More Fun in Key West!

Location: Key West, FL

Hello from sunny and hot Key West. We hope you all had a wonderful Fourth of July weekend doing lots of fun things. Our fun in Key West continues and I would like to share with you our latest photos and adventures.

More Schooner Wharf Bar Friends
Here is a picture of my friend Angus who is the brother of Randy the pug/pit mix whose photo was in a previous blog. He and Randy come to Schooner Wharf a lot with their parents. Angus’s mom is amazed at how much Angus and I look alike… except, at 100 pounds, he is three times bigger than me! I guess you could say that Angus is a “Mega me” of me?


This is a picture of another Angus. This Angus works at Schooner Wharf and the little kitten he is holding was given to him for his birthday by our friends Balk and Diane. I think this is the only cat I have ever seen in the Schooner Wharf Bar.


Oyster Race Winner
The first time we went to Pepe’s Oyster Race with Rick and Toni, we met their friends Kristie and Larry (aka Wasabi) who live on their sail boat in Key West. They live on a 41 foot Morgan Out Island called Banana Wind. By day, Larry works at West Marine. But, in the evening, they dress in their pirate regalia and entertain the tourists at Mallory Square.

At the June 29th Oyster Race, the prize pot was up to $125 and Kristie actually picked the winning key to the prize money box! Boy, was she happy… and we were happy for her!


Getting On and Off the Boat
The marina here doesn’t have finger docks alongside the boats, so we have to board our boat by climbing over the bow rail. Thankfully, Capt. Jim is strong and can carry me over the bow rail with him and we haven't fallen in the water! There are lots of big tarpon in the water that are much bigger than me, so I don’t think I want to go swimming with them.

Here is how we get on the boat:

Here is how we get off the boat:


Fourth of July
I love going to the Schooner Wharf Bar because the bartenders also give me treats! So, what better way to celebrate the Fourth than by going to my favorite place and getting yummy treats from Missy. Thanks to Diane for the photos!


Of course, all that begging for treats is really hard work. So, I had to take a rest at the bar.


I also got to visit the beach and do some swimming.


Later, we saw a message plane flying overhead with this message. Capt. Jim said he hoped that Michelle saw the message and wasn’t in the bathroom when the plane flew over. I wonder what Michelle’s response was.


Key West has a fireworks show from the White Street pier, so we watched the fireworks from the Southernmost House. There were lots of boats on the ocean watching the fireworks show too. It was a good fireworks show, but I think the Jax Beach fireworks show is better.


More Great Snorkeling
We have really enjoyed the snorkeling in Key West. Since we have been here, we have visited the Western Sambo reef and Cottrell Key. Western Sambo reef has really nice big coral reef formations in shallow and deep water, so it is a good site for snorkeling or diving.

But, we like Cottrell Key the best because it has the most diversity. At Cottrell Key, there are 13 mooring balls and each mooring ball has something different to enjoy: beautiful fish, soft and hard corals, a wreck, and an area called “Stingray Alley” where you can see lots of stingrays resting on the sand or gently gliding through the water. At Cottrell Key, we have also seen sea anemones, lobster, large nurse sharks, barracuda, huge tarpon, and an amazing school of amberjack. We don’t have an underwater camera, but we need to get one so we can share some of the beauty of our snorkeling with you.

Here are some more photos from our snorkeling trips:
(Thanks to Diane for some of these photos)

We let the charter catamaran Blue Q tie up to our boat so they could snorkel the same area we were snorkeling.


Snorkelers at Cottrell Key:

(left to right) Joey, Balk and Diane:

Kat and Capt. Jim:

Kat and Tim:

Kat:

The other boats at Stingray Alley, Cottrell Key:

Capt. Jim and Admiral Sandy:

Capt. Jim:

When I am ready for a nap, I am really good at squeezing myself in to any space I want to be. One of my favorite spots is next to Joey’s leg.

I actually crawled under Balk’s legs just so I could lie next to Joey.

Swimming with the Yellow Tail Snapper
On our snorkeling trip, I had lots of fun swimming with the yellow tail snapper. In the past, I have always wanted to swim with the fish when I have seen schools of them jumping around our boat. Capt. Jim always holds me to keep from jumping off the boat after them. So, when I had a chance to swim with the fish, everyone thought I would chase the fish. But, I surprised everyone by racing to be the first to get the cheese puffs before the fish could get them. (Note: yellow tail snapper really like cheese puffs and so do I). It just goes to show you that food is far more important to me than any stupid fish!

More Trip Photos
We have a new neighbor in the harbor: a 150 foot yacht called “Wheels” that is owned by the owner of Hendrix Motors (NASCAR). This boat is much bigger than our house! It is so big, it is blocking some of our sunset view!

This photo was taken by Admiral Sandy from her perch atop the mainsail as she waited for the sunset.

Here are some “artsy” photos that Admiral Sandy took from the mainsail perch. Look for my reflection in the dorade vent. For those of you non-sailors, the dorade vent is the chrome thingy.

Here is a photo of me and Capt. Jim relaxing in the cockpit. We love to sit here in the evenings and watch all the charter boats and dinghies come and go.

Goodbye Rick and Toni!
Last week, Rick and Toni and their dogs Samantha and Horatio left on their sail boat Second Wind, headed back to Jacksonville. We really enjoyed the time we spent with them in Key West and look forward to spending time with them when we get back to Jacksonville! We wish them fair winds and safe seas! We’ll see you when we get back!

Goodbye Joey!

Joey left today to go back to Chicago and we were sad to see him go. We really enjoyed spending time with him and wish him all the best in school! We hope to see him again sometime!

That concludes another update on the adventures of Coconut and Crew. We wish you all a great week! Please look for our next posting soon!

Coconut and Crew

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