Marathon Gift Shops and a big splash

Friday 2/23/2018
No boat travel.

Our short visit with our New Jersey friends ended all too soon as they departed at 10:00 this morning. As we said our farewells, Sandy from L'Attitude Adjustment came by with a group of women from the marina. They had decided to go shopping at the gift shops in Marathon. When Sandy realized that only 3 of the women walking with her planned to go on the shopping spree, she asked if I would like to come along. I said I would love to join them if they could wait a few minutes while I said my goodbyes.

Evelyn - Sunset Delight
Sandy - L'Attitude Adjustment
Leann - Rowe Boat
Ann - Morning Star II
Tonya - Sweet Tea
Kevin - Lone Star
Jen - Fat-n-Sassy (photo bomb!)

We invited my friend Darlene to get in the picture and tried again.

Faro Blanco Clan and good friend Darlene

We posed by our boat and had Sandy take a group shot of us.

Clark - Darlene - Ev - Mike

A few minutes later Mike and Darlene left for their long drive to Fort Myers Beach, and those going on the shopping spree piled into Sandy's car for our outing.

Although the shopping trip was supposed to be gift-shop-hopping (like a pub crawl only different), Ann begged for a Publix stop, so we stopped their first. As we entered Publix, Sandy said, "Okay. You have ten minutes!" Tonya took the words right out of my mouth when she said, "Oh! I love it!" We scattered like we were on a scavenger hunt.

I checked my watch when Sandy gave her marching orders - 10:15. I checked my watch as we all exited Publix - 10:32. Not bad for 5 women shopping in a food store especially given the check out lines are always unpredictable in length and speed.

For the first stop on our "Gift Shops of Marathon" tour, Sandy took us to a place called "Uniques". Tonya, Kevin and Ann conspired to pick up some gifts while Sandy and I perused the various items for sale. I picked up a small postcard-sized picture for my boat at $5.50 - big-time spender that I am.

When we left there, we continued traveling east to a place called "Marooned in Marathon". The owner of this store is married to the guitarist that plays regularly at Faro Blanco. I decided to spend real money here and bought some gifts to be shipped to my granddaughters. Unlike another store I visited recently, the owner, Marlene, was more than willing to ship my purchases.

Satisfied with our visits to Uniques and Marooned, we were surprised when Sandy said she had one more stop to make. When asked where she was taking us, she said, "I'm not telling. It's a surprise!" She took us west back towards our marina and stopped at a place called "Shady Palm Art Gallery & Photography". Although it is near our marina, none of us had taken time to look at what they had to offer. 

Upon leaving the store Sandy received fake complaints from those who said they had spent way too much money at this last stop and blamed her for it. Artwork featuring the Faro Blanco lighthouse seemed to be particularly popular with this group of shoppers.

While I was out enjoying the gift shop circuit, Clark dug into taxes. After I returned to the boat, I had bed linens to wash and a galley to clean. I noticed as I gathered up the laundry that Clark had done the part of the job that required making beds disappear and sofas appear in their place. Nice!

Since I had to stow the extra bedding, etc, I took advantage of the opportunity to hide away a few extra things that have been kicking around in the way for the majority of this trip. Some things currently on the boat will be left behind on our next trip for sure! I find it is a learning experience on this boat. Over time I learned what I needed to, and could, bring on Sea Moss. Eventually I will have it sorted out for Sunset Delight as well.

As soon as I sat down from my cleaning frenzy, Clark pulled me into working on taxes with him. We split the work, and he had the standard list of tasks for me to handle to help move the process along faster. At 5:00, having spent most of the day on taxes, Clark said we should take a break for docktails. Just as we left the boat, however, it started to rain. We waited a bit for it to stop, and by the time we got to docktails, everyone had taken shelter and decided not to return. Instead of returning to our boat, we decided to walk the docks.

Heading out to the Lighthouse to see who's around

As we walked the docks, we saw a boat coming into the marina. Josh, one of the dock hands, appeared on the spot ready to help the captain tie to the dock. Clark decided to give Josh a helping hand. Since I had planned on attending docktails, I had a beer in one hand and a bag of pretzels in the other, so I just watched.

Pulling in to dock, the boat fought a strong wind pushing against its port beam. With the use of thrusters and with Josh and Clark's help, the boat very slowly got closer and closer to the dock. Eventually, they got the boat in close enough to tie off the lines. Although happy to have the boat secured, some additional work had to be done to snug the boat up so that captain and crew could disembark. More thruster power and some brute strength had to be used to get the boat in close enough. I am sure Josh appreciated Clark's help.

After that slight diversion we continued our stroll and found Jen from Fat-n-Sassy. We talked to her for a while and took some sunset pictures.

Sunset at Faro Blanco

Goodnight Sun!

As we talked, we noticed that Jen's dog "Dum dum" became focused on the water by Jen's boat. Did we get a surprise when we looked down in the water!

Dum-Dum noticed someone in the water at the marina

Crystal! Our favorite diver!

Crystal had been busy cleaning the bottom of Lone Star but decided that with the sun down, it was too dark to see. She was ready to call it a day. We talked to her in the water for a while and, then again later, when she was up on the dock.

Crystal is a multi-faceted and very interesting person. While deeply engaged in a conversation with her, we heard a yelp and a splash come from a slip a few feet away from where we stood. I could not tell if someone dropped something or fell. We went to investigate. It turned out to be the latter.

A private docktails party was taking place on a boat called Rowe Boat. Everyone on board had removed their shoes because the boat is brand new -- as in 2018 variety. When boarding the boat, one of the guests, Steve, stepped wrong and fell between the boat and the dock. At the time I thought it might have been due to bare feet on a slippery boat surface - a dangerous combination. Later I learned that he just missed his step and went down.

Fortunately he could swim and he did not seriously injure himself during the fall. Consequently, the hardest part of the accident became dealing with trying to get out of the water and back on the boat. He swam around to the swim platform where he tried to figure out how to deploy the swim ladder. Finally he gave up and his two friends dragged him up onto the swim platform. After the event, his wife, Kevin, looked more shaken than he did. With the excitement over, Clark and I went back to talking with the diver, Crystal, until her family came to the docks to collect her and take her home.

Walking back towards our boat, we discovered that, it being a Friday, John Bartus was playing his guitar at Faro Blanco tonight. Since we had not eaten dinner yet, we did not stop to listen. Fortunately, our boat is close enough to the pool area that we could hear him play while I cooked as well as while we ate.

After dinner Clark said he wanted to hear John's final set and walked up to the pool area. When John was done playing for the night, Clark said farewell to him one last time. We will be leaving before John plays here again.

John Bartus on guitar at Faro Blanco

John Bartus with Faro Blanco lighthouse in background

One would think that after all that we would have enjoyed a relaxing evening and turned in early. Instead, we went back to working on taxes and stayed up doing so until 1:00 a.m.