16 February 2024
When we spent the winters in New Jersey, February always felt like the longest month of the year. As we prepare to leave Marathon at the end of the month, this month has flown by so fast! Today my church friend, Nancy, took me to the store to provision food for our upcoming trip to the Bahamas. It is so lovely to shop when the weight of the food is not going to be hand-carried or bike toted. Between shopping and storing the food, it was an all day venture. I bought a Vac/Seal machine a few years back, and that helps a lot on conserving freezer space as everything becomes more compact.
17 February 2024
I decided to try out the bread maker I bought for use in the Bahamas to see if the bread I made would be acceptable to Clark. He eats the majority of the bread on board, and if he said, "Yech!" that would be the end of bread making. He actually gave me a compliment on the taste! Yay! The machine has three size options. I opted for the 1-pound loaf in case it turned out to be a fail.
While I watched and waited for the bread to cook, it took 4 hours with rising twice, etc. I decided to sew. I made a canvas cover for the electric cooler we bought in an effort to keep it clean.
While I slaved over bread-making and sewing, Clark found other important things to do. First, he took a nap and then when he woke up, he went for a swim. Today turned out to be the most humid, sunny day we have had. When Clark came back from the pool all refreshed, he found me melting on the hot boat. He turned on the air conditioning for me. What a relief!
18 February 2024 - Sunday
The hot and humid weather of yesterday did not last into today. A front came in with wind and rain yet again. Fortunately, we did not have to walk or ride bikes to church as our friends, Steve and Nancy, came to get us as the marina. When I walked out to the salon, I found a stranger sitting there!
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| Mr. Guitar dressed in Clark's rainhat ready for church! |
This was our last Sunday for this season with Nancy and Steve as they left a couple of days later for a trip abroad. They will return after we have left the marina, so this was farewell!
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| John, Clark, Steve, Nancy (Tom, director, absent from the picture) |
Although the service ended at noon, we were quite late returning to the boat after church as we sat and chatted over snacks and drinks for almost two hours. When we did get back, Clark jumped right into boat work getting ready for our departure at the end of the month. We have satellite TV which decided to start failing this season. Suddenly the picture will be replaced with an error message. The dish particularly likes to wait until the last 5 minutes of a murder mystery to fail leaving us to wonder who did it forever more!
With no reliable TV, that evening, I decided to make cards to send to my grandkids for St. Patrick's Day. (I know I won't be sending them from the Bahamas.) I drew the cards from pictures I found on line and left them blank for the kids to color. A sample of my work is shown below.
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| Irish Castle |
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| Irish Cottage |
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| Irish Frog?? with a pot of gold! |
19 February 2024
At church on Sunday the announcements of upcoming events included a $5 / bag sale at The Abbey. Pastor Debra said they were in need of volunteers. Without much effort, I convinced my friend, JoAnn, on "The Concession" to join me for a couple of hours of volunteering. When we got there, we were assigned a corner of the room to cleanup and organize. I love organizing things so I had fun. Having JoAnn there with me made it so much better than going by myself as we worked well together and kept each other company.
The pictures below show a small portion of the contents of The Abbey. All but a small corner of the building contained items available to add to a person's $5 bag.
Pastor Debra was thrilled with our efforts.
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| Paster Debra |
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| Paster Debra and Liz (who is in charge of The Abbey) |
We had heavy rains the day before we volunteered, and many items and tables exposed to the outside were wet. JoAnn got a big surprise when she picked up one of the items.
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| Live frog in among the items to be sorted! |
JoAnn carefully carried him outside so as not to scare him. He refused to move off the walkway, so I had to give him a nudge or two in the right direction so no one stepped on him!
We stayed about 90 minutes and completed our corner. Rather than ask if more help was needed, we decided we were ready to head back to the marina to get lunch.
Being Monday, "Johnny Live" was performing at Dockside. Since we were running out of time to enjoy his show, we went to listen. JoAnn and Jim joined us. We went by bikes. Note our clothes - hardly what one would expect in sunny Florida. It has been chilly here!
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| Ev, Clark, Jim, and JoAnn |
20 February 2024
February is a big birthday month in our family. My son, Jeff, his wife, Devon, two of their children (Sierra and Zoe) and our granddaughter (Lillian) in Connecticut were all born this month. Sierra and Lillian were both born on the same day exactly two years apart.
I called both Sierra and Lillian to wish them happy birthdays.
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| Sierra is now 10 years old! |
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| Lillian is now 8 years old! |
21 February 2024
For 14 of the past 15 years, the AGLCA Sunset Celebration has been held at the Banana Bay Marina in Marathon, Florida. Last year no one stepped up to plan the event. This year Curtis Stokes ran the show. Not as many folks showed up as I expected.
Door prizes were given out. Clark and I won a Waterway Guide. We wanted the one for the Bahamas, but that was gone already so we took the Northern Waterway Guide instead with hopes of exchanging it later.
Unlike prior years, the MTOA boaters were invited to attend the event. The picture below shows Art and Pam with the MTOA flag flying over his chair. Next to them are JoAnn, then Jim, then me in my light blue hat.
A cash bar was advertised as part of the event. While standing in line behind a woman ordering a gin and tonic, I had to marvel at the sad state of the bar's stock. First, he said he had no gin. Then he found some. Then he went looking for tonic and found none. They could find nothing that she wanted in her gin that he had on hand - which was not much of a selection to begin with.
Finally, she suggested pineapple juice because she saw a can - it was empty! Ultimately, she opted for a vodka and lemonade. I took the safe route and got a beer. The bartender explained that the marina had a wedding the day before and did not restock for the sunset party!
It turned out to be the perfect night for a sunset celebration.
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| Sun setting at Banana Bay Marina |
We returned to Marlin Bay Marina in time for a spectacular view from there of the sunset.
The boat, "Avalon", has blue lights on at night making it look very pretty.
22 February 2024
Clark helped a neighbor with boat issues this morning (big surprise) while Jim, JoAnn, and I rode our bikes out to Pigeon Key. We figured it was about 8 miles round trip. After the bike ride, we stopped at Sunset Grille for lunch before returning to our respective boats. We called Clark before lunch to see if he wanted to come join us, but he said no as he was still busy.
We passed an empty Pigeon Key Trolley on our way out to Pigeon Key.
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| Old 7-Mile Bridge (portion not refurbished) |
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| Looking east towards Marathon ... Ramp off to right goes down to Pigeon Key |
Jim and JoAnn have never been to Pigeon Key, but I have been twice. I went with a group from Faro Blanco years ago on the boat that offered trips there. More recently, when the new bike trail finally opened, Clark and I biked there. It all looked the same. I was not keen to pay the admission fee to see the same thing for a third time. JoAnn and Jim said they would come back another day with visiting friends to see the exhibits and learn the history of the island.
Views along the route ...
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| Ramp to Pigeon Key |
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| Where the boat used to land |
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| Pigeon Key buildings |
We walked the bikes down the ramp to get to the Sunset Grille restaurant. Views along that path ...
We had a lovely, leisurely lunch and then it was time to bike the remaining two miles back to the marina. As we made our way along the bike trail, we spied the Pigeon Key Trolley loaded up with visitors on its way out to the island.
I found Clark on our boat when we got back preparing to take his guitar to the pool bar to play for the customers. He did it for fun. He didn't even put out a tip jar. The bartender said he was kept busy by additional customers perhaps brought in by the live music. I joined him a sang along for a while.
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| Clark at the Marlin Bay pool bar |
23 February 2024
JoAnn and I went to photography class this morning at the library. It was my last time going this season as we will be gone by the next time they hold a session. Today we learned about "Low-key dramatic Lighting". We took a few pictures in the classroom.
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| Painted Coconut (I did not paint this one) |
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| Rubber interlocking mats |
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| Artwork hanging over entryway at library - darkened for effect |
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| undarkened |
Only four people attended today's photo class. One person there is an excellent photographer who could sell his work if he wished. One person wandered in for the first time and was overwhelmed by the subject matter. Having attended before, JoAnn and I were somewhere in the middle as to experience. Given the inconsistency of the attendees, it is very difficult for the coach, Maria, to handle such diversity of skill set and knowledge.
Photography runs from 11:00 to 12:45. When I got back to the boat, Clark and I had lunch. He said he planned to run a wire through the boat to see if it addressed the satellite dish issue. I ran away to the pool to escape for a while and talk to boaters hanging out there. My complaining about boat duty got a fellow boater in the pool to agree to stop by the boat to see if Clark needed help. Alas, Clark texted me and said he was ready for me to return to help. When our friend asked if Clark needed help, Clark said we had it under control. Sigh!
We spent a full hour getting the wire started at the entry point due to the number of wires clogging the narrow passageway up through the wall. It would go maybe 5 or 6" at most before refusing to budge the other 2.5 feet. Clark tried pushing and pulling, a thin line, and a snake. Nothing worked. All I could think about was that I'd rather be at the pool!
Finally I said, "Can you add a lubricant?" That did the trick. After that it was more tedious than frustrating. We took the wire up the wall, across the back of the pilot house, down behind some cabinets and the stove in the galley, and finally behind the back of the cabinet housing the satellite hardware in the salon.
I got the easy part - crawling on the floor. Clark got the hard part - sliding behind the wall in the side of the boat. As he entered the crawl space, he said, "Claustrophobia, here I come!"
Four hours later, the job was done. With the new wire in place, we turned on the satellite dish with giddy anticipation only to find it worse than when we started. I had thrown my hands up in the air before this 4-hour venture to run wires. With this failed attempt, Clark finally agreed that we should just cancel our DirectTV account and move on. It would not have worked in the Bahamas anyway since it is outside the continental coverage area of the satellite.
Everyone says, "Get Starlink!" but Clark does not want to pay the high monthly fee.
24 February 2024
As March 1st approaches, our time spent on chores goes up accordingly. Today we had a number of places we needed to go, so we mapped out a circular route (oblong actually) of about 4 to 5 miles long to check them off the list. We hit West Marine first then Home Depot then the post office, then Walgreens then the UPS Store and finally Publix before returning to the boat.
Yesterday, when I returned from photography class, I had a funny feeling the portable freezer we had onboard was not working properly. Sadly, I was correct. Instead of 5 degrees. The freezer showed 65 degrees. Nothing stays frozen in that, and I ended up with a garbage bag full of food that was supposed to help feed us in the Bahamas! Vegetables I could refreeze although I expect them to be mushy when cooked. The meat? Oh no! Out it went! What a nasty mess and loss of $$.
Part of today's stop at Publix was to replenish some of the food that got discarded. Clark had the boat plugged into a 110 outlet. We had rain, and the GFI tripped. Clark asked me what even made me open it to check, and I said, "I saw no signs of life and thought I better take a look!"
25 February 2024 - Sunday
We attended our last church service of the season today. Pastor Debra announced our leaving to the congregation thanking Clark for participating in the band and me for my volunteering at various events. It saddened me that we were leaving. This church feels like home with its welcoming arms to all and sundry. Whoever you are, come as you are, and welcome!
The church suffered in Hurricane Irma but has been rebuilt and is lovely with many stained glass windows. I decided I better grab a few pictures at the end of today's service.
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| Cross over the altar |
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| Carved wood door into church |
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| Celtic Cross at rear of church |
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| 2 of many stained glass windows |
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| 2 more of the many windows |
JoAnn and Jim attended with us. After services, Jo and Jim went on to Publix to stock up for company coming. Clark and I biked "home".
Using some of the supplies he purchased recently, Clark ran wire through the boat to allow the portable freezer to be powered via a cigarette lighter / DC connection. He said this would be more reliable than the 110 / AC setup that failed on us. First, he drilled a hole in the wall of the boat behind the freezer.
Unfortunately, Home Depot sold the saw size smaller than he wanted and larger than he wanted but not the size he needed. He used an undersized circular (drill) saw bit to cut the hole and then filed it out to enlarge it. He did a lot of time running the wire to the power source / battery bank. This time I did not need to help feed wires. I just had to watch and make sure I did not fall through the open hatch in the floor.
Hours later we were able to plug the freezer into DC power. I installed the freezer app on my phone that allows me to check the freezer temperature via Bluetooth. Sadly, it only connects if I am sitting close to the freezer!
26 February 2024
Clark's doctor told him to get a blood test done for a check on cholesterol numbers. It turns out that getting an MRI in Marathon with a prescription from a NJ doctor is easier than getting a blood test done. After jumping through hoops for days and going back and forth between the doctor's office and the lab facilities multiple times, Clark finally determined that the only way he would get blood drawn was if he went to Key West to do it!
Since we have friends staying at Stock Island which is near the Quest Labs, we decided to take the Lower Keys Shuttle to Key West, get blood drawn, and visit our friends - Beverly and Dave. Beverly wanted the coconut I painted recently, so we turned this trip into a coconut delivery as well.
The shuttle schedule and "live map" are available online, but as it turns out, are less than reliable as far as when a bus may actually come. Fortunately, it worked well in the morning. We positioned ourselves in front of the Marathon Library early and had a relatively short wait for the shuttle to arrive. So far so good!
The shuttle costs a $1.00 for seniors - exact change; no credit cards. When we got on the shuttle and told the driver which stop we wanted, he told us we would have to change buses to get there. We never experienced that before, and I thought I must have heard him incorrectly. Nope! Half way to Key West the bus stopped. Everyone had to get off and walk over to a waiting bus and board that one. Then the one we boarded did a U-turn in the middle of Route 1 and headed towards Key West. I was afraid it might take us back to Marathon!
Standard procedure is for the shuttle to stop at the Key West Transportation office for a 20 minute break. Once there we were told we could get off or stay on - our choice. The air conditioning was so brutal that we had to get off after about 10 minutes to thaw out.
Clark had made an appointment for 12:10 figuring that we surely would make it to there by that time. It became clear that we would arrive well before that time slot, so he went online and changed it to 11:40. Timing worked well for this new time and his name was called shortly after we arrived. I laughed when he walked out. I explained my laughter. "It took us 90 minutes to get here and less than 5 minutes for your blood draw!"
From Quest Diagnostics we took Uber to the Perry Hotel to visit Beverly and Dave. We arrived there at 12:10 to have lunch with them. For some unknown reason, probably advertising, I had Uber $$ in my account. Including tip, it cost us $0.61 for the ride. Normally it would have been about $18.00.
We had a great lunch and a lovely visit with Bev and Dave on their sailboat. Just before 3:00 we decided we better get the hotel shuttle, that leaves on the hour, to take us to a bus stop to get the Lower Keys Shuttle.
After some hemming and hawing, it was decided that we should get off at the Publix in Key West and get the LowKeys shuttle from there. That turned out to be a very good decision. The initial place we planned on waiting for the LK shuttle had no bench or shelter nearby. We arrived at Publix shortly after 3:00. The LK shuttle arrived to pick us up at 4:40!
A young man with two bags of laundry and 3 bags of groceries was waiting there before us. He was a local and said that the waiting and hoping for a bus was not unusual. He showed Clark how to drill down on the phone to check for buses. It was not obvious. When Clark got to where he could get an update, the app said 56 minutes arrival time. Then later it said 109 minutes. Yikes.
We had an interesting chat with the man waiting with us. Clark said he was thankful that guy was there to offer optimism and advise, or Clark would have given up and tried to get an alternate way back to Marathon. An Uber costs around $100.00 + -- an expensive alternative to the $1.00 bus ride. We eventually arrived back at the boat at 6:30. By then, I had a splitting headache and still had to put dinner on the table. What a day! Thank God for leftovers!
The only picture we took today was one Clark snapped of "Fat Albert" as the bus was returning us to Marathon.
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| "Fat Albert" Blimp |
27 February 2024
I normally go to art class on Tuesday's, but Clark invited 'Johnny Live' who sings with the church band to come to our boat for a visit. I decided that spending time with John was a far cry better than spending time with acrylic paints, so I stayed "home". I thought they might "perform" together, but John came to chat and share some music with Clark. We had lunch on board, and then John was off to his next commitment.
Since both items were on the "do before Bahamas" to do list, I decided to update the blog this afternoon while the laundry got done. After seeing Johnny off, Clark met some boaters here at the marina planning to leave soon for the Bahamas. Their schedule is off by a few days from ours, but we may see them later. Who knows?
I had to take a break from the blogging to go rake sea grass away from the boat. I wanted the door open for the breeze but could not stand the smell of the rotting grass. At least I got a little exercise today! Having moved the grass on its way, I was able to keep the door open and still breathe fresh air.
