long day tomorrow I’ll probably shut down soon for some sleep. The captain
of the charter boat came this evening and we loaded about half our
remaining gear,the other half in the morning at first light. The captain
enjoyed a baked potato and steak dinner with us before returning to his
boat to sleep.
We had some interesting weather yesterday, around 3am we saw some lightning
so we packed up the entire operating position finishing just in time to
start breakfast. Soon the rain began and we abandoned breakfast. I
retreated to the tepee tent and slept blissfully through the first 2 inches
of rain. Around 9 I was awakened by Julious beginning The Morning Grind, (a
net every morning in our home area, asesible via echolink on K3IR repeater)
to find that all the others had sought shelter in the dock house. I was
absolutely drenched going to the restroom so I joined them in the dock
house to await the Yankee Freedom’s arrival.
When the rain slowed we had received 6 inches of rain. going back down to
the campsite some of it was in a 4 inch puddle that was dry in 2 hours.
After saying goodbye to all but Jason and Julious we three lugged 2
stations back to the north beach area and ran some SSB until we were chased
out by yet another rainstorm. It was over an hour later when the Captain
arrived.
Tomorrow we should be loaded and on our way back to Key West just after
first light, and if the seas are quiet, we should find ourselves heading
homeward early afternoon.
A heartfelt thankyou to each of you that have helped make this a successful
trip!!
73 till next time Molly de W3NY
Thursday February 27th 9 am finds me getting ready to unpack and clean all
our gear. The hard cases all need to be washed with soapy water to remove
the salt air, tents washed dried etc.I arrived home last evening around 4
pm with AK9IT, we took turns and drove straight home.
I will post again soon with some final statistics.
73 Molly