BUY OF THE WEEK
IF you’re serious about your smartphone photos (or just a bit worried about dropping it off a cruise ship balcony or a cliff – it happens), then this non-slip accessory is your friend.
Not cheap, but it’s got an awful lot of oomph with features including a secure rubber grip, built-in battery, dock, Bluetooth shutter release, tripod mount, accessory socket and it even charges the phone wirelessly. Holds any mobile device between 58-90mm wide, with and without case, and also makes tea*.
* Possibly an exaggeration. Shiftcam Progrip, £129.99, shiftcam. com fish. Within my first-ever hour on a magnificent blue, felt-like-flying machine, I went from 0-50mph, tearing up a wake and smiling so widely my jaw hurt for the rest of the day.
Our hurtling journey took us to an idyllic sandbar far out to sea, where we idled in the glorious sunshine. Happy times can also be spent on the ocean waves aboard
Squid – Key West’s first electric-powered charter boat – to follow the antics of the resident dolphins, who unlike most of their species, stay loyal to their locality rather than travelling the world.
Still on the theme of outdoor activity, which is largely what the Keys is all about, we hired bikes – with big wheels and comfortable saddles, hooray! – and cycled along Old 7 (bikemarathon bikerentals.com).
Opened in 1912, the famous Old Seven Mile Bridge was originally the centrepiece of railroad magnate Henry Flagler’s Florida Keys Over-sea Railroad which, for the first time, connected the Keys with each other as well as mainland Florida.
A 2.2-mile section of the old bridge – now replaced by a road bridge – takes you to Pigeon Key, home to workers constructing the railroad in the early 1900s. The island has been turned into a museum, and is considered an important historic site (pigeonkey.net). Just as important is the work going on to save the dying coral reefs. A special land-based coral nursery has been set up at Bud N’ Mary’s Marina by Mote Marine Laboratory; its mission to transplant corals, raised both onshore and offshore, to the reefs off Islamorada.
Soon the public will be able to join in the fragging process by booking an experience there (icareaboutcoral.org).
The public can already book a tour of the Marathon Turtle Hospital, which treats injured and sick sea turtles; wherever possible returning them to the wild (turtlehospital.org).
And talking of wild, we found the weather can suddenly turn – a storm wiped out some of our outdoor plans, but there was plenty inside to amuse us.
Key West offered us the chance to visit
Our hurtling journey took us to an idyllic sandbar far out to sea