The SS United States and North from Key West

  

We saw the SS United States offshore from Fort Lauderdale.

Fort Lauderdale onMarch 13, 2020.

Fort Lauderdale is not yet crowded with
college-break revelers.

The SS United States, built in 1951, was the largest ocean liner ever built in this country and was over 100 feet longer than the Titanic.  In 1952 the vessel broke the record for an ocean liner transatlantic crossing with an average speed of 34.5 knots or 39.7 mph. The record remains today.  The ship was futuristic for its time and had no wood on board except for the butcher blocks in the galley.  She was decommissioned in 1969 when her owner filed for bankruptcy.

Picture from the tug pulling the SS United States.
Source: www.wavy.com

Subsequent owners were unsuccessful in bringing the SS United States back into service or later as a museum.  Finally, Okaloosa County in Florida bought the ship in 2024 with the plan to sink her off Destin, FL to become the world’s largest artificial reef.  Presently, she is under tow to Alabama where she will be prepared for her next career. 

 

Tory and I took three trips ashore
daily when we anchor.

We departed Key West to make the trek up the Florida East coast and return to our starting point on the Okachobee Waterway.  The Florida Keys have both an Ocean side passage and a Gulf side passage.  We elected for the Gulf side passage as it generally offers a little more shelter and better protection from winds with an easterly component.  Such winds were in the extended forecast.

Our West Palm anchorage was right across from the municipal 
dock. We were lucky that the day after we left the dock was
closed for the next four weeks for the Palm Beach Boat Show.

Our biggest challenge can be in finding good spots to anchor with shore access for our dog, Tory.  She doesn’t do her business on our boat, but fortunately does have a strong bladder.  Florida has been putting more severe restrictions on anchoring to protect views and to reduce the chance that a boat might end up abandoned due to storms or an owner running out of funds.  We were able to find appropriate spots off Big Pine Key (where we reconnected with Liz and Jon on Navigator), Marathon, Islamorada, Key Largo, Elliot Key in Biscayne National Park, No Name Harbor in Key Biscayne, Boca Raton and West Palm.

 

Once ashore, I enjoy finding trails or green space for walking and throwing the ball for Tory.  I often find a number of No Trespassing and related signs in front of every house even in lightly populated neighborhoods.  I subsequently learned that under Florida law a property owner must put up such a sign as without it law enforcement will not take action without a direct complaint from the owner.

House of a Big Pine Key crabber.

 

Such signage was particularly common in Big Pine Key, where many crabbers live.  Not only are owners concerned about their gear, but squatters also moved into damaged houses there after Hurricane Irma.  This led to homeowners being extra cautious.

It was exciting when Liz found
$100 on the Miami sidewalk
until we saw it was play money!

Mike, Melissa, Liz, Jon, Molly and me in Miami’s Bayside.

 

We stayed at a nice marina in Miami, and Rosborough friends Mike and Melissa were particularly helpful in picking us up and driving us to West Marine (twice), the dog groomer (3x), the grocery store, the laundromat (twice) and the hardware store.  Later we all jumped on the free Metromover and went to the famous Bayside area for a great meal at a Cuban eatery.

Next to the marina is the beautiful city dog park that Tory and I visited regularly.  In the adjacent park we met Martini, another Portuguese Water Dog.  Tory is usually timid in meeting new dogs, but the two of them acted like long-lost siblings.

The Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) from Miami to West Palm is not our favorite.  It is certainly a good display of some of America’s opulence, but cruising is often slow due to no-wake zones and waiting for

A common scene in Fort Lauderdale

low bridges to be open.  Where the ICW opens up, it can be overwhelming dealing with speeding boats and boat wakes as high as 3 feet.

My birthday celebration with Liz,  Molly and Jon.

Goodbye to Jon and Liz.

Finally, we arrived at the Manatee Pocket mooring field in Port Salerno, next to Stuart.  Here we celebrated my 75th birthday, which was only dampened by Molly noting that I am now 3/4 of a century old!  After 40 days of cruising together we also said goodbye to Jon and Liz on their boat Navigator.  They cruised to Fort Pierce where Navigator will stay at a slip while they fly home for a month before resuming their trek north.  We will miss comparing notes, sharing sites and playing cards with them.  Maybe, just maybe, we will cruise in the Bahamas together next winter! 

Below are some more pictures of our cruising since leaving Key West.

The Blue Hole on Big Pine Key.  It was a former limestone quarry and is now part of the National Key Deer Refuge.  I saw the small key deer everywhere on Big Pine.

Swimming off Marathon.  Tory was my lifeguard.

In front of the Flagler Museum in Marathon.  We saw a great documentary about the construction of Flagler’s Key West rail line at the Discovery Center on Islamorada.  The bridges were a marvelous engineering fete employing thousands, but hundreds also lost their lives, mostly in hurricanes.

We enjoyed a meal and the entertainment at Lorelei’s on Islamorada.

Looking for fish.

Tory’s dinghy operator

Sunset at Elliot Key.

Lighthouse at Florida’s 
Bill Biggs State Park in
key Biscayne.

We entered Miami Harbor on one of our few rainy days.

Chickens are everywhere, even in Miami!  Molly, Liz and Melissa are in the background.

Goodbye to the Miami skyline.

We enjoyed our walk around  West Palm Beach.

The old classic mega-yachts are prettier than today’s version.

After Port Salerno we cruised up the St. Lucie River and through one lock to the Army Corp’s St. Lucie Marina.  With the Senior Pass the marina only costs $15 a night and includes power and water.

We met two other Rosborough boats at St. Lucie, Cool Change and Sabbatical, and had our own mini -rendezvous before trailering our boats to the St. John’s River in Astor for this year’s Rosborough Rendezvous.  Pictured at Peter (on Cool Change), Jeremy and Dan (Sabbatical), Claudia (Cool Change) and Molly.

Key West and its Irreverence and Love of Life

Molly, Tory and I spent a week in Key West awaiting a weather window to the Dry Tortugas and another three days upon our return.  We can easily agree that this is one of the most fun places we have visited. On our first full day I spotted a man wearing a red onesie, half unbuttoned because of the heat.  While I was wondering what to make of him, we began to spot others, men and women both, also wearing onesies!  We learned that it was the 10th Annual Onesie Pub Crawl to support local businesses.  

    

Once that sank in, we then meet these two women coming standing at a bar that opened to the sidewalk.  I asked, “is that an onesie?”  The answer was an emphatic “yes!  It is all one piece underneath!” I don’t think I know a woman who would wear such a costume, but maybe living in Key West changes people.

 There is some organized activity, seemingly every day, from art shows to food festivals to theater to movies and even the monthly after sunset bike ride to celebrate the full moon.

You may have heard of the Conch Republic, referring to Key West and the rest of the Florida Keys.  This story began in 1982 when the U.S. Government blockaded Route 1 entering the Keys in an effort to intercept drugs and illegal immigrants.  All vehicles coming and going were subject to search. As Route 1 is the only road access to the Keys, traffic soon backed up for 17 miles.

Tourists from the mainland began to cancel reservations, and Key West was getting particularly hard hit.  The world press was now beginning to cover the story as Key West sought relief in Federal Court.  The request was quickly denied even though the Keys were being treated as a foreign country.  Let me now quote from the Conch Republic website at www.conchrepublic.com.

Our cruising partners gave me this as a thank you, and online
One can even order a passport!

When the Key West delegation left the courthouse, they were met by a gaggle of the world press asking “What are you going to do, Mr. Mayor?” and Mayor Wardlow replied “We are going to go home and secede” and thus the Conch Republic was born.

On April 23rd, the Conch Republic flag was raised over city hall and the Schooner Western Union, under command of Captain John Kraus, went forth into the harbor and attacked the US Coast Guard Cutter DILIGENCE with water balloons, conch fritters and stale Cuban bread. The DILIGENCE fought back with fire hoses and thus commenced the Great Battle of the Conch Republic. Prime Minister Wardlow surrendered and demanded foreign aid from the United States (which we are still waiting for!) The road block was quietly removed and the glorious Conch Republic was born.

All this, of course, was both to make a point about the unfair treatment of the Keys but also to have fun and make the best of the situation.  From a marketing standpoint, the Conch Republic has been a resounding success as flags, license plates, t-shirts and other references abound throughout the Keys.  To top off the marketing effort, Key West has almost an ideal climate for much of the year, and, oh, those sunsets! 

Molly, Jon and Liz at Sunset Pier.

Over 1 million tourists visit Key West each year, and one of the many highlights for visitors is having a drink on Sunset Pier watching the sunset. In addition, most every visitor seems to become more relaxed and better able to roll with whatever comes their way.  Two of the most famous visitors attracted to the Key West lifestyle included Ernest Hemingway and President Harry Truman. We visited each of their homes.

Hemingway lived in his beautiful house complete with a pool built from 1931 to 1939 with his 2nd of four wives along with numerous 6-toed cats.  The present cat population totals over 50, and we found at least one cat in each room and garden area.  Jon was sitting on a bench when one just jumped in his lap.

A cutout of Harry at his poker table
with the emergency table cover in the
upper.

I found the Truman White House of particular interest.  He is one of my favorite presidents and famous for doing what he thought was best for the country, regardless of the political consequences.  He enjoyed life, particularly in Key West where he had his nightly poker game.  Of course, the country wasn’t to know of this vice, and the Navy built a cover to quickly convert the poker table to a round meeting table.

Truman was widely expected to lose the 1948 election.  A labor strike at the Chicago Tribune resulted in management there
taking shortcuts.  They went home a little too early after the election!

Another unavoidable feature of Key West are the roosters and chickens.  Descendants from a time when settlers had chicken coups, these fowl roam the city freely and are part of the culture here.  During Tory’s and my early morning walks we would see and hear the roosters crowing on most every city lot.

 This city has so much history that I haven’t even touched on, but the focus of Key West is on the present.  Everyone should come here for a visit, and, please know there are countless great restaurants!

We ate very well in Key West.

Key West can give you courage to do most anything,  I even considered getting a tattoo!

I should also mention that you can find clothing that says most anything!

That includes dog apparel as well!

The I’m Not Arguing t-shirt was one of Molly’s favorites.