2020: Tools overrboard!

31 March 2020 - Maintenance Run on Sunset Delight
Depart: Faro Blanco Marina 1:45
Arrive: Faro Blanco Marina 8:10
Distance: 7 nm

Since it has been a full week since we operated the boat, and since rain is predicted for tomorrow, we took Sunset Delight out for her weekly maintenance run. We lounged around in the morning, ate lunch, and then pulled out of the dock to spend the afternoon out of the marina. We had a tri-fold agenda -  do our maintenance run out to John Sawyer shoal, drop anchor to change out old zincs on the hull, rest at anchor to see the sunset, and then return to dock for the night.

As we traveled with the wind, the ride out to John Sawyer was hot and sticky. Once we started to make our turn for the return to drop anchor, however, the wind rushed through the boat. We heard a noise as the wind gushed by, and both said, "What was that?" I looked around and said, "Where's your hat!!!???" It was on the bench next to him before the gust of wind and now it was gone.

I took the helm from Clark so he could look to see if the hat hid under the dinghy once again as it has done a couple of times in the past. As he walked out on our "dance floor" to have a look around, I spied the hat. I said, "Come back, come back, it's here!" The hat was "hiding" under the throw cushion on the bench seat. The wind must have lifted the cushion as the hat slid backwards. When the cushion came down, it hid the hat quite nicely. If I had a creative mind, I would write a children's book about the naughty chapeau!

We navigated to the waters directly in front of the marina and dropped our anchor, so Clark could work on replacing his zincs. It seemed straight forward, but today's was not destined to be an easy chore. He got his tools and put on his swimsuit and dive mask, dropped into the water and began removing the first old zinc located under the swim platform.

All appeared to be going smoothly until I heard, "Oh no!! The end of the socket wrench (the socket on an extension piece) fell into the water!" "Which way are we swinging?," he yelled. "I didn't know we were," I responded. I looked around and tried to take a fix on our position based on objects around us.

He stopped work and starting diving repeatedly for the bottom to try to find the lost tool. On his rapid, repeat dives he saw lots of weeds and red coral on the bottom but no socket wrench. As he surfaced after one of his dives, he came up wearing a "new hat". I told him to dunk himself again quickly as he came up with ugly weeds covering his hair. Yech!

When he finally stopped for breath, I asked if it would make sense to borrow Mel's magnet to go fishing for it. He thought that was a good idea "if" the tool would cling to a magnet. It took me a while to find a magnet on the boat to test the metal. I finally found a refrigerator magnet to test it, and it stuck solid to the remaining portion of the socket wrench.

At which point I called Ann to ask for Mel's aid. Mel's is a powerful magnet on the end of a long rope designed for fishing in water to find metal objects, so it seemed like the perfect answer to our situation.

As I watched Clark at work, I heard his phone give an alert to a text message. I checked and it was Eric on "Slow Lane" asking, "Is that you anchored out there?" When I said yes, he offered to send his drone out to see us. I said okay.

Later as Clark was working on his zincs (I was inside doing something), I heard him say, "And now we have a drone buzzing us! I bet that's Eric." I hadn't told him that Eric said he could come spy on us. I came out to wave and smile for the camera.

It took a while for Mel to join us at the boat. He was at the pool, so Ann went to find him. Then he had to get the dinghy down. That all takes a bit of time. When he appeared, he had his new puppy, Stella, in the dinghy with him.

Mel and Stella come to help

While we were waiting for Mel to come to our rescue, Clark found alternate, but less efficient, tools to use to complete the work of changing the two zincs on our stern. When Mel arrived, Clark had just two nuts left to reattach to be done.  Mel did a little "fishing" with his magnet while Clark finished up the last two nuts and then they worked together.

Clark took the line and dropped the magnet as he swam around the area trying to find the wrench. His effort proved fruitless and did not seem to be in the right area. After a while, Mel suggested that he could secure his dinghy to our stern and propel Sunset Delight such that Clark could see where the boat swung as it moved back and forth on anchor. 

That wasn't working either, so Mel had another idea. He suggested that Clark sit on the swim platform and fish from there instead of swimming around.

Mel and Stella (dog at feet)
with dinghy tied to swim platform and
pushing Sunset Delight 's stern to and fro

Clark "fishing" off the swim platform

As all of these efforts proved to be fruitless, and since Clark had more zincs he needed to replace, he thanked Mel for the loan of his magnet, waved goodbye to Mel as he headed back to the marina, and went back to working on more zincs that needed to be replaced.

It must not have been a good day for tools and Clark because no sooner did he start working on the next set of zincs than I hear, "I just dropped the allen wrench in the water!" I once again quickly looked up to take a fix on our position. He "fished" in the area for a while but came up empty. We double-checked to make sure other wrenches in the set clung to a magnet. They did. We just were unlucky in recovery!

Because the day was getting on, just about 5:00 by now, Clark decided he better finish the zincs job and worry about tool recovery afterwards. As with the missing socket wrench, Clark managed to scrape together tools that were "close enough" to the one he actually needed to get the job done. Once he declared the zinc replacement job complete, he went back to searching with hope of recovering at least one of his missing tools.

Clark decided that a better way to search would be to take a kayak and paddle around with the magnet hanging under the kayak. He paddled up and down and round and round for ages and came back with nothing to show for his efforts excepts more vegetation from the bottom. One thing was for sure, with all the diving to the bottom, swimming, and kayaking, he got a lot of exercise today. After all was said and done, he came up empty-handed. He'll be shopping for replacement tools now.

We debated staying out overnight and tying the magnet to the swim platform to let the boat do the fishing until morning. Clark checked the weather report and nixed that idea as rain is predicted for the morning. Instead he said we should eat dinner and return to dock afterwards, so I pulled out spaghetti and meatballs for a quick, on-board dinner.

While I prepared dinner, Clark came in asking for the camera. He said we had a dinghy parade coming our way. Instead of putting his dinghy away, Mel had brought Ann out with him as well as his neighbors - Lou Ann and Rene. Clark invited them to tie onto our swim platform to wait for the sunset, but they declined.

Mel and Ann  (and Stella) - "Morning Star II"
Lou Ann and Rene - "Zoey's Adventure"

Afterwards, as we ate dinner, we watched the sun set off our stern. It did not start out as much of a show, but it definitely got better as the evening wore on.

Anchorage Sunset (during dinner)

Color of the sky as we lifted anchor to return to dock!

We weren't the only ones admiring the sunset. When we checked Facebook later, we saw that Jim on "Hour Plan" had been busy with his camera as well.

Faro Blanco Sunset
(Picture taken by Jim Stebel)

2020: Marathon during Quarantine

24 March 2020

The trip back from the anchorage resulted in a lot of salt washed up on the sides of the boat. Clark decided to pull out the hose and the "salt away" to clean off the hull. Unfortunately, no matter what he did, Clark could not get white specks to stop appearing on the hull as soon as it dried. While he fought with washing the boat, I took care of the laundry that had accumulated over the past week. Obviously, he worked a lot harder today than I did as my only other accomplishment for the day was relaxing with a book.

25 March 2020

Having had no success getting the white speckles off our flag-blue hull, Clark invited me out into the dinghy to have a look and offer an opinion as to what he might do to get the salt off. Next thing I know I am finagled into holding the dinghy in place while he scrubs the hull. Then I get "hose duty" to do the wet down and rinse cycles as he works. When I realized this would be a multi-hour as opposed to a short consultation, I told Clark I had to stop to cover myself with sunscreen. As soon as I was slathered in 50 spf, we were back out there working. We finally decided we were finished working on the hull about 4 hours after we started. The end result ... the boat looked shiny from a distance and still had spots up close!!

26 March 2020

Clark decided he was done with the dinghy as far as boat cleaning was concerned, so today he wrapped it up with the boat cover. As I sat in the dinghy yesterday working the hose and holding the dinghy near the hull, I noticed that the dinghy was grimy. When I had breaks from my two other jobs, I cleaned the helm area. In so doing, I discovered that one of the instrument covers had come unglued. I could see it blowing off the boat the next time we went out, so I mentioned it to Clark. Before he wrapped up the boat today, he glued the cover back on.

One of the other boaters here, Dan, had ordered parts for his alternators per instructions from Clark on what he needed. After installing the new parts, Dan still had issues. Clark offered that Dan could bring an alternator over, leave it on the dock next to our boat, and Clark would take a look at it.

After Dan dropped it off, I scrubbed it down with a Clorox wipe.  Clark was able to fix that one, so Dan came and collected it and brought over his second one for Clark to work on next. Clark got them both fixed and returned to Dan who installed them and said that they now work and charge the batteries as they should!

I spent several hours reading and finished yet another book (#5) in the nautical series I am currently reading -- The Alexander Clay Series by P K Allen. Having decided that I wanted to pull out my acrylic paints, I spent some time going through the pictures I have collected and deciding what to paint. Once I decided on a fellow boater's dog, I spent time figuring out how best to capture the image on canvas.

27 March 2020

Having spent yesterday sitting around reading, I decided I better get out for some sun and exercise. I pulled out my bike for a 3-mile ride out to the Seven Mile Bridge and back. Given the anticipated heat and humidity later in the day, I made sure to get out there for my ride immediately after breakfast. On my ride I passed first Yasmine and then Faith out for morning walks.

When I got back, I decided that I had somehow accumulated enough laundry to make it a worthwhile task to complete today. Meanwhile, Clark spent the majority of the day washing the boat. This time he concentrated on the white infrastructure of the boat. He had a lot of scrubbing to do to get it clean.

As planned yesterday, I pulled out my paints today.  I outlined the pup I planned to paint on the canvas and then set to work filling in the details. I worried the most about getting the nose to look reasonable. Working my way through the eyes, nose, ears, and mouth, I was actually amazed that the picture started to take shape.

Frenchton (Boston Terrier / French Bulldog Mix) named Callie

28 March 2020

Sandy returned yesterday from being anchored out for over a week. She said she planned to go shopping and graciously offered to take me. Both of us have been as careful as we can be. I needed a number of items from the store and accepted a ride.

When we arrived at the farmer's market, we found AC, Jim, Lynn, and Phil there before us. They had walked there from the marina. As it turned out, the farmer's market had decided to go "drive thru". When Sandy and I stepped out of her car, they yelled as us to get back in and drive over. We could not see the produce from the car, so after they gave us a rundown of the inventory, we each listed the items we wanted. They put the veggies in the trunk after we paid at the pay station.

From there we quickly ran into Walgreens and then Winn Dixie. Between the two of us, we filled up her trunk with bags of groceries. Normally I use reusable cloth bags, but having just watched a corona-virus video on what to do with groceries in our current environment, I decided to leave the cloth bags behind and take the plastic bags from the store. When I got back to the boat with my loot, I left everything in the cockpit and brought in one bag at a time to scrub down with Clorox wipes before putting items away.

While I was busy with shopping and stowing food, etc, Clark continued to wash the boat. Today's job was to scrub the railings on the boat to make them glisten.

29 March 2020

With Clark working so hard scrubbing the boat every day, I figure I should at least try to accomplish something. Today I committed to running the vacuum through the boat. After I got that job done, I noticed that the little fans we use on the boat were very dusty and grimy. I ended up taking them apart and cleaning them. Normally, I would not give it a second thought, today, however, I was dismayed to see how many paper towels and Clorox wipes it took to get the job done. Truly, it was not that many, but still I wondered if it was a good use of such a precious commodity!

I spent time today catching up with friends either by phone call or text -- checking on them to see how they are faring at this unusual time. Fortunately everyone I contacted is currently doing well.

30 March 2020

Today, Clark was still cleaning the boat. Today he worked on scrubbing the cockpit. As he sprayed the hose near the door to the salon, I got a wake up call as the water hit me, the chair I was sitting in, and my Kindle (yes, I was reading yet again.) Fortunately, it was just a splash and not a soaking.

After that I decided I should get up and accomplish "something". Today's agenda involved trimming and coloring my hair. My hair does not seem to like the water here. It had become as dry as straw. I decided to trim off the end bits and then color it with the herbal color I use that always revives it. After treatment, my hair felt better than it has in weeks.

I finished reading the next book in my nautical series. The sad news is that it is book 6 out of 7, so I am almost to the end and will have to do some digging to figure out what to read next.

2020: Big Pine Key, Newfound Harbor Anchorage

22 March 2020
No boat travel.

We simply hung out on "Sunset Delight" in the anchorage all day. I read, played Sudoku on my tablet, and just lounged around. Clark read newspapers and books and played guitar to pass the time.

Sunset at Newfound Harbor Anchorage
Big Pine Key, FL

23 March 2020
Depart: Newfound Harbor Anchorage 12:10 
Arrive: Faro Blanco Marina 4:40
Distance: ~ 20 nm

Clark was interested to see how the batteries would do being only charged by the solar panels through yesterday and last night. The refrigerator is the biggest user of power. As expected, the solar panels alone cannot replace what the refrigerator plus everything else on board uses. If we are to anchor out for any extended period of time, we would also need to run the generator on occasion to charge them.

We agreed last night that we would take a dinghy ride this morning to explore before heading back to the marina. It takes a while to get the dinghy launched and setup; we set out on our adventure around 9:20.

We passed our friends' boat, "L'Attitude Adjustment", but saw no one around to wave to as we went by.

L'Attitude Adjustment

As we approached the channel we planned to explore, we passed a curious looking vessel.

A floating tent with solar panels
(Impossible to see the boat hiding under all that!)

Sandy gave me a suggestion for where to go to explore...

Channel ahead into a residential area of Big Pine Key

Docks among the mangroves 

At the end of the "road" ahead, we found the vessel
"Kokomo Cat II" from Looe Key Reef Resort and Dive Center
(Made me start singing a Beach Boys song!)

Sandy asked us to check to see if the gas station there was open. Happily, we could report back that it did appear to be open as we passed by. Traveling a bit further on after we turned the corner but decided that there was not much to see, so we turned around to head back out again. Although we passed other side channels, we decided not to venture down any of them.

Lots of palm trees

and mangroves

Before heading back to "Sunset Delight", Clark took us around the anchorage a bit just to get a closer look.

Some of the very few boats in the anchorage

As we passed by the "Time Out" bar-on-the-water, we saw a man and woman sitting on the deck. The man beckoned us over (I assume he was desperate for customers.), we just ignored him and kept going. Perhaps in the past we might have ventured over to say hello - not sure on that.

"Time Out" - bar

Next to "Time Out", we saw an island with lots of signposts on it. The water got quite shallow as we approached, and it was not worth worrying about the depth to get close enough to read the names of the places on the signposts.

"Signpost Island"
(my name for it)

After that, we had see just about everything the anchorage had to offer, so we headed back to the boat. We climbed back on board and got ready to depart. Before we got too far into prepping to leave, Clark remembered that I pointed out the green beard once more growing on the hull of "Sunset Delight". He decided to take a swim with his putty knife to give the boat a shave.

Going in! 77 degrees warm!

"Ahhh!"

Since we had a pretty stiff current, I lowered a line down to Clark that he gripped in one hand while scraping and scrubbing with the other. As he moved first up the starboard side and then down the port side, I walked along the deck holding and moving the line to keep pace with him. This gave him something to hold on to and pull against to stay close to the hull while he worked on it.

After he finished the job, about 20 minutes later, he decided to jump in one more time for a brief pleasure swim before getting dressed.

Going in one more time!

Cool down time! Scrubbing the hull is hot work!

His swim was extremely brief. Then he was back on board and we were underway quickly.  Once again we passed the expensive resort with the way overpriced docks. Most of the rafted-up boaters from Saturday were gone. A few boats still remained in the area.

Little Palm Island Resort

Fewer boats today playing in the water

Unsure of what the waves would be like in the Atlantic Ocean, Clark thought we might need to pass under the bridge to the Gulf side and then back out to the ocean side later to get fuel. As it turned out, we had no need to bail out of the ocean. We had waves but nothing we could not tolerate. Besides the colors of the ocean were breathtaking!!

Glorious shades of blue in the Atlantic Ocean in the Florida Keys!

We arrived back at Faro Blanco late afternoon and found some changed rules due to the Coronavirus. Particularly, padlocks have been added to the pool gates to keep non-marina patrons out of the pool and restrooms; cones have been set up at the end of the drive to keep people out of the hotel and marina areas. Everything is familiar, but nothing is the same!

2020: Coronavirus news updates and boating in the Keys

18 March 2020

No boat travel.

As the reality of Coronavirus set in at the marina, we spent the majority of the day on the boat. I did take several trips to the laundry room to get caught up in preparation for who knows what the future may bring. Meanwhile, I did some reading, did general boat / house chores, and shopped online for some essentials. Clark and I worked on the website for his Medicare-related Prescription Plan for over two hours trying to figure out how to order him a new prescription. Some of the issue was a cumbersome website. Most of the problem was on our end as my computer seemed to have a mind of its own when populating login data.

After fighting with the website and completing the laundry, we went to docktails to meet with others at the marina. Of course, the main topic of conversation, perhaps only topic, turned out to be Covid-19!  We violated the no more than 10 people rule – we had around 12, but we tried hard to comply with the 6-foot rule!

19 March 2020 – First Day of Spring!

No boat travel.

After “working” all day yesterday, I decided that I would spend today doing acrylic painting. I texted Lisa and asked if she wanted to join me. I told her I had a big table, so we could be 6-foot rule compliant as we painted together. She came over at 1:30 as planned and the first thing she said was, “I have no artistic ability whatsoever!” 

I showed her some pictures to choose from and we settled on a sunset picture Clark took at Marathon Marina in February.

I gave her step-by-step instructions, and we finished our art project together around 3:45 or so.

Sky is done - time to move on to water portion.

My version.

And Lisa said she is not artistic! Hah!!!

 I still felt like dabbling with my paints after Lisa left, so I continued to poke at my version of the picture for another hour or so.

Added sun, sailboat, and birds

20 March 2020

No boat travel.

We stayed on board today and read for most of the day. Every day we get the USA Today newspaper, I do the puzzles. I did not get to them yesterday, so I had two days’ worth this morning. That took quite a bit of time as each day of the week, the difficulty level goes up by one notch making Thursday and Friday puzzles the hardest of the week.

Mid-afternoon I decided to go for a walk around the marina. I had to do something besides sit around all day. Initially, I did not get very far as I ran into Yasmine and Aaron (Faro Blanco staff) who convinced me that we needed to rethink our planned end-of-reservation date.  I hurried back to the boat and miraculously got Clark to agree to extend our date. I see it as an insurance plan in these uncharted waters – the last thing I want is to be told we have to leave here and have no where to go.

After we talked to the office to move out our end-of-reservation date, we decided to walk the docks together. The walk took quite a while as everyone we saw wanted to talk (from 6 feet away). Today’s discussion once again revolved around Covid-19 with talk about restaurants going to takeout only and all hotels closing. The road into the Keys will be closed to tourists, i.e. only those who have a sticker showing they are a Keys resident can come into the Keys.

With all the uncertainty and depressing times we are now experiencing, it is nice to see a sunset to bring some amount of joy to the world.

Here is another taken by a fellow boater at Faro Blanco.

21 March 2020

Depart: Faro Blanco Resort 11:50

Arrive: New Found Harbor Anchorage 2:50

Distance: ~ 20 nm

Yesterday, Sandy and Bill (our boat neighbors at Faro Blanco) left the dock to go anchor for a few days to get away from people and enjoy nature without worry of contacting Covid-19. Before they left I asked Sandy if they would want a neighbor in the anchorage, and she said she would give directions once they found a spot. Later in the day, we got word they were anchored at New Found Harbor.  We decided an escape from the “real world” sounded like a great idea.

This morning when we got up, we had a few chores to do before leaving the dock. Clark was determined that we would bike to the farmer’s market to get fresh vegetables. I had my doubts that they would even be there. Sandy had said that Winn Dixie was well stocked on vegetables, so I figured that even if we could not get anything at the farmer’s market, we could still buy some veggies.

Low and behold … the farmer’s market was there and open for business.  I really could not believe it. We arrived around 9:30 which is later than when Sandy normally takes me. Some people were there but not the normal hustle and bustle I’m used to. Still, we got fresh corn on the cob, green beans, tomatoes, and more. Poor Clark’s backpack weighed a ton!

From there we went to Winn Dixie and I bought yet more food items. We had the wind against us going to the store. Thank goodness as that meant that the wind pushed us back to be boat. With the added weight on the bikes it would have been a real chore going against the wind. As it was, we practically sailed back.

I told Clark that I wanted to do some baking before we left. That put our target departure time at 1 o’clock. While he waited for me to bake his applesauce cake that he likes so much, he did miscellaneous chores around the boat like fill the water tank and get gas for the dinghy. We left the dock just before one as hoped and headed out to go find Sandy and Bill.

Clark thought it would be choppy on the ocean, so he decided to go on the “inside” as far as Bahia Honda State Park and then pass under the bridge to go out to the ocean side. We are fortunate that our mast lowers, so we have that option.

With the dreaded Coronavirus, Bahia Honda State Park was closed to the public. How bizarre it was to pass by there on a Saturday in March (spring break season) and see not a sole on the beach or walking the bridge to get the view.

Museum and beach at Bahia Honda - deserted

No people on the bridge admiring the view

No people walking the beaches

 Compared to when we visited the park a week ago with Mike and Darlene ...

We saw one sailboat at anchor near the park, and one dinghy going out to explore – perhaps the occupants of that anchored sailboat!?

Note the different water colors. Beautiful!

 When Clark lowers the antennas to go under bridges, he walks along a narrow ledge on the outside of the boat holding on with one hand as he lowers the antennas with the other. My heart is always in my mouth as I hold my breath watching him.  As Clark worked on the antennas, a dolphin came alongside the boat to travel with us for a short distance.  He did not stay for a photo however. Besides Clark and I both had our attention on other things at that precise moment.

On the far side of the bridge, I told Clark to get back out there and put things back in order fast before the waves picked up. He did, and he barely got himself back inside the boat rails when we got hit on the port side by a wave that pushed the boat sideways. What timing! While he was out there, I was working my rescue strategy in case I had to collect him from the water!

After that initial wave, the waves picked up and became larger in size. They were a bit bothersome until our route allowed us to turn the boat and have them following us instead of hitting us on the side.  As we traveled, we noted the colors of the water. We saw a definite line of baby blue versus green as ocean water met that of the bay.

Very definite line in the water! Gorgeous!

 We arrived at the entrance to New Found Harbor just after 3 o’clock. The first thing we saw was a bunch of people from a collection of small day boats – clearly Trump supporters from the numerous flags on display – not practicing the 6-foot rule!

Slightly beyond there, we came to the Little Palm Island Resort. This place was decimated by Hurricane Irma and has been rebuilding.  Clark looked up some details and reviews on the place. We learned that a dock here with a sunset view costs $1200 a day; a harbor view costs $600 a day; and lunch will set you back about $90. Sadly, the reviews of the docks did not support anything like those numbers. Who pays that much money to dock??

As we worked our way through the area to the anchorage where Sandy and Bill were located, we passed another small-boat convention.

“What pandemic?!”

Once again, we were struck by the water color as we approached an area where the water appeared very sandy in color, and no, it was not a beach!

Water appeared almost white!

We also saw a floating bar that was quite busy.

Floating bar ...  “Time Out”
(on left)

 Clark chose a more open spot than I would have expected. His reasoning … he said he wanted a breeze. Made sense to me. Shortly after we dropped anchor Sandy and Bill came over via dinghy to say hello. While at the farmer’s market this morning, I bought her some vegetables, so they came to pick them up and get the latest marina news.

After getting settled in, we relaxed on the boat. I read some more of my maritime war novel. I cooked up the chicken that I bought this morning at Winn Dixie! We enjoyed a nice dinner and had a lovely sunset at the anchorage.

After the sun set, Clark noticed that we could see Fat Albert – the “tethered aerostat radar system” blimp located at Cudjoe Key.

TARS blimp - "Fat Albert" over Cudjoe Key

It is yet TBD as to how long we will stay here at anchor. Perhaps a night or two. Perhaps more? Depending on what we find of interest here. As I told Lisa earlier today, if we have to be quarantined on a boat, we might as well make the most of it!