Tuesday we had beautiful weather and a very eventful trip to Boca Grande Key and the Marquesas Keys where we activated US Islands and POTA, putting US-0244 Key West NWR on the air. K2EAG and N3ARB got droppped off at Boca Grande and AK9IT, AK2G and W3NY went to the Marquesas. The Captian then when back for the Boca Grande folks and on their seven mile trip to The Marquesas they blew 2 of the three engines. We were all really thankful to be stranded on an island as opposed to bobbing in the Gulf while we waited for another boat to come pick us up. About an 2 hours later we had some of our gear loaded on the new boat and were on the way again. Arriving atthe island we unloaded,set camp and got a baked potatoe and hamburger supper before heading to bed while the birds never seem to sleep.
Wednesday morning we enjoyed the island while we waited for the Captian to bring the rest of our gear and watched the campground for our favorite campsites to be vacated. The Captian arrived around 11 and we hauled the gear to our camp, then he gave us a ride over to Loggerhead Key where we activated the Key and Lighthouse for just over an hour.
We had an early supper then hauled gear up to the North Coaling Dock area where we setup our operating position. We have 2 stations on air and will hopefully add a third station on Friday.
As we were sorting gear we relized that half our water and 500amp hours of batteries were missed when the Captian switched boats. We got a message back to the team and they will bring them along when they come Friday.
Now for the bad news. The Captian wants us to leave Sunday as there is a cold front moving in that will create some nasty sea conditions. Some brave souls may stay till Monday and take the ferry back but it will be a really rough ride.
Hoe to work many of you in the next few days, please log what you hear on air not what is on the spotting page, N4T/SSB should be logged as
simply N4T.
73, Molly