Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Key West - Boat arrangement from six to two

We're snugged up with the other sailboats on E dock
The organization of a boat for two is very different from for six. Our aft cabin provides huge storage for two people but for six it all had to be cleaned out. Now, with the departure of our visitors, we once again have the use of the aft cabin for storage. And, of course, we had a massive laundry to do. We wanted to wash everything to start out fresh. The marina here does have four commercial grade washers less than a year old, very good. Going down the ICW, you learn to appreciate good laundry facilities. It's the furthest thing from your mind when you first start out but your priorities change with experience. Good WiFi is also a priority but that's very rare. There's less than five marinas, if that many, that have good WiFi. The best one is the Titusville Municipal Marina which just installed a new system last year with transmitters every 50 feet along the docks. Nobody else comes close.

Close to Cuba so we get Cuban scenes in paintings
So Fleetwing is now set up for just us. We've ordered WiFi from Xfinity that's due Thursday. We've cancelled the cable TV, we've found that we watch Amazon and Netflix much more than broadcast TV. The cable prices are just not worth the money. We also have Verizon for our internet needs but 10 Gb doesn't go far when you like to stream Netflix every night. I ordered the modem and it's supposed to be an easy DIY (ha!) We'll see how it goes.

This sign has been year for the last 6 years
In talking last night about how crowded the marinas are this year, I totally missed the obvious reason as pointed out to me by a cruiser with a trawler, it's the fuel prices! They are 1/2 of what they were when we first started out several years ago. At $2/gallon, it's again economical for many to go down the ICW, something they didn't do with $4/gallon prices.My fill up is only 30 gallons at most compared to a couple of hundred for a trawler, a big difference at the cash register.


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