2021: Ortega FL

 4 to 7 November 2021

No boat travel.

Following day-after-day travel and having washed off the top dirt and salt, it felt strange to have no specific agenda. When Clark asked me on Thursday morning what my plans were for the day, I replied, "Not much. What do you have in mind?" With his input, my plans changed from "no idea" to finishing canvas covers for the wood railing on the fly bridge. After that, Clark requested that I paint the rusty handle of a fire extinguisher and the base of the compass on the fly bridge that regularly gets hit with saltwater spray. Frequently, his agenda becomes a job or two for me.

The weather forecast for the next two days did not sound wonderful. Rain, heavy at times, with coastal flooding did not sound like anything to look forward to. On Friday, Clark decided that we should borrow the marina's courtesy car to drive to Green Cove Springs to collect our snail mail that we have forwarded there when traveling. 

Having looked at the windshield wipers when he asked me to paint the other items on Thursday, he decided they were beyond hope, and we should go to an auto store to seek new ones. The custom wipers for this boat cost over $75 a piece and we need three. Fortunately, a particular RainX model fits and only costs about $15 each. We just had to find a store that sold them. It took three tries but we found one. Unfortunately, it was in the complete opposite direction to Green Cove Springs. We borrowed the courtesy car for three hours for our travel plans. We managed to return the car in 2 hours and 55 minutes from when we took it out.

When we left the boat to go shopping, I complained to Clark that the boat was so far from the dock that I could not get off. He used the line on the cleat to pull the boat over close enough that I managed to climb to the dock. Clark said the boat was so far from the dock due to the extra high tide.

After returning from our car trip, we planted ourselves on the boat and basically did not get off the rest of Friday and all of Saturday. Mostly, we sat on board and watched and listened to the rain come down. Clark did manage to find a respite between rain showers to go take a shower up at the men's room. I showered on the boat! To pass the time, I managed to get a lot of reading done, played quite a few rounds of computer games, colored some pictures with colored pencils, and watched a whole season of "Good Witch" on Netflix. 

 By Sunday morning, we were both glad to see the sun and a bright, pleasant day. Once again, Clark asked me my plans for the day. Once again I said, "Not much. What do you have in mind?" He suggested we go for a walk. Anything involving getting off the boat sounded good to me, so I readily agreed. We decided to have lunch and then go for a walkabout. 

When I went to get off the boat, I told Clark it was impossible as the boat was at least 3 feet from the dock. Once again he explained that it was due to high tide and fixed docks. I wasn't buying it and insisted that he do something. Grumbling, he jumped off the boat and retied the lines. That brought the boat in closer but lined up the boat such that a piling completely blocked the path for me to climb off the boat. Still grumbling, Clark retied one of the lines to pull the boat forward a foot or so to give me room to get off.

That done, I climbed off the boat. We had collected three bags of garbage to get rid of. One of those contained the old windshield wipers that Clark replaced this morning ready for the next time we have to pilot in the rain or a salt spray. Also, I decided that if we were going for a walk, I should take the laundry that needed to get done with me, so it could be washing and drying as we strolled around. 

When we got to the end of the dock at the boatyard, we found a lake over the cement due to the extra high tide. 

Water flowing over the cement from the slip used to 
lift boats out for repair

The fixed dock is underwater

We managed to tiptoe our way around the water to get to dry land without getting our shoes wet.  After disposing of the garbage, we headed over to the laundry room to get the washer going.  We strolled around the marina until the wash finished. After I threw the sheets in the dryer, Clark started to head back to the boat. I balked at the idea of getting back on board and convinced him to walk around some more. 

As we waited for the dryer, we found some other folks that were walking the docks and enjoying the nicer weather. We talked for a very long time. By the time we got back to the boat it was getting chilly as the sun was disappearing from the sky. Given the time change, what yesterday would have been 6:00 was 5:00 today. 

I finished my latest novel while Clark strummed on his guitar until dinner time. After dinner, Clark said he has plans for tomorrow, which means I have plans too. He says he wants to run the dinghy.