Wifi (why? fie!) issues have delayed this series, but let me begin this “better-late-than-never” post with some rhetorical questions.

If tugster sees a tug and doesn’t have his camera, did he REALLY see it?  I hereby claim to have looked up from snorkeling at Fort Zachary Taylor to spot Ocean Atlas and Ocean Wind . . . groaned about not having my camera . . . and then returned underwater to watch parrotfish, ballyhoo, grouper . . .

I visited the Mel Fisher Museum, but can you believe I missed the Miss Atocha Bikini contest . . .  @!@?  What would Captain de Lugo think about this?  And might Miss Patty Nolan participate one of these years?  Click here for some Patty Nolan history.

And I did hear about schooner Hindu . . . but will have to get fotos . . .  later.  For now, I present  Western Union and Jolly Rover.

Here Western Union headed out for a sunset sail . . . following the tender and two dolphins that JUST dove.

What these stats don’t say is that she was built FOR the cable company in 1939 and ran between Key West and Cuba.

I believe this is Yankee on the far side of Sunset Key, with crew in the rigging, like spiders.

This B & B named for Captain Cosgrove shows how contradictory some historical personages can be:  Coast Guard captain, sponger, and wrecker!!  I read this as “government servant, business person, and  . . . pirate.”

Fort Jefferson, a 35-meter National Parks Service vessel,  is part of a contract to deliver support to the Iraqi Navy . . . .   Am I reading something wrong here?

I haven’t found much more out than that Retriever is attached to Naval Air Station/Key West.

Another foto for the currently elusive  bowsprite:  a landing craft with a camper trailer on board . . . for how long?  And I’m not so sure I’d feel confidence in a boat named “Maybe.”

And a final shot for now . . . is this a production boat or a one-off?  Round . . . a water pod with at least one floor panel transparent . . . I failed to check if there was a propulsion unit anywhere.  Foto was taken at the east end of the Conch Republic . . . in Key Largo.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who has actually just returned, albeit haggard, to the sixth boro.