From a small northwestern observatory…

The first time I sailed in the Caribbean (on a 42′ Morgan Sloop), I asked the Captain about “hurricanes”.  He said that was a verboten word in that part of the world, and I should simply refer to “large circular storms”.  So, as many of you know, Key West and the waters of the Carib and the Gulf are my adopted second home (although, truth be known, my father was born in Florida and commanded a ship out of Key West back in the 1940’s… but I digress…).  Like everyone, my eyes have been glued to the Weather Channel of late, and our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone harmed by the storms that have ravaged the southeast and our neighbors with whom we share those magical waters.  I also want to thank everyone who has expressed concern over our potential property damages, but let me say that it’s only property, and it’s well insured… but more about this later.

By the way, we’ve been in touch with several folks who weathered the storm in KW.  According to one report, at least one bar on Duval Street was re-opened and packed with locals by Monday morning.  Of course, economically, the locals need to restore the never-ending flood of tourist dollars, otherwise they’re just swapping dollars among themselves.

A few factoids about the Keys to help color in the lines.  The Florida Keys are an archipelago of about 1700 (!) islands starting about 15 miles south of Miami and running generally southwestward.  Key West (which is actually an aberration of the Spanish “Caya Hueso”, which means Island of Bones) is the westernmost point which is accessible by car, thanks to Henry Flagler and his railroad/tourist empire.  In actuality, the Keys officially include the Dry Tortugas, about 60 miles to the west of KW.  KW is just barely in the Eastern time zone, and the Dry Tortugas observe Central time.  KW is closer to Havana than it is to Miami.

By the way, the since KW is in the Western edge of the Eastern time zone, it means that the sunsets are slightly later there than back in Miami.  This provides for an extended happy hour out on Mallory Square, on the west side of the island, every day at sunset.  It also means that sunrise is slightly delayed, allowing for a few extra minutes of sleep before the obligatory morning dog-walk down to the pier to watch the sunrise in the east.

Oh, and about those 1500 islands — only about 30 are actually inhabited.  The remainder are wonderful nature preserves.  Geologically, the Keys are actually three different expanses.  The upper keys (Elliott Key, Key Largo) are remnants of ancient coral reefs.  The middle keys (down to Big Pine Key) are parts of the ancient Florida Plateau that stretched from Miami to the Dry Tortugas some 130,000 years ago.  At that time, the water levels rose about 25 feet, submerging all of this plateau except for the islands which remain.  Finally, the lower keys (Key West, for example) are sandy-type accumulations of limestone grains produced by plants and native marine organisms.

The climate is sub-tropical, and the foliage is more Caribbean than the rest of Florida.  Monroe County is the only frost-free zone in America.  There are three ways to get to Key West — by plane (short hops from Atlanta, Miami, and other nearby airports), by boat, or by car.  US Highway 1 stretches from Florida City (just south of Miami) to KW.  With the exception of a slight detour available between Florida City and Key Largo (Card Sound Road), every bit of vehicular traffic has to pass down this corridor.  Additionally, all the water for the keys comes from the mainland via the Aqueduct Authority, which has built on an original infrastructure installed by the Navy back in the 1930’s.  To put this in perspective, Mile Marker 0 on US-1 is at the corner of Truman and Simonton in downtown KW.  Key Largo is at mile marker 102, and Florida City is at MM-122.  Hence, everything that comes and goes thru the keys travels down this narrow path.  While much of the original KW was built via shipping and rail, neither of these options currently exists.   You truck it in, or it doesn’t come.

I had the opportunity to view aerial photos of KW taken by NOAA yesterday afternoon.  There appears to be little structural damage to our house or, for that matter, most of the island.  Indeed, even one nearby trailer park I viewed looked mostly intact.  Apparently, the eye of the storm passed thru the gap south of Marathon where the famous 7-Mile Bridge is located (featured in countless films, such as the Bond film License to Kill and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s True Lies).  According to reports, the 7-Mile Bridge and all of the bridges to the west are intact.  Since the worst of the wind is on the east-north-east of the eye of the storm, it comes as no surprise that the worst damage occurred to the east of the bridge, including the cities of Marathon, Islamorado, and Key Largo.  As you can guess, the damage to the east will have to be repaired before the western islands can be reached, or before tourism can return.

More as we hear it….