Boating with Sunset Delight: 2022: Marlin Bay Week 1

16 December 2022

No boat travel.

Weeks ago our North Carolina friends, Beverly and Dave, on Amelie said they would be driving down to Marathon for a week's holiday. Our schedule had us arriving just 2 days before they left to return to NC. The evening before they left Florida, we got together for dinner at a local restaurant, Burdines. Mutual friends we met at Faro Blanco several years ago, Dorothy and Clayton who do their boating on Flight, joined us for dinner. In fact Clayton picked us up to drive us to the restaurant.

Dinner was great but our table selection was poor. When asked, I suggested a table near the water for a good view of the sunset. We should have requested a table with a fan overhead closer to the bar. The gnats tormented us as we sat at our table and drove us away from the restaurant much faster than we wanted to leave. In short we were miserable as we were practically eaten alive.

Beverly, Ev, Dorothy
Dave, Clark, Clayton

We did manage to stay long enough to see the sunset.

December 17 - 21, 2022

No boat travel.

In retirement, one day blends fairly well into the next. Sometimes it is hard to remember what day of the week it is. Luckily my pill dispenser is labeled with the day of the week, so every morning it reminds me what day it is. Currently, however, we have a new way of remembering as Clark is scheduled for physical therapy on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday every week through January.

Several years ago, Clark got stung on his pinky finger by a wasp / bee that left the stinger in his finger. Initially the doctors he saw thought he just needed antibiotics and then some physical therapy. Eventually, however, this year, the doctor he saw recommended surgery. The bee sting was causing him shooting pains in his finger and curling his finger with Dupuytren's Contracture. Besides that, the doctor discovered when he did the surgery that Clark had Mallet Finger in that finger.

He had the surgery and some physical therapy before we left New Jersey. The doctor gave him a prescription for PT here in Florida. The therapy place said they could not take a NJ prescription and Clark would need to get it converted to a FL script by a doctor. Clark went to the doctor we have used in the past here in Marathon and got the script converted. Unfortunately, our FL doctor's practice turned into an urgent-care facility.

When Clark went to the PT place with the converted script, they would not accept it. They gave him an alternate location to contact with a doctor that is not urgent-care related. When he first talked to the person at the doctor's office, they said they could give him an appointment on January 17th! Having spent a very long time on the phone with them already, and since it was after 5:00 with no good result, Clark decided to call back the next day to see if they had a cancellation.

The person he talked to the next day said that he could see a Nurse Practitioner at any time on any weekday before 4:30. He got confirmation that this would be acceptable for the script and took off on his bike immediately to see first the NP for the script and then the PT place to get appointments scheduled. He finally had a plan of action, but what an ordeal! Clark's first PT appointment was held on the 21st. He was told to come back on the 23rd wearing something festive for Christmas.

After Clark got the physical therapy problem addressed, he started a new boat project. A few boaters have recommended getting "Hull Shield" installed on the boat. This is an ultrasonic antifouling system used to repel barnacles from attaching themselves to the hull of the boat.

Clark talked to April on "One Eye Dog" extensively on this last year at Marlin Bay. We also met friends at Lamb's Yacht Center on "Chasing 80" that also have this system and highly recommend it. This summer we had the boat hauled and the bottom cleaned and repainted. If we planned to do Hull Shield, now was the time to do it.

Clark decided to "bite the bullet" and do the install. As with any install on the boat, Clark had to crawl into deep, dark inaccessible places from one end of the boat to the other to find places to put the transducers. It was hot, sweaty work that took several hours over multiple days to complete. Only once did he request my assistance when he needed to pull wires he thought might get snagged in the engine room.

As Clark "entertained" himself installing the Hull Shield, I worked on my various hobbies. Besides sewing her outfits, I decided to crochet a dress for my American Girl doll. I decided that Rosabella (as my granddaughter named her) needed something to wear for Christmas. I was trying for an elf costume but did not quite get the look I was after.

I have not crocheted anything in several years, but it came back to me. I also made a crochet hat for her in the same colors. I had to take out her pony tail and braid her hair, so she can wear hats!

After days of wishing it would end already, I finally finished a series of books about archers during the 1200s at the time of the Crusades. The Archers' Stories books are based on actual writings of the archers themselves. The documents were discovered in recent years hidden away in the bottom of some church or monastery. The stories and battle strategies were fascinating, but the author's writing was too repetitious and the number of errors in the text became too painful to bear.

I could easily tell that the author had started to word his story one way and changed mid-sentence to another. It was as if his strike throughs were included in the final version instead of being deleted. Sometimes I had to work through a sentence like solving a puzzle to understand what the author was saying.

Since I like books in series, I have started another set and am at the beginning of Volume 1 of an 11-book collection entitled Ahren: The 13th Paladin. So far, this one appears to be a set of well-written fantasy novels.

The weather has been a bit unusual thus far. For several nights in a row we got rain storms - heavy at times. One night, as we were watching television, I told Clark that I felt like I was in a washing machine of the agitate cycle for hours on end. He said that it would be good and help us sleep - rocking us all night long. The boat finally stopped agitating around 4:00 a.m. I have been thankful that the rains came during the night.

However, during the day we have had some strong north winds. One day I refused to even try to get off the boat due to the gap between the boat and the dock. With both of us pulling on the line to the dock, we could not move the boat against the strong wind. Clark could leap the distance like the gazelle he is. I would not even try!

Clark came up with the idea to put in a pulley system to get us to the dock. He had to go to West Marine for Hull Shield install parts and picked up a pulley while he was there. He had one, small pulley on board but needed a second one to do the job right.

I pull on the white line hanging over the side of the boat, and the pulleys do the work. It is so nice having an engineer on board! (Sometimes!)

Wednesday was Clark's first physical therapy session. He said that most of the time was spent consulting and measuring the bend of his finger. The PT place is a 30 minute walk or an 8 minute bike ride away. He had to be there at 9:30 and did not get back until almost noon because he stopped to shop at The Home Depot on the way back.

While he was gone, I wandered around the marina to get some exercise and found some fellow boaters to talk to. Trish on Journey told me that she was getting a group together to go to Faro Blanco to listen to one of her favorite singers performing there -- Adrienne Z. We thought we had other plans, but they fell through so we decided to bike to FB and join them.

Before looking for the Marlin Bay contingent, we stopped by Morning Star II to say hello to folks at docktails. We caught up with friends there and then went looking for the MB folks.

Our group was not hard to find. The only people sitting by the pool to listen to her sing were from Marlin Bay. We got there at 6:00 when she started playing. Eleven people from 6 boats at Marlin Bay, including us, had come to hear her music. We loved it! Sadly, we only stayed for one set, however, since none of us had eaten. We decided to use the "safety-in-numbers" rule and all bike back together. We made quite a parade with our white headlights and red taillights.

22 December 2022

Maintenance Run - 1 hour duration

Thursday was a particularly busy day. Clark made a list of things to do. We talked about it last night, so we both knew what was on the list. It seemed too aggressive for one day.

Clark figured out that he had to do some minor rewiring after the work he did incorrectly while working on the Hull Shield, so he took care of that while we waited for the dockhands to come around for the weekly pump-out. After the pump-out and lunch, we took Sunset Delight out for the weekly maintenance run. We left just after 1:00 and got back just before 2:00.

Since this was the first time going out since we docked, we had to play with the lines a bit to ready the boat for departure. I think we freaked out our neighbor boater. As we prepared to leave, we took off all the stern and spring lines and only had one breast line tied to the dock. With that line only, we can pivot the boat to remove the two bow lines.

Our neighbor saw our stern swinging far away from the dock (so we could reach the starboard bow pole), but he could not see either of us on the boat. He came over in case he had to rescue the boat for us. I told him we were fine, and he went off to the pool with his wife.

Our little trip took us past Faro Blanco where, nearby, we saw a swarm of personal watercraft buzzing around.

When we returned to Marlin Bay, Clark called the marina to tell them we were coming in. They request that we do that to make sure the basin does not have other traffic. They asked if we needed help with lines. We said "no thanks", and when we got to our dock 3 guys were ready to grab our lines.

Given the way we rig everything before we leave for easy docking, that meant 3 guys mostly stood by and watched us dock. Honestly, it was helpful to have someone hand me lines but not essential. Before they left, they said, "We know you said you didn't need help, but we wanted to come watch an expert dock."

"We had a breeze out in the bay but not much at the dock. Tying up and getting lines positioned to our liking, was hot work. Since we have not yet been in the pool this season, Clark wanted to go for a swim today. Right after lunch he asked about a swim, and I said no because I had just eaten. We decided to do the boat run first. By the time we got finished with the boat ride, we were both ready for the pool.

Walking up to the pool, we saw a baby shark swimming by the dock. Clark ran to get a picture.

Because we found folks at the pool to talk to, we were in the water for almost 2 hours. My fingers were becoming prunes by the time we climbed out of the water. Most of that time, I was treading water in the 5-foot end of the pool. Easy exercise!

We have had a few good sunsets this week. Tonight's was pretty as well.