Let's see, we got up around 7:00. There was a little cloud cover and looked to be a good day. Well it turned out to be a very good and a very bad day. First the fog rolled in...no big deal but add's interest to the picture story.
We had met Barry & Jody yesterday on a 42' Heritage East Trawler "The Love Shack". They are beginning "The Great Loop" (Florida Keys through the Great Lakes, down to the Tenn Tom Waterway and back to Florida. We went to the Tiki Bar with them for 75 cent tacos...and a really good band. Then this morning we said our goodbye's and exchange of books. We are pretty sure we will meet up again on our journeys.
Our plan for today was to clean the dinghy bottom. Boot Key is a great place but it wreaks havoc on boat bottoms, not enough current I guess. So off we went to the small beach on the Island close to our boat.2We turned the dinghy over and spent a good hour trying to clean the 2 inches of sea fur off of the bottom. /We ended up scrubbing most of it off and I was shocked at the difference in speed before and after. Yesterday we were slogging through the water not able to even get it somewhat on plane. I thought we really had engine problems, but boy, cleaning that bottom was the answer. We were flying through the water on the way back to the boat as you can see by Gary's face in the photos....
It was really warm (sorry) .....and when we got back to the boat I decided to go for a dip. Barry had warned us to hold onto a line as he found it to be a really strong current so I held onto a line and we checked the surface for any Man of War (pictures from previous post) and I made the plunge. It felt wonderful. Gary was hesitant to go in as it was not our usual 85-90 degrees but he finally decided to take the plunge. First dip, everything good.
Gary then decided to check the zincs as other people had had problems at Boot Key. First look OK but something wrapped around prop. He went down again to get it off and that was the end of our Good Day!! He came up with a Man of War wrapped around his arm and back and it was horrific!! First I had to get it off of him, but those pretty blue streamers you saw in the pictures stuck like glue and burned like HELL!! We used towels and our deck shower and then I had to call 911, who put me through to the Coast Guard, who said call Urgent Care. Finally since we only knew of one place here, the Sea Center, I called them they said vinegar or urine (what we used falls into the T.M.I. category, but you gotta do what you gotta do on a boat).and gave us the number of a local Dr. They said scrape the welts with a credit card to get off the remaining tissue and basically grin and bear the pain!
Anyway to make a 14 hour story shorter, we cleaned him up and go him somewhat comfortable and down for a rest.
After a while I saw a boat circling us and went out to say hello. It was a woman and her lab, Mercy.
She was inquiring about our boat and before you know it we had gotten into a conversation of her fishing and our days drama....and maybe you can guess the rest.
Linda was so nice. She called her friend, who was a pharmacist and she said we needed Benadryl and a hydrocortisone cream. I had antibiotic stuff and allergy antihistamine but not what we needed. She insisted we follow her into her house and take her truck to the CVS which was about 5 miles, to pick up what we needed. She is a real "boat woman" with 20 years of Key's experience so we really trusted her advice...
The boating community continues to be unique....people helping people with no sense of what's in it for me, but how can I help you.
So it was a very good and very bad day.
We learned....swim in a damn pool, and even in these times...people are great!!!!
Gary just went to bed and seems to be ok. Hopefully he will sleep all night and it will be a better tomorrow.
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