Any Day But Friday

Key West, Florida, USA

24°33'33"N, 81°47'03"W

Friday, August 7th 2009

If you didn't know, it's bad luck to leave on a sea voyage on a Friday (it's also bad luck to change the name of a boat... in fact it's bad luck to do lots of things in the sailing world... pretty superstitious bunch us sailors!). So, having realized that there was really no way of getting everything done by Thursday.... early Saturday was set as our departure.

With what we thought were only a few final things to do, we managed to totally lose Friday getting that stuff done... including hoisting a brand new main halyard, making sure the dinghy would actually stay put behind us on our fabulous new davits (and not drag itself and the solar panel down to the depths), and not least, to get in the water and check that my new dive gear actually works.

Even though we only had time for a quick dip right next to the boat where she's been anchored, the dive turned into a bit of an adventure. Tadd tossed his gear in the water and jumped in after it... and no sooner had he thrashed and wriggled to it all on and comfy ... than he found himself already about 50 yards behind the boat. I mean we knew there were strong currents - we'd been swung back and forth every 12 hours for weeks by them... but it was never so clear as when I stood looking out the back of Third Aye watching Tadd paddle his heart out and make no headway back to the boat. Finally, he stuck his head out the water and said, "&^%*%* this! Come and get me in the dinghy!"

We managed a quick dive under the boat, holding onto a line and gave my regulator and dive computer the all clear. Then quickly jumped back aboard, Tadd hauled up the two well-buried anchors and we sped our way to the city dock, in hope of getting to fuel dock before the delightful staff buggered off early for weekend... no such luck.

Conch Harbor fuel was a fine substitution for filling up on everything, before sneaking over to another spot to surreptitiously tie up for the night.

As we ran around, up and down the companionway and all over, packing and emailing and stuff, a few friends came down to see us off with a few beers, cheer, and some souvenirs.

Finally, exhausted, by 9pm I finally managed to get the bloody navigation software to work and we could grab a quick drink and dinner before crashing for the night....