Day 23 – April 22

Well, the rain was replaced with 20+ knot winds, although blowing from the other direction.  There were a few stray showers, but mostly it was the wind.  I put the dingy in the water and attached the motor, and after a few minutes of consternation about motoring in the wind and waves, we load up and are off to locate the KW City Marina dock master’s office.  We decided that we both would wear life preservers and we had directions “to go under a bridge, and the office would be on the left”.  Beth located the bridge, but there was only a Jet Ski operation.  We asked the owner where the city marina was located, and he pointed to the next inlet.  Wrong.  We motor through the chop to the next inlet and ask a sailor motoring out where the city marina is located, and he directs us to the dingy dock.  We finally get pointed in the right direction, and locate the dock master’s office.  We end up tying up where they launch trailered boats; fortunately there is not much traffic due to the weather.  We register and get the pass codes for the dingy dock and showers and drop off our garbage. 

 After showers and returning to the boat we decide to go to town.  We motor back through the chop and get a nice salt water shower.  Both of us are pretty soaked by the time we reach the dock, but we dry as we walk to town about a mile away.  We love the architecture of the KW houses, which is on our route to downtown.  We wander down Duval and down to the harbor where they are setting up the “taste of KW” scheduled for tomorrow.  The streets are busy, but it is a Sunday.  We stop in an outdoor restaurant for some conch fritters and a couple of rum drinks.   We motor back and shower the sun lotion and salt water off, and prepare for a bouncy night as the winds are predicted to be 20+ again.  We have determined that there is not any perfect anchorage in KW, short of going in to a marina, but at $100+ per night, we’ll bounce a little.  We are safe on the mooring ball, just a little uncomfortable.