21 January 2021
Weekly Maintenance Run
Depart: Faro Blanco 3:10
Arrive: Faro Blanco 4:10
Conditions: Mostly sunny, NE wind, 70s
Since the starboard engine needed an oil change, we took the boat out for our weekly run to warm up the engines in preparation for the oil change. For today, he only removed the oil and planned to refill the engine oil in the morning.
We saw nothing worth picture taking on our little maintenance run, but we did have a nice sunset tonight.
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| Sunset at Faro Blanco |
22 January 2021
No boat travel.
Today turned into a nightmare starting first thing in the morning! When I went to flush a toilet full of #2, the water went up instead of down. I tried a second time, and the dirty water rose further. At which point I decided to run out screaming for Clark to come to the rescue. He said, "I'll put it on my list!"
For me, emptying the disgusting toilet bowl would have been top priority, but Clark put it at the bottom of his to do list for today. Before anything else, he wanted to complete the engine oil change. He drained whatever oil had settled overnight, changed the oil filters, and refilled the engine oil. After that he had some urgent business to take care of on the computer.
Finally, some time during the afternoon, he got to the head. I stayed as far away as possible as he opened up the pipes connecting to the holding tank to look for a clog. I cannot stand the stink. He found no large obstruction, but instead, a buildup of gunk and "crystals". He did not have replacement duckbill valves, so he cleaned the old ones as well as possible and reinstalled them. (After the repair, he ordered parts for next time.)
While Clark was busy with head repair, Kevin and Sandy from "Koastal Karma" came by to say hello. I slipped off the boat to sit with them for a while and chat. When I talked with them yesterday, they showed me a picture of their daughter's Welsh Corgy. I agreed to make a birthday card for her daughter from the picture. I finished it last night, so they came to get it today.
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| Lord Bean Burrito |
We sat and talked for an hour. When they left the marina, Clark had still not completed the work on the head. He did manage to wave goodbye but that was all.
When Clark declared himself done with the head repair, until he gets a new duckbill valve, he told me to be "gentle" with the toilet. I decided that my way of treating it with TLC would be to avoid it altogether. I decided to move to the guest head for the foreseeable future. The other motivator for abandoning the master head is the still dysfunctional sink. No matter how much sealer Clark puts on the pipe, it still leaks. Clark ordered a part for the sink. That part arrived, and now he will have to redo the repair with the new part before we can use that sink.
With Clark's full agenda, he found no time to take any pictures today.
23 January 2021
No boat travel.
This being Saturday, Sandy and I went to the drive thru farmer's market. Afterwards, we stopped into Winn Dixie to pick up some other food items. I quickly moved through the store and collected the items I wished to buy. Since many items on my list fell into the "buy one get one free" category, my cart was fuller than normal, so I went to the non-self serve checkout.
The young gentleman that worked the belt was very friendly. I brought my own bags, and he packed them to the tippy top with as much as each bag would hold. He was proud of himself for getting so much in each bag. Fortunately, I could still lift them when he was done.
When it came time to pay, I decided to use my debit card to get cash back for our next trip to the farmer's market. I requested $40 in change. I put my card in and entered the necessary information including the request for cash back. On his end, the cash drawer opened, and he slammed it closed - no change in hand.
He muttered something I could not hear. When I asked him for my $40, he said I would have to go to the customer service desk. He showed me the receipt, and no where did it indicate the $40 in change. As I considered just leaving and getting cash another day, he made it clear to me that he had rung up the purchase as "cash", i.e. no charge went on the card whatsoever.
I said, "You mean that if I walk out right now, the groceries are free?"
"Yes," he replied, "but no no no, don't do that please!"
With that revelation, I headed over to the Customer Service desk to take care of the payment. Unfortunately, two men were in line in front of me paying for groceries. As I stood there waiting, I thought Sandy must be wondering what happened to me as she saw me in line checking out when she left the store.
After the two men completed their purchases, I thought it was my turn. Instead the rep took off to assist a shopper at the self-serve lane. I cannot count the number of times that I thought, "It would be so easy to just turn around and leave, and no one would know I never paid." I waited! This store cannot afford to give away food for free.
When she came back and I explained the situation, i.e. that I had a receipt saying I had paid when, in reality, I had not done so, she turned a little paler in color and muttered something like "Mother of God" under her breath. "Thank you for being so honest!," she said over and over again.
She scanned and photocopied the receipt, typed somethings into the register, and then told me to insert my card. After I entered my pin, a screen appeared showing "Refund $205? Yes or No" I looked at her and said "Refund? This is getting better and better. Now you are paying me to take the groceries?"
She declared, "No no no! Oh my God! Thank you for being so honest!"
When I finally got out to the car, I apologized to Sandy for the delay and told her, "Have I got a story to tell you!"
Clark was off getting pictures of the fast boats that came into Faro Blanco as part of a weekend poker run. Given my fully-packed, extremely heavy bags full of frozen food melting in the sun, I was disappointed that he was not on the boat to greet me, so I called him to "come home" and help me get the bags on board.
Clark decided he wanted to get the dinghy cleaned up with a coat of polish on the hull before taking it out for a run to make it easier to rinse off when we return. When he took the cover off the dinghy, he found a seam that had given way. I told him I would fix it in the morning.
24 January 2021
Dinghy ride.
Clark gave me the canvas and helped me pull out my sewing machine to do some sewing. Before giving it back I inspected the other seams and found no more in need of repair. Although Clark had done a beautiful job on the hull of the dinghy, the inside and seats were black from grime. I told him I was not going anywhere in that! The two of us worked on scrubbing it. We left it to dry while we ate lunch, and it was ready to use when we were done.
Folks we met at Faro Blanco two years back are staying at Marathon Marina, so Clark thought it would be a good plan to go visit them by dinghy. As we made our way out of Faro Blanco, we had a lot of waves splashing. Clark wondered if we would have a wet ride, and I told him I was already getting wet. With that he decided to go faster to cut down on splashing and that helped. I was dry while holding on for dear life.
When we got to Marathon Marina, we took a guess as to where their boat might be docked. We guessed incorrectly, but as a result got to meet Loopers on "Post Script". They were new to the area and asked where they could go on their dinghy for lunch. I suggested Burdines, and they went there.
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| Cheryl and John --- "Post Script" |
I thought it was a long shot, but Clark asked Cheryl if she was familiar with the boat "The Lower Place". Surprisingly, she knew the boat and where it was located! Meanwhile, Clark got a call back from Charlie and told us the slip number to look for.
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| Robin on swim platform of "The Lower Place" |
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| Charlie in his dinghy |
We ended up with an unexpected dinghy party as, while we chatted with Robin and Charlie, two more dinghies pulled up and tied off the "The Lower Place" swim platform. Then the folks in the neighboring boat came back in their dinghy, so we chatted with them as well. Impromptu party!
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| "Ursa Minor" next to "The Lower Place" |
Talking to Robin and Charlie, we compared marina pros and cons - Faro Blanco vs Marathon Marina. Faro Blanco has smelly sea grass. Marathon Marina has better sunsets.
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| Nightly View from "The Lower Place" |
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| Sunset the same night at Faro Blanco |
25 January 2021
Birthday Bike Ride to the Beach
For the last couple of years, instead of a gift, Clark has taken me on an adventure for my birthday. Last year, we did the parasailing trip, and the year before that, we rented a jet ski and went for a ride in Florida Bay. One year he bought tickets for an air boat ride in the Everglades.
We talked about doing a dinghy ride to Bahia Honda this year, but we just did a dinghy ride yesterday, so I was not as enthusiastic as I would have been otherwise. I suggested we pack a picnic lunch and go to Sombrero Beach via bicycles to get some exercise and enjoy the day.
We left some time after noon. With the 13 mph wind from the east slowing us down, we got to the beach at a little after 1:00. We found a table where we could eat our food. The wind was so strong that everything wanted to blow away as we tried to eat. We made short work of the food, left our bikes locked to a nearby fence, and went for a walk along the beach.
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| Boardwalk to beach |
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| Coral What the "beach" looks like under the sand. |
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| Coconut on the coral |
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| Ev in the Mangroves |
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| Portuguese Man O' War washed up on beach |
As we walked away after seeing the Man O War, Clark saw a boy walk up and try to pick it up in his hands. When I turned to look, the boy had switched to using a flipper to try to move it.
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| Flowers near the picnic table where we ate. |
Since it was my birthday, we took a couple of selfies at the beach.
With the east wind pushing us, we got back to the boat a lot faster than we did going. Unfortunately, we returned to smelly sea grass. The wind had shifted southerly enough to be moving the sea grass away. Sadly, the area between our boat and the neighbor's seems to form a dam, and where most of the other slips were becoming grass free, we still had a full complement of smell.
My birthday present to myself was to pull out the boat hook and give the grass a push to move it along. Clark helped and after an hour of work, we managed to get it cleared. With the bike exercise followed by grass raking, I was done in for the day and took a nap until dinner time. Clark cooked steaks so I got some time off from galley duty.
Later, we got to do phone calls / video calls with the grandkids, so I was happy.
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