Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Key West - A Zoom Family Get Together

Here you see the Zoom app on our iPad with each attendee getting a screen with audio
We expanded our Family Get-Togethers to twice a week. After discovering Zoom (app for Apple, Android, or PC products), we've enjoyed the last meeting so much that we'll have two meetings a week now. Everybody gets a box on the screen with audio so everyone can hear and see everyone else. It works without a hitch and best of all, it's completely free.

So today we had my daughter and her two kids in Pennsylvania, Philip and Monique and their three kids in Connecticut, Shirley and Raechel in Indiana, with us in Key West. The connections were flawless and we all had a good time seeing each other. It's no substitute for in-person meetings but it's a big step up from just texting.

I'll end with a flower, I mean, do you really want to see more virus news?
Florida just declared a statewide stay at home directive for the next 30 days so we have to sit tight until things ease up. Our county has 27 cases but the daily increase is now down to 1 or 2 a day, much less than last week. That helped, no doubt, by the blockage of US 1 where only residents of the Keys are allowed in. Over the weekend, the police turned away almost 1000 cars, that's got to help slow down the spread.

Our only concern is the hurricane season coming up, we really need to get out of the Keys before then, the middle of July at least.

6 comments:

SV Puffin said...

Bob, Your blogs are a nice break from the COVID world.
Titusville just announced today that they are closed to transients due to the governor's orders.
Take care!

Anonymous said...

Bob'n Ann,

COnsider the possibility of leaving Fleetwind at the Indian Town Marina dry storage over the hurricane season, and using a one-way rental car to get home if you choose to do so. It would be rather less difficult than getting the yacht back up to Virginia before the season is in full swing.

FWIW...

Scott'n Kitt
s/v HyLyte

Bob423 said...

Scott, that marina appears to be after a 55 ft bridge? I had thought it was 50 ft. My mast is 55.3 ft. Do you know more details?

Anonymous said...

Bob--

It seems that thee are two bridges listing a clearance of 55 feet so that might not be the ticket after all. Another alternative would be dry storage in the Bradenton area. Snead Island Boat Works has a good dry-storage yard and can tie down the boat quite well. You might want to contact Gary Alderman at SIBW at 941-722-4450 to check. The run from Key West to Bradenton is pretty straight forward. We have made the trip a few times. Other than an occasional squall in the early evening, the greatest issue is boredom. You could stop at Factory Bay in Naples, then Cabbage Key in Pine Island Sound, then head straight to Bradenton via Boca Grande Pass (leave at slack tide as the wave action with any wind can get pretty heavy duty). Coming in through the southwest Pass into Tampa Bay is a no brainer and you could anchor at Desoto Point, in the vacinity of SIBW until your ready for a haul. Knowing Gary (for 30+ years) he'll likely have a slip you can use while you're packing the boat up. We can afford you any other assistance you might need while you're in the area and there's no doubt Kitt would love to see Hoolie! He reminds us of our now passed dogs Bubba and Nibbles.

Bob423 said...

Anonymous, we just don't know what we're going to do at the moment, it's wait and see for us for at least a couple of months. Thanks for the info.

Anonymous said...

Roger all. If there's any help we can provide, let us know. Assume you still have our email address somewhere.

/s/ Scott'n Kitt
s/v HyLyte