16 December 2021 Thursday
No boat travel.
I spent almost all day today working on my computer to do the blog update. By late afternoon I was ready to get up and get some exercise. Knowing that our friends at Faro Blanco had a fish-fry event planned for the evening gave us the perfect excuse to pull out our bikes to go for a ride. We did not plan to stay after dark so did not take time to look for our bike lights. After sitting all day it took a while for me to get moving on the bicycle.
We arrived slightly early. Clark talked to the guys frying the fish and I gave Anne a hand moving items from her boat to the food table. Beside the fried fish, the table eventually contained a wide variety of foods.
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| Ev and Clark at Faro Blanco Fish Fry Night |
As I watched the sun get lower and lower in the sky, I decided we better get going. I dragged Clark away from his conversation, and we headed back to Marlin Bay. Worried about being caught out by the police with no lights on my bike, I pedaled for all I was worth to get back before the sun went down. Clark said later he was surprised at how fast I pedaled home against the wind when I went so slowly earlier with the wind. I was highly motivated to get off Route 1 before dark!
On our way back, we passed Tranquility Bay Resort and saw their beautiful light display. Clark took a quick picture as I kept going.
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| Tranquility Bay Resort |
We got a bit of a surprise today. Clark had requested a local place to send out a diver to scrape the bottom and work on the line cutters that got damaged on the way south. He was told the diver would come mid-month. He showed up today unannounced. Thankfully we were on hand so Clark could tell him what he needed to have done.
The hull scraping requirements were quite obvious. The cutters presented a problem. To do what needed to be done, the diver required an underwater drill which he did not have. We will have to wait until we are on the east coast to find a diver with the proper equipment. In the meantime, the diver removed the cutter from the shaft.
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| Bent cutter |
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| Sheared off bolts - 2 missing, 1 present |
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| Shows wear and tear on cutter piece |
While Clark and the diver were engaged on the boat bottom tasks, I pulled out my colored pencils and markers and did some art work. At some point I will send these cards to my grandkids.
I cannot take much credit for the pictures. I printed them from the internet. I did the coloring! I find coloring a relaxing and fun hobby.
19 December 2021
When I made my morning walk to the restrooms by the pool, I took some pictures. Interesting that even staying at Marlin Bay, I have a clear view of the Faro Blanco lighthouse - albeit a smaller version due to the distance.
I finished more fairy cards and then decided I had been sitting on the boat way too long and needed exercise. Clark was busy with reading, but when I said I was going to jump in the pool, he came along. I briefly spoke with Cheri on "Sea Gypsy" whom we met this year at Marlin Bay. After a while, I excused myself and waded into the pool. Clark, on the other hand, stayed and talked to Cheri for a very long time.
Eventually I waded out and told him that if he did not go swimming soon, he would miss his opportunity to get a shower at the Club House after his swim. That motivated him to get in the swim. I noticed that as soon as he went in the water, Cheri quickly packed up her stuff and left the pool area.
Later, after dinner, we settled down to watch some television. Suddenly we heard someone yelling, "Help!" "Help! Help!" Clark poked his head out the door and heard someone say, "Help! Bring a flashlight!" We both thought that someone had fallen off the dock into the water. Clark grabbed 2 flashlights and raced to the dock. The water was pitch black and without the flashlights it was impossible to see anything in the water.
Not a person, but a tiny dog, had trotted off the dock and fell into the water. Bella is a miniature dog. I believe she is a Yorkshire Terrier. That breed weighs in at about 5 to 7 pounds. She is a beautiful dog.
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| Picture of a Yorkshire Terrier from the internet. This closely resembles Bella. |
Fortunately, the current pushed the dog towards the rocks, and Bella was able to climb out of the water onto one of the large rocks. Had she been caught in a current moving eastward, she could have been swept away quickly to a place not-so-easy to find her.
Earlier in the day, I took pictures of the rocks as I watched a small egret and parrot fish swimming in the area.
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| Young Egret hopping from rock to rock |
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| Parrot Fish not really visible |
Due to the height of the dock off the water, there was no way to reach the dog. The irate dog dad was very upset with his wife who had let the dog walk the docks. He always carries Bella on the docks. Now I understand why.
With no other obvious way to reach the dog, the owner jumped off the dock into the water. Clark wondered how his bare feet did with the rough and rocky reef bottom. The owner got the dog, handed him up to someone, and then got a helping hand from a couple of boaters to haul him out of the water.
By the time the action was over, a small crowd had gathered in response to the calls for help. The excitement over, the crowd quickly dispersed back to their respective boats.
20 December 2021
With no laundry facilities here, I have been using the washer and dryer I have on board. Unfortunately, it is an apartment-sized set and is quickly filled by what I would normally consider a small load. Thinking I would be moving in January to a new marina, I was holding off washing some items that I did not need at present. Now, knowing we are staying put, I decided to bite the bullet and get it all done.
I told Clark he would need to fill the water tank or plug the hose into the boat to accommodate the water usage. He opted to fill and refill the water tank. It took me four loads to get caught up including sheets, towels, and cold-weather clothes that I was waiting until later to address. It took me all day, but I got it done!
While the laundry was getting done, I entertained myself with art, reading, and computer puzzles. Having heard that tonight was "Movie Night" at Faro Blanco, Clark pulled out his bike to go visit. With my laundry still in progress and my art supplies scattered around me, I told him I would not be going. Worrying that he would return after dark, we pulled out the bike lights only to find that most of them would not light up.
Eventually, we found him a white headlight and a red taillight and he went on his way. I told him to text me when he was leaving, so I could start dinner. At 6:30, I decided to make dinner and reheat it when he got back. At 7:00 I got a text saying "Movie night is a bust". At 7:30 I got a text saying "Heading back". He got back at 8:00 to find that I had already eaten my dinner!
Movie night failed due to technical difficulties. Apparently no one had the correct cable to get the display going. The viewing of "Polar Express" will have to wait for some other time. While there, Clark took a couple of pictures to show me what I missed.
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| Food! Clark had a gingerbread man! |
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| Moon glow at the docks |
While Clark was gone, I searched Netflix and found some shows to watch. When we saw that the Lady Gaga / Tony Bennett special was being repeated on CBS, we went back to Netflix for the rest of the night.
21 December 2021
We prepared for potential heavy rain and thunderstorms as the clouds rolled in today. The wind in the morning made getting off the boat difficult. I decided not to bother even trying to jump the gap to the dock.
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| "Mind the Gap" as they say in London |
Later, the wind changed direction and the boat was bumping into the pole. Whenever this happens, Clark tightens the lines to hold the boat off.
Given the winds and expected inclement weather, I decided to curl up on the sofa with my exciting novel. I finished book 7 of the 7-book historical saga about Richard the Lionheart. I found I could not put down the exciting conclusion of the series. Meanwhile, Clark spent ages talking the ear off the woman on the neighboring boat "'Cuda".
We got rain off-and-on throughout the day but nothing severe. Though we heard reports of damage in other parts of Florida, the worst of the weather missed us.
We had cloudy skies and an interesting, progressive set of opportunities for sunset pictures. Every time I sat down to work on the blog, Clark would tell me the sky had changed and I should go take more pictures.
Clark was up to his eyebrows in volt meters, bike lights, and batteries. Earlier in the day, he pulled out our various bike lights and worked on them for the bulk of the day. One after the other, he took lights apart, worked on them to clean them, and then relegated them to the junk pile as he found that batteries had leaked and destroyed the works making them unsalvageable.
Evening skies on a rainy day ...
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