2025 December: Holiday doings

 15 December 2025 - Monday

 Each morning Clark and I walk up to the Club House to see what Marley & Reef are up to. Tonight, apparently, is movie night and Reef found himself a mermaid girlfriend. Marley, of course, managed to fall into and spill the box of popcorn. 

Yesterday, at church, Pastor Deb asked for volunteers to come to the Abbey to help sort donations. So many folks have dropped off items that they could take no more. I did this before a couple of years back and figured I could lend a hand. She said they would start at 10:00, but when I got there just after 10:00, it was clear they had been in "full swing" for a while. 

Tables were set up and folks were sorting everything from clothing to glassware to practically anything one can think of. A sign had been posted "No More Donations Accepted". It was that bad. I got the task of bringing more boxes / crates out to the sorters which suited me just fine. 

I lasted about two hours, and then it was time to head back to the boat for lunch. After lunch, I got into the mood to make Christmas / Seasonal cards to send to my grandchildren. By the time I had 5 of them done, it was getting into dinner time. One of them is shown below.

Colored-Pencil Christmas Card 

We had winds all day today up to around 20 knots (23+ mph), and the boat was rocking and swaying. Since the wind came from the NNE, it had a chill factor. It was a good day to stay onboard and do arts and crafts.

16 December 2025 - Tuesday

Today, Clark and I found that Reef and Marley had gotten into the dog biscuits thinking they were cookies. Yuck!

"Don't give Santa these"
"Worst Cookies Ever"

I went upstairs to check on the puzzle. Very little progress has been made on this ridiculously difficult puzzle. 

Since it was a calm, cool day, Clark suggested we sit in the shade by the pool bar for a change (to be off the boat). I decided that if we were going to hang out there, I should go retrieve my book, so I left him there and walked back to the boat.

On my way back up to the pool area, I passed a familiar-looking diver. I knew Clark had hired "Bottoms & Props" again this year to keep our bottom clean. So, when I got back to the pool area, I mentioned to him I saw a diver that might be heading for our boat but had not watched him long enough to be sure. 

That was enough for Clark to jump up to head back to the boat (wait I just got back!) with me following behind. (At least I got some steps in!) He said he wanted to talk to the diver if he was there for our boat. As we approached the outer harbor, I could see the diver was getting ready to dive on our boat. Clark took off at a trot to catch him and discuss "things". Never mind the dust and potential bird droppings, Clark just lay right down on the dock for a chat!

Diver caught me taking the picture

After the diver left, I asked Clark if he had found any "bad news", and thankfully, the answer was no. In fact the ultrasonic system Clark installed appears to be doing a good job of keeping growth down to a minimum.

Tuesday mornings I normally hike over to the library for art. However, since I did art all afternoon yesterday, I had no interest in doing art this morning. On the other hand, this Tuesday was a "Crafting Tuesday" at the library, and I wanted to see what the instructor, Angela, had planned.

Turns out we made Christmas tree ornaments today. She sure likes Mod Podge! I decorated the shell below with tissue paper, a gold glitter marker, and cherries for added interest.

The other item we could make was a clear ornament stuffed with chopped up paper and a tiny book. She loves crafting with pages out of books. Me - not so much! But, the tiny books were interesting.

She said, "Look through the book options, you might even find something you have read." I thought that highly unlikely, but it did happen!

"Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone"

I took a picture of the book next to a pen for size comparison. The book isn't even an inch tall! All the pages inside are blank.

I gave it to my old sea captain to read, and he was annoyed I wanted a picture of him with it.

Captain reading at my knickknack shelf

When I got back to the marina later, I knew Clark would be gone. He had left sometime before I even left the library for guitar practice at the church. Given that, I stopped by the pool to see who was around and stayed to chat for quite a while. 

On Sunday, our friend Nancy had mentioned that we should get together and go to a restaurant. I spoke to Clark about it before practice, and when he returned from practice, he told me we were all set to go out to eat tonight. Surprise! I hadn't even thought about what we would be doing for dinner, so it was nice to hear I didn't need to worry about it. 

None of us had been to the Cuban restaurant that took over the space vacated by the Overseas' folks. I had heard good reviews from boaters at Marlin Bay that had checked it out, so we went there. I was a bit nervous about what might be on the menu since I am not into spicy food. I needn't have worried as they had a nice mix of options to choose from.

"El Siboney" Restaurant

All the old, familiar decorations were gone, and new artwork has taken over.

Several pictures featured older cars. 

Every stall in the ladies' room had a picture to look at. I checked every stall!

Toilet paper art!

"Just Roll With It"

Above one toilet ...

Ewww!

I caught myself in the picture below capturing the floral arrangement around the mirror.

Clark, Nancy, and Steve all ordered fish. Even though it felt weird to order it in a Cuban restaurant, I decided to go crazy and chose Beef Teriyaki! Everyone said they enjoyed the food. My plate was an excellent choice for me since I am not much into fish.

The restaurant staff were very friendly, and multiple people came by to check on us regularly to be sure we were well taken care of. The waiter we had told us we could stay as long as we liked, and we took him up on that offer. Long after we finished eating, he was still refilling our water glasses for us.

Since it is just a couple of blocks away from the Marina (even closer than the library), Clark and I walked to the restaurant. I brought a flashlight for the walk back to help navigate the uneven sidewalk panels that run along the side of the marina. I almost always make dinner onboard, so it was really nice to get out for a change.

17 December 2025 - Wednesday

Today was chores day starting with a morning trip to the Captain's Lounge to do laundry for a couple of hours. Then, after lunch, we rode our bicycles to Publix to pick up a few items. 

Clark and I have English / Brompton bikes which we enjoy (when they don't need tire repair). As we were heading out of the marina to Publix, one of the dockhands mentioned the foldable bikes we were riding. Well, of course, as he had done many, many times, Clark just had to give the guy a demonstration of collapsing it and then let him test ride it. He really should be a Brompton bike salesman on commission. We'd be real rich!

Before heading out to the store, we stopped into the Club House to check on Marley and Reef. We looked all over and didn't see them. Clark said, "Oh look! Pringles!" Then, he walked away to go use the restroom.

I came over to check out the "Pringle Bells". When he came back, he asked me if I had found Marley & Reef. I said, "Yes. Did you?" He replied, "No. Where are they?" At that the concierge (Grace), a dockhand (Andrew), and I had a good laugh as I pointed out that he was the one who had found the "Pringles". He went back for a second look. I had to tell him the elves were in the cans!

Map of Marlin Bay

On the way to Publix Clark said we should bike past the City park. Several people have mentioned that the new skate park that is being built will be an impedance for access to the park for the Celtic Festival. Clark wanted to check it out. We found that the construction completely blocks access to the park where the Celtic Festival has set up their admission booth in past years. A new entrance for the event will need to be established - at least for this year.

As we biked around the park, Clark suggested I grab a few pictures of the Christmas decorations.

Santa in the tower

Tree and Sleigh

Crab trap tree

The blow-up snowman below had his wiggle on!

I didn't need much at the food store, but I did want a 6-pack of bottled water. Clark said I could put it in his backpack. He has taken to weighing himself with and without the backpack as we leave Publix. They have a huge scale there. Today's pack, even with the water in it, only weighed 15 pounds. The other day, when we bought a bunch of meat, it weighed closer to 20. Thank goodness he carries the weight - not me! However, I too have a backpack full of food (just not as heavy) as well as bags attached to the bikes.

Having done laundry all morning and bike riding to the grocery store for shopping in the afternoon, I was ready to sit back with my feet up and relax with my current book in my hands. Unfortunately, the other day, I had pointed out to Clark that the dinghy cover was more holes than cover as it flapped wildly in the wind. He hadn't noticed.

Today as the wind had died down, it was a day that it could be taken off and worked on. I wanted nothing to do with it, but when Clark told me it might rain tomorrow, I decided I better work on it as opposed to putting it off. He brought my sewing machine (a very old Singer - not a Sailrite machine) out to the salon and got me a chair to go with it. Then he brought down the cover for us to work on. I told him to spread it out in the cockpit, so I could see how to tackle it.

The seam running almost the entire length of the cover had come unstitched. At the end closest to the outboard motor, it looked like Swiss cheese with large sections of fabric missing. 

Holey Dinghy Cover

Before pulling it down to work on, I checked to see what I had on hand for patching. Would I have to order something? I found I had a variety of canvas type options - all scraps. With fortunately some of the skinny scraps big enough to serve our needs, i.e. long enough to go the length of the boat.

We set up in the salon because we needed space to manage all the canvas involved. Instead of fighting with the canvas on my own as I have done in the past, I asked Clark to assist. I have never had to sew more than a patch or two. This felt like remaking a major portion of the cover. As I pushed the fabric through the machine, Clark sat on the other side and pulled. It is a lot of heavy fabric to push through a relatively small opening.

My sewing machine is a real trooper, but it gave us some grief. The needle wasn't in right when I tried to sew. (I had to remove it to get the fabric in place. Then reinstall it.) The bobbin ran out of thread part way through the project. The machine went into "darn" mode "by itself" (pulled there by the clumped up fabric) whereby the fabric does not move through the machine as it sews.

But, eventually, I declared us done and Clark reinstalled the cover on the dinghy, by now, in the dark! We brought up a flashlight so we could see what we were doing. I helped hold the cover down while the wind tried to blow it away as Clark did up the various clips and lines to hold it in place!

From start to finish, it had taken about 4 hours to get the job done! While we reinstalled the cover, I managed to get a glimpse of the sky as the sun went down while Clark wrestled with the cover to get it back on the dinghy.

The repaired cover just needs to hang in there until we can get back to NJ to have a new one made. This one doesn't even fit properly since we got the new tubes!

Picture taken next morning!

With the dinghy cover back on, I was happy to find leftovers in the fridge because I had no more energy left in me to even cook a meal for dinner. Then, while Clark watched reruns of "Castle", I read my novel that was assigned for the "Boot Key Book Club"  that will meet in the beginning of January - my first time attending. The assigned book is "Happiness for Beginners" by Katherine Center - a fun read.

18 December 2025

Once more, we started the day by going to the Club House to check on Marley & Reef. They were visiting the "Elf Planetarium" today.

Strange view through this telescope!

Today's big event, however, was not related to elves or Uranus, it was the annual "Cookies & Carols" that was first held 3 years ago. This is the event that first brought us to St. Columba.

As Clark and I thought about it, 6:00 for carols and cookies seemed like a major conflict with dinner. Since Clark was playing guitar for part of the event, he (i.e. we) had to be there by 5:30 to get ready. Thus we would have to leave by 5:15. The event would go until sometime after 7:00. Would we have cookies for dinner?

We decided we better have our supper at lunch time, so I pulled out my last frozen pizza and cooked that "doctored" with a variety of meat and vegetable toppings.

Just after 5:00 we set off on our bikes for church. Since we had plenty of time before the event started, I wandered around to check things out. I found Santa and cookies in the Parish Hall.

Just starting! More goodies still in the kitchen.

The show started right on time at 6:00. The pews looked a little empty and it looked like a poor turnout, but as the evening progressed more and more folks came to the celebration. In the end we had a decent number of folks who attended.

The first act was the "Marathon Steel" steel band, followed by a selection from the choir, the church men's group, Clark and his band, and a small boy named Enzo who joined the music director, Tom, for two duets.

The steel band has a surprisingly large number of performers. The instruments span the entire width of the church.

The church men's group including Santa sang.

Clark and the band performed three songs.

At two separate intervals, Enzo and Tom did songs together. The first was "Silent Night" and the second was "We Wish You a Merry Christmas".

The performance ended at 7:00 after Pastor Deb gave us a prayer and a blessing. Then it was time to overindulge in cookies!

It was interesting to note that the residual "Christmas Bazaar" items now, instead of taking up all the Parish Hall and half the church, are down to occupying just a couple of tables pulled to one side. Even so, people were still browsing!

We sat with folks we hardly knew, Connie and Wayne, and got busy talking. As the night wore on I suddenly realized that we were almost the only four people in the building. Uh oh! Maybe it's time to say goodnight? I don't know what Clark and Wayne discussed, but Connie's talk of her time spent with her family in Alaska kept me engaged.

As we pedaled back to the boat and made the turn towards the marina at the Marathon Jesse Hobbs Community Park, Clark came to an abrupt stop. "Want some pictures?" I handed him my phone.

Santa fishing at the park

Train

Decorated house nearby - Mickey Mouse et al

Bow

I looked at my watch and told Clark we needed to hurry as "Georgie and Mandy's First Marriage" would be starting in 10 minutes. We hurried back to the boat, collapsed and stowed the bikes, and settled in for a night of CBS television. 

Around 10:00 I remembered that Clark had not eaten anything more than cookies tonight (me neither, but I didn't need more food). He, of course, had forgotten he hadn't eaten. (I shouldn't have reminded him.) Since we had pizza for lunch, I made him PB&J sandwiches for dinner. As I ate more cookies than I should have at the church, I settled on eating only an apple for dinner!