Heading to Key West for Fantasy Fest and Yellow Tail Snapper fishing.

My mate, Kyle and I spent the day fueling the "Blue Heaven" and the Blue Too ( our tender the " Blue Too"). We did some grocery shopping for the couple weeks we will be in Key west. And now we are sitting ready to go tomorrow morning around 5 am.

Blue Heaven and Blue Too 

Yea I know 5am is early. But we will be towing our 23 ' tender behind us and I like to get into destinations at a descent hour. The trip which can take as little as 7 hours, will probably take 11 hours. Kyle will have plenty of time to individually fold all the new boat tshirts we got today. Should take him 3 hours. ( He hates folding he eh he he ) By the way Canyon Gear did a great job again of printing up our shirts. Debbie you really make it easy to work with you.  With a small boat on a tow houser ya gotta take your time. Besides, we will save fuel by going slower. The weather should be good up this way and even as we move southwards down the coast line towards Ft Meyers. but as is usually the case, the weather on the south end of the trip is going to be snotty. " Its always shitty in Florida bay" ALWAYS!!!! Florida Bay is the area North of the Keys and west and south of Fort Meyers/Naples area. What people forget is that the bay does not end when one hits land the entire everglades is a body of water. Thats alot of water that moves in and out of the Glades when the tides move. The tide comes in and the currents across the bay push east. The tides go out and the currents push west. Now... throw in an opposing wind... you have a washing machine effect. For some reason, the waves in florida bay are not round and normal like waves should be. The waves there tend to be square. The last 50 miles should be fun.
Fantasy Fest is this coming week in Key West. For those of you that do not know what it is I will explain. and for those misinformed read on... Fantasy Fest is basically and Mardi Gras type event that progressively get bigger all week long. Each day of the week has a theme and different bars sponsor parties to accent the theme of the day. For instance one night may be red night. All the revelers will parade around key west wearing all red. Another night is Leather and Lace night. and so on. Yes there are some people that will wear only red paint on red night and Leather and lace night.... well you can only imagine.  As the week goes on each afternoon and night on Duval Street gets more crowded and a little crazier. The final night ( Saturday) Is the Big Parade. By then there are so many people that its tough to even walk at times.  People do not just dress for the themes. They dress in all kinds of outlandish costumes. I saw a sandwich made up of one person as a slice of bread another as a slice of tomato, and another a slice of meat and another as a lettuce and finally another slice of bread all crafted out of foam rubber and detail pained. They would walk down the street in single file and occasionally jump and pile into a sandwich. There are lots of pirates and wenches, there are celebrity look alikes .... Its very similar to any adult costume party you have seen. Well with the exception that there are lots and lots of people ( mostly women thank god) that opt for merely painting on their costumes. Now at first, this sounds titillating. ( pardon the pun)  but, after the first few boobies. ya start looking at the art. I am not kidding. and there is some awesome stuff. There are artists that set up all over Duval painting people. Some of the art is so elaborate that you can not even see the fact that there is only skin as a back drop. And yes there is the occasional person that Goes "full Monty" for the art work.
I always hear from people that have never been to Fantasy Fest " Isnt it all Gay guys that go there"? No. I would venture to say that it is only like 5 percent gay to 95 Straight. And Besides who cares. There are lots of couples and even groups of women that wait all year and put together a girls trip just for this week.  Everyone intermingles. It is the only place on earth where you can see a little old Lady and her husband sitting at a bar with 3 fisherman, 1 lesbian, 8 bikers , and a gay couple and NOBODY cares. A former boss of mine use to say it best. You will Never see anyone unhappy at fantasy Fest and you never see fights. ( BOB) Its good clean adult fun. NO I WILL NOT BE DRESSING UP  or down! Maybe I will just go as Rastafarian white dude!!!!!!

The main reason we are going to Key west is for the Yellow Tail Snapper fishing. This time of the year the Yellow tails gang up on the reef and make for excellent sport. We should be able to get the snappers to school up and turn the water Yellow behind the boat if the conditions are right.
I will post fishing pics as we get them. I am still new to this blog thing, but I think I will also be able to post some videos. So look for some. I will make sure the Fantasy fest pics are PG rated. ( Maybe)