Log Book: February 12th-13th

Conditions: 65 & rainy
Location: Key Largo

Dad and I awoke this morning feeling well rested and less cranky than we had when we arrived. The morning was warm and relaxing but as we were listening to the weather report we got some bad news, thunderstorm warning from midday through tomorrow morning. We had time to kill anyway. The Miami boat show, at we had planned on attending, doesn't start until the thirteenth and lasts until the seventeenth. We also had a package arriving in the mail for us at Key Largo that had not landed yet. So instead of heading off for Miami we hung around at Rodriguez until noon. We sailed into the marina at Key Largo just before the thunderstorm hit. Although we experienced days of rain in Key Biscayne it was nothing to the downpour we received in Key Largo. But the rain here is never constant, just when you put your umbrella away and the sun comes out it rains again. While we were in Key Largo this second time Dad and I worked on the fresh water pump. At some unknown point during our trip down to Key West our larger fresh water tank had leaked all of its contents into the bilge. Luckily the leak was easy to fix, unluckily that wasn't the whole story. We filled both tanks, emptied both tanks, cleaned both tanks, rinsed both tanks, and then filled them again. Dad gets easily frustrated with repetition so he frequently looks for a more efficient way to eliminate steps. I get easily frustrated with Dad's prolonged process of eliminating a step. My motto is do it right, do it once, and do it as fast as possible. Our conflicting views lead us to bump heads once and awhile. I think it's good for both of us. After we received our mail Dad and I went out to dinner with friends of my mother's who live in the Keys. Tammy and Jen were northerners who had never thought that they would live anywhere else but fell in love with the atmosphere here on vacation years ago and decided on a move. Dad and I had a great time hearing their unique perspective on the area and our common understandings, being from New England. Tammy wants to leave her desk job to become a alligator conservationist. She would be trying to convince the locals not to shoot alligators that happen upon their yards and swimming pools, but instead to call her. She will be catching alligators Crocodile Dun Dee style. It's one of the coolest jobs I've ever heard of.