Consequently, we’ve been a bit lax on tending to boat chores. With the holidays behind us though, our thoughts have turned to preparing Eagle Too for a possible trip to the Bahamas this spring.Â. JOIN NOW →. Having a bad case of flu sucks. But when I started taking things apart, I discovered a very unpleasant fact. To the west is Everglades National Park, easily accessible to boaters. Most people come to the Florida Keys by driving U.S. 1, which is a highway that stretches from Fort Kent, Maine, to Key West. No area on the islands is more than 20 feet above sea level, and most locations are between 1-10 feet. Florida liveaboard mooring fields give you a chance to live on your boat without having to spend as much as you would on a typical marina slip fee. The significant tourism levels in the Florida Keys leads to a higher crime rate. And we don’t know enough to determine if this is just another type of flu, or if it really is the “OMG we’re all going to die!” affliction that many media reports suggest. I know you’ve heard that old saying. Some research indicated that we most likely had marine growth in our condenser, preventing the system from being able to properly cool the circulating hot refrigerant, creating a high pressure fault. We’ve been doing quite a bit of traveling lately. The power went out and we lost some shingles, but the house did fine. 5. If things take a turn for the better, we’ll still be able to squeeze in two or three months of cruising. These get renewed annually. And then this crazy Coronavirus thing happened. Rhonda and I broke out a deck of cards and settled into the salon to play a game of 3-13, a version of Rummy that some cruisers we met in Great Exuma taught us. We crossed our fingers and hoped for the best. Schools in the Florida Keys offer a low student-teacher ratio. I’m not saying there won’t be more to Life On The Hook. Being offshore would put a lot of space between us and anyone infected. 7. It is an advantage for most of the people who start living here, but it can be a challenging adjustment for some families. They’re pretty important parts. XOJ Gallery. It was a profoundly sad event. 4. You might also find work in the public sector if you start the process before you move. Some are almost completely inaccessible. We can’t recommend this activity enough if you ever have the opportunity to take part. Replacement only took a socket wrench and about 15 minutes. The state of Florida is one of the few in the U.S. that does not charge an income tax. In Key West, the definition of affordable housing rents is about $2,450. Rhonda has always been passionate about sea turtles. It’s not something anyone is probably going to ask for, but it has all the contact information for NOAA and registration data for our EPIRB in case we need it, and reminds us when renewal is coming up. There can be a lack of activities to enjoy when living in the Florida Keys. A typical nest might contain about 120 eggs, and when a nest hatches, there are usually a few turtles that for whatever reason just don’t manage to dig their way out. You could live on Key Largo if you prefer, but at a price of more than $620,000. Coconut palm trees grow everywhere there, along with certain maples and pines. When we lived on Eagle Too, we kept her in a marina downtown. What’s in the book? On September 16th at about 1 in the morning, the eye of hurricane Sally passed directly over us as a major category 3 storm. The rainy season in the Florida Keys runs from August to September in most years, but it starts to pick up in June and can go late into October some years. If not, well, I guess there’s always next year…. It was Eagle Too that had us worried sick. Several other factors are also in the average range for the county’s school district. Locals say that they have a “conch” of culture. The winds were already gusting into the 30’s, which would have made it dangerous to try and remove the sails and solar panels. You can clearly see that the left leg is cracked and failing, the center one is more or less OK, but the right one has broken off completely. Look for ones that have security gates at each dock and have a watchman on duty at night. From running our espresso maker to heating water for a warm shower, she’s always there when we need her to add a little comfort to our lives. Before heading out across the Gulf again, I wanted to make sure that we can totally rely on her propulsion system. We’re 25 miles from the marina where we kept her, and the roads were impassable in Sally’s immediate aftermath. It was hurricane season. 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