Sea Log - Day Fifteen - Jan. 21st, 2002 (Monday)

The sun rose clear and bright this Monday morning as we gathered a few possessions and made our way towards the keys.  The folks in Homestead kindly allowed us to leave behind a lot of our gear where we stayed. And so we had far less than we might have had to stow once we eventually arrived at Islamorada.  (To this date I do not know where we would have stashed it all--the van probably).

We stopped off at good old Wal Mart and picked of necessities.  Steve I recall picked up a bandanna to protect his head.  I picked up some sun screen.  I thought I had found the right place in the store but I noticed that all the numbers were like "3" to "7" and that just did not seem like enough.  I also noticed that I was surrounded by tanning products.  So I looked up the pharmacist (who happened to be Indian or Pakastani) and said "I've just arrived from the North and am going on a boat for several days.  These don't seem enough."

"Oh my goodness gracious no," said the pharmacist.  You need twenty eight, no thirty at least. . .maybe even fifty.  Over there on the other side of the shelves."  

Sure enough there was the thirty and that's what I bought.  I later learned how glad I was. 

Finally we began our journey to Key West, the last island in the Florida Key chain.

Taking possession of the South Wind

The South Wind at Treasure Harbor is a sweet ketch.  With two masts she sleeps six easily and could fit eight with a little maneuvering.

I couldn't believe when I stepped below deck I found air conditioning.  "Air Conditioning!!?? What kind of luxury cruse did I sign on?"  The rest of the crew took it in stride but I remember the Shark Ten.

Does it mean anything when the moon is right above the main mast?  Is that good luck or bad luck?  Oh well I'll record that the moon was right above our main mast when we boarded the South Wind and see what it foretold later.

We had already had dinner so we quickly went out and bought some supplies for the actual sail for tomorrow.  Elayna could not believe how much food we got. "We're never going to eat all of this."  She clearly has not been around male appetites very much.

We're supposed to have a test tomorrow, but things are looking a little tight.  And by far the most important aspect of this trip at this point is the first hand experience of sailing.  Still there was some time to review some of the basics of Moby Dick and cover the preliminaries of The Old Man and the Sea which we are supposed to be starting at this point of our Odyssey.  Just in case there are doubts that we really studied, Jeremy took this photo of us all hard at work--or as my dad says "hardly working." Note: the central pole here in out main cabin is part of the mast.  So I guess you could say were were all Studying Before the Mast, wouldn't Dana be proud?