Colder Weather, new fridge, road trip south

What is the saying, the best laid plans.... Monday March 4th 2013

Tom got the new compressor and condenser in and we are up and running. We opted for a no freezer box configurations so our energy consumption is lower, BUT.... our batteries .... have to remember it is a boat and there is always something. We are on a mooring ball so no shore power, we have to run our engine to charge things up. Good news ... there is a lot of wind lately for our wind generator... bad news is there is a lot of wind. 

We had planned to leaver here on Tuesday 3/5 - the trip up the west cost of Florida will be interesting.  There are no major cities until you get to Naples, you can not land in the everglades so you need to anchor out. The area is very shallow so wind chop can be uncomfortable.  The weather for Wednesday to Friday is rough water 5' to 7' waves, and wind with colder temps. We are staying here until next week and hopefully better weather. 

With that we took a road trip to Key West. It was odd because on our first sailing vacation 30 years ago, we rented a car then and drove to Key West. Back then there were no cruise ships and it was a little wilder. Still a lot of bars, but this time we went to the Butterfly House, and made a return visit to the Aquarium. We took a trolley ride and got treated to some bad puns and local history and color.  It did rain, and by the end of the day we were pooped. I took over 300 photos, so this is one of those 3 part blog post. 

full Moon shining through my hatch

New compressor installed

Gulf of Mexico side of the Keys

we could see the rain headed our way

We stopped at a small beach and watch a Pelican fish

gull trying to get fish from pelican

chickens and roosters were brought to the keys for cock fighting.
That is illegal now, but the Keys are a National Bird sanctuary and you can not
harm a bird.... big fine.
Hens and  Roosters are birds and can not be harmed, hunted, cooked

I believe this is a type of Jaeger, I think a Pomarine because of
the tail feathers.

Thought this was a cool building for a Walgreens