2025 December: Christmas Elves

 

Party time for elves at Marlin Bay

19 December 2025

When the winds come in from the north-northeast, the temps drop and we rock on the boat. When the winds come in from the south, the temps rise and we get sea grass.

It's so thick, the birds can walk around on the sea grass.

I thought about going out to help the sea grass move along but found no wind and no current. Given that I decided to wait until later in the day to try to tackle the grass with a boat hook. 

As the day progressed, dark clouds rolled in. Clark and I were walking around the marina and decided to walk around the docks to enjoy the cool weather. On the west side of the inner harbor, we found someone up scaffolding working on a palm tree. We had no idea what he was doing. Palm fronds and empty packages of Christmas lights littered the ground beneath the tree and scaffolding. Why only one tree?

Tree trimming?

He looked pretty comfortable as if he planned to be up there for a good long time. As we walked by, he called down a friendly hello. We had no idea who it was up there as he was covered from head to toe with only his eyes exposed. Mystery man! (We later learned it was Tony who is a friendly member of the marina staff here, and someone we talk with regularly.)

When we got to the tower at the end of the dock, we decided to climb to the top to get the bird's eye view of the area.

View for the birds!

Dark clouds hovering over Faro Blanco

and over the boats at Marlin Bay

On our "travels" around the marina, we walked through the pool bar area. Today an author, B. William Hoolihan, was on hand to do book signings. I actually picked up a copy of one of his books at the ship's store recently. I selected the book entitled "Pirates Promise" as it sounded like something I would enjoy. I had not remembered this was happening, did not have the book with me, and thus did not get his autograph.

Late yesterday afternoon our friends, Jean and Bill, arrived at Marlin Bay. We stopped by to welcome them "home". I climbed on board for a chat, but Clark just stood on the dock and peeked over the side of the boat. Cute!

Looks like a little kid!

We have made a habit of checking up on the elves and their latest mischief. Today we found them behind bars; in trouble for too many bad jokes!

Later, as the sun set, we walked the docks to capture the view.

20 December 2025

We started the day with a stop into the Club House to check up on Marley and Reef.

Apparently, they got the wrong idea of what it means to light up Christmas and got into the vodka!

Later in the day, we found out what was planned for the palm tree and the scaffolding. This evening Marlin Bay held the 1st Annual "Corona Tree" Lighting Ceremony. Tony was up in that palm tree setting it up with strings of lights for this event.

When time neared to light the tree, most people stayed by the bar, but we found Jean, and she wanted to walk over to where the tree is situated to watch the lighting from there. We decided to tag along with her.

Clark and Jean as the sun sets

We found Tony stationed at the tree ready to plug in the lights. He said the tree had 16 fronds and each one had lights going up and down. He was told to light the tree at 6:00. We could tell it was 6:00 easily enough but were the folks at the bar ready?? We were hoping for some kind of a signal that never arrived. A couple of minutes after 6:00, we told Tony to "go for it".

Our "Corona Christmas Tree"

After a long pause, we heard some cheers coming from the pool bar. Someone finally noticed!

Tony, having done his duty, took off on his golf cart to head home. Jean, Clark and I walked back to the bar to chat with folks there for a while and grab a picture of the tree from the pool bar point of view.

Our "Corona Tree" as seen from across the marina

21 December 2025

Since today was Sunday, we started the day with our weekly trip to church. On the way we stopped in to see Marley and Reef. They had been busy producing groan-worthy bear jokes.

22 December 2025

My friend, Nancy, offered to pick me up to go shopping for groceries in her car! An offer I couldn't refuse! She picked me up at 9:30, and I spent the morning in Publix stocking up on items too heavy for the backpacks. I even got to partake of the BOGO offers today! Yay!

After lunch, I decided to go up to the pool to hang out. North / northeasterly winds were gusting to 30 mph. Given that, I brought a book to read instead of a swimsuit to swim. Some folks were in the heated pool. We had noticed Saturday that some folks arrived to occupy the condos. Apparently, they are making the most of their time here - heavy winds or not.

After I read for a while, I went into the club house and checked out the jigsaw puzzle. Little to no progress had been made since my last peek several days ago. I managed to find a couple of edge pieces to move it along some.

Today is the last day of Hanukkah. A few days ago, our concierge, Grace, was struggling to come up with an idea for Marley & Reef.  I suggested a Menorah as part of their scene.  After we talked about it, I went back to the boat and dug around in the boat for parts to craft one.

I made it out of plastic straws, aluminum foil, card stock paper and cardboard.

Reef got the lighter ready to light the menorah.

But Marley damaged the menorah before that could happen!

Whoops!

Clark's exciting news today was that the new bike wheel he ordered for his bike arrived! He is getting to be a pro at working on the bike tires - unfortunately not a job he was looking for!

When he wasn't repairing his bike, he was taking advantage of the change in the wind direction to push the sea grass on its way out from behind our boat.

The sea grass is now gone, and the birds are back to standing on the rocks!

Sadly, as I admired the bird, some loudly-talking folks appeared and scared this one away from his fishing hole.

23 December 2025

Maria, the art instructor at the library, planned a buffet breakfast for this morning's session. We had far more food than we could possibly eat - cakes, cookies, McDonald's sausage biscuits, fruit, and various crackers with dips as well as coffee and tea.

Given the fun stuff, i.e. food, Maria had no real plans for what we should do for art. I grabbed a pencil, an eraser, and a sheet of card stock paper to do some drawing. 

In the afternoon, Clark rode off on his bicycle to church for band practice. I stayed on the boat to read my latest novel. A couple of days earlier Clark had told me that he was taking me out to dinner tonight to beat the Christmas rush. It has become a tradition to go to the Barracuda Grill this time of year. 

Clark left for the band practice around 1:30 because he said it would rain at 2:00, and he wanted not to be riding the bike in the rain. At precisely 2:00, it rained! He says it's no big deal that he can predict the weather given the radar apps we have now, but I still find it pretty amazing how on top of it he is.

Normally I would expect him back at the boat around 4:00 or so. Around 5:15 I started getting worried about him. Route 1 can be a pretty dangerous road - even when biking on the sidewalks as we do. I finally called him whereby he said he was just leaving the church. I reminded him we had dinner plans - he seemed to have forgotten. He pedaled back to the boat in record time, and we headed out to the restaurant. It opens at 6:00, and we arrived about 6:05!

As we ate dinner, Clark filled me in on his delay in leaving. It was a rather long story, but in essence he ended up talking with our friend, Steve, as a result of a fatal bicycle accident on Route 1 that left the highway too congested for travel. Steve had left the church but ended up coming back due to the backed up traffic. So, I was right to be worried about an accident on Route 1, but thankfully it wasn't Clark involved. 

The restaurant had several empty tables. Since she was not "rushed-off-her-feet" busy, the waitress stopped by our table several times to chat. We sat there a long time after we finished eating spending time talking to her. She talked some about the restaurant history. I noticed that the menu read "Barracuda Diego" instead of "Barracuda Grill". She told us the restaurant changed owners about 7 years ago, but the menu did not change.

We had walked to the restaurant as it is near the marina. We had a mini flashlight with us for the walk back in darkness, and we were in no rush to leave. It was a relaxing evening away from the boat.