2020: Keeping busy in Marathon FL

17 April 2020

Today would have been my mother's 104th birthday had she not passed away in 1993. I often feel that she is still here with me as my guardian angel.

The winds picked up last night, and we had a wind from the north. It felt good to get a breeze for a change. We have had unusually hot weather in the Florida Keys. Even the weatherman said it was more like July weather than April.

As May approaches, it will only get hotter. Many boaters are preparing to leave by the end of this month. The first to depart, "Amelie", left today.

"Amelie" leaving Faro Blanco - going ...

Going ...

And gone! Until we meet again!

We took "Sunset Delight" out for our weekly maintenance run this morning.  Clark has been looking for an opportunity to start working on the wooden trim on the boat. He thought he might want to drop anchor and work on it out in the bay. He decided it was still too hot and humid, so instead it just turned into a maintenance run, and we came right back to our slip.

That turned out to be fortuitous as Sandy offered to take me out  shopping. We went to Publix, and I stocked up partially for current needs and mostly prepping for our long trip back to NJ. Both of us wore the masks that I had made the whole time we were out -- inside and out of the car.

I noticed that Sandy had modified hers to add a nose clip. Since I have problems with my glasses steaming up, I thought I might want to copy her modification. When I got back to the boat, and after I got my groceries sterilized and stowed, I spent time this afternoon modifying my mask to add the nose clip piece.

At 5:30 I did a video call with my granddaughter, Sierra, in Idaho. She enjoys the "Ivy & Bean" series of books. We spent the majority of the call with her reading to me and showing me pictures. I did get a begrudgingly brief hello from her sister, Violet, as she was happily working on her tablet and had no time for Nana.


18 April 2020

Being Saturday, Sandy and I went on our weekly trip to the drive through farmer's market. We arrived at 9:00 as per usual to find cars lined up through the parking lot. A Tesla was in line in front of us. Since I had never seen one, I found that moderately interesting. Not interesting enough, however, to keep me entertained for the 45 minutes we sat waiting for our turn. The company was appreciated, and as Sandy said, "We don't have anything we need to be in a hurry for!"

I discovered, much to my discomfort, that the nose-clip modification made my mask tighter. Unfortunately I did not notice that when I made the change. It only became apparent when, after wearing it for a couple of hours, I discovered my ears were aching from being pulled at an angle by the mask.

When I got back to the marina, I stripped off the mask and dove into figuring out a way to enlarge the size to give my poor ears a break. I chopped off the elastic I had put on there and replaced it with longer segments of elastic. Relief! Since I had the time and the supplies on hand, I modified a second mask for myself to add a nose clip and longer elastic.

Several weeks ago Clark ordered something to repair one of our chart plotters. The part he needed finally arrived -- it came all the way from China. He spent the afternoon working on the equipment.

Inside one of our chart plotters.
The blue material is the part that he needed.

19 April 2020

I decided to spend part of today with my acrylic paints. Because I don't like to stop once I get started, I generally wait until after lunch to pull everything out and take over the salon table. I spent time in the morning on the phone with first my sister in PA and then my friend, Janet, in NJ. Of course, we compared news on Coronavirus. Fortunately, that is not all we talked about as too much of that is depressing.

As planned, I pulled out my paints after lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon painting. I had seen a picture posted on Facebook that caught my eye, and I decided to take a shot at copying it in acrylic.

Photo posted on Facebook

We heard that other boaters at the marina planned to watch the movie "Captain Ron" at 8:00. For a multitude of reasons, Clark and I decided to pass on this opportunity.  On Sundays Clark and I normally watch "60 Minutes" followed by "God Friended Me".  We decided to stick to our norm, and I got dinner on the table in time for us to sit and enjoy both shows.

Being curious about the movie setup, we poked our noses out around 8:20 to spy on the goings on. We saw no one anywhere near where we thought they planned to set up. Just then Jim, "Third Degree", walked by carrying a small speaker and said, "the Bluetooth isn't working!" as he walked by. We went back to our show.

At 9:00, with our television shows completed, we decided to go spy again. This time we headed over towards the pool area where Jim said they were set up. As we neared the area, we passed Eric and Jen also passing on the movie and also out for a stroll.

We could see the movie displayed on the screen that had been set up by the steps into the restaurant. On the opposite side of the pool, we could see many people sitting, watching the show, so many in fact, I wondered where they all came from. With it being so dark, I could only see shapes and not distinguish who sat watching the movie.

Since Clark had asked about "Captain Ron" a couple of times in the past and was curious as to the content, we pulled it up on Netflix and watched it in the comfort of our own salon. I had seen it years ago but did not remember much of the movie. The only thing I remembered was that I thought it not worth watching. I thought that perhaps now that I had been boating longer, I might enjoy it more. Clark and I both thought it was only "okay".

20 April 2020

When I stepped out the back of the boat this morning, I could not believe the lovely cool breeze that greeted me. I quick ran to tell Clark that we had a good day for a change. He decided to start his work on varnishing the wood trim aka the "eyebrow". Before he could begin the work, he had to tape over the fiberglass gel coat to protect it.

Small sample of taped area to be varnished

To take advantage of the nice weather, I decided to go for a walk down Route 1. I brought my mask and hand sanitizer with me. Very few people were out walking around. I did pass a few people. When I did, I swerved off the path into a parking lot or such to be far out of the way. All told I walked just under 3 miles.

When I got back to the boat, I rewarded myself by sitting down with my latest novel. Sadly, I finished the series of 7. The author is still adding to the series, so maybe I will read another episode of the heroes adventures some time in the future.

We got a delightful request from our boating friends on "Namaste" to do a Facetime docktails. We met at 5:00 and talked for an hour that felt like 10 minutes. Jim pointed out that we all needed to eat, so that ended the call. It was great to catch up and get to see them at the same time!

Clark decided that he could get in more varnishing time before the sun went down, so he went back to work. While he was busy, he stopped long enough to get a sunset picture.

Sunset at Faro Blanco Resort

With no other interesting options on television, we once again turned to Netflix and decided to watch the movie "Outbreak". We found it riveting given the current pandemic environment.


21 April 2020

Now that Clark started the varnishing project, he tackles another coat of varnish each day. He went out early to start sanding. While he did that, I walked through the boat and made a list of projects to do once we arrive back home in New Jersey. In a relatively short period of time I had a rather long to do list.

It has not rained here in the Marathon for weeks. Of course, because Clark was working on the varnishing, it rained today. He popped into the boat and said, "It's dribbling out there." By the time I looked, about 30 seconds later, I replied, "That's not dribbles! That's rain!"

Later, Sandy told him that she saw a waterspout. Then, we saw a post on Facebook from Debbie who works from the marina showing a picture she took of it. Luckily, it was short-lived and did no damage.

Waterspout near Faro Blanco Marina

Around 8:00, Clark and I decided to go for a walk around the marina to enjoy the cooler weather. We made our way as far as "Mystic Gem" and got no further. We ended up standing there for an hour talking long distance (over 6 feet away) talking to Jeff and Jim ("Third Degree").


22 April 2020

We had a major change in wind direction during the night. When we stepped out side, we had a wonderful north breeze. Clark was on the bow with his varnishing supplies in hand when I came out. He greeted me with a big grin and "Open the hatches! Turn off the A/C! It's a north wind!" Aye, Aye Captain! I went back in and did as he requested.

What I noticed besides the cooler air was the sea grass that came in overnight. I could not believe my eyes! So much in so short a period of time!

Sea Grass the length of the boat

Sandy and Bill took their boat out today to try their hand at fishing. They were gone before I poked my head out for the first time today. Because they were gone, we got a view of their slip and the one next to it - both full of sea grass.

The two slips next to our dock are packed with sea grass.

Looking at my laundry basket, full to the top, I decided that today would be laundry day. It is amazing to me how quickly it fills up. Fortunately, no one else was vying for the machines.

After lunch I pulled out my paints to continue with my current project. I managed to work on it until I could declare it done.

My acrylic version of the Facebook photo
I used as my subject

Always on the watch for an opportunity, Clark managed to capture tonight's sunset for the blog. Both pictures were taken at the marina but from different viewpoints.

23 April 2020

Jim on "Third Degree" was busy this morning. When I read my Facebook updates this morning, I found a post from him showing two of the boats here surrounded in "Police Tape".

It turned out to be a prank perpetrated by Jim himself. I saw Terry in the ladies room, and she explained that it was a "game on" situation as her husband considers his options for retaliation.

We decided to take the boat out today for our weekly maintenance run, but first Clark had to put yet another coat of varnish on the brow. While he did that, I did general cleaning on the boat like running the vacuum, etc.

The seal on our port side porthole came unglued. Clark and I applied a form of glue yesterday. We wanted black, but unfortunately, the only small size tube of adhesive came in white. When it dried, we could see that some of the adhesive had gotten on the glass. I got the dubious honor of scraping it off. That kept me busy for a good long time.

As we worked on our various projects, Jeff from "Mystic Gem" stopped by to ask Clark for help with his windlass. Clark told him to bring over the windless switch for him to look at. After Clark saw what Jeff brought over, he said, "Where's the rest of it?" Jeff went back to look and found the rest of the parts had fallen into the rope locker when he removed the switch. With Clark's input Jeff was able to find the parts and get the windlass switch back together properly.

We left at 2:30 for our maintenance run. With the nice weather, we decided to drop anchor and hang out for a while. As we turned to head back to the place where we planned to anchor, we saw that the wind gauge was showing around 31 knots. Subtracting out our speed that meant the wind was around 26 mph. Clark said it would "settle down" as we got closer to the marina, and it did.

While out there, we did some cleaning. Those nasty pigeons love to sit and poop on our boat. The hard top gives them a great spot to sit. When we went up to the upper helm, we found bird "doo" splattered on our full enclosure and lots of it on the pilot house roof. Nasty! Clark climbed out the window with a bucket of soapy water to get the worst off.

Clark offered two options - stay out until after dinner or return before we ate. I told him to decide. It seems to me that whenever I offer my preference, we end up doing the opposite of what I chose. That has happened so many times that I have decided that I should either not choose and just tell him to decide or say the opposite of what I want to do so I can get to do what I wanted to begin with.

He decided that he liked the breeze, so we hung out until after dinner. Then we decided to hang out until after the news, so we came back in just after 7:00. When we got to the slip, Jim ("Hour Plan") was waiting to help us with our lines. He must have seen us pull up anchor and head in, so he was there to greet us! Thanks Jim for the help with the lines!

Clark and I fought with the lines to get the boat properly positioned. That wind was pushing us off the dock with force, so we had to work the lines to pull us in where I could comfortably get on and off the boat.

When Clark went out to spray the salt off the boat, he found a surprise - a manatee right behind our boat munching on the sea grass.

After dinner Clark went to talk to Jeff about his windlass. I sat down to update the blog. He finally returned two hours later. I was still working on the blog when he got back.

2020: Corona time is painting time

12 April 2020 Easter Sunday

Every so often I find I have sat still long enough and need some exercise. I took a walk today. Route 1 looks a lot different these days. On a Sunday at this time of year, the road should be packed with cars. I know today was a holy day, but still ... no cars whatsoever?!

Route 1 looking towards Key West direction

Route 1 looking Key Largo direction

As I walked past the lighthouse at the marina and the hotel on the property, both had signs up that read "No Entry without a Mask or Face Covering" -- new rules in place! Clark walked up to the lighthouse to talk to the staff and was not allowed in as he did not have a mask with him.

Later, we did a "Google Duo" session with our family in Connecticut. As we talked over the internet about happenings here and there, the Easter Bunny walked by our boat. Clark quick grabbed the laptop and ran out to have the bunny talk to the grandkids. She even gave us caramel chocolate Easter eggs! Too bad we couldn't pass them through the internet to the grandkids!

Easter Bunny Beverly

Afterwards, Lily, the 4-year old, said, "Are you sure she's the Easter bunny? She looked a lot like a person to me!"

Having finished the airplane painting, I was on the hunt for something new to paint. Ann on "Morning Star II" decided to help me out and sent me a couple of suggestions. One of those caught my eye.

I  decided this was a good candidate for a small canvas.

Since the inside of the original picture was so dark that I could not figure out what I was seeing, I decided to just go with seats and leave it at that. This was a relatively fast one, so shortly I was back on the lookout for my next subject matter.


13 April 2020

Having enjoyed painting a picture of the dog Callie recently, I decided to paint a picture of Mel and Ann's dog, Stella. I sent Clark over with a camera to take a couple of pictures to work from. I found one I liked from the ones he took.

Stella

However, I thought that her eyes looked brighter in the picture taken when Mel came out to help us search for tools lost overboard.

So, I decided to work with both pictures and see what I could do.

I spent the better part of the day working on the picture. While I worked on that, Clark spent his time playing with our sound system on the boat. Although not directly related to the issue with the radio that woke us up multiple times a couple of nights ago, his desire to learn more about the sound wiring came out of that unfortunate incident. While he worked, Clark put several great CDs  in to generate music for his research. I got to listen while I worked on my art.

After spending hours on the sound system,  he came up with the following diagnosis ... a blown out auxiliary input. I was clueless so he translated that into, "we can't couple sound to our stateroom or the pilot house from the salon". Fortunately, this activity is not high on our priority list having never known we could do that. Regardless, Clark found and ordered a part on eBay that may address the problem. Once it gets here, he can do more digging.


14 April 2020

Before pulling out my paints again today to work on my puppy picture, I decided to go for a walk. As I walked up to Route 1, I remembered that we needed holding tank treatment from West Marine. I quickly returned to the boat for money and a mask and walked back to the store. I put my mask on before entering the store, and as I did so, I noticed a sign that said "Credit Cards" only - no cash and no checks allowed.

Since I planned to pay by card that was no problem. I quickly picked out what I needed and went to pay. Sadly, the credit card machine required me to touch it multiple times. Twice I had to use the pen and once the keyboard to confirm payment. I saw no wipes in the area and no evidence that the keypad is ever disinfected. Funny how in the past, this would not have fazed me in the least and now, when I walked out of the store, I felt filthy. Luckily, I had wipes in my pocket. Even so, I ran to the sink as soon as I got back to the boat to wash my hands.

The weather has heated up considerably here this week. In fact the Miami weatherman said that the temperatures we are having now are more typical of July in Florida than April. Given the hot weather, we broke down and turned on the air conditioners on board. We were melting.

Our boating neighbor, Ann, was so  surprised to see we had air conditioning running, she grabbed her camera for proof!

Yes, on occasion, we do run the AC!

In the evening, Clark went out for a bit of a walk and came back with a sunset picture.

15 April 2020

Yesterday, I was very discouraged with my puppy picture. I had worked on it all day and struggled with technique to get the look I wanted. I tried multiple paint brushes and nothing gave me the appearance of fur. Instead it looked more like a patchwork quilting exercise in paint.

At docktails last night, I studied Stella as she ran about, and I realized one very important thing. I had the colors all wrong. Working from a picture, I had white fur where it should be a creamy tan and dark brown where it should be a deep tan. Clearly I had a lot more work to do.

Although I lacked confidence that I could produce the desired effect, I pulled out all my acrylic stuff and set to work once more. Meanwhile, Clark decided to explore the radio wiring yet again. He momentarily called me away from my paints to help him check wire connectivity. He had an "Aha" moment when he saw that one wire was labeled " to E120".

He got excited as that meant something to him (nothing to me)! Voila! He tested it and found that the wire allows us to watch television on the boat's E120 display unit in the pilot house. Neither of us are clear on when we would want to watch television on the display unit, but it is interesting to know that we have that capability if the desire ever arises.

As he worked in the pilot house, Clark found he had nearby spectators. Several times Clark poked his head out the door to snap a picture of his audience.

I can only wonder what these two were telling each other as they watched the boat.

Caption needed for this ... what are they saying?

By the end of the day, I had a puppy picture I was pretty satisfied with; however, I still felt it was missing something.

16 April 2020

Last night as we got ready for bed, Clark said that we should take the boat out for our weekly maintenance run today. When he got up this morning and discovered the extreme heat and humidity, he quickly changed his mind. With no breeze whatsoever, our maintenance run could wait until a cooler day.

Given that the boating run activity was out of the way, I decided to work on my puppy picture again. I realized that the "what's missing" item was a toy for the puppy. I went to visit Ann to see what my options were. She found a few possibilities.

Stella's toys!

I was tempted to try the grinning pink stuffy, but opted for the ball instead.

"Stella"

I took the picture with me to docktails tonight to give to Ann. She and Mel were well pleased with the end result. Meanwhile, I am already working on my next painting project.

2020: April sunsets and Coronavirus masks

7 April 2020

I decided to take a break from painting and pulled out my sewing machine to make some quarantine masks for when I have to make a trip out into public. I searched Google and found a pattern that I liked. After the first, it took about 30 minutes per mask. I had the necessary materials on hand, so I did not have to buy anything.

First one I did

Masks for Quarantine

8 April 2020

I decided to try the Publix Instacart to have an order delivered to the marina instead of braving the supermarket in person. On the surface it seemed like a great idea and the website seemed easy to use. Unfortunately, I was disappointed with my first experience.

As I understand the way it is supposed to work, the shopper is supposed to contact me and let me know if they cannot purchase what I requested and allow me to approve / disapprove substitutions. Instead of letting me know, the shopper made unilateral decisions on my behalf. Her choices left much to be desired.

For example, I asked for grapes; she brought me pears. I asked for boneless chicken thighs; she brought me bone-in turkey thighs. The list goes on and on. With Instacart, I have no printed receipt and it appears that Publix treats Instacart as a "separate company", so I cannot even return or exchange items. The phone number Publix gave me goes to a message that basically says "use the website".

Most of the items she brought can be used. I do not, however, like to pay for things I would never buy myself. Pears and turkey thighs definitely fall into that category. The worst however was the tomatoes she brought me. She could at least have looked at them!

Tomatoes "fresh" from Publix

I concluded from my experience with this particular shopper that she was interested in speed not quality. The sooner she got  my order done, the faster she could get back in queue for the next person. I know these are difficult times, but this has left a bad taste in my mouth.

The shopper dropped off the bags at the curb at the marina. Clark and I collected them and brought them onto the stern of the boat. I brought in one bag at a time and used Clorox wipes on everything before I stored it.

9 April 2020
Maintenance Run on Sunset Delight

After Clark replaced the zincs last week and had to dive repeatedly looking for his lost tools, he ended up with a pain that radiated from his ear to his jaw. He talked to a former nurse who is a boater here in the marina and she gave him some guidance on treating it with ibuprofen. He also mixed 50-50 white vinegar and rubbing alcohol to make ear drops to dry out any excess water in the ear.

The remedy worked and he started feeling better on Tuesday. We decided to wait until today to go out on the boat to, yet again, have him diving under the boat to work on replacing zincs. When he replaced the ones last week, he discovered that the ones on the rudders were gone. He had to order the replacements before he could install them.

Clark said we could stay overnight on the anchor. I thought the plan was to go to the Bahia Honda anchorage. However, when we got out there, he informed me that he wanted to anchor near Faro Blanco. I found that disappointing, but he had valid reasons for making that decision. We made our maintenance run and dropped anchor just outside the marina.

He did his dives and managed to replace both rudder zincs without losing any tools today. Since he had to dive under the boat holding a heavy zinc in each hand, he decided that he should probably have some kind of flotation to make sure he didn't sink. After looking at the options, we decided that his weight belt should be sufficient to give him the additional buoyancy he needed. That worked.  Fortunately, he got the zincs on both rudders changed relatively quickly.

We found a lot of current where we dropped anchor. Clark was able to swim against it. The boat, however, had difficulties with the wind versus current conditions. Normally at anchor, the anchor line goes straight out off the bow. Today's conditions gave us a positioning where the anchor line was at a 90 degree angle to the boat.

As I sat and read my latest historical novel, Clark fretted about the anchorage. Looking out the window, he said to me, "That sailboat is dragging their anchor!"  The sailboat chose a new position. Meanwhile another sailboat dropped anchor way too close to us. Apparently they did not see that our anchor line was at a sharp angle to our boat. Clark pointed out to me that when the current shifted, we would hit them. 

He announced that after sunset, we were leaving and going back into the marina for the night. I gave him a pout face to show my disappointment. First, no Bahia Honda anchorage, and then no overnight. "Don't worry," he said, "you'll have plenty of overnight anchorages on the way back to Jersey!"

The bright red sun gave us an interesting sunset tonight. Pictures don't do it justice!

10 April 2020

Since I was in the marina this morning, instead of out on the "hook", I decided I might as well do the laundry. In addition to our clothes, I stripped the covers off the sofa in the salon and washed it as well. While the covers were stripped off, I used a brush and lint roller to clean up the seat cushions themselves. By the time I was done, I was dripping with sweat. The weather here is very hot and very humid right now - unusually warm for this time of year.

After lunch, I changed and jumped into the pool at the marina. Before I walked up, I asked Clark to come with me. He begged off. I went on my own and found that only one other person was in the pool. At 2:00 in the afternoon, I expected it to have more folks trying to cool down. I called Clark and convinced him that the pool was pretty much empty and I had found a shady spot. Given those factors, he decided to come join me at the pool.

As the afternoon wore on, more people came to enjoy the pool. We have 6-feet and no-more-than-10 people in the pool rules. Around 3:30 Clark and I left to make room for the later arrivals. Before he joined me at the pool, Clark turned on the air conditioning on the boat, so when we returned to the boat after our swim, we found a very comfortable temperature on board for the evening.

Egret at Faro Blanco - on hotel property

11 April 2020

Sandy returned yesterday from being on anchor for the past 10 days or so. She asked me if I wanted to go with her to the farmer's market this morning. Given the condition of the tomatoes I got from the Instacart experience, I wanted tomatoes if nothing else, so I said yes!

We both donned our masks before we got in the car and did not take them off until we were back at our boats. Initially they were fine, but at near 90 temps and high humidity, I found the mask hot to wear outside of air conditioned environments. Still it felt good to have some protection.

I had a rough night last night for lack of sleep. Iwent to bed around midnight. Clark came to bed at 2:30 after watching the 4.5-hour movie - "Titanic". I woke when he came to bed but managed to go back to sleep quickly. Then, at 5:15 this morning, we heard "beep, beep, beep", "beep, beep, beep" coming from somewhere in our stateroom.

Clark and I both woke up trying to figure out what was sounding an alarm. It was a soft, high-pitched sound. I checked my watch to see if my alarm had accidentally been set. Not that. Then I wondered if it was some smoke / CO detector battery warning. Wrong again. Clark decided it must be the theft alarm on the radio in the stateroom. It looks like a car radio. He opened the cover which is supposed to turn off the alarm and climbed back into bed.

I spent an hour trying to get back to sleep. I kept expecting the alarm to go off any minute. I finally fell asleep about an hour later. No sooner did I get to sleep than I heard "beep, beep, beep", "beep, beep, beep".  Once again I had a hard time getting back to sleep. Then at 8:00 my phone decided to go "BLING!" with a calendar reminder. Since I had set my alarm for 8:15, I gave up and got out of bed. I could take no more sleep deprivation torture!

As a result of last night's beeping, Clark spent the majority of the day trying to decipher the puzzle that is the radio in our master stateroom.  During the night, he thought it might be related to the compressor running on the air conditioner. Granted, we do not use our air conditioning often, but we have had the boat since January 2017, and the radio has never acted strangely before.

Clark read the installation and user manuals for the radio and played with the unit to see what he could figure out. First he tried to determine which circuit the radio is on. Even with the breaker off, the unit still sounded the alarm. Some additional yellow wire went off to some TBD spot and must be a backup power source for the unit.

If Clark is puzzled, it has to be something really weird. He still had residual questions when he quit working on it, but he did figure out how to disable the alarm, so we should have no beeps in the night tonight! I can only hope I get a good night's sleep tonight.

As the end of April approaches, Clark and I are starting to talk about when we will leave the marina and venture north. He told me before I went out shopping today that I could start stocking the boat in preparation for leaving. We are paid through the end of the month. If we go into May, we have to pay for the month.

Besides worrying about coronavirus, we have the issue of hurricane season approaching. We are starting to feel the squeeze between the two. Other folks have decided they will be leaving towards the end of this month. It looks like come May there will be quite a few less boats at the already very empty marina.

We had a good sunset tonight - again with the red sun / sky.

2020: Makasi Plane Acrylic Painting

3 April 2020 - 5 April 2020

Having chosen to try my hand at painting the Makasi Plane, I pulled out my equipment and got to work. I decided that my normal freehand method of acrylic painting would not "fly" with this endeavor. Transferring just an outline of the plane onto my canvas took multiple steps.

First I had to find an appropriate picture of Steve's plane. We had several that we took in the hangar when we visited him in the fall, but none showed the plane to its best advantage.

Clark in the Makasi Aircraft last November

I decided to Google "Makasi Plane" and see what turned up. I found a video of Steve's plane when it was used a couple of years ago to give rides to CIA veterans.

As I watched the video, I found a spot with a good view of the plane on the take-off / landing strip and took a screenshot that became the subject matter for my artwork.

Makasi Aircraft ready for takeoff

I sent that picture to our printer to have something with which to work. I have a package of carbon paper I inherited from my parents that, based on the looks of the packaging, must date back to the 1960s or before. There is enough that one day my kids will inherit it from me and wonder what the heck to do with it.  I taped the picture and carbon paper to the canvas and traced the key lines of the plane.

It took about 12 hours over 3 days to complete the picture. Clark took a picture of my progress at the end of day one. Given the plane is basically black and white with grey for accents, it proved to be a challenge to get the right look. The photocopy came out anemic / washed-out, so I had to work from the photo on my laptop; otherwise, instead of black I would have had a plane in "50 shades of gray".

End of day 1 results

The second day, I did a lot of rework - darkening up the blackest of black, refining and outlining the numbers and letters, etc. The end result was a picture that looked very much the same as at the end of day 1.

The next day, Saturday, I got diverted from my plane project. Although I had looked forward to the event, I completely missed Jim's, "Third Degree", post on Facebook announcing today's scavenger hunt that he is conducting on a weekly basis. Somewhere on the marina grounds he placed a wooden birdhouse and gave clues on where to find it. He posted the hints at 10:00 as he said he would. At 10:15 I saw Jim, "Hour Plan", walking by -- the proud owner of the birdhouse.

I yelled from my boat as he walked by, "You found it already!" He grinned and said, "Yes, and it's the only RV I'm likely to ever have!" As he walked by, I said if he wanted it painted to let me know. Lo and behold, he came back a short while later to have it painted.

When I asked what color, he said, "AC wants red with a weathered look."

 Wooden birdhouse ready to be painted

What fun! My hobby before I started painted on canvas was painting cement sculptures. I have quite a few of them at home, so many in fact, I gave up the hobby for something that takes up less space.

Very quickly I pulled out my paints and got to work. As I was painting it, my critic came along and all he said was, "Black wheels?!" "I'm letting them dry" I said, "and will add hubcaps later." When, a short time later, I asked him what he thought, all he could offer up was "It's red!" Dragging a compliment out of him is worse than pulling teeth!

Painted RV - weathered-look red with grayish shutters
and hubcaps!

Of course, Clark's opinion did not matter in this scenario, and as far as I could tell AC and Jim were well-pleased with the end result. AC tells me it is destined to be part of a floral display on her deck at home in South Carolina. Based on her comments, I believe she received what she was looking for.

Having played with my paints today, I felt that I needed to postpone work on my plane project until another day. While painting, as time goes on, my attention to detail slackens. Since the plane is all about detail, I figured I better start fresh tomorrow.

It took all afternoon on Monday to finish the plane picture, but I am proud of the results. I left the worst for last. I knew that painting moving propellers would be a difficult task, and I had to fix up the painting multiple times as I corrected and re-corrected the many mistakes I made.

Outdoor lighting

Salon lighting

The final step before I declare the picture completed is to spray it with a satin finish that is water resistant to protect the paint. Having completed this one, I now need to go looking for my next project. It will be hard after this to come up with something of interest.

Meanwhile I have started a 7-book series about "The Dorset Boy". Again, this is a nautical series. Book 1 had a slow start as the hero had to work his way up from country bumpkin to midshipman. Now, it has reeled me in and become a real page turner. I have already moved on to book 2! Thank goodness for Kindle Unlimited!

2020: Aprils Fool

1 April 2020

With Sandy and Bill gone from their slip, social distancing in an anchorage, the pigeons have decided to roost under the walkway between our two slips. They are defiant buggers who refuse to budge until you threaten to step directly on their heads. Unfortunately, they have also decided that our cockpit makes a good "Poop Deck" and use our teak handrails as their toilet. I need Sandy to come back!

Clark went to see Mel on "Morning Star II" to thank him for the loan of his magnet fishing line. He explained to him that our day on the water yesterday was a truly bad day for losing things overboard. He apologized that as he was fishing for the lost socket wrench extension bar and the lost Allen wrench, he accidentally dropped the line for the magnet while he was out in the kayak, so that too was now gone.

Mel is a real good sport, and I could hear him laugh at Clark's sorry tale from on our boat. Perhaps he guessed it was an April's Fool's joke because Clark then admitted that he had been trying to spin a tale. Isn't there an adage like 'don't prank a prankster', 'don't con a con artist', or something to that effect? Anyway Clark returned the magnet to Mel and went online and ordered new tools. It cost $50 to replace all that went in the drink!

2 April 2020

Miracle of Miracles! I convinced Clark to join me for a walk to the 7 Miles Bridge today.  Of course he had to finish this and then that, so by the time we left it was just before noon and the sunniest and perhaps hottest part of the day. We saw very few people, but every time we saw bicycles or people coming the other way, we diverted from the path slightly to walk through parking lots as we made our way westward.

I have seen stories on television about animals moving into areas that are less traveled with people quarantined. That seems to be true for iguanas around here. Specifically, we saw lots of tiny ones - about 3 inches in length. Man can they move fast, but boy are they stupid! The cement path runs between route 1 and the gulf-side of Marathon with grassy sections along both edges. When we came upon them on the Route 1 side, in the grass, instead of staying there, they darted directly in front of us to their "safety zone" of the water side of the path. I nearly stepped on several as they all seem to be of the same stupid mindset.

As we neared the bridge, I checked out the large bush where I had seen the big, old iguana last time I came here. Instead of one, we found three up there enjoying the view and the breezed. Unfortunately, my presence disturbed them enough that two of the three dove for cover. We were left with only one who remained for the photo op!

We walked all the way to the wall - as far as one can go - and Clark stopped to take a few pictures of the area.

7 Mile Bridge, Marathon, FL

Looking back towards the marinas

Looking down on the park area

It was interesting to note that construction crews are still diligently working on the bridge.

On the way back to the marina, we passed the "Welcome to Marathon". Clark said, "I've never gotten a good picture of that sign." I remarked that I had taken some but only from the far side of Route 1 as I never wanted to brave the traffic for a picture. Well, that did not stop Clark today as we have never seen so few cars on the highway mid-afternoon! He dashed over to the other side and grabbed a couple of pictures.  (The sign is directly in front of the Isla Bella Resort Marketplace.)

Continuing our walk back, we had to watch our step for scurrying, baby brown iguanas. The older ones are less likely to be skittish as evidenced by one that just sat and looked at me while I stood and looked at him.

Iguana sunning himself beside Route 1 in Marathon, FL

Just before we got back to our marina, a car turned into a driveway in front of us. The side of the car read "Need Iguana Control? call [phone number]". I wonder what they do with the iguanas they catch.

We got back to the boat around 1:00. After lunch, Clark went up into the pilot house (his man cave on the boat), and I pulled out my paints to start a new project. Yesterday, I looked through the pictures I have collected of things I might want to paint - animals, bridges, landscapes, seascapes, ... Nothing caught my interest, so I dug a bit deeper and came up with the idea of painting a picture of our friend's Makasi aircraft used during in the Congo during the Cold War between 1962 and 1967.

Being late afternoon by the time I found a picture I could work from and transferred the outline to canvas, I did not actually start painting until 4:30. I figured I could get in about 2-hour's worth of time before I had to start dinner. As I worked on my art project, I heard Clark get a call. He talked and talked and talked, so I continued painting. Around 7:00, he said he was leaving to find a sunset picture, so I decided I better finish up and get dinner started.

At 8 o'clock dinner was ready and Clark had not yet returned. I tried calling him and got no answer. I called again about 10 minutes later and then again 15 minutes after that. I also sent a text message that remained unanswered. Because I like to eat my food while it is still hot, I ate without him. As time wore on, however, I started to become concerned.

I do not normally worry about Clark, but two hours to take a sunset picture seemed extreme. Of course, I start wondering if he fell off the dock or some such nonsense. How would I know?! At 9 o'clock I decided I better go looking for him. As I stepped off the boat, I wondered if I should go right or left and decided to head west as he had said sunset as he left.

I'm not sure what I would do if I didn't find him. Many boaters are tucked up in bed by 9:00. I couldn't exactly go around banging on boats looking for him. Fortunately, I found him standing out on one of the docks yakking away with a fellow boater (who stood on his boat to remain 6 feet + away). As I walked up, I said, "You're in big trouble mister with three unanswered calls and an ignored text!"

That broke up the conversation in a hurry. The other boater said, "Oh, it's my fault for keeping him." I know better! Since his food had been sitting around for an hour, I did not know if it was hot, cold, or tepid. He didn't care. As he ate, I explained to him that I was perturbed because I had started to worry.

I told him, "I want you to apologize for making me worry." He explained all about what they talked about and why it was so interesting. "Okay," I said, "but I want you to say 'I'm sorry'." Once again he starts to launch into why the guy was so interesting. 'Uh uh uh," I said. "Say 'I am sorry'. Just those two words!" He laughed. I said, "You can't do it, can you? You can't say 'I'm sorry'!" He shook his head and continued to laugh.

After dinner he asked me to cut his hair. We had been talking about his need of a haircut and then forgetting to do it for several days. I just looked at him for a while and said, "Okay, but I might just scalp you!"  He got his haircut; he still has hair.

By the way, he actually did get sunset pictures tonight!