Maintenance run on boat to 7-mile bridge
Some days the whole day goes by and nothing of interest happened. Other days, like today, so much happens that it is hard to believe it all occurred in the same day. Because we had a number of things planned for today, we set our alarm for 8:00 a.m. to get up early. As it turned out, we were both awake and up before the alarm even sounded.
Our first agenda item for today was a trip by bicycle to the farmer's market near Publix. I told Clark I really did not need to go as I had vegetables in the fridge from our last trip to Publix, but he pretty much insisted that we go and see what they had today. When we left the farmer's market, we had $23 worth of fresh produce in Clark's backpack. I still contend I did not need anything. It just looked so fresh and delicious I could not resist. I got a big bag of green beans, asparagus, large red tomatoes, baby zucchini, fresh sweet corn, a huge green pepper, and a box of blueberries.
Since the wind had picked up again overnight, I worried that the bike ride would be like the last windy day, and I would be exhausted by the time we covered the 1.8 miles to get there. Happily, the wind was not gusting to 30 mph and did not slow us down. In fact it felt good to have a cool breeze in our faces. Still, the wind did help us on the way back, and we returned faster than we went. We were back on our boat by 9:15.
AC on Hour Plan planned a pot luck Champagne Brunch at the Faro Blanco lighthouse for today at 10:00 a.m. Everyone attending brought a covered dish except us. We brought our griddle and pancake mix, and Clark made fresh, hot pancakes at the dock to order.
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| Clark cooked pancakes in two flavors - blueberry and plain (note the smiley face and heart-shaped pancakes) |
We had a good turnout for the event and a nice selection of food including baked french toast, baked hash browns, pastries and cake, assorted fruit, and scrambled eggs with bacon.
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| Faro Blanco boaters at Champagne Brunch on the docks including CRAIC, Shell Belle, True North, Third Degree, Ramble On, Morning Star II, Fat-n-Sassy, L'Attitude Adjustment, Sunset Delight, Hour Plan, and more |
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| Scrambled Eggs with Bacon, Hash Browns, and Maple Walnut French Toast |
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| Mel Getting Ready to Cut Cake |
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| Happy 71st Birthday Mel! |
Brunch lasted until noon when folks dispersed to go their separate ways. Several people said they planned to visit the Pigeon Keys Art Festival just down the road at the Municipal Park. Having been prior years, Clark had no real interest in going this year. Instead he had a number of jobs on our boat that he wanted to address.
Upon returning to our boat from the brunch, Clark received a package including the bow thruster part he had ordered. Repairing the intermittent bow thruster quickly became our next highest priority. Other than the fact that Clark had to empty enough space under our master stateroom bed for him to climb in there to take apart the thruster, this job was quick and went smoothly.
Clark had me run the thruster with him under the bed so he could watch the unit. A bow thrust to the right and then one to the left, and Clark declared the project done and a success. Yay! He could actually cross something off his punch list.
I still thought maybe I could get to see a bit of the Art Festival, but then Clark suggested we take the boat out for a maintenance run to take advantage of the beautiful weather. By 1:30 we had thrown off the lines and were on our way to take a look at the 7-mile bridge - mostly just to have a destination.
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| Approaching 7-mile bridge in the Florida Keys |
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| Clark had me drive so he could take pictures |
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| This sailboat was almost too tall for the bridge. From this perspective, it looks like the boat should not be able to go under the bridge. |
I piloted the boat through the bridge and into the Atlantic Ocean.
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| Old bridge on left - new bridge on right (Every time I see the old bridge I think of the movie "True Lies") |
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| Passing between the two bridges |
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| Now on the Atlantic Ocean side of the bridge |
Shortly after reaching the ocean side of the bridge, we made a slow circle to turn around and head back to the marina. We had to be careful as we traveled to avoid numerous crab traps. Clark learned last night that shallow-depth traps are not catching anything, so the traps are all being moved to deeper waters. We certainly noticed this trend on today's run.
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| Heading back to Faro Blanco Resort & Yacht Club |
Because we did have some wind while we cruised the bay, we got some salt spray on the boat. When we finished securing our lines, Clark pulled out the hose to wash the salt off. As often happens, we both ended up with buckets of soapy water cleaning off the dirt we found as he hosed off the salt. Cleaning the boat took the rest of the afternoon.
We had a slight mishap towards the end of our cleaning spree. I was on the bow of the boat cleaning the rails, and Clark was at the upper helm when we heard crash, boom, bang and splash. What the heck!!?? I ran to the port side to look just as Clark yelled, "Oh, the ladder!" I watched in dismay as our aluminum ladder, that had been knocked off the boat by a gust of wind, rapidly sank off our port side.
The ladder went down so fast there was no time to even think of grabbing it. I did the "Man over board" thing and stood staring at the place where it went over the side until Clark appeared with a boat hook to attempt a rescue. He found nothing with the boat hook, presumably due to the depth of the water, and went and found a long line with a hook on the end (I have never seen this item on board before). He tried to dredge up the ladder using this method and failed again.
Next he thought about pulling out a kayak and using that to get closer for another try with the boat hook. Then, considering his options, he went and got the thermometer to measure the water temperature contemplating a quick jump in to rescue the ladder. It read 71 degrees -- not bad. While he was doing all this, I continued to stare at the water. As I did, I thought I saw the ladder, but then again, maybe that was just wishful thinking or a reflection of something on land. It was hard to tell.
However, as I continued to stare, and the water cleared as sediment settled from his efforts, more of the ladder became visible to my eyes. The ladder is two-tone - green plastic on top and aluminum elsewhere. As I watched the spot, I could clearly see the green top and a bit of the aluminum. I took the boat hook, reached into the water, and snagged the ladder.
Unbelievably, the ladder had landed in the water standing up! By the time Clark came back to see what I was doing, I was already pulling the ladder to safety. As I got it close to the edge of the boat, he reached over and pulled it over the side. To prevent corrosion, Clark then washed the saltwater off both the ladder and the boat hook and stood them to one side to dry.
At 5:00 we called a stop to our boat-cleaning work to take part in docktails. Docktails, however, did not occur today. The reason for this is probably two-fold - first we had a docktails-type event this morning and second a big storm appeared on the horizon coming our way.
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| Storms a-coming! Clouds darkening to the north and bright sun shining in the south. |
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| Dark skies over the Faro Blanco Lighthouse; Sunny day on the docks! |
With the combination of dark clouds and bright sunshine, we saw an almost full rainbow with just the very middle being a little obscured.
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| One half of rainbow over hotel |
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| Other end of the rainbow over the boats |
A wedding was held at Faro Blanco today. I felt sorry for the folks attending the wedding. All the tables for the reception were set up outdoors. First, the clouds brought light rain and the staff folded the chairs over to keep them dry. Then we got a downpour. The tables and all their trimmings magically disappeared. After the storm passed all that was left outside were the chairs that had been left there by the staff in their hurry to get the tables inside.
The rain did not stop Clark from working on the boat. It just changed his venue. He moved from cleaning the outside to repairing the inside. The next project he tackled, again with a little help from me, entailed swapping the upper and lower-helm autopilot units. The control knob on the upper unit is hard to adjust. We turn it expecting to increase by one or two degrees, and it jumps up by ten. Clark tried the one at the lower helm, and it does not have this sensitivity issue. Since we pilot the boat from the upper helm 95+% of the time, it makes sense to have the better unit located there.
With all the activity, I decided that I would wait until Clark finished his projects to start dinner. The only problem with this plan was it kept getting later and later and later with no signs of him calling quits for the day. After swapping the two autopilot units, he decided to go on to looking into a new problem found today. Our anemometer stopped providing wind speed data to the helm.
To work on this piece of equipment, Clark climbs onto the top of the hard top on the boat about 17 feet in the air. He does this using the, now infamous, step ladder (the one that went for a swim earlier). Unfortunately the ladder is about one rung short of making it a good height for getting up there, so it is rather dangerous to say the least.
By now, the clock read after 7:00 p.m. and the sun had set a while ago. Given all that, imagine my angst at having his climbing up there at night on a windy day. When I expressed my concern, he blew me off saying, "There's still plenty of light to see by."
Knowing that a strong, or maybe not so strong, gust of wind could send the ladder into the deep blue sea once again, I was hesitant to leave the ladder while he was up top. Being after hours at the marina, I wondered how I would get him down from there if the ladder blew overboard a second time today. I seriously doubted I could find it under water in the dark. I wanted to stand and hold the ladder in place, but he kept sending me below to get tools and contact cleaning sprays and to turn off and on equipment to check the anemometer and see if it had started displaying wind speeds.
Each time he sent me away, I prayed the ladder would still be in place when I returned. Ultimately this project had a successful conclusion. The ladder did not take another dip off the side of the boat. The anemometer once again displays the wind speed and direction. Best of all, Clark made it down to the lower deck safely. With that project completed, I decided that I could start dinner while he put away tools, cleaners, and the ladder.
Later, after dinner, as I washed the dishes, we heard a knock on the side of the boat. Clark dashed out to see who had arrived while I dried my hands and followed him outside a short while later. What a surprise I had to see two boaters we met here at Faro Blanco in 2016 standing outside our boat - Debbie and Brent from Haley's Comet. They now have a new-to-them boat - a Kadey Krogan named Change of Pace.
Brent said he looked in the window as they walked by, and he recognized me standing there doing the dishes. We talked and shared boat stories and agreed that we would make an effort to get together while they are here in Marathon. They are only here for a week and then they are heading to the Bahamas for two-or-three months.
Afterward, as I sat updating my blog entry, I noticed that Clark fell asleep on the couch. I guess the day finally caught up with him. It's now time for me to call it a day too and send him to bed.
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