Day 40: Exploring Bill Baggs State Park

No Name Harbor (anchored)

February 23, 2022

We have a wind generator and some solar panels. We’re not sure that either of these options provides a significant amount of power. John hooked up a flexible solar panel (we had 3 that were stored on our boat) today and found that one of them produced about 20 volts. We were able to charge my laptop with this, which is great. Keeping my laptop charged has been a challenge – we normally have to use either the generator or the motor, both of which require fuel. That means we have to always make sure we HAVE fuel. Using passive source of power like solar or wind frees us up a bit.

We dinghied to shore and strolled a trail along the water. Iguanas are abundant here. I liked seeing them on the rocks looking over the Bay. They’re an invasive species that has found a foothold here. They’re also the species that fall out of trees when they get cold – they’re hefty enough (maybe a pound and half or more) that I can see why that would be hazardous!

There’s all sorts of non-iguana lizards, too. Apparently there are also CROCODILES here – I don’t need to see one of them.

We have had amazing weather – warm during the day with a cooler breeze at night. We don’t have air conditioning, so lower 70s with a breeze is great. We do a have fan that plugs into a 12-volt outlet (like a cigarette lighter) that we run at night. It not only cools our cabin, it also provides a bit of white noise that I need to help me sleep.

There were some structures on stilts off the end of Key Biscayne – they are actually what is left of Stiltsville, a community of clubs and fish camps that originally were built in the 1930s. These are the ones that survived Hurricane Andrew; none of these were built in the early years of Stiltsville. Today they’re part of the national park system.

Tomorrow we will probably go ashore to explore another park trail. There’s also supposed to be a free transportation system that will pick us up and take us to a local store. We might check that out – we always have room for more groceries like cheese and bread. I have been worrying a bit about toilet paper (we only have about 30 rolls) so that’s on our list.

Social media has been a great source of information. Today we learned that there is an inexpensive service who will pick up and deliver laundry. Since the closest laundromat is in Miami, which would require Uber, we think we’ll avail ourselves. I kind of struggle with having people do tasks that I am capable of doing, though.