The Key West Boat Show and Nautical Market was, well let’s put it in nice terms… a sign of the times. If you go to a boat show, you want to see awesome boats you dream about. You want to be impressed, you want to see incredible examples of what money can buy. You don’t want to see Sea Chasers.
This year’s Key West Boat Show offered attendees the chance to see boats up close which didn’t really inspire much. Not very inspirational at all, actually. There were maybe a dozen boats, many of which were a brand (Sea Chaser) known for its strength in the budget category. These were not dream boats, for the most part. There was a nice Sea Cat outfitted with lots of fishing boxes, a huge live well, and millions of compartments for gear, etc, but pretty much the 2010 Key West Boat Show was a bust.
This is a Used Boat for Sale
As for the vendors, don’t even bother. Want a polyester T-shirt? How about a bronze mermaid windmill? Or some jewelry? There was some no-name dive gear on sale, and a book tent with 50% off books. But wow, what a bust. I guess nobody’s buying expensive boats these days, so it makes more sense to have Sea Chasers and used boats for sale on the lot, like the one in this picture.
One of the interesting things about Key West is the situation in which the city found itself during the Civil War. Fort Zachary Taylor, which wasn’t even complete when the Civil War broke out, was a Federal fort of course. But Florida is in the south, so you have mini versions of North vs. South in some southern states.
This occurred in most Federal forts of the south where Federal soldiers tried to hold their ground, but South Carolina and Fort Sumpter get all the attention. The standoff that happened at Fort Sumpter and the ensuing fame (or infamy) could just have easily taken place at Fort Zachary Taylor in Key West, had Florida been governed by a firebrand secessionist like the Governor of South Carolina at the time. Fort Taylor remained in Union hands throughout the Civil War, by the way.
Key West has a lot of silly events designed to attract and entertain tourists who don’t know any better. But the Key West Civil War Heritage Days celebrate real events in our city’s history. That makes this event one of the coolest celebrations of the year. However, this year the best part of the weekend was canceled because of the crummy weather. The schooner battle was scrapped – how disappointing.
These were some participants at the Key West Boat Show, also disappointed with the cancellation of the schooner war. As you can see from their costumes, they are re-enacters. I love the Coach bag addition to the outfit on the woman.
Winter in Key West beckons yachts and sailboats for several races throughout the season. These boats are racing around orange boueys between Key West harbor and Sand Key, close in. The event isn’t really talked about much among locals, and the contestants are from all over the world, so not much to say about this except that they looked real pretty, like a painting.
AKA Peterson’s Poker Run, one of my favorite events in Key West. The rumblings actually started Thursday afternoon as some early birds rolled into town on their Harleys. A motorcade of motorcycles thundered up Duval, fresh from a wedding. The bride rode behind the groom, veil flowing straight out behind her.
There seemed to be fewer bikes this year, and not as many in the $100,000 range. In a tough economy, art bikes are the first to go I guess. Nevertheless, there were some beautiful specimens this year.
Just after the explosions
Well, it’s over…the Vandenberg is sunk and today crews are out putting mooring balls on it and checking it. We saw a crew of Navy guys loading up one of the party fishing boats at Garrison Bight, which they must have chartered to take them out to the site. They had brand new shiny moorings with them.
The morning of the sinking, so many boats were heading out at 9am the seas were choppy all the way out to the site, from so many wakes crashing into each other. What a ride. One guy took out a jet ski! There were little boats, too, so they must have been totally covered in salt water by the time they got out there. We heard you would have to stay a mile away, but seems like we were a lot closer than that. Most of the boats came from east of Key West, from up the Keys or from Stock Island, looked like. There were some VIP boats allowed to go closer, most infamously the Key West Express. This behemoth ferry holding VIPS blocked the view of dozens of boats, according to the radio. Salty language filled the airwaves on Channel 16, minutes before the detonation. After it was all over, a very disappointed captain got on the horn and gave his feelings, “Key West Express, you pieceof s*%t”.
After the flare warning, there were some loud explosive noises, then dark gray smoke poured out of the ship. The smoke obscured the ship, and suddenly there was no ship. The sinking took less than two minutes. It was more like a magic trick, where something large disappears in a cloud of smoke, and less like the slow sinking of large ships you see in movies. Usually, sinking isn’t intentional. It happens when the hull is breached in one or several spots, but those holes are smaller than the ones caused by explosives. Intentional sinkings go fast and the ship stays upright.
This is big, really big. A 528 foot ship will be sunk south of the Cayman Wreck this month, to become the world’s second largest artificial reef. It’s the former troup transport ship from World War II, the USS Vandenberg. Everyone is excited, and here are some pictures of the ship, which is now docked at Truman Waterfront while workers clean out debris and make it ready for sinking.
The Vandenberg Sink Date has been Set!
Conch Republic Independence Celebration
The Conch Republic Independence Days are when Conchs get together to recall the day the Florida Keys withdrew from the United States. Tourists and newcomers join them to see what it’s all about and to watch the zany way in which this event is celebrated. To understand this strange holiday, take a look at Key West history.
In 1982 US Border Control decided they needed to take things up a notch and get serious with illegal immigration, from Cuba. They set up a border patrol station in Florida City, which is last stop on the mainland before you drive onto the Florida Keys. You had to show ID to go through the border stop, which was a very annoying inconvenience to some and a downright insulting infringement on civil rights, to others. Either way, it doesn’t seem like anyone thought about the impact on people’s lives when they set up the border check station, at a place within the US that wasn’t even any type of international border. It’s like making people show their passports when they cross from NY in New Jersey, in case any stray illegals are crossing that particular spot.
Well, Keys people rebelled, and mayors of various Florida Keys towns got together and tried to convince a judge in Miami to stop the silly border control actions in Florida City. No dice. So they said, well, then we aren’t going to be part of your country any more. They then declared the birth of the Conch Republic, and it’s this day in April 1982 which they honor every year with the Conch Republic Independence Celebration.
