You know you're in Florida when...

The wind died on the way to Key West from Mexico which meant we could go for a deep sea drag.  

• There is an embarrassment of high end recreational boats - mainly motor, trawlers, cocktail boats, sport boats.  We have arrived in the land of plenty.

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  We arrived at the Key West channel after dark.  Instead of entering, we hung out between the shipping highways.  The little black boat is Milly.  The other triangles are ships to-ing and fro-ing.  At one point there were more than 250 ship signals.  And these are just little guys like us.  They are huge tankers and cargo ships.  Watch that night was all about staying well out of their way.

  

  We know we have arrived at popular Key West when the dinghies are in a parking lot.  And this is only half of it.  Not only crowded but we had to pay a daily fee to park!  First time.

• Sport boats far outnumber sailboats.  This is a fishing mecca.  Stuart is the sailfish capital of the world.

  

  In Key West, there were several beautifully kept old schooners taking tourists on sunset cruises.  Quite different  from the fake pirate ships so popular in Brazil and Trinidad.

• No European flagged boats.  Europeans need a visa to enter the states.  Often European boats - French, German, Belgian, British, Swiss, Swedish, Italian - dominated the Caribbean anchorages.  In Florida, they are missing entirely.

  

  Polydactyl cats at Ernest Hemingway's house in Key West.  Numerous cats with six digits are the descendants of "Snowball", Hemingway's favourite who he got from a sailor in town.  Six pawed cats are good luck on a boat.  Better get one!
  
  

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Snowball's descendants still curl up on Ernest's chair making the place look perfect to write a few classics.

• Pineapples, mangos, bananas and papayas are imported - they don’t grow in every backyard.  Instead, this is the land of citrus.

• You can flush toilet paper in public washrooms.  Unlike South American and the Caribbean, where signs politely ask you to deposit toilet paper in the bin provided. 

• Like Ontario, skies at dusk in Florida are clear blue, no clouds.  I had missed this in the tropics where there are always cumulus clouds.

  

  The intercoastal waterway near Jupiter where Celine Dion and Tiger Woods have their mansions.  The water and sky competed for our attention with the glam houses.  No one in view at these enormous places.

• Very little litter/pollution.  It demonstrates that education can embed the notion of garbage can use and that cash can enable a recycling program. 

• Wealth abounds visible in magnificent homes, huge well kept pleasure boats and innumerable stores to spend those dollars.

  

  Our overnight anchorage in the intercoastal in Lake Worth had lovely homes on our bow view...

  
  

  

  and an industrial port off our stern.  The multi million dollar homes had the same view out their front windows.  Look at that sky!

• Huge spending opportunity with overt consumerism.  We were gobsmacked by the number of strip malls and big box stores.  In the Keys, Key West is the only town with a main street and neighbourhoods.  The others were store lined strips along the highway.  Shopping is the local sport.  

  

  To be fair, there are also great parks and nature.  This guy was slumbering only a few feet from our feet.

• Life jackets required - rules and regs enforced.  This is, I guess, a good thing.  In Latin America, a person, from construction worker to boater, seems to be responsible for his/her own safety - we saw construction workers wearing sandals.  So it was a bit of a shock to be pulled over in TomTom by the Marine Police.  Our charges: TomTom was not registered - we had no idea that it was imperative - for not having a whistle and for not having life jackets.  Whistle and life jackets were on Milly but that wasn't good enough.  $100 fine.  Peter immediately made up some numbers and put them on TomTom with magic marker.  

• Incredibly hospitable and friendly locals.  We were offered a home in which to do our laundry, a private car to use while at dock, and, the very best, a suite in a lovely waterfront home with dinners made while Milly was on the hard.  Each of these offers was made by strangers, people we had just met.  And each is an example of the cruiser community and Floridian generosity.

  

  Michele and Randy were incredibly generous, offering us their guest suite in their lovely waterfront home before they even met us.  Dinners, breakfasts, rides to chandleries, connections with service people etc. etc.  

  
  

  

  Their dog, Nemo, also played loveable host.

  
  

  

  Randy was the captain of their "cocktail boat". On our day off from boat work, we cruised into Stuart to the outdoor market and then along the intercoastal.  

• Super flat topography - similar to western caribbean - Not a hill in sight.  We miss hills and hiking.  We are looking forward to the Azores.

• Such giant portions that Peter and I can share one and still have leftovers. It is showing.

  

  One of the well attended restaurants in the Keys had thousands of dollars worth of signed bills plastered over every surface.  I don't think it met sanitary standards - kinda gross, actually - but nobody seemed to care.

• Marked absence of pedestrians.  In Latin America, many people walk - there may not always be sidewalks but there are still people walking.  Here there are sidewalks but nobody uses them.  Cars rule.  And there are lots of them.  
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  Stuart, Florida is in Martin County where a bylaw does not allow building over three storeys.   From the water it was easy to see exactly where the boundary was by the sudden end of huge condos.  This conservation area, only accessible by boat, had a huge deserted beach facing the wild Atlantic where we walked and walked for several miles in both directions, only meeting a few others.

  
  

  

  A reminder of the dangers of a lee shore.

• In Stuart, flea markets and second hand stores are remarkably prolific.  Perhaps this is a reflection of elderly, retired folk (who are dying??)  

• There are phenomenal number of golf courses concentrated in a few square miles.  Even though the windward islands cater to tourists, they don't seem to manage golf courses which may indicate lack of funds to desalinate water??  Perhaps a good thing.

  

  There was also a great deal of nature in the huge conservation area.  These were pelicans flying in formation.

  
  

  

  A heron nesting.

  
  
  
  

  

  An osprey nesting on the intercoastal traffic sign requiring slow speeds for manatees.  We saw a manatee in Key Largo chewing on a seaweed encrusted line.  Dolphins were regular visitors at our anchorage on the intercoastal and even at our marina dock.

  
  

  

  This osprey couple were determined to build their home on the arch of the boat, one good reason not to leave your boat unattended for too long.  The birds may inflict just as much damage as any marauding human.

  
  
  

• Strict adherence to holding brown discharge in Milly’s tanks - we must go 3 NM offshore to empty tanks or have them pumped out, usually free of charge, paid for by concerned townships.  Although this is an extra step in our lives, it is appreciated. Latin America does not have the infrastructure or the cultural wherewithal to see the importance of this.

  

  New to us, were the challenges of the intercoastal waterway.  The captain radios the bridge operator on approach to request an opening....  

  
  

  

  ....or we just squeak under, which is rather intimidating.  Our mast height is 61 feet.  This bridge was 64 feet.  Three feet does not seem like a lot when watching from below.

• Temperature at night was blanket worthy when we arrived.  After months of sweating through the night without any covering at all, it is a delight to be cozy under the weight of a blanket.

• Sunset at 7:30 p.m. and getting later every day.  This is lovely although it has thrown off our routine.  When daylight only lasted 12 hours and, depending on the nation and time difference from GMT, gets dark as early as 5:30, we now eat and go to bed at more sophisticated hours.

• And, the main reason for being in Florida, boat work is easy, services are reliable, contractors are plentiful and talented.  We have refitted Milly from top of the mast to bottom of the keel.  A whopping bill but she's happy and ready to cross the great big ocean. Coming soon...our refit.