Vignettes III

When I was a sailboat captain taking cruise ship passengers sailing in Key West Harbor they used to ask me anxiously "What about hurricanes?" There we were sailing small catamarans around Tank Island and Christmas Tree Island, beautiful blue winter skies, crystalline waters flashing by only inches from their bums and all they could ask about was storms. Everybody wants drama. As far as I can tell since the Annus Horribilis of 2005 there have been monster floods in the Mid West, killer tornadoes in Tornado Alley, power outages in the North East, hellfires in California and outlying satellite states, and epic mudslides in Hawaii. Don't cry for the Keys, America, we're doing fine down here in balmy 80 degree days. Our biggest problem I predict is the Canadian loony at better than par with the US dollar and we probably are going to drown in (non-tipping) economically smug Canadian snowbirds all winter long. Luckily for us they have to go home every spring to validate their Free National Health Service cards.

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Boot Key has been formally cut off from the United States this week, making it a minor outlying island in the tradition of Conch Republic craziness. Boot Key is a small lump of scrub and mangroves on the Atlantic side of the city of Marathon (Marathon "Key" despite the best efforts of tourism promoters does not exist), and its partially occupied by a road, some commercial fishing docks leased to the fishermen by the owner of the radio station that operates out of Boot Key. The State of Florida in all its majesty this week ordered the City to shut down the drawbridge because it isn't able to support it's own weight let alone cars and humans. The radio station is now having its personnel ferried to the island courtesy of the City, which has to scrounge up at least $10 million dollars to fix the bridge to nowhere, or $1 million ( estimated) for the Corps of Engineers to dismantle the bridge's opening span. Which by the way still requires an operator to open the bridge to allow masted boats to get into Boot Key Harbor. The theory is that if the span is left open it might blow over in strong winds. As one might surmise there is a good deal of heated debate going on about what to do with this problem. After the parties involved solve this issue, they promise to head to Jerusalem and bring peace to the Middle East.

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This was the summer that I never made it out to Tarpon Belly Key, a place where I can put out a recliner on the beach and take a quiet read. Even though the beach is more rocks than sand, this can be viewed as an advantage as it attracts fewer visitors. I can't remember a time when I found someone else sunning themselves on the pebbles when I wanted to be there. Indeed I read in the paper this week that Tarpon Belly had a visitor who really would rather have been elsewhere. Silly man. He took off from the ramp at Blimp Road on Cudjoe and paddled his kayak out into the wind blown waters. It doesn't look far but he was apparently stuck. The brisk breezes dragged him out and washed him up on Tarpon Belly. There's not much there for a castaway but he was apparently in good health when the Marine Patrol found him the next day. Having failed to make the 40 minute boat ride even once this summer, through flat waters, I rather envy him his stay on my island.

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Gratuitous motorcycle picture.

Because I like the picture and its my blog.