5 December 2024
no boat travel
The north winds brought more to the marina than just colder temperatures. Sea grass has taken over parts of the marina and settled in for the long haul. Unfortunately, when sea grass sits around for a while, it starts to rot and smell. Walking along the water's edge of the marina is currently rather unpleasant.
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| Barrier protecting lift boats from the grass (but how do they get out??) |
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| "Wall-2-wall" ... Brown and smelly sea grass |
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| A boat lift in the unprotected area - yuck! |
Clark continued working on his boat repair list today. When we stopped by our friend, Steve's house, he gave Clark his old backup camera as spare parts. Unfortunately, both our camera and the one Steve gave us have cracks in the glass. Clark was able to get the camera part number from Steve's camera and find out a compatible drop-in replacement with matching connector.
Working on the camera turned into a fail as the camera case and screws are two different metals - aluminum and steel. Consequently, they welded themselves together as they corroded. When he tried to unscrew it on Steve's camera, the head of the screw broke off. He has ordered a replacement camera, hopefully, coming soon.
We had a special treat tonight as our friends, Sandy and Bill, are visiting the area and invited us to join them for dinner. Since they had their car here, they took us to the "Island Fish Co." restaurant, which we enjoy, but that is at the far end of Marathon and a hike on the bicycles.
Sandy planned to go out fishing tomorrow and so stopped by Publix to check out ice chest sizes. The amount of fish she catches will determine which size she needs. Meanwhile, I took advantage of the stop and stocked up on some items - in particular the ones that are hard to carry on a bicycle!
6 December 2024
My church friend, Nancy, asked if I would be willing and available to volunteer at the church to help set up the Christmas Bazaar today. She told me to bring a picnic lunch and picked me up at 10:00. For my part, I was asked to price the items that had already been put out on display, and man were there a lot of items out on display.
At first I felt timid about how much to tag, but once I was told to "price to sell", I dove in. I worked on pricing until lunch. Nancy and I found a seat outdoors to eat and chat. Afterwards, I decided to walk back to the boat. It's about a mile, and it was a pleasant day. I stopped to take a picture at the dive shop along the way.
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| Dive Shop near Black Fin Marina |
Since we have been coming here year after year, I know more and more people. As I walked past Irie Island Eats, a looked over at a car exiting the parking lot and recognized the driver. She rolled down her window and we chatted briefly. I know her, Pat, from painting at the library. She welcomed me back to Marathon and said she would look for me on Tuesdays! Fun!
As I walked back to the boat, at the end of our dock, I looked down and saw a huge school of fish.
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| School of fish viewed from the Outer Basin East Side Dock |
Yesterday, Sandy and Bill had indulged themselves with deep fried key lime pie at the Cracked Conch restaurant. Consequently, they had no room or interest in dessert after dinner at the Island Fish Co. So today, they contacted us and suggested that we go to Sweet Savannah's for an afternoon ice cream treat. They picked us up at 3:00.
After our sweet treat, Sandy announced that the two gals were going to the gift shop at the end of the plaza, and Bill and Clark could wait in the car. This felt just like old times as Sandy and I have done the ice cream then gift shop multiple times. Where I usually just browse around and come out empty handed, today I spent a whole $2 on a small conch shell for my curio shelf on the boat. It will serve as a sweet reminder of all the times Sandy and I have spent girl time together over the years!
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| Conch Shell has place of honor next to my mermaid |
While I was busy working at the bazaar this morning, one of the women there talked about the role she was playing in the local play. Others there had seen the show and said it was funny and well done. I asked Clark if he would like to attend, and he said yes! Yay!
I asked Sandy and Bill to join us but she was tuckered out from fishing all morning, and said she would not last until 10:00. They did us a favor, however, on our way back to the boat, they stopped at the box office so we could buy our tickets for the evening. The woman working there had just locked the door as the box office closes at 4:00. We arrived at 4:15.
She turned around and unlocked the door and sold us our tickets. She was a real talker and chatted away so long I was concerned about Sandy and Bill sitting in the car. Eventually she printed the tickets and we were back on our way.
The theater doors opened at 7:00; the show began at 8:00. Clark decided that we should ride our bikes as that would be a lot quicker than walking. Of course that meant biking in the dark. My night vision is not the greatest, so my speed on the bike paid the price. Several times Clark had to stop to wait for me to catch up. I told him I was going as fast as I felt comfortable. We had no rush to get there before curtain.
Plenty of folks were there before us milling around, eating popcorn, and drinking beer before the show started. Clark and I grabbed a seat at a table to wait for a while before finding our theater seats.
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| Waiting area before the show |
The handmade quilts on the walls were for sale as a fundraiser for the theater. They desperately need a new roof. The multi-colored, striped one on the wall was $400. The one next to it was $250.
We were entertained by a short, elderly lady playing a keyboard and "rocking out" while she did it.
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| She was having so much fun and loved that I took her picture! |
The play we saw was called "Beer for Breakfast". Tonight was the next to the last showing. Mary, the female player I met at church, said that she was having so much fun with it, she was sad for the show to end. It was her and three men set in a remote cabin.
The show finished at 10:30. We both enjoyed it. Clark said it was better than all the others onces we had seen in the past. We quickly jumped on our bikes and headed "home". To avoid getting killed on the way to the show, we went out of our way to get to a traffic light to cross over Route 1. With much less traffic after the show, we were able to skip the extra distance and scoot across Route 1 near the marina. It save a few blocks!
7 December 2024 - Saturday
We moved into our house in Rumson, NJ on this day in 1991! This notorious date is easy to remember.
When she dropped us off yesterday, she said she would pick me up this morning to visit the Farmer's Market before they left the Keys and headed back to the Satellite Beach area where they reside. We got there at 9:00, and the truck was there and mostly unloaded. We quickly selected some fresh veggies from offerings.
As planned, Sandy had spent Friday morning out on a charter fishing boat - just her and Captain Jason. She came back with sore arms and a bucket load of fish. Before dropping me off, she gave me a package of her fresh-caught fish to take home for dinner. Yum!
Sadly, when I returned to the boat, Clark was working on the pump overboard issue. Since he had things open to investigate the problem, the boat smelled like holding tank. At some point, he announced that he had "found the smoking gun"! A piece of metal was stuck in the duckbill valve holding it permanently open, so no vacuum could be formed to pump out the tank.
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| Thumb in picture to indicate size of metal piece pulled out of duckbill valve. |
He thought he should have a replacement part for the duckbill valve, but we could not find any in his stock. West Marine, down the road here, had them in stock, available today, @ 2 for $68. Amazon could deliver 4 @ $18 next Thursday. Oh Gee! Hard choice! We decided to wait for Amazon delivery.
He tried to reuse the "damaged" duckbill valve but could not get it to seal. That meant he had to put things back together and take them apart again later. My important job during the analysis was turning the macerator pump key (it is locked to prevent accidental discharge) when Clark yelled, "On" and turn it off when Clark yelled, "Off"!
With that work done, I decided to "mow the sea grass" - rake actually. A large amount of sea grass had mounted up behind the boat. It weaves itself together and makes a floating island of sea grass. The boat next to us discharged a huge amount of soapy water which mixed in with the sea grass. The rotting combo was starting to smell and aggravate my allergies.
I spent an hour or so breaking up and pushing along sea grass with one of our boat poles. The wind from the northeast was helpful. I just had to move the grass far enough away from the boat for the wind / current to take it. Folks on the other side of the marina "enjoyed" the benefits of my work as the sea grass traveled their way.
Later, I found Clark working on the dinghy. This time he was removing the dinghy depth finder. The display had glazed over rendering it impossible to read. He called for my help and had me hold the top of the depth finder while he worked with a tool to turn the nut underneath the helm. He had difficulty reaching and the unit, not wanting to be removed, gave him a fight.
Saturday night television yields little of interest. I said I wanted to see my Pirates of the Caribbean Part II DVD. This was certainly not the comedy of part I. We still have part III. Clark says he is not sure he can sit through another one as he did not enjoy the second one.
8 December 2024 - Sunday
Being Sunday, we had church service to attend today. The contemporary service starts at 11:00, but since Clark is in the band, he needed to be there at 10:10. I could go, or wait until later, but I decided I would bike there with him and find a place to read until services began.
While I waited for services to begin, I wandered around a bit and took some pictures of the area.
The pictures below show the stained glass windows of the church from the outside.
The church has a train setup for Christmas in the outdoor seating area. The train is operable with a bright light on the red engine.
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| "Winter Wonderland" display |
Inside I found nutcrackers on display - available for purchase as part of the bazaar.
I strolled down a path at the church and found a fountain, some cement benches, and other items of interest on the grounds.
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| Bubbling fountain |
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| Cross |
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| Angel in the Garden |
The service started at 11:00. I sat in the back. During one of the songs, I was able to grab a picture of the band.
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| Clark - guitar, Steve - banjo Tom - sing / guitar, Nancy - violin |
After church, we biked back to the boat. As soon as we got there, Clark started working on his bike. He had heard a tinkling noise and discovered that he had a broken spoke. We have spares as this is a common problem with our foldable bikes. To do the repair, he had to deflate the tire, put on the new spoke, and then inflate the tire. Tedious and time consuming! He also found some loose bolts to tighten on his bike, and then moved over to my bike to tighten similar loose connections he found there.
While he was pulling his bike apart, he showed me that the bag on the back of his bike where he carries bike tools and other miscellaneous items was coming apart at the seams. I spent the afternoon trying various ideas related to repairing / replacing the bag. I finally took my old, small backpack and connected that to his bike. It looks good. Hopefully it will last for a while. The items in the bag combine to be quite heavy.
For dinner tonight, we were picked up by our friends, Nancy and Steve, to go to Lazy Days to help Steve celebrate his 70th birthday. The food was great. We enjoyed great conversation. Sadly, we were remiss and did not take any pictures while there.
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