Key West - Diver and the price of lobsters

A sunrise that we rarely get up early enough to see

We have been gradually adjusting our schedule earlier and earlier to get in line with the time change. The clocks may change but your body doesn't, at least not right away. So this morning we were early enough to see the sunrise. Kenny Lutz had a 5:00 ticket on the Key West Express and he bought us shrimp for a going away dinner which we had in the afternoon. I showed off my new tool, the Morty the shrimp peeler.which makes short work of peeling shrimp. It takes about 5 seconds to peel each shrimp once you get the hang of the tool, much faster than doing it by hand. Kenny did the last dozen or so and was going pretty good at the end. Ann put the shrimp to good use in a newburg type sauce, it was a hit.

A diver lobsterman who also changes zincs

We're starting to get ready to leave so one requirement is to replace the zinc which necessitates a diver. After several tries (don't wait until the last minute like I did) I found a diver that makes his main living gathering lobsters. In taking to him, it turns out that the price has spiked in recent months due to the demand from China. The local lobstermen are getting upwards of $20/lb! However, to get top price they lobsters have to be perfect. That means no missing legs, no missing antennas and they have to be "spunky" when examines by the China buyers. They are shipped over there alive and he heard they sold for as much as $100 to $200 a lobster when landed there. The lobstermen are very happy as are the divers who can recover lobsters undamaged for the best price.

At any rate, he replaced my zinc and now I'm ready to go. I still have to change oil and filters and wash the boat, that's the next two days.