Greetings,

Just a real quick update, as I am pressed for time. Our two crewman arrived on Monday. On Tuesday we got all of thier gear out to DREAM AWAY, as they stayed in a hotel the night they arrived. When we got all of their gear stowed, we went back into the dinghy dock, and headed for the nearby bus stop.

We got on the lower keys bus and headed off to Marathon. I wanted to have lunch at Burdines. Two reasons for this, I love their fried key lime pie, and we wanted to see some friends.

Our friend Brenda, Actually works at Burdines, so we were able to visit and catch up with her. Another friend, Gil who is a sailor, and is in fact on his way to the Rio Dulce is in Marathon, on his boat getting ready to make the jump to Isla Mujeres. We had a great visit with him, and I was able to give him some good information about making the trip.

We had our lunch, and Kitty and I split a fried key lime pie, as did Danny and Jeff. We then made our way back to Key West via the bus. Nice trip as we could look around and see what was going on around us. When we got back to the dinghy dock, I had to make two trips out to DREAM AWAY. The winds and waves were very high and we could not get four people in the tender and remain dry!

On Wednesday, I took Jeff and Danny into the dinghy dock, and they took off to town via the bus. They wanted to experience Key West from the ground so to speak! Kitty and I worked on DREAM AWAY, and other issues, and then we went into the dinghy dock late in the afternoon. We took a bus, and joined Jeff and Danny at Mallory Square to watch the the sunset and the street performers. After watching the street performers, and the sunset, we went to a close by Cuban restaurant and had dinner. Kitty and I had not eaten lunch, so we were pretty hungry. Jeff and Danny had had a big lunch so they were not so hungry. All of us walked out of the restaurant resonably satisfied!

As we were walking back to the bus stop, we were treated to a bicycle Christmas parade. A real treat! We made the bus back to the dinghy dock, and then came back out to DREAM AWAY. We were all pretty tired, so we all crashed!

Yesterday was a work day for us all. Early in the morning, Jeff, Danny and I headed into the dinghy dock. We caught the bus to the Winn-Dixie shopping center. Before we started the grocery shopping, Jeff mailed a package at the Post Office, and I shipped an incorrect part back to the manufacturer via the UPS Store. We then did the grocery shopping, then called a taxi. When the taxi arrived, we loaded all of the groceries into the taxi, and then headed back to the dinghy dock. We unloaded all of the groceries from the taxi, loaded all of the groceries into a dock cart. I brought the tender over to the loading dock, and we unloaded the groceries from the dock cart, and then loaded them into the tender. We also filled two water jerry jugs from the potable water on the dock, and loaded them into the tender. It was very calm today, so we all got into the tender, and went out to DREAM AWAY. We then unloaded all of the groceries from the tender onto DREAM AWAY.

Kitty, Jeff and Danny put all of the groceries away, while I drained the two water jugs into the port water tank. I also drained two diesel jerry jugs into the starboard fuel tank. When they had completed the grocery stowing, Jeff, Danny and I headed back into the dinghy dock. We left Kitty on DREAM AWAY to work on some cooking and computer projects that had to be done. When we got to the dinghy dock, we rushed to get the bus, and as it turned out the bus was in some kind of turn around, so we had plenty of time.

We rode the bus downtown to the West Marine store. I purchased a fan for the mid-cabin and I purchased a new SPOT for my friend Paul in the Rio. With that task completed, we went to a local restaurant BO's Fishwagon, for a cracked conch sandwich. It was great, and I saved half of the sandwhich for Kitty. We finished lunch, and then caught the bus back to the dinghy dock. Jeff guarded the tender, while Danny and I took two diesel jerry jugs off to a nearby fuel station and got them filled. I also picked up the package that was overnighted to us for the refrigeration compressor. We brought them back to the tender, then took the other two diesel jerry jugs back to the fuel station to get them filled.

As we were walking back to the tender with the two jerry jugs, a vehicle pulled over and out jumped Camille and Ernie! They are on a boat from Texas, and we have been following each other down the west coast of Florida since we arrived in Clearwater. They were in Key West looking around by vehicle, and they just happened to see us walking down the sidewalk. We had a real quick visit. They had to be getting back to Marathon to their hotel, and we had to finish our fueling efforts. When we got back to the tender, we filled the two water jerry jugs from the dock hose, and loaded all six full jerry jugs into the tender. Jeff, Danny, and I got into the tender, and back out to DREAM AWAY. We off loaded all of the jerry jugs onto DREAM AWAY. We topped off the starboard diesel tank with about seven gallons of fuel, and I dumped the two jerry jugs of water into the port water tank.

We got our shower stuff together, loaded the two empty water jerry jugs into the tender and Jeff, Danny and I headed out to the dinghy dock. Kitty is taking a shower on DREAM AWAY. Jeff, Danny and I took our showers at the facility at the dinghy dock. I filled the two water jerry jugs, and then we all came back to DREAM AWAY, all squeaky clean, and feeling pretty good.

We will be leaving Key West today around noon, on the high tide. We are heading directly to the Rio Dulce, in Guatemala. We will be out of email and phone contact at least until the 20th of December. I will be setting off our SPOT every six hours, so you will be able to follow us on the Where Is DREAM AWAY link on our web page. Please be advised the SPOT will not work when we are close to CUBA, so do not get worried. Once we are away from CUBA, the messages will start coming in again.

I will get an update out when we get up to our marina on the Rio Dulce, and have email access. That should be sometime around the 20th to the 23rd of December.

regards,

jimk

Member Seven Seas Cruising Association

WEB page http://www.dreamaway.net