SLS022512A - Sunday...off to the boat

Sunday started very early for me, like most days, somewhere around 05:00. The wind had come up overnight and was blowing somewhere around 25 knots at the buoys. We were in the pool until about 21:00 last night so there was still a few things to get to.
The crew was up on time and flags was uneventful. After breakfast we met at the Quarterdeck for the 'fast track' version of the orientation. We usually do a powerpoint orientation in the Chart Room that takes about 45 minutes but because of time constraints it was a quick read through that took about 20 minutes. It's not the same without the pictures and videos.
Next it was off to the Commisary to load 5 large coolers with ice and inventory the small mountain of food we would be taking with us. The inventory was a bit difficult as no one was there from the Commisary and some of the portions seemed a little large. Oh well, extra is good...too little is bad.
We managed to get all of the food into the trailer and headed over to the scuba area to load the remaining gear. We somehow managed to add 15 scuba tanks, all of the dive gear and some of the personal gear. The rest of the personal gear was loaded into the back of the vans. That was one heavily loaded little trailer. AQll of the tasks went very well. It's nice having a crew that listens and gets down to business.
With the trailer loaded we loaded the crew into the vans and headed for Stock Island, right outside of Key West; Conch Pearl's home. It was almost 2 hours, with Sunday traffic slowing us down. When we arrived at the boat the crew unloaded the trailer with the same efficiency as they loaded it. Like I said, a pleasure. The crew had everything to the boat and loaded in the same amount of time that most crews take just to unload the trailer and move the gear. We had lunch, untied the boat and headed out. Because of the high winds, and the LDS's crew desire not to dive on Sunday, we went out sailing. With the stiff 25 knot wind the Conch Pearl moves quite well under full sail, something we don't do very often. We made into Key West harbor around 17:30, took down the sails, and headed for our mooring for the night. The Conch Pearl has it's own permanent mooring in the harbor.
While we waited for dinner to cook most of the crew went about fishing with Cuban Yo-yo's, catching plenty of Pinfish to use as bait later on. Dinner was spaghetti, cooked below. Fighting the wind on the grill would have been impossible.
After dinner we put out a 'shark line' with one of the Pinfish as bait. It wasn't too long before we were suprised with a rather large Tarpon, which Tim brought up to the boat. We don't bring a large fish like that on board. After that it was off to bed. Early morning tomorrow. Maybe we'll get to dive.