Key West - 4000 lbs of shrimp and “red sky at night…

 

SeaTow was just there, just in case. The shrimp boat did fine by itself

Last night we saw the shrimp boat at Key West Bight return to port. He was being towed by SeaTow so we thought there was something wrong with his engine. Too bad, we thought.  Well, this morning the captain saw Ann and Hoolie sitting on the boardwalk bench waiting for me to return from my run and the captain came over to offer Hoolie a dog bone. Of course, that thrilled Hoolie and then Ann struck up a conversation. 

The captain looked like an old salt for sure

He said his engine was fine but he uses SeaTow when returning to port to keep the bow from wandering which also results in a savings on boat insurance. He returns bow first but he had to back in his dock so there’s a time when he’s dead in the water before he can move aft. That’s an exposure for him if a sudden gust of wind comes up with hundreds of thousands of dollars of boat works in the harbor. He has insurance for that but it’s less if he always used SeaTow to attach a line off the bow - just in case there’s a problem. I imagine a boat that size could cause mass destruction in the harbor if it got loose. 

“Red sky at night….”

At any rate, he backed in without a problem. He has a single screw prop which walks to port, just like us. As you can tell from the nets, he’s a shrimper. He goes out about 60 miles and stays for up to 7 days to collect his fill of Key West pink shrimp. When he returns to port, he has 4000 lbs of shrimp aboard on ice. He’ll be in port for a week and then go out again for another 7 days of shrimping. 

In taking Hoolie out tonight, the southern sky was bright red. It faded a bit before I can snap a photo but it was still beautiful I guess we are guaranteed a good day tomorrow based on the famous, “red sky at night, sailors delight”.