The Galleon Resort has a private marina attached to the complex and it is one of Key West's fancier marinas. I'm not sure what the rate is these days but it used to be north of two dollars a foot which gets expensive even for a modest 34-foot boat. The Galleon's docks float which is nice as the boat stays level alongside the dock as the tide goes up and down.
In order to keep the dock attached to the land (which doesn't move up and down with the tides) they created ingenious little bridges which acts as ramps. Some people block the ramps by engaging in a battle of wits with the local fish, and as you can see a low tide puts the ramp at quite the angle:
The floating dock principle is sometimes viewed as inferior to fixed docks when it comes to hurricanes and storm surge but the Galleon is still here and providing an easy walk ashore for all those hard workers and avid shoppers:
The boardwalk around the marina is fixed firmly to land providing a pleasant viewing platform for passersby, of which there are a few:
(No pets allowed at the Galleon). Walking past the boats makes boat living in a marina a rather public business. Imagine getting up in the morning, making coffee over the stove and looking up to see a nice person from Snowdrift, Iowa peering into your kitchen. It gets like that in touristy marinas, so it pays to be neat and not swear loudly and monotonously when you drop a wrench:
And be friendly, because being rude doesn't work as a business attractant. I guess a large wet cigar in hand acts as bait for macho men looking to go out and kill innocent fish:
If you prefer having someone else to make the bed for a few hundred extra dollars a night you can always rent a rabbit hutch with privacy and a splendid view of Key West Harbor:
You are also safe from falling coconuts, which is one of those perils that make life so interesting in the sub tropics:
But make no mistake this place is part of the Motherland, the place where one expects five star service in a five star marina, clean water and no funny money. One hopes all that and ease of access keeps the banksters and their bailouts coming to keep us all, more modestly, in the money:
The New York Times, itself in need of a bailout, suggested Key West might be recession proof. So far it looks that way to some extent:
It all makes you rather envy the low rent attitude of the pelican on the breakwater:
Bird brain used to be an insult; not so much these days. Care free, rent free, blog free. The life of a pelican even at the Galleon.
This time it was White Street Pier, a place that has already been the object of an essay in this blog. The pier juts out perhaps a third of a mile from the beach, and it is frequented by anglers, romantics, insomniacs and off duty dispatchers in the middle of the night. Technically the pier isn't closed as long as the activities taking place in it's further reaches aren't illegal my colleagues tell me no one will be moved along. 
To me the pier is a place of reflection and strolling it's sturdy cement and asphalt length puts me in mind of being on a boat. 
It's odd really to stand behind the ample barrier at the edge and watch the waves roll by, refract and head back out to sea, and to find oneself at the same time on a fixed and immovable object. 
On a boat one expects a certain amount of motion in relation to the waves; not here. On the pier there is time to lean against the railing as and watch the water, or the lights ashore:
Which makes the West Martello Tower look like a small hill...I always found it astonishing how things change their appearance between night and day when I was living in the water. At night seen from this angle it looks like a hill, by day it looks like the Garden Club,which is precisely what it is. This next picture looking seaward from halfway up the pier makes it look like dawn is breaking. It wasn't- I just put the camera on a 15 second exposure, propped it on the railing and let 'er rip; to see what it might look like you understand. The yellow strip at the bottom isn't a beach -it's the cement parapet!:
I suppose there is a municipal obligation to keep these corners lit up but it seems odd sometimes to see the lights blazing and no one home. The entire island looks that way from the pier, looking up White Street with the traffic lights changing and no one there to watch:
There were a few people out on the pier in the middle of the night. A guy (I guess that was what it was) sleeping al fresco:
The benches are designed not 
For some youngsters the pier is a romantic rendezvous:
To me the large plaza at the end, embossed with a decaying seal of the Rotary Club, of all things!- seemed rather empty and bleak:
And then a lone figure muffled in a jacket appeared and silently crossed the plaza to look out pensively at the waters to the west:
A good time and place to be pensive if you have something to work out.
I am told my trusty catamaran is rotting gently on it's Key West mooring having got away from it's new owners too busy to care for it. There are lots of boats at anchor in Boot Key and on city owned moorings for which there is a fee, somewhere around $300 a month. And lots of different boats enjoy the perfect protection of this lagoon,surrounded on all sides by dry land:
The city marina in Boot Key Harbor though hard to find, is located at the southern end of the city, and the entrance is through the Community Park which is marked by a little lighthouse on the Overseas Highway. The marina itself is a converted warehouse offering boaters all the facilities...
...including segregated dinghy docks, one for hard dinghies:
The other is for inflatable dinghies, the theory being that one lot won't damage the other:
Boot Key harbor is an absolute hot bed of dinghy activity with people coming and going all the time:
And I did manage to catch one dude rowing his hard dinghy back to the dock. A long waterline helps the boat slip through the water further on each stroke and this dude was gently pukling his way to the dock. It's easier to row in Boot Key than Key West owing to the totally protected nature of the harbor, which doesn't allow large waves to form. But there he was nevertheless stroking away, the consummate old timer:
You'll notice in some of the pictures that there are boats lined up at the seawall and that's because the City of Marathon charges boats to tie up, and for some people it's worth it not to have to use the dinghy. They also get to plug into shore power (120 volt electricity) which allows them to run air conditioning, which they need as there is less breeze at the dock...or they can use power tools, on their knees naturally:
The main marina building offers lots of facilities, Internet access, laundry, a book swap and lockers and a space to use as a workshop. It's a club house for boaters:
And let's not forget the all important pump out boat that cruises the harbor and, for a fee, sucks up and carts away your tank full of effluent from your toilet. There are boaters who prefer to dump it for free and illegally which is why many people don't want to swim in the constricted tidal waters of Boot Key Harbor:
The view in Boot Key Harbor is nothing to write home about thanks to the high rises that sometimes make this land bound place look as though it belongs among the condos that crowd the east coast of Florida:
But life on the water is still very pleasant, especially before the anvil heat and humidity of summer and before the arrival of the first hurricane scare. Storms wreak havoc on boats at anchor. Some people stay on their boats during hurricanes which to me is not foolhardy- it's the height of stupidity. A colleague of mine was found drowned in his boat after one of the 2005 storms that side swiped Key West. Jerry chose not to evacuate to his mother's condo and drowned, trapped in his half sunk sailboat. Still, on a less tragic note, modern life is miniaturized enough that one doesn't have to be deprived living on a boat. Modern communications prevail:
And sometimes people actually get to raise sails, whether to simply dry them out or to take off one can't always tell:
Ashore all those dinghy travelers need to get into town, so some use bicycles:
Others leave their motorcycles more or less covered for a stationary summer in the ample parking lot. Waste of a good BMW GS if you ask me:
While using a Sportster as a washing line might seem sacrilegious:
Behind my vital and alive Bonneville there was a Gold Wing rotting away, alongside a very elderly chain driven Harley and something shrouded in mystery:
In the back you'll notice the not so attractive electrical sub-station where the wires take off for their final trek south taking juice to Key West. 
And we end with one last view of Boot Key Harbor from the parking lot at the far end of the marina.