Friday, March 17, 2017

Key West - St Patrick's Day

View of Key West Bight Harbor from the top of the Brewery
Every place had a special on St Patrick's Day. As you would expect, green was everywhere. The high winds and cool temperatures put a damper on roof top celebrations once the sun went down. We didn't mind that since it meant a quiet night in the marina. I'm sure the revelers moved on to Duval Street.

The pool is still going strong with second week spring breakers
We talked to our next door neighbors in the marina who are also musicians. They related that musicians in Key West are a dime a dozen. Everyone wants to come to Key West and just play music for a living so there's an oversupply. They have an Island Packet 40+ ft boat, I'm not sure of the exact size and they've been here for at least a year in their slip. Well, they got a gig at a place nearby so we went to listen. They were pretty good and since it's St Patrick's Day, they played mostly Irish music.

Our neighbors playing nearby
Meanwhile, I found a puddle of oil under the main engine, oh no I thought, not again.  After some investigation, it turned out to be not from the engine but from the transmission that I had just replaced in Titusville for $5000! However, it turned out to be the oil drain nut that had come loose, allowing the oil to drain to the crankcase. I tightened the nut this afternoon and everything should be fine. I'll refill the transmission Saturday. Yet another lesson reinforced, check your engine daily. You never know when something like that lets go. Catch it when it happens and it's simple, if not then you can face a multiple thousand dollar bill. There are a lot of things like that on a  boat. Unfortunately, we best learn from mistakes and not from advice, I mostly learn from mistakes but it doesn't have to be that way for everyone, take heed.

The local chickens can fly! Here's one roosted overhead in Schooner Wharf. Watch out!
We ended the day by returning to Schooner Wharf to listen to Skraeling play Irish music. So it was a full day, we do enjoy Key West.

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