Thoughts on a Monday Evening

Having seen some of the town by trolley train and a great deal by taxi and bicycle, this place is definitely recommended to be on the old bucket list.  Today, for instance, I was milling around a store near Mallory Square when in walks a hen and seven chicks.  No one gave them the least bit of attention.  They meandered around then found a bowl of water the store had for them. Once done, they left.  Again, no one noticed them.  There are fat cats everywhere and we noticed that a local guide was cleaning fish, tossing the bulk to the tarpon waiting in the water below and occasionally tossing a tid bit to a cat patiently pretending to be asleep nearby.  Then there was a really weird thing swimming in the water that looked like a zip lock bag in the water, only black, that was undulating (best word I can think of) through the water.  It was definitely on it's own program and not the least bit concerned about anything.  It was the size of a dinner plate and had no bow or stern.  Not sure what that was. 

Parade Ground (not deck for you Marines) at Ft.

Taylor

The crew of Safari upon learning of our decision to stay the whole week referred to it as he Keys disease.  The only cure for this malady is, what they put so succinctly, dock rates.  No joke.  The weekly rates here at this marina equal the quarterly rate in Port A.  Then again, Port A does not have the chickens, cats or the weird thingy swimming about.

View atop the parapet looking to sea

I am still stuck on the old forts thing and every port of any size that existed in the mid to late 1800's has one or more.  This is no exception.  Key West has Fort Zachary Taylor, a Third System fort.  Of course, I toured it today.  It is yet another example of hard shot facilities before rifled exploding accuracy made them obsolete.  This one was strengthened by taking the obsolete smooth bore cannons and burying  them in the breastworks just before the end of the century, the nineteenth century.  They covered the old cannons with concrete and this fort was active through WWII,

The view from the fort looking up the Northwest Channel. To the left is the Atlantic

Fort Taylor has some original mounts and some 20th Century  mounts.  I have now visited the last of the Gulf Coast Third System Forts. I can't wait to visit the Atlantic Third System Forts as we come to them.  Of course, Bear wants no part of this stinky old fort stuff so I am on my own visiting them.  She manages to keep from glowing by sitting in the shade of the cockpit and listening to books on tape.  How boring is that?  Then again, she does not need a gallon of Gatorade to get over my great adventures at the end of the day.

Look closely and you can see very large bore cannons buried in the concrete

From here things get a bit different.  We have a choice of doing Hawk Channel which runs on the Atlantic side of the Keys and is sheltered somewhat by a reef.  Said reef is not like Padre and Mustang Island with dunes.  It lies at or below water level and mostly stops the Atlantic swell.  Navigation is usually in 15 feet of water or so and there are many anchorages to be had along the route to Miami.  The alternate is the "inside" and this entails navigation where one has to be on the chart plotter and sounder more closely.  There are places where one can pass under Keys bridges and slip to the inside.  Methinks we will do a combination.  We will take our time as these waters are the clearest in the US.  We think that we will be in the Miami area in about a week to ten days.  That movement does not start until next Monday.  We have elected to stay here and be bums until then. More on the chickens, cats and Tarpon later.