Boating with Sunset Delight: 2024: Last Florida Keys posting

27 February 2024

Normally on Tuesday I go to art at the library. Today, however, Clark said that John as in “Johnny Live” would be visiting the boat. I decided I better stay “home” today. We had a lovely visit exchanging stories. John stayed for lunch onboard and afterwards he shared some of his original songs with Clark, so Clark can learn them. The one he sings at “Dockside” restaurant is called “Islamorada”, and I love it so I hope Clark learns that one.

After John left, I got busy working on a Blog update. I should have been in the pool as it was good weather, but I wanted to get an entry out there. I stuck my head up long enough to get a couple of sunset pictures. Clark was gone so long from the boat I figured I better go looking for him. Guess what! I found him standing around talking to other boaters. Imagine that!

28 February 2024

We decided to do our last food provisioning trip to Publix today. I knew I had extra heavy things on the list, so we rigged up the wagon behind Clark’s bike to tow the groceries back to the boat.

It is fine until we get back to the marina with a loaded wagon. The dock is skinny in some places such that I have a concern the wagon will go over the edge and take Clark with it. Bye bye groceries and ouch ouch Clark!

With no better place to store the food, I left the groceries in the reusable bags (except for perishables) and stacked them in the guest stateroom. I have a rough idea of what is where but I prefer to be much more organized. After the aggravating work of “hiding” the groceries, we had lunch and then ended up sitting up by the bar at the pool just enjoying a relaxing time doing next to nothing but chatting and enjoying the breeze. This is a rare event for us!

I received a surprise phone call earlier in the day today from our boating friends Sandy and Bill. They no longer have a boat, so they decided to drive to the Keys to enjoy the area and visit friends. They called to see if we were available to go to dinner tonight. Fortunately, we were free and anxious to go. They picked us up at the marina at 5:00, and we went looking for a place to eat.

We tried the Island Fish Company first, but since we could find no place to park, we left in search of another option. We ended up at Havana Jack’s in Key Colony.

Sandy, Bill, and Ev

Coconut weather station

Some of the seating at Havana Jack's

Band at the restaurant

No outing with Bill and Sandy would be complete without an ice cream stop at Sweet Savannah’s. Clark and I had been bemoaning the fact that we never got there this season. It was on our “to do” list, so Sandy and Bill helped us check that off before leaving the Keys!

Sweet Savannah’s moved some furniture around and I noticed they had great artwork in the form of a mural along one wall. It stretches the length of the room. I took a couple of pictures of the section near where we were seated.

It was dark when we arrived back at the marina. The Club House and pool looked so pretty I decided to take a picture.

My friend, Allie, who brought the coconuts for us to paint decided we should get “fat” yarn and make hand crochet purses for a fun activity. Unfortunately, we ran out of time before we could get together. Having dropped it off at the concierge desk, she told me the yarn was waiting there as a gift. She texted me to say that I should think of her while I made my purse, and she would think of me while she made hers. I had to carefully watch a step-by-step video, and it took a couple of hours to complete the project.

29 February 2024

For our last day in port, it sure was action-packed! We had social activities scheduled interspersed with last chores as we could fit them in.

The first thing Clark did was jump on his bike to go to West Marine to look into buying us a new toy. The dinghy we have is difficult to deal with, takes a lot of time to deploy and dock, and has a number of reasons why it is not the best for the Bahamas. The number one reason being it is a heavy dinghy that cannot be beached for fear of not being able to get it off the beach again if the tide goes out.

Clark came back with a new, more manageable dinghy. It is smaller, fits on the swim platform, and only weighs 110 pounds. Clark says that’s easy as that is only 55 pounds each to carry! I was working on organizing my art supplies for travel when he called to ask, “Are you busy? I bought a dinghy, and we are arriving now in a pickup truck to deliver it. Please bring a dock cart up to meet us.”

Fortunately, the art supplies sorting was something I could drop right then and there. Earlier I had been engaged in babysitting the washing machine that was going bonkers on the spin cycle. That would have been harder to walk away from. We managed to drag the dinghy off the truck and drape if over the dock cart. Clark took the dock cart, and I rode his bike back to the boat.

He had to drag the cart down the skinny dock, and if I had heart palpitations watching him with the grocery wagon, I nearly had fits watching him maneuver the cart with the overhanging dinghy. The worst was when he had to get past a power pedestal that takes up more real estate than the others. The one wheel was on the very edge of the cement walk!

We made it to the boat. Then wondered, “What next?” I did not believe that I would be able to heft my end of the dinghy onto “Sunset Delight”. First, we had to unwrap the dinghy. It was wrapped in foam padding and tons of bubble wrap packing material. I hated to dispose of all of that as I am a hoarder of items of that sort for art / packaging, but it had to go.

"Well it's here. Now what?"

By the time we got it unwrapped, our neighbor came over to see if we wanted help. Thank you! He lifted with one hand what I could not lift with two. Clark positioned the dinghy on the gunnel deflated to be permanently positioned later. He wanted me to figure out a way to put our boat name and home port on “Sunset Delight” because putting the dinghy on the swim platform would block that important information on our stern.

After laundry and dinghy, we were supposed to go to lunch with Joan and Bill on “New Life” at 11:30. Our regular dockhand that comes on Thursdays to do holding tank pumpout is on vacation in Africa. The alternate working today was late starting. Both boats needed to get the job done, so we waited until that was completed to leave for lunch. We went to Overseas Pub since we like the food and we can easily walk there.

We had some time when we got back to the boat before our next social event. Even though we moved sea grass yesterday, it has been building up again - worse than ever. I decided that I needed to give it a shove out to sea. I worked with the boat pole to break it up and watch the current take it away. I wanted it gone before we started engines tomorrow morning as that sea grass gets into the strainers and clogs them up.

I only worked on the grass
near and behind our stern

Around 2:00, as I was just finishing pushing sea grass around, our next social event took place. When we docked at Faro Blanco, Clark got to know Zoey -- the very pleasant person who took care of the grounds there. It was impossible to know what she looked like because she was always covered head to toe in fabric as protection from the sun, bugs and weeds. Clark reached out to her back in December to say we were here. When he sent a note to say we were leaving, she decided she better come visit in a hurry.

Zoey left about 4:30. Shortly after she left, we jumped on our bikes to pedal to Faro Blanco for docktails at 5:00. Sandy and Bill would be there as well as others we know, so we wanted to make the effort to attend. Others there included Phil and Lynn who used to own “Fins” (their boat was totaled in Hurricane Ian”), Martha and John and their dog, Nicole, on a power cat, and MJ whom I do not know well.

Phil, Lynn, Sandy, Bill, Ev (blue hat), and MJ
(picture taken before Martha and Kevin joined)

We learned at docktails that major redesign work is planned for the hotel and restaurant at Faro Blanco. A big-screen, digital picture frame showed pictures of the planned revisions, so Clark and I stopped by before leaving the area to check out the plans. It looks impressive and expensive. When done, the place will be significantly altered.

We had invited Jim and JoAnn, “Concession”, to join us at Faro Blanco, but something came up on their end to prevent them attending. They asked us to stop by their boat when we returned from docktails. We got there around 6:30. We finally got back on our own boat about 7:45. I pulled out leftovers, and we ate around 8:00!

In between all that socializing, we also managed to vacuum the boat, get rid of the garbage, empty the and treat the holding tank to remove odors, take showers – the last good ones for a while as we will need to seriously conserve water in the Bahamas, eat dinner, do the dishes, fill the water tank – note this had to be done in the dark after using water for showers and dishes, rearrange things to stow the bicycles, and put away other miscellaneous things that would likely get in the way while traveling.

1 March 2024
Depart: Marlin Bay Yacht Club 10:00
Arrive: Pumpkin Key anchorage 6:30
Distance: 62 nm
Conditions: 20 knot winds with gusts; some spray over the bow but not much

When we woke this morning, we were in no particular hurry to get underway. We lounged in bed for a while (I did my Wordle) then walked up to use the marina toilets, socialized a while, and finally got ready to go. Little did we know it would take almost 45 minutes to reclaim our dock lines before we could get the engines going and depart. We started getting ready to leave at 9:00 and pulled away from the dock an hour later!

The winds were strong this morning which did not help our situation. The boats on either side of us both came in after us. That meant that the lines on the bow were under their lines on the poles on each side of us. With the wind pulling the lines tight, Clark had a battle on his hands to get our lines out from under theirs.

Clark wrestling with the bow line

As we prepared to leave, or at least tried to, we gathered a small crowd of well-wishers and on-lookers. I ran to and fro loosening lines to give Clark more maneuverability to reach the poles. Bill from “New Life” climbed on our boat to help Clark at the bow. Eventually, Jim on “Making Memories” saw our plight and loosened his line to give Clark some slack. That worked. Folks on the boat to our other side are away in Alaska, but fortunately, Clark was able to get our line free on that side again with Bill’s assistance.

We had a very nice farewell committee on our dock when we finally got moving.

Del - "Avalon", JoAnn - "The Concession"
Shirley & Sophie - "Puffin"

Bill - "New Life" and Del - "Avalon"

Joan - "New Life"

Becky & Jim - "Making Memories"

Jean from “Jean Marie” across the way waved and took a picture as we left.

Jean on "Jean Marie"

As we left the marina, Clark gave one long blast on the horn (regulation) to let folks know we were coming out. In response our friends on “Califrenchies”, Lou and Donna, blew their horn to get our attention and waved goodbye from their boat as we passed.

Lines and fenders are part of my responsibility, so before doing anything else, I tidied the cockpit and stowed everything to make it “ship shape” for travel.

I had not eaten breakfast and found that Clark had skipped that as well, so once underway, I cooked eggs for Clark. I had to think for a minute how to make the toast as I cannot use our toaster underway – it pulls too much current. I remembered after about a nanosecond that I had to make fried bread on the stove for his egg sandwich. I ate my own breakfast and then joined him on the upper helm to help watch for traps.

Having traveled this inside route to Pumpkin Key multiple times, we did not see many new things. However, given the windy conditions, we did see one thing that surprised us – a houseboat towing a small power boat. We wondered how they were doing as houseboats don’t usually like any wave action.

We saw a boat swarmed by sea gulls. It said "Live Bait" on the side.

When the boat started up and left, the sea gulls followed along.

Later we saw a boat go by with a parasail attached with 3 people enjoying a ride. At 20 knots and gusty that seemed like a lot of wind to me. We got a few pictures of them having fun.

We arrived at Pumpkin Key as the sun was setting behind us. Clark found the spot he wanted to drop anchor. After a few feet of chain fell, the chain got kinked in the windlass and would not go up or down. Clark had to come down to look into the problem, and I had to take over the helm. Thank goodness Clark has all sorts of fix-it skills. He had to get tools to work on the windlass to free the chain. He got it working eventually, but a bolt was sheared in the process!

While I was keeping one eye on the boat position, I snuck in a few sunset pictures.

Anchored in Card Sound by
Pumpkin Key

2 March 2024
No boat travel.

Clark has us positioned at Pumpkin Key awaiting a weather window for crossing to the Bahamas. In preparation for entry to that country, Clark has been doing “Click-to-clear” paperwork and setting us up with cellphone capabilities.

Before putting the new, small dinghy on the swim platform, I had to make the letters to attach to the stern of “Sunset Delight” to show our boat name and port of call. With my Cricut machine, I got sheets of vinyl. I knew that I could not use the Cricut machine to cut the letters because I had to have minimal waste material to get the job done. Besides the boat name, I needed to make “Rumson, NJ”. With no mistakes, it would use all my available material in black. One more letter and it would have to be blue or green and that would not work.

Letters cut and ready to apply

While Zoey was visiting, I made stencils of the letters. Last night, while I listened to TV, I cut the letters out of the vinyl ready to apply today. I hoped that Clark would stick the letters up without my help, but that was a no go. He needed me to risk my life climbing up on the rail of the boat to help apply the vinyl letters. I groused about what he makes me do, but it made no difference. I ended up climbing up and edging my way around the cockpit of the boat to the stern where I could work with him to get the letters up. Unfortunately, I had to climb up and down multiple times to get the job done.

Once that scary job was done, it was time to move the dinghy to the swim platform. Together we dragged the dinghy from the bow of the boat to the stern and set it up in the cockpit temporarily so Clark could pump air into the sides.

Then we had to heft it over the stern of the boat to rest on the swim platform for travel. We tied and retied the lines multiple times until we were satisfied that the dinghy was secure yet reasonably easy to deploy. When I finally got excused from dinghy duty, I sat down to work on the last blog entry state side. Phew!