6 December 2021
No boat travel.
Overnight the wind blew in the sea grass so thick I saw a bird walking on it behind our boat. When the grass packs in, it becomes very thick and becomes a solid mass.
We left the dinghy down overnight and that helped to create a dam whereby the sea grass piled up behind it and Sunset Delight.
The sea grass would not be bad except that when it piles up, it sticks around, starts to rot, and gives off a truly awful aroma.
I woke up this morning with the great idea that I should clean the dinghy. It is not normally accessible. With it in the water, I could climb in and scrub the tubes and seat cushions. When I told Clark, my plan, I was shocked when he told me the dinghy did not need to be cleaned. He had sprayed it off the day before. Apparently, Clark and I had very different definitions of clean. I pulled out my supplies and got to work.
When we were on the great loop in 2015, we met a tow boat pilot on his sailboat docked near us in Demopolis, Alabama. I watched him cleaning his dinghy one day and could not believe how good he was making it look. I asked him how he got it so clean, and he told me about "Totally Awesome" cleaner. It is sold at the dollar store and is the best cleaner ever for this type of work.
After over two hours of scrubbing the dinghy that Clark said was already clean, I declared myself done.
 |
| Nice and shiny dinghy |
As I cleaned the boat, one of the dockhands came around with a rake with an expandable handle to push the grass away. He did what he could reach and said he would come back later in the day with a paddleboard to try to move more. When I was done with cleaning the dinghy, I decided to use a boat hook and push the sea grass on the port side of the boat on its way.
While I worked on the boat and the sea grass, Clark spent the morning on the phone. He had issues with his Navionics charts as well as our stabilizers on the boat. After lunch I rested from my morning labors. Clark grabbed the hose and went out to wash the port side of the boat. Unfortunately, the sun was on that side of the boat as he worked. By the time he was done, he was a hot, sweaty mess. He decided to make us of the dinghy and go for a ride to cool off.
Just before Clark returned, I saw Pam and Oscar from "Black Swan" strolling the docks near our boat. I haled Pam and asked them to come aboard. We sat down for a chat and about ten minutes later Clark appeared. We settled in for the long run. Finally, dinner time and gnats drove our spontaneous guests off the boat. We saw them on their way with a promise to get together soon to see their boat.
After they left, I managed to grab a couple of sunset pictures. I liked the pink glow of the clouds.
7 December 2021
No boat travel.
I guess I exhausted all my energy yesterday cleaning the dinghy and raking sea grass. Today I just wanted to read, read, and read. Being in the midst of book four of a engrossing 7-part historical novel, I wanted to keep reading to the exciting conclusion. The book is about King Richard the Lion Heart, Prince John, Robin Hood, and many medieval knights. It is a bit blood thirsty but I find it a real page turner.
Clark put up Christmas lights on the boat. The lights are solar powered and work well as long as we have sunny days to charge them.
In the afternoon, Clark decided to take advantage of the pool. I did not feel like jumping in, but I brought my book and sat up there to read while he swam laps.
8 December 2021
No boat travel.
Clark ruined my breakfast yesterday by telling me he wanted me to design our Christmas cards and write our annual Christmas letter. After grumbling, I managed to pull something together that met with his approval. I tried to look into making the cards on Shutterfly. An AWS outage made that impossible as nothing worked on Shutterfly. I put together a PowerPoint and left it until today.
Clark reminded me first thing this morning to try Shutterfly again. It worked, but Shutterfly did not offer what I was looking for. We decided to put the card on a thumb drive and bike to the UPS store to get cards printed there.
We got to the UPS store around 11:30 and placed our order for cards to be created. They told us they would be completed some time in the afternoon. Given that we decided to hang around and have lunch in the area in hopes that we could avoid a second trip to pick up the cards. After some debate on where to get lunch, Clark won and we got subs at Publix. With no place to sit outdoors, we stood by our bikes in the bike rack to have our impromptu picnic.
The woman at UPS said we would get a phone call when our order was ready. As we finished our lunch, we still had not received a call. Clark suggested we go "window shopping" along the strip malls.
We walked west then east until we had seen all there was to see. Still no phone call. Given the round trip to go back to the boat and come back again, Clark decided to go in and check the status. He came back out with the cards.
When we got back to the boat, we folded the papers into cards and stuffed them in envelopes. Afterwards, Clark announced that he wanted to go to The Home Depot for a couple of things. Since he was going out, he decided to go to the post office to mail the cards - so much for not making the trip twice in one day! I begged off and let him go alone.
9 December 2021
No boat travel.
I reminded Clark that today, being Thursday, was pump-out day. The guys came around 10:00, which left us the rest of the day to do as we pleased. The other day while Clark swam and I read, the water looked so inviting, I was sorry I had decided to just sit by the pool to read instead of jumping in. I told Clark that I wanted to go use the pool today after lunch.
He showed me a picture of the current user of the pool area.
All I could think after I saw the picture was "I hope he didn't leave any presents behind in the water!"
Walking back from the restrooms this morning, our neighbors on "Bagus" called out to me and invited us to join them on their boat at 3:15 for "Fika". The boat owner is Swedish, and fika is a Swedish tradition, which is basically a coffee break.
We walked up to the pool at 1:00 and enjoyed the refreshing water for a little more than an hour. Around 3:15, as planned, we visited "Bagus" to talk with our neighbors. "Bagus" is an Indonesian word that means "Good", and their boat is definitely "good"! They have a lovely Katey-Krogen. Clark and I got tours of this very spacious boat.
A "fika" is supposed to be a coffee break. This "fika" lasted over three hours. As sunset approached, we migrated from the cockpit of their boat to the bow to watch the view.
Dinner time and darkness drove us off their boat and sent us "home" to Sunset Delight.
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