24 - 29 December 2024
The weather this past week has been, as they say, "for the birds"! We have had cloudy skies, threats of rain, and a torrential downpour complete with booming thunder. We have a pelican who enjoys fishing near our boat and then spreading his wings to air dry. With a cold north wind, I think he would want to keep his wings wrapped around himself for warmth!
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| Quite the ballet! |
Over the past few days, we have watched the sea grass come and, with some help from Evelyn, go. Sometimes the sea grass has objects resting on top. Frequently the item taking a ride on the sea grass is a float that has become disconnected from its trap. We saw something new this week, and we do not know what it is. It appears to be some sort of sea creature like an aquatic porcupine.
This creature was not next to our boat, and we made no attempt to assist it off the grass or poke at it.
The weather being mostly cloudy motivated us to work on outside boat cleaning and polishing. While Clark polished the hull, I grabbed the "Barkeeper's Friend" and went to work on all the railings and chrome on the boat. We now sparkle in the places we managed to work on. With a long boat, it takes a long time to cover all the areas that need work.
For the third, and we hope last time, Clark worked on the dinghy. We sent it in for patch work repair on leaks in Satellite Beach and then again when we reached Vero Beach. Finding yet more leaks happening when we arrived in Marathon, Clark called and got instructions from the repair folks on what he could do on his own. He ordered a special product to assist with this effort, waited for the optimal weather conditions, and went to work.
Clark was a bit frustrated because the latest place to be found leaking air was a place he had patched that was not leaking until they replaced his patch with one of their own.
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| Bubbles! |
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| Sikaflex for the dinghy repair |
As of this posting, several days after the repair, the tubes are staying inflated. Fingers crossed that it stays that way!
Due to the poor weather and the holidays, it has been very quiet at the marina this week. Several boats expected to arrive in December did not come in. Many boaters, who were here, left their boats and went to visit family for Christmas.
Our friend from church, who sings professionally at local restaurants, came to visit one day for lunch, music, and computer talk. Once John and Clark got to the computer discussion part of the visit, I excused myself and went to work on the jigsaw puzzle I have been tackling with Annette and Marcy (other boaters here at the marina).
This African Safari puzzle was a doozy and took all three of us several days to complete. At the end we had 3 pieces to put in, so we each took one to finish the job. The pieces sometimes fit in places where they did not belong, and with similar coloring, we found it difficult to know a mistake had even been made. For example, Annette had to rearrange the zebra pieces because the legs did not line up properly!
Thank goodness this puzzle came with a large paper showing the puzzle detail to help identify where pieces might belong.
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| Finished! |
We took a few days to enjoy our success and then started a new 1000 piece puzzle. This one is a picture of a city in Europe. It appears to be going faster as the colors are more discrete. The box rates this new puzzle as a 5 out of 7. If this one is a 5, then the last one was a 10.
In the evenings, Clark and I have been enjoying watching movies. Some are just okay. We have found a few good ones. We recently watched Mary and The Six Triple Eight - both highly recommended movies.
On Christmas Eve, our friend John (mentioned above) came and picked us up to drive us to the 11:00 service at St. Columba church. I was thrilled that I did not have to ride my bike at midnight!! Only a few people came to that service. Pastor Deb said that the 5:00 service had 120 people, i.e. it was packed. The 11:00 service was the candlelight service which we enjoyed.
Before we went into the church to celebrate the birth of Christ, Clark took some pictures of the lights on the houses across the street from the church.
When we exited the church at midnight, some of the lights had been turned off, so it was a good thing he took the pictures when he did.
On Sunday the 29th, we called upon our friends, Nancy and Steve, for a ride to church. Early in the morning the radar showed the skies clearing with only a 15% chance of a shower. Clark said we would be able to use the bikes. Well, that radar lied! By 9:00, we realized that neither biking nor walking to church would be practical.
Walking up to the marina roadway at 10:00 and waiting for our ride meant we were dripping wet when we got in the car. When we arrived at church, it was still raining. When service started at 11:00, the rain was so fast and furious that we could hardly hear the pastor's sermon. The deluge came complete with some thunder for emphasis.
Talking to Pastor Deb, we learned that the road to the church has been known to flood in heavy rain and hold people captive at the church until the water recedes. A woman leaving after the service announced that if she did not return that meant the roadway was passable. She did not return! Fortunately, John drove us home, and his vehicle sits high off the ground.
The church serves lunch after the 11:00 service. For a change, Clark and I both partook of the food - specifically the desserts on display. I had pumpkin pie, and Clark had both pumpkin and cherry pie. Having had our dessert first, we ate lunch later after we arrived back at the boat.
Before he was ready to eat lunch, however, Clark had some work to do for his guitar playing. The mixing board at the church provides phantom (48V DC) power required for some of the microphones to work. Sadly, there are not enough instrument inputs, so he has to use a microphone input. Unfortunately, the mix board supplies this phantom voltage to the guitar. This voltage causes a static sound when the volume control on the guitar is rotated. He ordered another XLR to 1/4 phone adaptor wire for connecting the guitar to the mix board to insert a DC blocking capacitor. On the 28th he had all the wire and capacitors and hacked the capacitor into the cable. Unfortunately, he could not test it on the boat.
When he used the cord at church, it failed to work as expected. As soon as we got back onboard, he went into sleuth mode and found that a second conductor was bypassing the capacitor. It has now been modified and is ready to be tested again with the mix board tomorrow.
We have taken no sunset pictures due to cloud cover.
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