We woke this morning at 8:00 to pouring rain which made me roll over and go back to sleep. A while later I woke and could no longer hear rain, but the wind had picked up and was blowing like crazy. I wondered how much rocking we would have experienced if we had not changed slips. According to my Weather Bug app the wind was coming out of the south-east at 9 mph. Clark and I both agreed that the wind had to be stronger than 9 mph with the way it was blowing out there. Since we were told that our original slip was only really bad in northerly winds, I expect it was not too too bad.
The good news was that the wind must have completely blown away the rain. By 9:30 when we made our morning trip to the restrooms, the rain was gone - poof! I do not know if the water aerobics class in the marina pool happened today or not. The start time of 10:00 might have been too close on the heels of the pouring rain. I saw Liz from Not Sew Easy on her way there and she asked me if it was canceled. I said I did not know.
Kenny and Jeanne from Daybreak volunteered to drive me to Publix to stock up on food supplies. They have temporary use of a friend's car. The offer of transportation was just too good to refuse especially after the heavy rains of the night before. Deep puddles remained along the roadway due to the excess of rainwater, and biking would have been messy at best. Since I had a choice between the water aerobics class at 10:00 and the car ride to Publix, I made the practical as opposed to the fun decision and went shopping.
Food shopping here in Florida always seems to take much longer than it should. First, every store we visit is new to us and we need to wander around to find the items we want to buy if they even stock what I am looking for. Second, everyone in the stores, i.e. the customers, seems to move at a snail's pace if they move at all.
I stopped in one of the aisles to try to locate my Prego spaghetti sauce I wanted. As I stood there looking, a woman who was 90 if she was a day came up on me and very loudly yelled, "Excuse me". I have to say that she made me jump right out of my skin. I never said a word; I just moved ever-so-slightly, which to me seemed totally unnecessary, for her to pass. As she passed me I heard her say, "Jumpy aren't we?" After she went by me, she stopped just a few feet down, in the middle of the aisle, to talk to a friend. By that time I needed to pass her and I wondered if I should yell, "Excuse me" to see her reaction. I decided that I could wait to get around her.
The line at the checkout was a proverbial "zoo" with a long queue at every open line. I picked one lane because the last person in the queue had a lightly loaded cart. Then I realized that the man was waiting his turn by the cart while at least four family members scurried around the store picking up items and then bringing them up to drop in his cart and then running off again to get more items. I quickly decided that I needed to be in an alternate lane.
Perhaps I overbought today. It is very hard to make quantity decisions, and the stores exacerbate the problem. Not only do I have to decide if I want to buy an item, I have the dilemma of what to do when the price is a "two-for" such as cereal normally $3.99 but buy two and the price is $5.00. Should I buy two? Do I need two? Can I store two? How about the "buy one get one free" offers? I passed on at least one of those today for margarine. Refrigerator space is particularly precious and that free margarine was going to be a "ruddy pain in the neck" as my Aunt Gladys would say. Yet, I feel like I am "leaving money on the table" by leaving it behind.
We loaded my umpteen bags of groceries into the trunk of the car and drove the two miles back to the boat. The road through Marathon is a four-lane highway and making a left-hand turn appears to be a near impossibility, so each time Kenny needed to do a left, he went right and found a place to make a U-turn to go the opposite direction. Heaven help us when we go out on our bikes or God forbid want to cross the road to get to the West Marine on the opposite side of the highway!!
Kenny kindly drove the car to a parking space directly behind our boat. As he backed into a parking space, he made jokes about seeing if he could "dock" the car. He has an interesting sense of humor. From what I learned at yesterday's "dock"tails, he was a high-up executive for Southern Wine and Spirits. I gather he worked very hard from what he said, but one of his tales that made me laugh was the one where he said he regularly hid under his executive-sized desk when someone came to the office when he did not want to talk to them. No one knew he hid there. He also hid in his closet sometimes and occasionally jumped out and scared the people coming to see him. What a character!
I made my way onto the boat with my supplies and had the unpleasant duty of trying to figure out where to put it all. I have to say I failed. By 1:00 I still had three bags to unload and no place to put the items. I decided that I needed lunch as I was too hungry to focus, and I had no idea where to put it anyway. However, before making lunch, I asked Clark if he wanted to walk up to the restroom.
When we stepped off the boat to make a "quick" run up to the head, we met a couple who came to visit JoAnn and Jim on Namaste next door to us. Only JoAnn and Jim were not on their boat. Now, I do not know quite how it happened so quickly but before I knew what was happening, Clark and Dwain were deep in a discussion on how to remove impellers from difficult-to-reach places on boats. After a while I sighed and sat down on the wall next to Dwain's wife Jackie to wait for the excitement to die down, i.e. the conversation to come to a close.
Fortunately JoAnn and Jim came along saying they were starving and that broke up the conversation. We walked with the four of them up to the restaurant where we turned and went off to the restroom while they continued on in search of lunch. On the way back to the boat, we found Kevin from Chasing 80, and that made another delay in getting back to the boat for lunch. Eventually we did get on board and eat, but I have no idea what time it was by the time we managed it. Good thing Clark gave me 4 potato chips before we went to the head - that sustained me!
The day rapidly slipped through our fingers, and suddenly the clock said 4:00. I wanted to get my laundry done today. Clark desperately wanted to get a shower. He thought that we should either try our luck at crossing the street to West Marine or we should go swimming in the pool, but both of those options were contingent on showering first. I decided that I could run the washer while I showered, so I packed up my shower bag and my laundry cart, and away we went.
We never made it to the pool or to West Marine. After putting the laundry in to dry, we decided to walk over to see who was around for "dock"tails. We were told that they happen every night at 5:00. We arrived about 5:20 and there was not a sole in sight at the "dock"tails seating area. However, there appeared to be a lot of excitement on the over side of the lighthouse, so we went to take a look.
 |
| Faro Blanco Lighthouse |
 |
| Wahoo Fish |
The one he was working on when we arrived was just over 30 pounds, and the second one, covered in ice in his cart, weighed around 45 pounds he said. As he worked, he talked to his audience and told them that the fish resembled Sea Bass in texture and taste.
His audience, however, consisted of more than just people. He had a fish-cleaning clean-up crew on hand in the form of numerous pelicans who were aggressively vying for the scraps he tossed out to them. One old "guy" stood on the dock instead of sitting in the water with his relatives. He was the wise one because every once in a while the fisherman would throw a piece right to him, so he did not have to fight for his dinner like everyone else.
 |
| Feeding frenzy on fish scraps |
After watching the pelicans for a while, Clark said he wanted to walk down the dock as we had not explored this area before. As we walked along, Clark took a few pictures of the marina area.
 |
| Looking East from Lighthouse |
 |
| Zoomed in view |
 |
| What? Not interested in fighting with pelicans for food? |
When we walked back, the pelicans were still tussling with each other over the fish scraps. Clark videoed a 6-minute clip of the pelicans playing tug-o-war over the fish skin. The skin was long enough for four pelicans to each get their beaks on it to try to have it for him/herself. With so much tugging it is a wonder the skin did not break or rip! Clark stopped filming for a while and then started again later when eventually one of the pelicans won the day and got a belly full of fish skin!
By the time my timer went off to tell me it was time to take my clothes out of the dryer, the sun had decided to set. I left Clark recording pelicans playing tug-o-war with fish skin while I ran back to fold my clothes. On the way back to the laundry room, I stopped to capture tonight's sunset.
 |
| Sunset at Faro Blanco Marina |
No comments:
Post a Comment