Key West – Cuban Sandwiches on the beach

The best Cuban sandwiches!

A cold front came through last night with a strong north wind that pushed us against the leeward piling causing a loud banging sound after we’ve retired for the evening. So up out of bed I came to investigate. It was the first time we had wind from that direction and the lines were not tensioned enough to absorb the force of the increased wind. So in the middle of the night I’m up on deck pulling and resetting all the lines, getting a bloody toe in the process from stubbing it on something I never did see (but I did see the blood on the deck in the morning!) It was one more lesson learned on my cruise south that you have to anticipate wind direction changes even at a dock. It’s not so critical when cleated to a floating dock but is much more critical when tied off to pilings where you invariably have more play in the lines (they are longer) and from the fact that the pilings themselves move around.





The beach looks south, protected from north winds

The Key West Bight harbor is very protected in general but a north wind can cause some motion in the boats docked in the northern part of the harbor. We are on E dock and it’s the most protected of all the docks owned by Key West Bight Marina. We felt the wind but no wave action.

In the morning the temperature had dropped to the middle 60’s and with that you can tell the natives from the tourists. If you see someone riding a bike in a sweatshirt with the hood up and tied, you know it’s a native. In the 60’s, the tourists will still walk around in shorts and a tee-shirt (so much warmer than at home!), the natives will have a sweatshirt and usually a windbreaker on top of that. I even saw a down-filled jacket on one!

One of the many windjammers that sail out of Key West

For us, it was warm with a high to be 70 so we headed for the beach and decided to introduce our guests to Cuban sandwiches from Cuban Coffee Queen. They are served hot on Cuban bread with lots of meat, mostly marinated pork. On to a day at the beach. A great day.