2021: Picnic at Bahia Honda State Park

 14 March 2021

No boat travel.

We got our second Moderna vaccines yesterday. Clark had no side effects whatsoever - just some soreness at the injection sight. I also had the "I've been punched in the arm" side effect. In addition I had severe neck pain. I have neck muscle problems that are generally controlled with exercises I learned from a physical therapist years ago. 

The pain I suffered today was so severe I could hardly move my head. I ended up sitting still for most of the day. At one point Clark suggested we go for a walk, and I decided I would give it a try. Getting off the boat was a challenge and just walking made my neck hurt. 

On our walk, we passed by the Wilson's boat "La Cigale" where Mia offered to put fingernail polish on Clark's fingers. He declined but said he would be willing to get his toenails done. I did not hang around to see the work in progress. I made my way back to the boat and crawled back into my chair to rest my neck. 

When I saw what Mia had done to Clark's feet, I said "Who are you and what did you do with my husband!?"

Yes! Those are Clark's feet!

15 March 2021

When I woke this morning, my neck was back to normal as if yesterday never happened. The only lasting effect of the vaccine appeared to be the pain in our arms. Thank goodness the stiff neck disappeared as suddenly as it appeared.

16 March 2021

Clark's Birthday

On a recent trip to Home Depot, Clark bought a battery-operated caulking gun to put a neat finish on the varnishing job he's been doing on the external wood trim on the boat. He declared that this would be his birthday present. I was off the hook for coming up with something.

Our granddaughter, Sierra, in Idaho told her parents that she wanted to call to tell Papa Clark happy birthday. Sadly she was home from school not feeling well, so she was unlike he bubbly self. Our son was on a business call, so we ended up having a lovely conversation with our daughter-in-law. 

17 March 2021

St. Patrick's Day

Mia has been asking if she could come to our boat to paint, so today we had a paint day. 

Ella wanted to paint flowers

Mia wanted to paint a dolphin.

I got to do the pelican.

19 March 2021

We will leave Marathon and begin cruising again at the end of the month. We are starting to prepare for departure. Sunset Delight grew a beard over the past few months, so today a diver came to scrape the bottom of the boat. He charged $4 per foot of boat. I haven't seen under the boat, but the parts I can see look amazing. 

23 March 2021

A few weeks ago, Clark and I joined folks for docktails that we met back in 2014 at a Great Loop Rendezvous. At that time we were all just thinking about doing the loop in the future. Since then our paths have crossed a few times - mostly in Marathon. 

When we attended the docktails, Kevin told Clark that he had a non-functioning light on board. At that time Clark did not want to work on the light because he was not fully vaccinated. Today, he decided that he could visit and take a look at the light. 

Because he had no idea what problem he would find, he wanted to bring meters, tools, sprays, and wires with him. He decided to take the dinghy so that he could carry more stuff with him.  I knew that he planned to go, but I did not think it through and assumed he would go by bicycle. I decided that I wanted the exercise and went by bike to meet him there. 

I helped Clark lower the dinghy into the water. When the dinghy hit the sea grass filled water, the boat seemed to just sit on top instead of settling into the water. Clark decided he should paddle out past the seagrass before starting the outboard.

Clark rowing out to cleaner water.

Finally able to get the motor in and get going.

After Clark left, I pulled my bike out, got myself ready, and peddled my way down Route 1 to the marina. When I arrived, Kevin announced that it only took Clark seconds to figure out the problem with the light fixture. The fixture has a puch-button on/off switch that was in the off position. Clark pushed the button, and voila there was light!

Clark discovered that the light was not installed to boating electrical code, so even though the light lit up, Clark went to work changing out the connections to approved code. Once that job was done, Kevin pointed out he had another light that stopped working. That one turned out to be dirty contacts in the switch. A few squirts of contact cleaner, and the second one was fixed as well. 

By the time Clark finished work and cleaned up, it was around 1:30 and we had not eaten any lunch. Kevin suggested we go to Castaways Restaurant for a happy hour lunch at 2:00. Clark took the dinghy home. I rode my bike back to our boat. Castaways is so close to Faro Blanco that we could either walk or bike ride. Clark pulled out his bike, and we rode there.

We enjoyed lunch at their outside dining area. This is the first time Clark and I have eaten at a restaurant in over a year.  The restaurant had interesting decorations.

by the parking lot

on the restaurant roof

24 March 2021

Dinghy Trip to Bahia Honda State Park

Approx. 22 nm

Clark left the dinghy down overnight with the plan that we would take a trip today to Bahia Honda State Park. We packed a picnic lunch, covered ourselves in sunscreen, and jumped into the dinghy for a ride. Just about one hour later, we arrived at the park and were greeted at the entrance by their guardian egret.

We found a road sign that told us directions to a lot of places ...

The last sign on the post showed the way to the rest rooms which was the only one we really cared about.

Rest Rooms - Yay!

I got a gift card for my birthday and decided to spend the money on attachments for my camera. The kit came with a lot of accessories including a wide-angle lens and a 2x telephoto lens. We ate our picnic lunch and then wandered around and tried out the lenses as we explored the park.

We walked up the old bridge for an "aerial" view, hung out under the bridge for a bit of relief from the unforgiving sun, and strolled the grounds. Here are some of the pictures we took.

Beach ocean side

Boats at anchor near park

even the birds wanted shade

Clark spotted a picnic bench in amongst all that metal, so 
we went and sat in the shade for a breather.

The sand sculpture below will last approximately 6 months depending on weather. It took several weeks to complete and is held in place by a mixture of glue and water sprayed over the sand.

Below shows the boater's entrance to the park. Sunset Delight just fits; we had plenty of maneuvering room with the dinghy coming in.  Note the natural coral along the edge.

We even remembered to get a selfie shot at the top of the bridge.

Before we left the park, we stopped into the concession stand and got ice cream. Then it was back into the dinghy for the hour-long trip back "home". We had a great day and I only got a little sunburn in a couple of places where I missed when applying sunscreen.

26 March 2021

Today Mia, Ella, and Anna May Wilson came to our boat to do some acrylic painting. I drew some pictures in advance of them coming, and they selected the ones they wanted to work on.  Mia painted 4 pictures and Ella and Anna May each painted two. They spent about 2 hours being creative. 

Hard at work

The girls painted some nurse sharks. 

Then they moved on to Easter pictures.

2021: 2nd Covid Shot

 3 March 2021

No boat travel.

Sandy took Clark and me shopping this morning. (Normally Clark does not come.) Besides the normal food shopping, we stopped into the Dollar Store so I could pick up some cheap buckles for repairs. While there we saw "water squirters". Sandy uses hers like a giant turkey baster, i.e. she sucks water out of the bilge or the dinghy or whatever. My only thought when I saw them was, "I wonder if the distance is good enough to hit a pigeon on a dock pole?" 

While Sandy and I looked around the Dollar Store, Clark  hightailed it over to Specialty Hardware. He wanted them to help him build a connection to be used to fill our water tanks on the boat. The standard nozzle on the hose slows down the water flow. He wanted something to let the water flow full bore. By the time Sandy and I arrived at Specialty, Clark already had his new "tool" in hand!

PVC pipe attached to hose connection and shutoff

I did not buy one of the water squirters when Sandy did, but I wished I had later after I tried hers and the water traveled a good two slips down from us to almost wet a pelican on a pole. S/he just gave me the evil pelican eye and did not move. Still I was highly motivated to go back and buy myself a toy!

After lunch, Sandy and Bill said they wanted to take Clark and me to Sweet Savannah's for ice cream. We certainly were not about to refuse that request. Since we had to drive past the Dollar Store to come back, Sandy stopped to let me run in and buy myself water squirters. I got two for when we have kids on board. At a $1.00 a piece, I saw no harm!

They look like rockets, but they shoot water
quite a good distance!

When I did try it out on a pigeon, it worked real well. It flew off in a hurry to find somewhere else to perch. Clark says that means it is on someone else's boat, or maybe ours where we can't see it so well. 

After our ice cream and my short stop for toys, Sandy decided to drive west a bit to look for Key Deer. Really, we just wanted to spend more time talking. We did not find any interesting wildlife on our little outing but we really enjoyed the opportunity for conversation!

5 March 2021

Maintenance Run on Sunset Delight

We have had that dreaded north wind again for the past few days, and it has driven in a ton of sea grass next to the boat. The grass is so thick, that the birds can walk on it. In the picture below, the water under the bird is next to our boat and at least 6 feet deep.

Thick sea grass makes a good
standing spot for this fisher!

As per our usual schedule, we took the boat out today for a maintenance run. Clark took us around Rachel Shoal, so the trip was a wee bit longer than normal for a total of about 8 nm. This route has more crab pots and more areas of shallow water, so it requires a bit more diligence than our normal path out and back.

We had a colorful sunset tonight. This view is from our boat looking out over the Pigeon Key Ferries. Note the flags as the wind shifts to the east.

Sunset as seen from our boat

6 & 7 March 2021

No boat travel.

Motivated by my time spent with Ella painting the other day, I decided to pull out my paints. It has taken me quite a while to decide what I felt like painting. Without motivation of some sort, I find it hard to get started. A friend posted a picture of his dog on Facebook, and I took it from there.

It took me three days to get it to where I liked the result. I had a lot of trouble getting the eyes right.

Since today is Sunday, we had good music from noon to 3:00 coming from the pool area of Faro Blanco. The live band at this time is particularly good to listen to. For a great listening spot, Clark brought 2 chairs up to the upper helm area and we sat there to listen. Note I am wearing jeans in the photo due to the "chilly" Florida weather.

Good view and far away from Spring Breakers!

11 March 2021

No boat travel.

The 25 knot winds are keeping me prisoner on my own boat. Without Clark's assistance I can neither get on nor off the vessel. I pull the boat over and by the time I move to get on/off the boat, the wind has pushed it out of reach once more. I am very tired of calling for Clark's help every time I want to get off. The good part is I have a reason to insist he take out the garbage!

Today is the third day in a row that we got ourselves and the bikes off the boat for a ride to a store or the post office. With a strong east wind in my face, it felt like I was biking uphill the whole way. Mostly it felt like I was hardly moving towards our destination. If nothing else it is very good exercise! The best part of each grueling trip east was the trip back west to the marina, where, with the slightest effort, it felt like I was flying!

When we got back to the marina, Clark noticed that a sailboat was up on the rocks and the Coast Guard / another boat were, respectively, standing by / helping to get the boat off the rocks. The marina was abuzz with the excitement. Fortunately, it appeared that the boat had only been pushed up to the rocks and not onto them. We arrived just in time to see the sailboat being towed away. The wind has been brutal and unforgiving for days now!

Sailboat in trouble at the rocks near Faro Blanco

Besides the bike ride earlier, Clark let me off the boat late today for a walk around the marina. He liked one of the boats on the "big boat" side of the marina that had reflective covering and acted like a giant mirror! I made sure to get myself out of the way of the picture, and Clark did the same.

Mirrored reflection on stern of boat

13 March 2021

Boat Maintenance Run

Today was such a busy day that Clark and I could not believe that we had done so many different things in one day. It started out with brunch and went from there.

Once every winter season folks at this marina get together to put on a brunch. This year, to be different and accommodate more people's schedules, it was held on a Saturday. It is the EDT / DST time change Brunch. We had a good turnout and more food than we could eat in a week. Bacon and sweet treats seemed to be the big winners. As per usual, Clark set up the griddle and made pancakes. To be different, this year, he made blueberry pancakes.

Clark hard at work.
(not a mess - just a reflection)

Blueberry Pancakes Anyone?!

Yummy food

Fancy plates and cutlery

Social Distancing

Dog Stella with Ella

Although the brunch was still in full swing, Sandy and I slipped away for a quick trip to the Farmer's Market to see what might be left. Given it was near noon, we did not expect to find much. With our expectations set very low, we were not disappointed when we found slim pickings. We picked up some squash (the last they had), a few ears of corn, some okra for Ann, and a free papaya (which neither of us had any idea what to do with). We shared the squash and corn. Sandy took the papaya (thankfully).

Since we had just done a big food run yesterday, and since we were both full from brunch, we decided to go back to the boat directly as opposed to stopping anywhere else. On the return, however, Sandy decided to take a bit of a detour and drove down to Lazy Days Restaurant before turning around and driving back to the boat. 

It was just a short joy ride but as we traveled back to the marina, we past a parking lot with booths set up. I wondered if it was a market that neither of us knew existed. I decided I wanted to check it out. When we got back to the marina, I went in search of Clark who was assisting with cleanup from brunch. Together we walked the short distance down the road to explore.

Wonder what they are selling!

Live music!

The only two stations offering anything other than brochures and magazines were a food truck and a booth advertising craft beers - Crafty Connoisseurs. I saw nothing that gave me any indication that they had any craft beer on site. It turned out to be something for fishermen held by "Fishermen for Clean Water". Since we are not interested in fishing, we did not stay long. The event was held in the parking lot for the Fly Fishing Shop. I could not tell that when we drove by earlier.

As we walked back to the boat, Clark and I discussed the fact that it was time for another maintenance run of the boat. Since we have a busy schedule tomorrow, we decided we better take it out today. At least the winds have slowed down into the teens now!

I like boating, but I dislike the maintenance runs. It is a lot of work untying and retying the boat in the slip for an hour of out and back. Clark decided to drop the anchor to make me happy. We enjoyed a cool breeze and time away from the marina for 2 or so hours before heading back in for the evening. Now, that I liked!

Since we had a big shindig earlier in the day, no one showed up for docktails tonight.  I met up with Sandy and the two of us visited Ann for a while before heading off to work on dinner. Being still full from brunch, I gave Clark leftovers and had a salad for dinner.

14 March 2021

No boat travel.

Today is the big day! We got our second Covid shots today.

Our appointment to get our second Covid-19 shots was scheduled for 12:48 Clark and 1:48 me. Since we moved the clocks ahead last night, everyone kept telling us to be careful we did not screw up our scheduled times and miss our appointments. People kept saying 11:48 will be 12:48. With all the fuss, I got confused and was planning to leave for the appointment an hour too early. Clark reminded me that it was 12:48 and that we had time! 

Because we had the hour in there, and the weather was cooperating for once, Clark decided to use the time wisely and put a coat of finish on the wood trim around the boat. He had learned about "Bristol Finish" from our boat neighbors, Bill and Sandy, and wanted to try it out. The big selling point for this product is that multiple coats can be applied in one day, with no sanding required between coats, due to its fast drying time.

He managed to get a coat of Bristol Finish on before we left by bicycle for our Covid vaccines. Every 10 minutes or so he said, "How much time do I have?" 

We got to Publix at 12:45 and were out of there half an hour later having had our vaccines and waited the requisite 15 minutes to be sure we were good to go.

Clark was anxious to get back to his Bristol Finish, but we needed some more brushes from Home Depot and mixing cups from West Marine before we were done with our outing. We left West Marine at 2:00. Since we had not eaten since breakfast, I was happy to get back to the boat so we could eat. As soon as he had food in his stomach, Clark was back out working on his boat trim.

Since neither of us know how our bodies will feel tomorrow as we battle the second dose of vaccine, Clark is trying get done as much as possible today.