Key West - Last day, party at Harry's

Harry is retired from the Navy and gets a great selection of vacation spots as a retired service member

It was another day of fighting with the genset. The only thing left is to insert the new impeller into the raw water pump (the cooling pump). Normally that's a five minute job, no problem. However, the design of this particular pump involves a loose key in a groove in the pump shaft that the impeller must slide over without disturbing the loose key (a piece of metal shaped like a half moon). Try as I may, I could not get the impeller past the point of first contact with the key. It should mate with the slot in the impeller but the pump wanted nothing to do with that impeller! I have another raw water pump with an impeller on the main diesel, a Volvo D2-55. It involves no loose key and I can change that impeller in about five minutes. So for the future when anchoring, we are without the services of a genset, at least until I can try again.

Their RV is much bigger than our 42 ft sailboat

The rest of the day was spent getting ready for our early morning departure for Marathon. I called the city marina and got the good news that the waiting list is only 1 or 2 boats long. Last year at this time the list numbered 35 boats! Looking at the weather we have an 8 hour window starting Thursday morning to reach Marathon before 20kts winds out of the east develop and continue for the next three days. In fact, it looks like our window for leaving Marathon won't be until next Wednesday. It's a good thing we're in no hurry.

Meanwhile, Harry, a friend from New York, invited us over for a send-off party and we had great fun with sushi from a fish he caught that day and a variety of other fish dishes which were all excellent, you can't beat fresh caught. So it will be up early Thursday and off.