Boca Chica

Key West 96-99 Feb 10-13

Sunday

Although thunderstorms were predicted, Sunday afternoon was sunny, warm, and breezy. Bob unpacked the new green swinging deck chair Steve and Stephanie surprised us with at Christmas and hung it from the spinnaker halyard. I climbed in, put my feet up, and settled in for a relaxing afternoon. It is soooo…. comfortable. I was looking forward to an afternoon siesta in the sun.

Before dozing off, I asked Bob to get the camera and snap a few pictures to send Steve and Steph. As he stepped backward to the edge of the dock to get a better picture angle, knowing his propensity for tripping, I felt the need to caution him. A few shots later, he had one foot on each side of a dock cleat and, once again, I issued a safety warning. Back on the boat, pictures taken with no mishaps, Bob handed me the camera to view the shots. The sun was too bright to be able to see anything, so I handed the camera back to him. Just like in football - it was the perfect fumble. The camera hit the deck, bounced up, and flew overboard into 17 feet of water.

It wasn’t long before we were, once again unfortunately, the center of the afternoon’s entertainment. Several of our dock-mates had witnessed our faux-pas. Mike and Gene, father and son, were already in the water snorkeling and came over to begin the search. Charley and Joanna came to encourage them. Theresa went to get Andrew saying, “He can find anything.” More folks began to appear. After numerous unsuccessful, but quite competitive, dives to find the camera, Andrew’s pony rig (air tank with a long hose) came out. By this time a group of 12-15 had assembled, sitting on dock chests and standing in groups watching the retrieval effort. Bob left for Key West to pick up his air tank and the regulator he ordered to scuba dive for the camera. Andrew was the hero of the day when he surfaced with the camera in hand.

Conversation centered on what to do next: put it under a glass bowl in the sun leaving a small air space to suction the sea water out; rinse it in distilled water; rinse it in alcohol; don’t rinse it. We settled on the dish on the deck, but since it was already 3:30 in the afternoon and beginning to cloud, there wasn’t much sun.

Sunday evening we were invited to a “Meet and Greet” bring-a-dish dinner at the Navigator Grille. What to do next with the camera conversation resumed. Jan, from the Island Packet in the next slip, had been successful drying out a watch with desiccant and a zip loc bag. That sounded like the best alternative to me.

Monday

I called Olympus for their recommendation on what, if anything, could be done. They concurred with the rinse in fresh water/desiccant approach and said - with a little luck – the camera might work. It didn’t. I am now the new owner of a SONY digital, which I like better than the almost new defunct camera!

We’re looking forward to snorkeling on the reefs as soon as the weather settles. In the meantime, Bob and Andrew are planning to snorkel along the edge of the marina. According to the cruisers who have been here before, there are two resident barracudas living under our dock - “Barracuda Bob” and “Scar.”

Wednesday

We undoubtedly made the right decision last week to arrive in Key West by Saturday. The weather has deteriorated since our arrival.

Last night we were awakened at 2:30AM with thunder, lightening, high winds, and torrential rains. Bob turned the instruments on and saw winds in the lower 30’s gusting to a max of 66.8 knots!! When the gusts hit, we heeled 15 degrees. I cannot imagine being anchored in these conditions!

This afternoon we are waiting out NOAA’s severe thunderstorm and mariner warnings, “gusty winds in excess of 40 knots, frequent lightening, small hail, and possible waterspouts” (tornados over water). DeLaMer is securely tied to a concrete dock with double lines all around, as are our fellow cruisers at Boca Chica. After all of our preparation this afternoon’s thunderstorms passed through uneventfully.