Sailing Week

Last week brought another event to KW. This one was the Acura Sailing Race. A week where we are invaded by sailing teams from all over the world. Below is the site for the details on the race week. 

www.premiere-racing.com/keywest09/pages/KW09_entry_information.htm

Now this event was different from the others. 

First there was no parade down Duval. No showing of the sailing boats or any pomp and circumstances of the event coming to town. The sailing takes place outside the reef so there is little that can be seen from town. You have to have a boat or take out a charter to see any of the racing. 

Then there was the sailing teams, over half were from other countries which makes for an interesting crowd when out on the town. This also made for interesting people watching since many of the other countries do not tip their wait staff or tip very little. We watched more than one bartender serve up round after round of many drinks and get left maybe a $2 tip. 

There is also a special tent set up where 'only' the sailing teams are allowed into for free drinks, food and various booths are set up. Special access only is strictly enforced.  

So it seems all of the comments we had heard from the other locals about sailing race week and all that it brings seems to be true. 

This is the first event that is one adventure we will not want to be around next year.  

West Coast Fans in the East

Go Cardinals!!!!! 

I am sure you know about the Cardinals going to the Super Bowl. We are very excited about it and that is what has inspired this blog.  

Since moving East we have found it VERY, VERY hard to see any of our 'hometown' favorite teams. Unless the Cardinals, Diamondbacks, Suns or Coyotes are playing a team that is East of the Mississippi river we don't get to see ANY games. 

So when we are flipping through the channel guide we check all of the listing just in case we can catch a game. If we are lucky enough to find one then we are camped out for the duration. 

Of course there is one exception to that rule... the time change. This time of year it isn't to bad since there is only a 2 hour difference but when daylight savings comes and it goes back to 3 hours then I can't always stay awake for the late games that are from Phoenix. Much better for us when the team is on the road in the East. 

We have also found that we are one of the few Phoenix fans in KW. We have found one other guy that graduated from ASU and THAT IS IT! When the Suns were in the playoffs last year we went to a local bar to watch and there were only a couple of other ladies and us watching the game. Even they were from Phoenix and in town for just a couple of days. 

There is also a lot of fans from all of the states north of here. NC, VA, PA, NJ & NY are the most common with PA taking the lead. So when one of those 'hometown' teams are playing the bars are packed. 

So on Sunday when the Cardinals played we decided to set up our own home party... just Tom and I with margaritas, chips and salsa and we left all our 'northern' friends to watch at the bar. Then once we had WON it was off to the Iguana to celebrate. Of course we got to taunt every person who came in wearing an Eagles jersey. With the number of PA people there was no lack of whooping and hollering on our part.  

Now this brings us to Super Bowl Sunday! The game party will be at our house with all of our PA friends. Yes once again we will be out numbered but I am betting we will the loudest!!!! 

GO CARDINALS!!!!

In Remembrance of Deo Fisher

This week was a sad week for all of us that are involved with the Mel Fisher family. Deo Fisher passed away on Tuesday. She was the widow of Mel Fisher. Tom and I had a honor of meeting her a few years ago before she went to live in Montana on a full time basis. Her life was an amazing one so I took the story from the local news paper that was written by Mandy Bolen. She is a friend of ours who also writes a great article each week called Tan Lines that I love so and provided a great story of Deo so it is included below....

Delores Fisher

Mother. Diver. Seeker. Stoic.

All have been used to describe Dolores “Deo” Fisher, widow of the late treasure hunter Mel Fisher, who lost her own battle with cancer Tuesday afternoon — 10 years and one month after her legendary husband succumbed to the same.

Although she was born, and died, in Montana, Deo Fisher lived a waterlogged life on both coasts.

Born Dolores Horton, she married the charismatic Mel Fisher in 1953 in California when she was 17. The young married couple embarked on Mel’s dream of opening a shop that catered exclusively to the burgeoning population of recreational scuba divers, and Deo did her part to entice more female participants to the sport. Together, she and Mel taught an estimated 65,000 people how to dive.

In August 1959, she broke the world’s underwater endurance record by remaining submerged in a 10-foot-deep porpoise tank for more than 55 hours and 37 minutes using scuba equipment.

The Key West community met Deo Fisher when she arrived in the early 1970s with her young family to begin Mel’s search for the treasure of the Nuestra Señora de Atocha.

The family’s struggle, determination and perseverance in the wake of the tragedy that killed Deo’s eldest son, Dirk, and his wife, are the stuff of local legend. But Deo was not Mel, and she was a mother above all else.

“Deo was as tough and resolute as Mel, but her gentle demeanor and outright beauty often made you forget that,” said Corey Malcom, director of archaeology at the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum.

Malcom arrived in Key West immediately after the 1985 discovery of the mother lode of the Atocha. He worked for an archaeological company hired by Mel to oversee the excavation of the historic shipwreck.

“For many years, she served as a de facto mother for a very large crew of divers,” Malcom recalled Tuesday. “If someone had a personal problem, she was the one to go to.”

Personal problems were plentiful in the slim days leading up to July 1985 and the discovery of the sunken treasure.

“Her love for the ocean and all it contained was only surpassed by the love for her family,” said Melissa Kendrick, executive director of the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum, which Deo helped found in 1982. “She had those really basic attributes of a solid American Midwesterner,” said Don Kincaid, who worked for the Fisher family for several years and documented the Atocha search and recovery for “National Geographic.” He survived the night the salvage ship sank, taking Dirk’s life. “Many of the divers had come from broken families, and Deo was very much the mother of all of us, and we all thought of her that way.”

No details about funeral arrangements were available Tuesday, but will be forthcoming.

Scuba Tom

The holidays have ended and we have finally settled down into new routine that includes Tom attending college. He has wanted to get his scuba instructor certification and is able to do so at the Florida Keys Community College. In fact the college has a Diving Business and Technology degree (not a big surprise I suppose since we are in the islands) that is geared towards training professionals to work underwater. This is for anyone interested in working as a Scuba Instructor, a dive boat captain, a commercial diver, a police diver, a scientific research diver or working in dive medicine.

He will be attended in class on Friday nights (7-9:30 pm) where they do the book work and tests that are needed to complete the course. This will last from now till the beginning of May at the latest. As soon as the instructor thinks the class is ready to take the finals skills that can take place and they can finish early but it is unknown as to when that will be. At least he will be done by the time the grand baby will make her arrival! 

There are a total of 5 in his class and on the first night was a 100 question test to see what they all remembered from their Dive Master course. Of course Tom took his 2 years ago so I am not sure he remember all of it well enough to pass but he has a chance to take it again if he didn't. The other skills he has to master is the swims. There are 4 that he has to do. First is the 450 yard freestyle in under 10 minutes, second is the 900 yard with mask, fins and snorkel in under 15 minutes, third is to tread water for 15 minutes with hands out of the water for the last 2 minutes, and fourth is the 25 yard breath hold under water. He mastered these for Dive Master so I am sure he will for the Instructor! 

Yes this does impact our Friday happy hour schedule. In fact the group that we hang out with on Fridays actually changed the meeting to Jan & Ray's house to give him a 'send off' on his first day. Jan put together drinks and appetizers so that Tom would be fed and sent off in style. What a group they are! 

On Saturdays is the pool work for 3 hours. This is where they learn and practice all of the skills that have to be taught so that he can teach others. 

He will also have to attend some of the other classes to observe and help out with instructing as recommended by the instructor. Today he was helping out with the underwater archeology class. The college not only has a pool that they do the labs in but also a lagoon that come off of the ocean. This is where they have places timbers (actual ones from the wreck) and items from the Atocha (replicas for course) that are used in the class. Of course Tom has dove the real thing but it is still a pretty cool set up! 

So just as Taryn has graduated from college Tom is now attending so there continues to be a student in the family! 

New Years Eve in Key West

As you have probably realized KW doesn't need much of a reason for a party so of course when there is one it is a good one. New Years Eve is no exception! 

It was a tough decision for us as to what to do or where to go since there were so many options. KW does its own version of the 'ball drop' that is done in Time Square but in KW style and not just 1 but 3 different ones to choose from. 

1) There is the conch shell drop from the top of Sloppy Joe's. 

2) Then there is Sushi that drops from the Bourbon St Pub in a giant red shoe. I found a view of it on YouTube that I thought you would find interesting. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXQA82LDGpM 

3) And then there is Evelina (owner of Schooner Wharf) that is a pirate wench who drops from the top of a the mast of the KW Schooner.   

We had friends that were going to be at Schooners for the evening so we used them as a base and spent the evening walking to check out all of the options. 

We started with dinner at Turtle Krawls since they now have grilled oysters which are my latest favorite. We didn't want to get started to early so it was 8pm when we got started (otherwise we would never make it to midnight). 

Then off to Schooners for a drink with Cliff, Susan, Ellie & Randy. Ellie & Randy spend the winters in KW and the summers on an island in the San Juan Islands (off of Seattle). The island was Randy's family home. What a life for them. Randy took early retirement from UPS last year so they are now 'officially' retired. They were our base for the evening so we left them and headed out to see Mike at Iguana's. Since Iguana's is so close to Sloppy Joe's it was PACKED! I got a Happy New Year's kiss and a drink to go from Mike and we were on our way. 

Duval was already closed to cars so there was plenty of walking traffic but we could make our way. We went passed Sloppy's to see the conch shell, then down to Bourbon St to see the red shoe. It was to early for Sushi to be out but we new we wouldn't be back to see it so we at least wanted to see the set up for each. It was crazy and fun to be out with all of the people. Then we headed to Sunset Pier to see Al (another favorite bartender who is the brother of our friend Michelle) and get a New Years kiss and drink from him. The Sunset Pier has a GREAT view since it sets on the water (of course it was dark but still a nice ocean breeze made it a beautiful night. Finally we made our way back to Schooners in time for the wench to drop. Of course that wasn't the end of the evening since it seems that each time we are out late the night ends up with a cheese steak from Mr Z's and it just so happens Mr Z's is on the way home so it was a late night snack and off to bed. I think we made it home by 1:30 am and so ended our first New Years Eve adventure in KW!!!