Tortugas Trip Day 10 - Boot Key

Today, Grace and I rose about 7:30am. The plan is to launch the tender from it’s current resting place on the cabin top. We would then row to the Marathon Marina to see if our key cards still worked. When we departed, I had forgotten to return the key cards and the gate clicker for the car. The cards are no big deal, but the clicker has a $25 deposit, which I wanted returned. The cards did not work.

So I went to the office to turn the cards and clicker in to ensure my refund. After doing so, I asked the girl at the desk if she could possibly enable the cards, just so we could take a shower. She hesitates as she is not supposed to do that. Them after explaining this to us, she did enable the cards. Grace and I both took showers. It felt great to take a hot shower after 9 days. I wondered how great it would be after nearly three weeks when I sail to the Azores. After the showers we returned the keys to the girl at the desk as she had requested.

Grace and I walked to the Overseas Highway and crossed to have breakfast at the 7-Mile Grill. During breakfast, some sports news came on the TV. Suddenly it hit me… Did the Packers beat the Cowboys? We had been gone so long, we lost track of the football Sunday’s.

After breakfast, we walked back to the marina and sat on a patio where I could check my emails… and the Packers website. The game was TODAY! … In an hour! We knew we could watch at the 7-Mile Grill, but we had just eaten and would have felt too guilty to just sit there for a few hours. We decided to go back to the boat to see if I could find a Wi-Fi signal to get updates.

As luck would have it, as it does sometimes for the unprepared, my friends Dick and Anne on S/V NATI came motoring up behind us as I was rowing the tender back to our boat. We explained our predicament. Dick and Anne didn’t hesitate to invite us to their Catamaran and see if they could pick up a TV signal. We jumped at the opportunity. However, Dick could not find a single “over-the-air” signal on the TV.

NATI anchored off Boot Key

We did sit and visit all afternoon in their cockpit. Dick used his iPad to get the game updates. He was able to find the video replay for the game deciding call that was overturned in the Packers favor. The replay officials got it right! Packers won and are moving on to Seattle to play in the NFC Championship game.

After the game, we rowed back to Distant Horizon, promising to see Dick and Anne once more before we leave for Syracuse.

Grace cooked dinner as had become our usual custom. She made “Stovetop Chicken in White Wine Sauce”, which we had over rice and spinach. Also as part of our usual custom, I did the dishes after dinner.

Another beautiful sunset from Boot Key

We were planning on sailing to Bahia Honda State Park tomorrow, but after listening to the weather it would take about 4 hours to get there, and possibly 9 hours to return the next day. We decided not to try and make the trip.