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| Full Moon at Marlin Bay |
14 December 2024
Most of the smelly sea grass has moved on to be someone else's problem. A little remained by the starboard side of the boat where the wind could not get to it, and the current pushed it into the boat instead of away. I got out my trusty boathook and helped the last of it on its way!
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| Look! No Sea Grass! |
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Not even any sea grass clinging to the rocks!
(We can breath again!) |
When I came back into the boat, I found Clark working under the floorboards repairing the macerator pump that allows us to pump overboard when we are offshore. The new duckbill valves had arrived. He was anxious to get the fix in place but not happy to be doing the job as it is pretty disgusting and smelly. Unfortunately, I get to help! He replaced both duckbill valves even though only one seemed to be causing a problem. He hopes to put off having to deal with them again any time soon. Me too!
Unlike Clark, who ticked off items on his repair list, I did not have any plan for today. I puttered around on the boat for a while after lunch then decided to take a walk. No sooner did I get up to the pool area than I got a text from Clark. "Are you around? I need help on the boat." He had the outboard motor for the dinghy taken apart and needed someone to hold a flashlight while he worked on repairing it.
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| The old power tilt motor with bad bearings. |
Clark makes me nervous when he walks around the very edge of the boat. One step backwards on this job, and he'd be in the water. He kept, what he called, "dancing" with the outboard. He had to step over it repeatedly to access one side or the other. I held my breath each and every time! The picture below shows the lack of space behind him should he inadvertently shift positions.
With a lot of fuss and bother, we got it back together. He first tested the replacement part by attaching the green and blue wires without threading them through the engine. The motor ran but didn't engage the pump. He had found a spring on the deck when he took the motor apart last time to test the motor when he found the noisy bearings, but the spring was not pictured in the parts diagram. He inserted it into the center of the white plastic spline coupling to help push it down to engage the slot in the pump section. When testing this time, the motor would not turn. He loosened the screws and the slot engaged the spline. Tightening the screws once again to verify it still worked. Once he was convinced it worked, we pulled the wires through with a pull string that he put in when he pulled the old motor wires out. I got to push the raise and lower button to see it perform its duty.
He had the wires connected and was ready to put the cover on, when he saw the "boots" sitting next to the tools and remembered he had not put them in place to protect the wire connections. So, with more fuss and bother, he disconnected wires, got the boots on, reconnected wires, and called the job a success. My most important job throughout was holding the flashlight!
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| They do look like boots! |
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| Back together. Time for tools cleanup! |
After that job I went up to the club house to see if Annette was there working on the jigsaw puzzle. She was not, so I pushed the balls around the pool table for a while. I am very much out of practice, and at present, I miss more shots than I sink. Still, I find it fun and relaxing and a bit of exercise, so I keep at it.
A man who came in for a drink the day the pool bar was closed told me that only one of the four cues is not warped! He told me to roll the cue on the table and watch the tip go up and down as it rolled. Geez! I don't need that kind of help with my already poor aim!! Now I know to look for the one good cue!
Later in the afternoon, when I was back on the boat, Annette stopped by to say she was heading up to work on the puzzle. By then I had started a load of laundry and pulled out my art supplies, so I passed on the invite. I decided to draw Christmas cards for the grandkids. For the Idaho bunch, I drew pictures including their dog Clover like the one shown below.
Clover likes to jump up on her back legs, and she's a bit of a handful energy-wise. I decided to draw pictures where she's "involved" in Christmas. Now I need to get them to the post office.
While I was drawing and doing laundry, Clark was busy cleaning the boat. He worked hard removing rust stains from the fiberglass. Before starting the laundry, I checked the water tanks. One showed empty and the other an 1/8 to a 1/4 of a tank. I opened the crossover valve (as instructed by Clark) to let water flow into the empty tank from the other one and started my wash.
Since Clark had the hose out for his cleaning work, I pushed him to remember to put water in the tanks. I made sure to only do one load of wash so we did not chance running dry in the process.
From 4:00 today until 7:00, Marlin Bay hosted the "December Full Moon Party". Clark walked up before me. When I arrived around 4:30 or so, I found only Clark and staff members at the party. Five o'clock seemed to be the magic hour because just after 5:00 a large number of boaters came up to join in on the fun. Drinks with flashing lights were the talk of the evening. The ice cubes flash in different colors when they get dropped in cold liquids.
I grabbed some pictures of the fun crowd.
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Marlin Bay Staff
(Rob, Kiya, and April in front) |
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| Boaters at the bar |
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| Brian with cigar, Clark, and Bill |
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| Karaoke - Rox, Donna, Lou |
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| More Karaoke - Lou, Rox, Roger |
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Karaoke - girls only
"Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" |
The blue, flashing drinks were the night's special, but I, of course, wanted Coconut Mojitos instead. They were definitely not priced as a special, but since I almost never drink, eh whatever! I made sure to have Clark help me onto the boat when the night concluded.
Since it was a full moon tonight, Clark took some great moon pictures!
We could see boats decorated with lights out in the basin, so he grabbed a picture of that as well. Clark has a few lights on our boat, but they are not readily visible in this picture.
At the Full Moon Party, Clark talked with the marina general manager who gave him a movie suggestion -- "Interstellar". He said the storyline evolved around wormholes and got Clark interested. We found that we could watch it on Paramount+ for free, so we did. We made one mistake. We should have read the Wikipedia movie plot summary before we watched the movie - not afterwards. Clark and I were both confused through parts of this exceedingly long movie. Without the Wiki help, we would still be wondering what happened in parts.
Given the length of the movie, we went to bed at some ridiculously late hour (even for us).
15 December 2024 - Sunday
Since Clark plays in the band at church on Sundays, he has to spend part of the week ahead of time becoming familiar with the music. It's a big commitment, but it keeps him busy doing something he enjoys. Besides the regular Sunday service, the church has a Christmas Caroling special event on Thursday this week. He has to practice for that. For Christmas, the service will be delivered through song, and he has a number of songs to learn in preparation for that as well.
Even though service starts at 11:00, I bike to the church with Clark and then hang around until service starts. The band practices from 10:15 until just before 11:00. I read or wander around and take pictures.
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Another sample of the stained glass
windows - different from the ones I posted
previously. |
Very few people attended today's service. Many folks are traveling to see family for the holidays. Come January we should see fuller pews. Today after service, Clark got tasked with figuring out how the church lights work. New lights were installed in the church three years ago, and no one explained how to operate the complex light switches to turn them on and off.
Pastor Deb, our friend Nancy, and I watched as Clark poked and prodded at the numerous switches until he had it figured out and could explain how it all worked. Many of the lights are dimmable but not all (even though they are connected to dimmer switches). If a light is turned off in the fully-dimmed mode, the light does not light up when the on position is selected. No wonder Deb and Nancy were "pulling their hair out" trying to understand what worked and how. Now he has figured it out, Clark needs to give them a writeup to post on the wall explaining it all.
After service, food and drinks are available for lunch. Usually, I grab a couple of cookies. Clark takes nothing. That means we need to eat later. As we finally left the church (well after 1:00 today), I said, "Too bad you have your guitar with you, or I'd suggest we eat lunch out." He said the guitar was no problem, so we went across the street to Coast-to-Coast Pizza for lunch! Yay!
Having left before 10:00 this morning, we did not get back to the boat until 3:00! After lunch, since it was on our way, we detoured slightly to poke our heads into first Black Fin Marina and then Banana Bay Marina to see who might be around.
We did not see some folks we thought we might see, but did see others we did not expect to see. At Black Fin, we found Vicky, Amy, and Renee (folks we know from docktails two years ago). At Banana Bay, we found Sara, who works at Marlin Bay, and her neighbor Deanne whom we met in the Bahamas in April of this year.
When we did finally get back to the boat, Clark immediately pulled out the guitar and started looking over the pile of songs he needs to know for the coming week(s). Last year Clark and I sang carols together from the pews. This year, I'll be on my own as he will be playing his guitar during the caroling. Pastor Deb said this church is likely to be the only place in the Keys serving hot chocolate before Christmas.
Even though I had been off the boat all day thus far, I had no desire to stay on it. I decided to go up to the club house. I would either find Annette working on the jigsaw puzzle, or I would be able to practice my billiard shots.
Initially, billiards won and later Annette came up and we worked the puzzle together. We make a good team. I find interesting pieces, and she figures out where they go. This puzzle, as I mentioned previously, is very difficult. But ... we're getting there one piece at a time!
At 5:00 Annette and I called it quits on the puzzle. The room gets too dark to see the pieces. Turning on lights does not appear to be an option! It was time to leave anyway. As we walked back to our boats, I spied Clark on the west dock. We are docked on the east dock. I abandoned Annette to go in search of Clark.
We ended up walking the marina with another couple, Catherine and Ted, with their dog "Tiller". We eventually parted ways as Clark wanted me to show him the puzzle we are working on. Passing by one of the boats, we were told to look at the manatee helping himself to a big drink of water draining from their dinghy. They love fresh water, and this big guy was guzzling!
Either he had enough or, more likely, the runoff from the dinghy dried up, and he was on his way!
Then, on the way back to the boat, Clark told me he wanted to attend the performance of "The Messiah" being done at the church tonight. When he told me he had to leave to get there by 6:30, that threw my dinner plans out the window. Thinking fast I decided to throw together a stir-fry with rice as a quick substitute for my original plans.
As we walked back to the boat, we passed the dockhand, Steve, who said he was still waiting for another boat to come in tonight. It was supposed to arrive by 5:30. At 5:45 they were still on their way. One other boat was due today and cancelled due to wind.
Clark, being Clark, offered to help catch lines with Steve as it appeared he would be alone bringing in the boat in high winds. I managed to have food on the table for Clark at 6:00. He scoffed it down and then ran off to help with lines. The boat came in about 6:15. He was back by 6:30. He immediately said he had to leave for the show and was back out the door about 2 minutes later and on his way.
I knew I would not enjoy this type of music and took the opportunity to update the blog. It's just not my "cup of tea"!
Clark came back around 9:00 with a couple of pictures to share.
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| Instruments this side |
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| Choir this side |
