6/9 - 6/13.....The Marquesas Keys with Steve & Lisa

6/9 - Steve & Lisa Bryant (from Ocean Springs) flew in today so we headed back to Sombrero Marina to pick them up. We had "happy hour" on the boat and dinner at Dockside.
6/10 - We had a good weather report for the day, so it was a great run down to the Key West anchorage. Dropped the hook @ 3:00pm, put the dinghy in and had a fun afternoon of "dinkin & drinkin" around the Key West Harbor.

6/11 - Picked up the hook for our first trip ever to the Marquesas Keys (the atoll 30 miles west of Key West). Bloody Marys, screwdrivers, sunshine and fair seas - it was a fantastic trip! About half-way out we were all out of cell phone and internet range, how great is that? Put the hook down on the west side around 3:00pm and headed for the beach and to the inside of Mooney Harbor. Beautiful water and what a vista!!! We found our 1st of 4 washed up refugee boats (at the end of this posting I have several shots that I took of the boats). Another beautiful sunset and a great night on the hook. Steve & Lisa are definitely "into it". This is their first vacation without the kids in 10 years (I'm pretty sure it won't be the last!).


6/12 - Lazy morning relaxing. Took a dinghy ride up the channel and into the heart of Mooney Harbor. After restocking the ice chest we set out for a beach day on the south side. We found 2 more washed up refugee boats there. Great afternoon on the beach and wading in the crystal clear water. Lisa and I found some treasures (sea sponges, shells and coral). We got back in the dinghy for a little more exploring. Found another refugee boat and some very shallow quicksand type water. Bill and Steve had to paddle/push us out since the dinghy couldn't be walked out.





























As always another great night on the hook - fun, funny and a beautiful sunset!


6/13 - The seas and winds were a bit more than we wanted, but we still had to go back to Key West for Steve & Lisa to head home. The winds were out of the east @ 15kts and the seas were 2 - 4 ft. It was a pretty bumpy ride most of the way in, but it sure makes us appreciate the stabilizers on this boat. We pulled into the slip at A&B Marina around 1:00pm. We had lunch, Lisa took care of a little bit of souvenir shopping and they took the drive back up The Keys to Ft. Lauderdale to spend the night. Their flight home was Saturday morning and by that afternoon I'm sure they were "back to reality" unless they were still in denial.

We're pretty sure they haven't taken their last trip on the "Conched Out Too". We all had a great time and it was great to have them on board.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The following shots are of the 4 refugee boats that we found along the beaches of the Marquesas Keys. It really made us think about how bad it must be where they came from in order to risk their lives to try to get to America in one of these. We have no idea if the people made it to land alive or if they were caught at sea and sent back. When we were at the Dry Tortugas/Fort Jefferson last month, 3 similar type boats were on the beach there also.




In order to get a better idea of the crude workmanship, click on the individual photo to enlarge.