on Beausoleil with Shawna and John and the rest of our dock gang - what a beautiful big old sailboat they have (we are now virtually surrounded by blow boats but we just met Greg and Karen who are friends of September Song and are in Stuart now for the boat show - they plan on coming down in their Sea Ray at the beginning of February to help us even the odds!) Another gorgeous sailboat pulled in next to us last week with Sonya and Paul on board who are friends of friends of Scott Kirby - they've jumped right into the decadent rhythm of our dock life!!

We took advantage of the one nice evening we had (ie it wasn't blowing stink or in the 50's) to go see Scott and Dave play down at the Sunset Pier with Shawna and John (who knew she used to be the lead singer of a band - while she was away from the table we put plans in place to get together for her dockside singing debut...as soon as it warms back up!) We ran into friends of Dave (Di, Frank and Tony) that we have gotten to know since they are the folks I just got my new scooter from - yes I am now the proud owner of a baby blue/white 49cc scooter - too cool!! It's too cold to run out and take a picture of her, but I'm sure she'll grace the blog before long! We still haven't been able to pick up Doug's yet but we've been told the guys are working on getting the right paperwork.....don't ask! Meanwhile Doug spent Saturday and Sunday (the two most miserable days we've had) taking a motorcycle course so he could get back his motorcycle endorsement for his FL license (which he needs to legally ride a 150cc scooter down here) He passed....yippee!

Doug Rides at the Motorcycle Riding School in Marathon

Meanwhile our friend Scott had a Patriots playoff party yesterday which luckily was way more fun than actually watching the game (there's always next year!) - Scott came out to pick me, Sonya and Paul up while his wife Michelle was cooking up chili and other treats!

Part of the Group at the Playoff Party: Scott and Beverly in the Background and Tom, Sonya and Paul on the Couch
Scott, Bill and Michelle in the Kitchen and Beverly at the Counter

______, Scott and Tom at the Grill

Scott Suffers the Cold Alone as He Tends the Grill

I'm not sure if we had more fun or their dog Badger did - his neck scarf kind of said it all "Santa - please define naughty!!!"

Badger

In addition to us, Bill Blue (a great blues musician whose full size cut-out adorns the wall at the Parrot since he was one of the first to play there - how cool!) and his wife Beverly, Mike who was playing at the Hog that night and Tom Weaver, a Kiwi sailor we have met several times up in the Chesapeake and who is down here for a couple weeks after delivering a boat were all there adding color (of course several of them were Ravens fans which we could have done without...only kidding!) After way too much food, wine, pomegranate martinis, etc, we all piled into Scott's van and Michelle drove us over to the Green Parrot where I had planned on meeting up with Doug and our boat buddies Brett and Jill for the Sunday soundcheck (there was a very interesting African/reggae/blues band playing) - who knew I'd have so much company but it just seemed like the right thing to do to keep the party going. Our dockmates Shawna and John met us there as well so we kind of took over the Parrot!!!

Part of the Crew at the Parrot: Scott, John, Jill and Brett

Doug, John and Shawna
Doug, Paul and Sonya
Scott and Tom Chat with Someone They Met at the Parrot

Not content to let the evening end when the music stopped (and because we hadn't eaten and drunk nearly enough...), the KWHYC dock gang proceeded on to Salsa Loca for some great Mexican food!!! I really need to stop having this much fun...NOT!!!

A Late Dinner at Salsa Loca

Today we are hunkered down again doing inside boat chores - the Bootser is loving it as she always gets lots of attention when we're on the boat! She is about the only one loving this cold weather though - can anyone say pizza and a movie tonight??Bootsie Enjoys the Winter Weather

Happy New Year

I have been terribly remiss in taking pictures for the blog but that doesn't mean we've been couch potatoes - far from it!! We hit Key West the other day on our rental scooters - one last fun day zipping around the island and between bars.

Our Rental Scooters

We walked out past the KW Aids Memorial to the fishing pier for an amazing view of the Atlantic Ocean between the two beaches that call KW home (you really don't come to KW for the beaches believe me but the water is gorgeous!!!)

View From the Fishing Pier

Next it was on for a couple coldies at Louie's Afterdeck - there's just something about that place that makes me smile and chill out!!

Louie's Was Quiet in the Early Afternoon

A View from Louie's Afterdeck

Another View from Louie's Afterdeck

Another couple $1 beers at Guy Harveys and then an afternoon spent at Irish Kevin's laughing along with Bil Krauss - what a fun day! Unfortunately we had to turn in our scooters (which meant walking the 6 miles back to the boat...don't worry, we found a place to stop half way that was having happy hour so we didn't faint of thirst!) We have a line on several new scooters through our friend Dave (who plays guitar with Scott) and he's promised us they didn't just happen to "fall off the back of the truck!" We went over to see them the other day and they are great - we're keeping our fingers crossed that all works out (usually things too good to be true are....but....)

Wednesday evenings we have started a tradition (with Terry and Lois' approval of course) of sunset cocktails on the top of Coconuts - their upper deck is so tall it looks out over the trees so we can see the sun setting over the Hawk Channel.

The Sunset Party on Coconuts

There are no islands in the way so we are hoping to see the green flash - but the other night it was not to be as the clouds rolled in right before sunset (made for a gorgeous view though!) It was a fun mix of boaters and Conchs (which is what local Key Westers are called) and you just couldn't beat the company, the cocktails or the view! Here's looking at maintaining that tradition!!

Sunset from Coconuts

Sunset from Coconuts

Before we knew what hit us, it was New Year's Eve which also happens to be Doug's birthday (although he swears he's not having anymore!! - we just now call it an anniversary!) Not wanting to brave the craziness of downtown KW, we decided to have a more mellow celebration on Gypsies with our friends Brett and Jill. But first I must mention that the weather was so warm and wonderful during the day that we spent the entire afternoon poolside soaking up some rays (we really need to do away with that white Casper-like pallor caused by the really cold weather we've had since about October!!!) I have to tell you our pool is unbelievable - darn close to bath water at a heated 82 degrees (from what I hear, the pool is cooled in the summer and heated in the winter - yippee!!!) Sun pig felt like it was her birthday!! That evening we had a simply awesome evening of way too much food, drink and laughter - did I actually say that?

New Year's Eve on Gypsies Started Out With Appetizers

The full blue moon had us spellbound topsides

The Blue Moon Rises Next to the Clubhouse

while the master grillers (Brett and Doug) cooked a tenderloin topsides to perfection and Jill and I just looked on in admiration with several evening cocktails! After desert, another round of cocktails and watching the ball drop (in KW a pirate wench drops from the mast of a schooner over at the wharf but we couldn't find that on tv!), it was time for the "dock walk" to see who was still up, hip and happening. Not too many people - we don't make it to 1:00 am too often anymore, but come on it's new years - we woke up the folks on Belissimo (oops - sorry guys) so we headed back to Gypsies and eventually decided we'd probably be better off calling it a night too! (Notice how the only picture posted was from very early in the evening - that was done on purpose to protect the not so inocent!) What a great way to usher in 2010 - can you even believe it!! We hope everyone had a happy and safe holiday and we look forward to crossing paths with our friends in the new year!

Most sane people have enough partying on New Year's Eve to carry them through for at least a little while but not us - oh no, we had to have a cocktail party the following evening (actually it was the only night our friend Bil Krauss and his wife Elizabeth could make it before she had to head back to SC so we dove right in!) We rounded up a gang of boat people and despite the front which had just steamrolled in bringing with it torrential rain and the cold after a very enjoyable short afternoon spent again at the pool, we kicked it up on Gypsies once again!!! Bootsie even attended the party - she was so happy not to be locked away downstairs that she was quite sociable (but is now pretty exhausted and has been sleeping the good part of the last couple days!) Sorry that there are no pictures but I flat out forgot to take any I was having so much fun (without Bob's dueling cameras I tend to forget to pick up mine - we miss you guys!) - I promise to do better in the future!

OK time to dry out a little - or at least get some exercise to burn off some of those calories (of course to burn them all off we'd have to kayak to the Marquesas and back!) So the other day we dropped the kayaks and went for a long kayak out the Boca Chica channel and into the mangroves! What a great place to explore - between the fish jumping all around us, the iguanas and birds hanging out in the mangrove branches and the huge red and orange star fish laying on the sandy ocean floor (we are actually back in water so clear you can see down to the bottom!!!), we were loving life and not feeling the burn too badly of kayaking way too far for the first trip out!!! Of course yesterday and today have been cold with ripping winds following the cold front that blew in which seems to have stalled over us, but we see lots of kayaking in our future here!! Muircu's boat kitty Binkus sees the kayaks (which we are stowing on the docks beside the boat) as a possible easier egress onto Gypsies so she can visit Boots - she doesn't want us to know this though!!

Binkus Checks Out the Kayaks

Today is Sunday which means it's football day - Bootsie is very happy! Given the cold windy weather I don't think we'll bike into KW to the Duval Beach Club as planned (DBC is the local Patriots bar in town!!! Lazy Gecko is the Red Sox bar - nice to know these things!!) - we may just hunker down onboard, watch the Dolphins/Steelers game and make lots of munchies! Maybe even a James Bond flick later (we've been in a James Bond marathon for the past several days - Sean Connery really rocked although Pierce Brosnan plays a pretty darn good JB himself!!!) Tomorrow we start hitting the streets in search of jobs - we gave ourselves until the new year to have fun, but that has sailed past so it's now time! We'll keep you posted of course on what we wind up doing but odds are good it'll be something fun!!