March 21, 2009: Big Pine Key

Last night was a rough night with the wind picking up to 20 mph and a small craft advisory announced by the Coast Guard. While ours is not a “small craft”, there was a lot of pounding by the waves where we were anchored last night due to exposure to the north. So this morning with the weather forecast for continued wind from the North / North East, we moved the boat to a more sheltered spot on the waterfront near the bridge between Big Pine Key and No Name Key. We had several big crabbing boats come by us loaded with wooden crate traps.

Our outing for today, was to take the dinghy with our bikes into shore to find lunch and a grocery store. We took the dinghy under the bridge to a tiny little marina where we paid $5.00 to tie up to their wall. Tom had found a recommendation for the “No Name Pub” which was just a short way up the paved road. The restaurant opened in 1936 as a general merchandise store and was called the oldest pub in the Keys with large live oaks snugged up to the block construction. We had to wait for 30 minutes to get a table, but had a fantastic ham and pineapple pizza there.

The waitress there told us that the No Name Key had a national wildlife reserve and that we might see deer if we rode over the bridge. The National Key Deer Refuge was established in 1957 to protect and preserve the Key Deer and other wildlife species unique to the Florida Keys, such as the Keys Marsh rabbit. So after lunch we took that ride, but it was not until we had come back across the bridge to Big Pine Key did we see deer scampering down the side of the road. I almost got a picture, but they were too quick.

The grocery store turned out to be farther away than we thought. It was up on US1, the highway that runs the length of the Keys, – a five mile round trip, so it was great that we had the bikes. The Winn Dixie was a huge, modern store with daily specials on grouper and shrimp being announced over the loud speaker as we shopped for bread, milk and strawberries. There were little signs in the meat department giving the origin of each of their meat products as information on the food supply chain, complying with the new FDA law for tracking food sources. We also found the First Baptist Church where we will go back tomorrow to worship.

We had supper on the boat as the winds picked up and the clouds rolled in. We did see a dramatic sky with the sun behind the dark clouds before it got dark. We were able to see the UNC victory over LSU and then the Duke game on NCAA.com using the wireless internet.

It was a good day.