Boating with Sunset Delight: Marathon

Monday February 12, 2018
No boat travel.

We expected the SALT technician to arrive at 8:30 this morning. To confirm he would be coming at that time Clark called first thing in the morning and was told to expect him mid-morning.

Given that expectation, we now had a couple of hours to kill waiting for him to come. At 9:00 we walked down to say goodbye to Debbie and Bob on Tootles. They left here with the plan to head back to Philadelphia very slowly.

Afterwards I decided to clean out the space under my galley sink to reorganize it. I store a couple of items down there that I have not been using simply because it was too much work to get to them. Hopefully this new arrangement will prove them more accessible.

As we idled away our morning, Clark got a surprise call from Ben on Jammin Jane. We spoke to him for quite a while. We talked a bit about their future boating plans and their winter activities in Wisconsin which include ice fishing.

The morning slipped away with no sign of SALT appearing. We had lunch while we continued to wait for them to make an appearance. Ann on Morning Star II offered me a ride to Publix - exact time to be determined. I decided to take her up on the offer as I was tired of hanging in limbo waiting for SALT to appear.

As I waited to hear the time of departure from Ann, we got a surprise visit from Brent and Debbie on Change of Pace. Their visit came as a real big surprise since Clark and I both thought they would be in the Bahamas by now. We knew they had a weather window. What we did not know is that the delayed delivery of a package caused them to miss that window. They are now waiting for another opportunity to cross the gulf stream.

At 1:30 I left Clark talking with Brent and Debbie and headed out with Ann to collect Cynthia from Banana Bay Marina for our trip to the post office, K-mart and Publix. When we returned from our shopping trip over an hour later, I looked for and did not find anyone with solar panels working on top of our boat.

When I asked Clark the status, he said he had called the SALT office at 2:00 and was told, "They are loading the truck as we speak. They will be over as soon as the truck is loaded." The office is less than a 5-minute drive down the highway. 2:30 - no sign, 3:00 -- nada! Meanwhile, John Gunning from Nuclear Fishin stopped by on his bicycle to say hello. When, at 3:30 he left to head back to Blackfin Marina, and SALT had still not appeared, he said he would stop in on his way by and ask them the status.

John must have had the magic touch, because at 4:00 the SALT technician, Chris, arrived with his truck loaded with our solar panels. He planned to drop off the solar panels and leave. Clark had other plans. He convinced Chris that they still had daylight, and they should get to work - the "they" being Clark and Chris. No one else from SALT came to work on this large project.

Chris said his truck had no room for his tools as well as the solar panels, so Clark said, "Fine. Let's put them in place on the hard top. Then you get your tools and we can get started securing them." Surprisingly, Chris agreed to this proposal. He returned a short while later, and they worked together on the install until just after 5:00 - enough time to get them positioned and partially secured, i.e. safe for the night. Chris said he would be back tomorrow to finish the job.

With the SALT visit out of the way, Clark was free to join the looper clan at docktails tonight. For some unknown reason, we had a big turnout. I guess everyone "got the memo" tonight to come. We had chicken wings (spicy and plain), spinach / crab dip, sausage and cheese dip, vodka-soaked pineapple, and numerous other treats. I very quickly realized as I devoured the delicious food that this was my dinner.

Clark grabbed the obligatory sunset picture, and we had a quiet evening on board including a phone call to my son Jeff to wish him a very happy 34th birthday.

Tuesday February 13, 2018
No boat travel.

We got a call from SALT in the morning to say that they awaited the arrival of the controller before Chris would come back to work on the panels. The good news on that was that the controller was 'out for delivery'. A while later we got confirmation that the technician would arrive at 1:00 to continue the install.

Given we would not be seeing anyone from SALT in the morning, Clark decided to work on the anchor project he started a couple of days ago and enlisted my aid. He took a wide, permanent marker and colored the anchor line black at 25' intervals. We learned that we have 50' of chain, so his first pen marking was 75' and went all the way up to over 200'.

Ann on Morning Star II found she needed to make a trip, and offered me a ride, to K-mart and Publix after lunch. Even though I had been there yesterday, I wanted something at both places, so I decided to accept her kind offer. When we left shortly after 1:00, Chris from SALT had arrived and was busy working with Clark on the panel installation.

Clark seriously underestimated the amount of time Chris would need to complete the panel installation and the configuring of the controllers. He thought it would take an hour or so. When we returned from our shopping spree, Chris and Clark were still hard at work.

I quickly stowed my purchases and decided to take a walk over to visit Faith on Third Degree. She invited me on board and I stayed for much longer than I intended. When I returned to Sunset Delight, it was going on 4:30. I fully expected Chris to be long gone and Clark to be wondering where I had disappeared to. Well, Chris was still working on the boat, and I doubt Clark knew I had been missing for almost two hours.

A few days ago we made dinner plans to eat at the Hurricane Restaurant at the Blackfin Marina with Kevin and Sandy on Koastal Karma and Susan and John on Nuclear Fishin. However, our discussions never got down to details on the time to meet. After the SALT technician left, I convinced Clark to call John and ask him the plans. They had already grabbed a table for our group and said that someone would come collect us to save us the mile-long walk to the restaurant. Kevin arrived a few minutes later to give us a ride.

We selected Hurricane as our restaurant choice for several reasons - 1) Kevin / Sandy and John / Susan are staying there, 2) they offer "Taco Tuesday" specials, and 3) the musical group Four Sheets to the Wind was playing tonight.

Talented musicians at the Hurricane Restaurant

Guest singer - Mona

Four Sheets to the Wind playing at Hurricane Restaurant.

Clark, John, and Sandy at Hurricane Restaurant

John, Sandy, Kevin, and Evelyn at Hurricane

As the band played several folks got up to do some dancing.

Kevin and Susan enjoying "Brown-eyed Girl"

Susan and John Gunning dancing at Hurricane Restaurant

Clark and I stepped onto the dance floor when it had cleared enough for us to dance. For our slow dance I made Clark keep the steps in close. We were precariously close to the edge of the deck. Having fallen recently I had no desire to suffer another broken arm as I tumbled off the side. We had more room for the fast-paced dance we danced. For that one I only had to worry about twisting my ankle on the uneven deck boards.

The band played until 9:00. I thought we would leave earlier, but ultimately we stayed until 9:30. At the very end of the evening, I overheard someone sitting nearby (someone Kevin knew) mention the words "Bell Labs". I had to ask. Since Clark and I both worked at Bell Labs in NJ, we ended up talking to a man named Joe from Colorado, who had worked for Bell Labs in Denver. Having found a kindred spirit, we talked about the various projects / equipment we had worked on trying to find common ground.

When we finished our conversation and looked around, our friends had all retired for the evening. Two other couples had come from the Faro Blanco Marina to the Hurricane restaurant for the tacos and music - Jim / Mandy on Shell Belle and Danna / Dennis on Pharm Life. They too had departed the restaurant.

We had two choices - walk or taxi back to Faro Blanco. Since it was a nice night, we enjoyed the leisurely mile-long walk back to the boat.

Wednesday February 14, 2018
No boat travel.

When Chris from SALT left at 5:00 yesterday saying he would return in the morning to finish the job, I was skeptical to say the least. Given the track record, I did not have faith. However, at 8:20 this morning, he was already climbing up the side of the boat to get started. Clark did not even have time to eat breakfast before they got busy completing the install.

The remaining work took almost no time to complete, and Chris was saying goodbye to Clark before I had hardly even finished my breakfast. Before he left, he helped Clark set up an application on his phone that allows Clark to monitor the solar panel performance. Great! A new toy!

Sexy Solar Panels on Sunset Delight!

Yesterday, Jim and Pam on Evermore picked up a new battery for us as they passed through Fort Lauderdale on their way back to Faro Blanco Marina. Clark collected the battery from Jim this morning. The big, bulky battery weighs somewhere around 140 pounds and requires two men to carry it.

Jim from Third Degree told Clark he would come and help remove the old battery and insert the new one. He appeared as Clark was in the engine room disconnecting the old battery. With Jim's strong muscles, the two of them, with a little help from me, made short work of taking out the old battery and putting in the new.

As soon as I knew they were good to go on the battery work, I took the seat covers from the upper helm up to the laundry room for a desperately needed wash. When I came back to the boat, I found Clark giving Jim a "tour" of the solar panels. Now that we have them, they must be shown off and admired. It is not easy to climb out of the front window of the upper helm to get a close up view of the panels, so I will leave the "showing off" to Clark.

Jim and Clark admiring the solar panels on Sunset Delight.

I got lucky at the laundry room. When I arrived there this morning, both washers were free. Five minutes after I started my laundry, a line started to form. As I left the building, I saw an unusual sight.

Iguana climbing the stairs to the laundry room.

Hey! Where's your laundry?

I finished my laundry, and we ate lunch. Since Clark had already received the bill for the solar panels, we decided to ride our bikes down the street to pay for them. Initially I turned down the offer of joining Clark for the ride saying, "I have waited outside SALT more hours than I ever wanted, and I won't do it again." He replied, "So come inside!"

I decided that I would go for the exercise. Instead of waiting impatiently for Clark outside the building, I waited impatiently for him inside! A lot of useless engineering talk went on over my head. I heard them talking about old phonograph record player cabinets (with and without 8 track players) and crystal radio sets as well as a lot of other nonsense. I wanted to drag Clark out, but paperwork was getting done in amongst all this jabbering, so I had to wait. Finally Clark had what he needed, the bill was paid, and we could leave. Hallelujah!!!

It's a relatively short distance from SALT to the marina especially on bicycle. Even so, by the time I got to the boat, I was dripping wet from the humidity. I told Clark that as soon as I could change my clothes I was heading for the pool, and that is exactly what I did. Ahhhhh! That water felt nice! Clark eventually joined me and we had a lovely dip in the pool talking with Mel from Morning Star II.

Because today was Valentine's Day and Susan and John from Nuclear Fishin had invited us to join them for dinner at Lazydays, we had plans for this evening. They came by in their car at 5:00 as planned for a tour of our boat before taking us to the restaurant for dinner.

When we arrived for our reservation at 5:30, Susan and I were both given carnations - white for her and red for me. We noticed that later arrivals received roses. That was okay by me as I love carnations - the flower for January and my birth month. I thought about ordering a Mojito, but for $10, I decided not to take a chance on it. I did not know if I would like it, and I thought the alcohol content may be more than my system could handle. I did not feel like being tipsy for the rest of the night.

Before joining us in the restaurant, Clark took a quick walk down the docks and found a bit of a surprise in his path.

Fish on dock! Glad I didn't encounter this guy!

Lazydays parking lot with marina behind.

The service was slow but the food was delicious. I had a special called "Grouper Gus" and Clark tried the Lion Fish special. John and Susan both ordered lobster. We spent three hours at the restaurant - a lot of that time was spent waiting for the waiter, the food, or both. It was fine. We enjoyed talking and watching the sunset.