Tag Archives: Key West

By Corey Sandler

Welcome aboard. I am happy to share some of my photographs taken aboard Viking Sky on our journey from Miami to the Panama Canal and back.

Viking Sky at anchor off Key West, Florida

MONDAY, JANUARY 8, 2018: Key West, Florida

A bird’s eye view of a Viking Sky tender

An ancient lock on a shipwrecker’s warehouse in Key West

Instituto San Carlos, the headquarters of the post-Independence, pre-Castro Cuban community in Key West

The files of the former Consulate of the Republic of Cuba in Key West

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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 10, 2018: Belize City, Belize

Altun Ha, near Belize City — The ruins of the ceremonial site were only rediscovered in the 1960s

Altun Ha near Belize City. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of cities and ceremonial sites of the Mayans and other ancient peoples in Central America and most are still covered by earth and hidden within forest. Archaeologists say they are probably safer that way, since there is not enough money to protect and preserve them all once they are uncovered.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 2018: Carambola Gardens at Coxen Hole on Roatan Island, Honduras

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SATURDAY, JANUARY 13, 2018: Along the Tortuguero near Puerto Limón, Costa Rica

A common basilisk hidden in the green forest. The creature is better known as the Jesus Christ Lizard because of its ability to run across water when necessary

SUNDAY, JANUARY 15, 2018: Colón to Panama City on the Panama Canal Railway

We arrived early this morning at Colón, Panama on the Atlantic Ocean and spent the afternoon in Panama City on the Pacific. Although I have made the transit of the isthmus more times than I can remember, this was the first time I did so by rail.

The Panama Canal Railway was begun in 1850 and completed in 1855 as the first mass transit across the isthmus of Panama, replacing the very difficult trails through the jungle. And then the railway became an essential part of the construction of the Panama Canal itself, when work was begun first by the French in 1881 and then redone and completed by the Americans in 1914

The American effort required the rebuilding and relocating of some of the track because the American design was based on damming the Chagres River and creating a manmade lake as the means of transit between the seas. The track today includes some of its 1850 route and some of the 1914 relocated path which parallels the Panama Canal.

Today the railway serves mostly as a “dry canal”, carrying freight from the Atlantic to the Pacific in containers mounted on flatbed train cars, but it also runs a few passenger trips for tourists each day.

A modern diesel-electric locomotive powers the Panama Canal Railway today on a 48-mile crossing from the Atlantic to the Pacific

Containers and flatbed railcars, part of the “dry canal”

The railway track parallels the canal, here crossing on a trestle over the Chagres River which is the source of the water for Gatun Lake and the engine for the operation of the locks

At Gamboa, near the midway point of the canal, stands “Titan”, one of the largest floating cranes in the world. It was built in Nazi Germany in 1941 to service U-boats in Kiel. After the war it was seized by the U.S. as war reparations and brought across the Atlantic and through the Panama Canal to Long Beach, California where it served for nearly 50 years at the shipyard there. (Its local nickname was “Herman the German.”) In 1996 it was moved once again, this time to Gamboa where it is used in the maintenance of the locks of the original canal

An old piece of railroad equipment on a siding near the train terminus at Balboa on the Pacific side

Modern Panama City as seen through a thicket of pleasure boats at the Pacific end of the canal

To send me an email, click here: www.coreysandler.com/contact-me/

MONDAY, JANUARY 15, 2018: Partial Transit of the Panama Canal

We arrived early this morning at the Gatun Locks of the Panama Canal and then rose up three locks to Gatun Lake, which today was at its maximum level of 86.7 feet above sea level.

Once we reached the lake, we made a U-turn and then made our way back down to the Atlantic Ocean. In modern cruising language, this is known as a “partial transit”, which sounds like an oxymoron to me.

I have been through the Panama Canal more times than I can remember, and it is always a thrill. I spent the day up on the navigational bridge offering commentary about our partial transit. Call it an up and down excursion…

The view from the navigational bridge as Viking Sky climbed the stairs at Gatun

One of the electric locomotives, or “mules” of the Panama Canal. The mules (the name is derived from the original means of moving barges along the Erie Canal in upstate New York) do not pull the ship; instead their function is to keep a ship centered in the lock chamber

In the early morning, we passed below the nearly completed bridge at the Atlantic end of the canal

To send me an email, click here: www.coreysandler.com/contact-me/

TUESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2018: Cartagena, Colombia

Cartagena in Colombia is one of the best preserved old Spanish colonial cities in the new world.

We had a lovely day in Cartagena, although we were not alone: four cruise ships in port, thousands of tourists in the streets, and painful traffic jams.

The best time to visit: after hours, when the vendors and the selfie-sticks have gone home.

The dome of San Pedro Claver Church in Cartagena. Claver was known as the “slave of the slaves”, begging in the streets to help the poor Africans brought by the tens of thousands to Colombia

A work by Colombian artist Fernando Botero, champion of a style known as “Boterismo.” He obviously thinks large.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 2018: Nassau, Bahamas

So, we weren’t supposed to be here in Nassau, Bahamas this morning. But a combination of bad weather and other factors in the Western Caribbean caused us to cancel calls scheduled for Montego Bay, Jamaica and then George Town on Grand Cayman Island.

We sailed two days eastward along the south side of Cuba and then turned north toward Nassau for a final port of call.

Nassau is an interesting place, mostly because of its history as a British colony somewhat similar to Bermuda and the Turks and Caicos. It was a place of plantations (and therefore slaves), and its success drew in pirates and privateers and attacks by the Spanish who contested some of the same waters.

Today, the English are still here with a Royal Governor and the police force look more like British Bobbies than the ones in London. The Spanish and the pirates are gone, and in their place hordes of tourists. Many of them arrive by cruise ship at the huge port which can accommodate five and sometimes more large ships.

One of our favorite places to visit is Christ Church Cathedral, an Anglican/Episcopal church at the corner of King and George streets. The structure is handsome, with the current building dating from 1841 on a base that dates back to the mid-1600s.

But it is the collection of plaques and other remembrances that line the walls of the church that fascinate. Any one of them could generate a novel, or at least a lecture for me.

Small, medium, and large at the dock in Nassau. Viking Sky sits between the luxurious private yacht Turquoise and the huge and loud Disney Dream

A Viking long boat on the Viking Sky’s funnel catches the morning sun

A bit of old Nassau, hidden in plain sight

Echoes of Colonial Britain at the Governor General’s house on the hill

Safe travels to all.

To send me an email, click here: www.coreysandler.com/contact-me/

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14 October 2017:
Key West, Florida:
The Sun Also Sets

October 14, 2017 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

Here in the Conch Republic, not everything is normal.

Let me rephrase that. In Key West, normal is not normal.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But this is a place where you could walk down the street dressed in a scarf and a sneeze. . .

and receive compliments on the scarf.

But in a sense, Key West has more or less gotten back to its version of normal, just a month after an unwelcome visit by Hurricane Irma which came ashore 20 miles north of Key West, over the Big Pine, Summerland and Cudjoe Keys.

Key West was partially submerged, and suffered some damage but the locals have been working non-stop to restore the place to greet visitors much more appreciated: tourists. Silver Muse is among the first cruise ships to return to the town.

It was a hot and almost impossibly humid day…and this is autumn.

Here’s our ship, making her maiden call:

And I was glad to see that the street art survived, including this giant homage to a famous photo taken at the end of World War II:

This evening we set sail for two days at sea, headed for Puerto Limon, and beyond that a transit of the Panama Canal.

Key West was a regular home to Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, and President Harry S Truman and other notables.

They have a New Year’s Celebration that is out of this world, but that is just one of many fantastic fantasy festivals here at the very bottom of Florida.

In Key West, you can stand at the corner of South and Whitehead Streets and take a picture of a monument that marks the southernmost point of the United States.

Well, it’s close.

Here’s the fine print: the monument is in the general vicinity of the southernmost point of the continental United States.

Whitehead Spit, just west of the monument, is the true southernmost point, but that piece of land is U.S. Navy property, not ordinarily accessible to tourists.

The actual southernmost point of the United States is not on the continent.

It is at Ka Lae, on the Big Island of Hawaii.

But wait, if we broaden our definition to include U.S. possessions, the southernmost part of the United States is tiny Rose Atoll, in American Samoa, an unincorporated territory.

Actually, there’s an even more obscure spot: the Amundsen–Scott Station at the Geographic South Pole.

You can’t get any further south than that. But since Antarctica is by treaty an international zone, it is not a part of the United States.

Not that they quibble about true facts much around here.

This is, after all, a place where every night hundreds of tourists and many locals gather at Mallory Square to watch the same thing that happened roughly 24 hours ago: the setting of the sun.

Same sun as you’ll seen everywhere else on the planet. Except here, it’s different.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

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Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

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27-28 January 2016
Key West, Florida: The Sun Also Sets

January 28, 2016 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Key West island, at the tip of the Florida Keys archipelago in the Straits of Florida, is a small place with an oversized place in American culture.

It is closer to Cuba (94 miles) than it is to Miami, about 129 miles away.

The Spanish established their colony in Florida. They named the little island at the bottom of the archipelago, Cayo Hueso, Spanish for “bone cay.” The cay, the low island, was littered with the bones of natives, who used it as a communal graveyard.

During the American Civil War, Florida seceded and joined the Confederate States. However, Key West remained in Union hands because of the U.S. Naval base there.

Major industries in the early 19th century included fishing, salt production, and salvage of the many shipwrecks offshore. About 1860, the salvage industry made Key West the largest and richest city in Florida, and the wealthiest town per capita in the U.S.

The town was noted for the unusually high concentration of fine furniture and chandeliers that locals used in their homes after salvaging them from wrecks.

The Caribbean is still littered with the wrecks of galleons and other vessels, and Key West is still a center for treasure hunters.

Sculpture by Seward Johnson at the old Customs House in Key West

At the beginning of World War II the Navy increased its presence greatly; at its peak employing 15,000 military personnel and 3,400 civilians. The base included Naval Air Station Key West, a training facility for pilots.

The area next to Fort Taylor became a submarine pen and was used for the Fleet Sonar School.

And it was here that President Harry S. Truman chose to make his Winter White House. He used the commandant’s home on 11 visits to Key West, a total of 175 days.

The Truman Little White House in Key West

Later, Dwight D. Eisenhower stayed in Key West recuperating from a heart attack. And in November 1962, John F. Kennedy visited Key West a month after the resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Presidents Clinton and Carter also made visits in their post-presidency.

Ernest Hemingway is said to have written part of A Farewell to Arms while living above the showroom of a Ford dealership at 314 Simonton Street. And it was here Hemingway was introduced to deep-sea fishing.

During his stay he wrote or worked on Death in the Afternoon, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, and The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber. He used Depression-era Key West as one of the locations in To Have and Have Not—his only novel with scenes in the United States.

Tennessee Williams became a regular visitor in 1941 and is said to have written the first draft of A Streetcar Named Desire in 1947 at the La Concha Hotel. He bought a house in 1949 and listed Key West as his primary residence until his death in 1983.

A selection of watering holes in Key West, including the second incarnation of Sloppy Joe’s, a favorite of Ernest Hemingway

Today, they do not need much—or any—excuse for a party in Key West.

This is, after all, a place where every night hundreds of tourists and many locals gather at Mallory Square to watch the same thing that happened roughly 24 hours ago: the setting of the sun.

Sunset at Mallory Square, which comes complete with jugglers, fire-eaters, swird-swallowers, and tourists.

But there are a few special celebrations each year, including Conch Republic Independence Day, several Gay Pride events, and one festival that seems to combine all others: the Key West Fantasy Fest.

It is held for ten days leading up and including Halloween at the end of October. The 2015 event had the theme, “All Hallows Intergalactic Freak Show,” which seems to me to be pretty much the theme every year.

To our guests leaving in Fort Lauderdale, I wish you arrivederci: until we meet again.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

————-

If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

Around the World with Corey Sandler

Tag Archives: Key West

JANUARY 2018. VIKING SKY TO THE PANAMA CANAL AND THE CARIBBEAN

By Corey Sandler

MONDAY, JANUARY 8, 2018: Key West, Florida

To send me an email, click here: www.coreysandler.com/contact-me/

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 10, 2018: Belize City, Belize

THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 2018: Carambola Gardens at Coxen Hole on Roatan Island, Honduras

To send me an email, click here: www.coreysandler.com/contact-me/

SATURDAY, JANUARY 13, 2018: Along the Tortuguero near Puerto Limón, Costa Rica

SUNDAY, JANUARY 15, 2018: Colón to Panama City on the Panama Canal Railway

To send me an email, click here: www.coreysandler.com/contact-me/

MONDAY, JANUARY 15, 2018: Partial Transit of the Panama Canal

To send me an email, click here: www.coreysandler.com/contact-me/

TUESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2018: Cartagena, Colombia

To send me an email, click here: www.coreysandler.com/contact-me/

14 October 2017:
Key West, Florida:
The Sun Also Sets

By Corey Sandler

27-28 January 2016
Key West, Florida: The Sun Also Sets

Cruise Photos and Stories by Corey Sandler