Rows of docked houseboats greet you as you enter Garrison Bight. They very in size, colour and shape. Not something you see every day.

The secure dinghy dock in Garrison Bight next to the bridge. The Moorings office give you a key for the gate to this area. There is free water at the dock and shower/toilets for your use.

The Court House/Customs House building in Simonton St (corner of Caroline St) is about a 20-30min walk from the dinghy dock (Palm Ave → Eaton St). An impressive building made from blocks of coral (probably not too much other building material back then). We entered the building after a walk at midday in the sun and were hit by a blast of cold air conditioned air - sooooo nice, and were asked by this well dressed (suit and tie) security type dude what our business was. After explaining we wished to checkin to the USA, he informed us that no electronic equipment was allowed in the building which meant that i got to spend 40mins outside on the steps with the camera, phone, radio etc while John got to spend that time in the air con. We had put our fruit and veg in a bag, having been told that other cruisers had been asked for it. They didn’t ask anything about our rubbish but did take it when John asked him if he wanted it. They required copies of the boat registration, passports, Zarpe from Mexico and Crew list. We were given a Cruisers License (permit for aliens/foreigners to cruise within the USA) and told we need to call Border Protection on 1800 432 1216 and quote our Crusing License number when ever we enter a new port. We then swapped places so that my passport could be verified and stamped (30 secs in the air con for me) and we were done. Total cost = US$19. So easy compared to the experience of other cruisers and the cheapest checkin yet.

Typical houses in Key West - wooden with porches, although we saw a number with major termite damage. The southern end at least is a pretty place.

After checking in we headed to Duval St, the tourist hotspot, and enjoyed a lunch of Conch Fritters and Dolphin Fritters (no not dolphins, Mahi Mahi) watching the tourists (usually its varying shades of sunburn) wander past. The restaurants have misting machines which send out a very fine mist of water into the air for cooling their patrons.

Our next job was to find a phone SIM card with a data package. This has not been difficult in any of the Central American countries we have been to but it took us several hours of walking streets and asking people to locate a shop (within a MoneyGram shop) who could do this for us. We went for a US$35/month plan with unlimited USA & International text & phone and what we thought was unlimited data. It turned out that it was unlimited data but it was only the first 750MB that was on the fast plan and of course when we had used that the speed went to snail speed. We had to go back and convert to a 2GB fast data plan for US$45/mth but that will not kick in until next month, so we ended up topping up our current plan at $10/1GB. We will see how this works out.

Next to the phone shop there was a homemade fudge and ice shop. Well it was a hot afternoon so what else could we do but have an ice-cream sitting on the cruise ship dock and watching the world (and tourists) go by.

The cruise ships come in in the morning, disgorge the passengers for the day then leave again in the late afternoon. When the ships are in, there are people everywhere, but when there are no ships everything is a lot slower and quieter.

There are chooks everywhere. A taxi driver told us that there used to be a lot of cock fighting on the island, but that was stopped so the birds were let loose and they have flourished.

Many hours and much money was spent in the West Marine store. The guy who served us was into the civil war re-enactments big time and in between guiding us down the isles of this large store he was showing us photos of ‘his’ cannon being fired. Everyone was dressed authentically in their uniforms etc. He showed a couple of photos where his daughter-in-law’s ashes were being fired from this cannon. I didn’t ask questions but i am sure there is a sad story.

The mooring field is a little out of the way, but generally less wake affected than the anchorages on the other side of Fleming Island. The moorings are well maintained (we saw a diver inspecting them) and there is a free pump out boat. We enjoyed the walk into and out of town, even when we got caught in the rain.

Talking about rain, the first couple of days after we arrived we had the occasional storm. This one at sunset.

We really enjoyed our 5 days in Key West with it’s tourists, helpful residents, many restaurants and the Winn Dixie Supermarket (where we found Curtis Stone and his recipes being advertised as well as a number of Australian products) but it is time to make our way north as it looks as if there may be a tropical wave coming north in about a week.