Boating with Sunset Delight: Banana Bay Sunset Celebration

2/26/2017

After we got back to our boat yesterday from the Islamorada Nautical Flea Market, Clark remembered that he had forgotten to get something there. We made plans to make a quick trip back to the flea market this morning. What did he forget? Well, for one thing, he said he forgot to take a picture of the banner at the entrance for the blog. With a couple of reminders from me once we arrived at the site, he got the coveted picture.

The women working the gate, collecting entrance fees, saw him
with the camera, and some even posed for the shot.

The real reason he wanted to return, however, was to purchase a solar-panel charger to charge a battery on the boat. He said they normally cost around $130, and he had seen one he meant to buy for $45. For that amount of savings, it made sense to drive to the flea market to get it. The only catch ... he thought he knew which booth, but when he called them, they said, "Not my booth". With that we both wondered if Clark would be able to even find this desired object.

When he asked me, "What would you do?" I said without hesitation, "I'd already be in the car driving east if it were me!" With that, we jumped in the car and went on our scavenger hunt for the solar panel. We had no idea which booth held the prize, but Clark remembered the booth sold electrical parts and had a U-shaped display. After combing the aisles, we found the item exactly where he described it would be in a booth two stalls down from where he thought he saw it. He even negotiated the price down by $3 to get an even better bargain.

With no interest in spending any additional time perusing the booths, we hightailed it out of the market and headed back to Marathon. Considering it is at least an hour's drive each way, the time certainly seemed to pass relatively quickly in both directions. Of course we hit heavy traffic a couple of miles out from the flea market, but this was to be expected.

We ate the sandwiches I had made for our trip in the car as we drove and finished our lunches just before arriving at Marathon. Since we had the car out and about, we decided to make a quick stop at Publix to stock up on a couple of items as we plan to leave here Wednesday to start our long trip back to New Jersey. Since we will be anchoring some, and we will not have a car when we do stop at marinas until we get to Vero Beach, I thought it prudent to have a little extra food on board.

After returning to the marina, I checked and found that Namaste had returned to the marina. Plenty of slip space is now available given the fast boats all departed around 9:30 this morning. I was not sad to see them go! I talked to Jim and Jo briefly as well as Kenny and Jeanne from Daybreak who were standing nearby. Then I walked over to talk to Faith on Third Degree. The afternoon flew by and I found myself rushing back to the boat to grab a shower before we headed out to the annual looper party held this evening at Banana Bay Marina and called the "Sunset Celebration".

Everyone brought an appetizer to share and their own drinks and chairs. Since we had a car, we carried chairs and food down to the venue for our friends who decided they wanted to walk for the exercise. They must have been walking at quite a clip because Clark and I barely got the chairs set up before they arrived.

Jeanne, Kenny, Clark, Ev, and Jim
(Jo Ann took the picture)

We had a great time at the party as we chatted with fellow loopers - some whom we had recently met, some we met during our great loop trip, and even one couple we met long before we set off on our great loop adventure. I was approached by a man named Kevin. I did not recognize his name or the name of his boat. He told me that we met in Norfolk and asked if I remembered him. Since he did not look familiar, I apologetically said, "Sorry, no, I don't remember".

Then he told me that when I met him, he had just bought his boat and it was then named Grey Goose. I instantly remembered who he was and that we had met in May of 2014 at the AGLCA Rendezvous. All the loopers I meet agree that it is a lot easier to remember boat names than people names. I wonder why that is the case. Truth be told, Grey Goose was particularly easy to remember since it is a 1999 Mainship 350 - the same year, make and model as Sea Moss!

Clark and Ev with Kevin and Sandy from Koastal Karma

We also saw several couples we met during our loop trip, but had not seen for a while, including Susan and John from Nuclear Fission, Tom and Jane from Elizabear, and Jann and Bill from Ivory Lady. They sold Ivory Lady recently, a Mainship very similar to ours but a 400 instead of a 350, and bought a motor home. They will be setting off on their new adventure in the near future but this time on roads not water.

Jann and Bill previously of Ivory Lady and
soon to travel in "One if by Land"
They still have a boat up north which they plan to call "Two if by Sea"

Others whom we have spent time with recently at Faro Blanco or met through other events also attended. The party officially started at 4:00 and ended at 7:00. I practically had to drag Clark away after 8:00! He sure can talk! When he ran out of loopers to talk to, I found him talking to the band! Still, I did my share of talking and was also hesitant to leave before the bitter end.

Besides spending time with like-minded boater people, we got to hear a presentation on selling boats done by Curtis Stokes,