2022: Happy New Year from Marlin Bay Marina

 31 December 2021

A few lose ends from last year. 

First, we got good news on the 30th that we did not need to change slips for January. Initially we were told that we could stay past the 31st of December, but we would have to move to a larger, more expensive slip. On Thursday they gave us a choice - stay put or move. We opted to save some money and stay put in our current slip. 

Second, Clark was disappointed that I did not discuss what he spent his time doing on New Years Eve while I worked on the Blog entry. An indicator light had burned out in our electrical panel. He replaced the burned out 12v LED with an incandescent 28v light. It is a tad brighter and redder but close enough to be acceptable. He got the part from our neighbors on "Bagus 2" who had extras in their spare parts bin.

Old, burned out LED light

Replacement, glowing red light 

With me working on the Blog all day and Clark replacing wiring, we were both ready to do something else. Clark convinced me to get up and get off the boat to walk the docks and see who was around to say "Happy New Year" to. We found a few folks to speak with. Many boaters, however, appeared to have turned in early as no lights on their boats shown at all. 

As we walked back to our boat, we heard and saw a few (what appeared to be) amateur fireworks near the marina. They looked like they might be coming from a small park nearby. To kill some time until midnight, we watched a movie since the Nashville New Years Eve party on CBS (the only channel we receive here in the Keys) was not that interesting to us. 

Around 11:30 I heard Clark go out on the bow of the boat to see what action may be taking place. I decided if I wanted a New Year's kiss, I better follow him out there. At midnight we got quite a show just standing on our boat. Many places ushered in the new year with fireworks shows.  From our boat we could see fireworks on display from several directions. I counted 8 different shows - there may have been more.

Though I keep telling Clark that he should watch the fireworks instead of trying to capture them on the camera, he refuses to listen to me. He took several still photos as well as videos. Here are a couple of the better ones.

Looking towards west / Faro Blanco

Looking towards southeast / Marathon park

After the shows ended, we came in and went to bed. For many minutes after we turned in we could still hear pop pop, pop pop!  Talking to our boat neighbor the next day, I learned that she had gone to bed early. During the night she thought her son was opening and closing doors. After I told her about the popping sounds, she decided that must have been what she heard!

Besides listening to pop pop sounds, we got to hear our phone light up with text messages every few minutes to wish us Happy New Year. One of Clark's friends on the west coast decided it was the perfect time to reconnect.

1 January 2022

Today was a lazy day where Clark and I spent a relaxing time reading. I had a novel I was finishing and he is reading a very detailed book on Ham Radios called "Now You're Talking!" I am certain I would be sound asleep after the first paragraph, but Clark is thoroughly engaged with it.

We could have gone to Faro Blanco for the fireworks last night. I said it was too dangerous to travel by foot or bicycle along Route 1 after midnight on New Year's, so we stayed home. We could have gone to Faro Blanco again for their "New Year's Good Luck" Potluck lunch, but we opted not to as we were too busy vegging out with our books. 

2 January 2022

I had two things planned for today. One went well --  the other not so much! Although there is a shower for boaters to use here at the marina, there is only one and it is kept under lock and key. Anyone wanting to use it must sign in and then a staff member unlocks the room. Clark had been using it but decided to start showering on the boat for convenience. He jokes that it's weird that the staff knows his shower schedule.

Since I planned to dye my hair today, we decided he should shower first and get that out of the way. Then I would take over the head / bathroom afterwards. While he showered, I decided to walk up to the marina restroom to conserve space in the boat holding tank. 

On my way back to the boat, I ran into a couple that just arrived at the marina that we know from prior encounters - once at Legacy in Fort Meyers and other times at Faro Blanco. Fortunately, we only spoke for a brief time. When I got back to the boat, I found that Clark had been waiting almost the entire time for me to return because the water had shut itself off, and he needed me to reset the breaker. 

I turned the water breaker to off then on. He got water and finished his shower. I have not really had this problem when I showered, so we have been trying to figure out why it has happened to him at least twice now. 

Today, I got my turn! I color my hair myself using an herbal product that is environmentally and Evelyn safe. I prefer not to pour chemicals on my head. After letting it set for the appropriate amount of time, I got in the shower, started to rinse the color out, and then got hit with the no water problem. 

It happened at the worst possible time. I had hair dye running down my face and stinging my closed eyes. I could not even open my eyes because it would hurt too much. Panicking, I loudly yelled for Clark (it took a couple of yells), and he toggled the breaker for the water to flow again. 

The procedure for dying the hair includes using a special shampoo followed by a heavy duty conditioner. The conditioner has to be on for 5 minutes for best results. After the allotted time, I started rinsing the conditioner out and, boom, no water again! Once more I yelled as loudly as I could, "Clark! Clark!" It took a couple of times to get a response. Then I yelled, "WATER!" 

He flipped the breaker and nothing happened! After trying again, he decided he had to pull open a hatch and climb into the bilge to get to the water pump directly.  Besides water in the bilge (the bilge pump had been accidentally turned off), he found a red error light shining brightly indicating the pump thought it had run dry. After what felt like a very long time to me, Clark did whatever he had to do to get water flowing, and I quickly finished my hair rinse and jumped out of that shower!

With that ordeal completed, I had nothing on my agenda until later in the day. Once again Clark and I lounged around with our respective books. Around 2:30 I got a phone call from Susie on "All Talk II" asking if we wanted to go exploring with them by dinghy.  We had dinner plans with the folks on "Bagus 2" for 5:00 this evening. It takes us a rather long time to deploy and stow our dinghy. Given that and a time constraint on return, we did not think we would have time to enjoy much of a ride between times, so we had to decline and hope to go on another day.

Mid-December, Anette on "Bagus 2" said we should get together to do a potluck dinner where we each brought something to put on the grill. Her daughter came to visit over the holidays and has since left, so yesterday, we agreed that tonight we would get together for this dinner. Anette invited us to come to their boat for this dinner as they have the grill setup on their stern. We do not.

I took over steak for Clark and me, asparagus, and homemade applesauce cake. Anette prepared potatoes, Brussel sprouts, and hamburgers. Anette's husband, Bill, did all the grilling. We had quite a feast including cheese and crackers for starters and applesauce cake and cheesecake for dessert. Anette and Bill kept us entertained all evening long with stories of their foreign travels and lives living abroad.

We watched the sunset while we ate the cheese and crackers. It was not as spectacular as some sunsets we have seen, but it was still enjoyable.