Sunday February 28, 2010

Decided that the best way to get to the airport to meet Patricia was to take the green bus. It was scheduled to pass by the marina at 1:05PM. Plenty of time to get me to the airport on time to meet my daughter. I arrived at the bus stop 5 minutes early. I looked to the east and saw the bus at the corner of Palmer and Roosevelt. Surprisingly it was on time. I stood up and exited the bus shelter. The *&&*#@# bus driver looked at me and kept driving past the bus stop. He did not stop and pick me up. I was really angry. More than angry. I wanted a ride to the Airport and now I would have to spend $7 or walk to get there on time. I decided to save the $7 and walk. I was a 45 minute walk to the airport from the bus stop. It would have been a 30 minute walk from the boat had I realized the goofy bus driver would not pick me up. Patricia Arrives at 1:45PM. Met her at the Key West Airport. The airport is very small so it is really easy to find the arriving person that you are looking to meet.

Patricia arrived in Key West wearing a designer top, blue jeans and 4 inch platform shoes! I jumped up to greet her as she entered the passenger arrival area. She had to bend down to give me a peck on the cheek greeting kiss. Those shoes made her taller than me.

We jumped into a cab and headed to the boat to drop off her clothes. Once Patricia has stowed her clothes which took less than 5 minutes she said that she was hungry and wanted to see the island. I made her a tuna fish salad sandwich as I gave her an overview of the place.

We walked into town. Our first stop was the Schooner Wharf Bar. We walked up stairs to get a drink. To our surprise, Brian and Abby our across the street neighbors from Brighton were there. They asked us to join them as they celebrated their victory in the Wreckers Race.

The Wreckers Race is a sailboat race commemorating the adventures of the Wreckers. These were men in the late 17th and 18th centuries that lived here in Key West. At the signal of a distressed ship, they would jump into their boats and sail out to assist ships that had run up on the many reefs in this area of the world. Back in the old days storms would blow ships off course and onto reefs. When this happened, the local Wreckers would race out to the distressed ship. They would save the passengers if they arrived early enough and the storms were mild. Often times all of the passengers would be drowned by the time they arrived. Wreckers would always save the cargo. Maritime Law at the time allowed wreckers the right to claim the cargo of wrecked vessels and then once the cargo was saved, it could be sold for a huge profit as their acquisition cost was small. Asa Tift was the first millionaire in Florida. He was a wrecker. In fact the first millionaires in Florida were all wreckers. There were so many ship wrecks here in the early 17th century that shipping companies paid for the construction and maintenance of light houses to guide ships away from dangerous shallow water reefs. I have heard stories that the wealthy wreckers once the light houses were built would bribe the lighthouse keepers to extinguish their lights to purposefully cause ships to run aground. So much of the wreckers wealth was ill begotten.