Boating with Sunset Delight: 2024 December: Smelly Sea Grass

11 December 2024

The wind shifted direction. When the wind shifts, the sea grass moves from place to place. Today was our turn to get inundated. Unfortunately, the sea grass that showed up at our boat overnight was old and smelly having dislodged from another section of the marina to come visit us. Clark opened the window this morning, and we immediately started to choke on the smell. Consequently, the first thing I did this morning was rake the grass.

I started moving the grass away from the stern of the boat using a boat hook. However, I can only reach so far with that, and I desperately wanted as much sea grass gone as possible. The marina has rakes designed to be used from the docks standing about 12 feet tall. I ran up and grabbed one of them, so I could rake from the dock. I got a bunch of it to move along but a lot more was unreachable.

Today I had a big black garbage bag of sheets and towels for the laundry. I had called and made arrangements to meet a woman from Coyne's Laundry today at 10:00 to take advantage of the service they offer. When she "hefted" the bag, she gave me an estimate of $35 as the cost. Given this was a trial run, and I did not want to drag these bulkier items up the street to the laundromat, I said okay. Only time will tell if this is something I will want to continue in the future. The items will be returned to me on Friday morning.

Clark received notification that the replacement depth finder he ordered for the dinghy is no longer available for purchase. His only other ease-of-replacement option is to pursue having the screen on the old one repaired. He has used a service out of Miami for other work and decided to go that route again for the depth finder. We packaged it up and took it to the post office to get it on its way.

Today getting to the post office required no effort at all. We were invited to visit Nancy and Steve at their house in Key Colony Beach -- Clark for band practice and me "just because". Steve picked us up at 10:30 and stopped at the post office along the way. After a brief tour of their lovely condo, the band got down to business reviewing chords and notes, etc for the service on Sunday. I made myself comfortable with a novel. Clark and I stayed until mid-afternoon and time to call it a day on practice.

The view of the pool and ocean from their third-floor condo is amazing.

View from 3rd floor landing
area between two condo units,
pool, then ocean beyond

We met their miniature schnauzer named Diesel. He was very polite and friendly.

Diesel

St. Columba church hosts the annual Celtic Festival here in Marathon. Nancy and Steve are in charge this year of getting it organized. Since she had me right there at her house, she got me signed up to volunteer. Last season, Clark and I volunteered for put up and tear down of tents. We will do the same this year plus more as requested.

When we got back to Marlin Bay, since the weather was accommodating, we found a number of boater friends in the pool. Wind and cold weather were expected later today. As soon as we could make it to the boat and change clothes, we returned to join them.

Clark, of course, swam laps. I, on the other hand, lounged in the water chatting with the other folks there. The boaters tend to gather in one corner of the pool. We were told by the marina general manager that he heard grumblings from non-boaters that we were always in that corner.

One of the boaters pointed out a frigate bird hovering over Marlin Bay, and as we watched four more came to join that first one. They are frequently spotted at the Dry Tortugas, and not so frequently seen here in Marathon. I suggested it might be a sign that the cold front was coming and pushed them our way.

Frigate Bird visiting Marlin Bay Resort

After a sufficient amount of time in the pool, folks left for the day. Clark headed to the marina showers. I walked back to our boat. Just as Clark returned to the boat, it started to rain as an indication that our weather was about to turn for the worse. As the front rolled in, the winds picked up!

The change in the weather did bring a beautiful sunset with it.

Having watched parts I and II of "Pirates of the Caribbean", I wanted to watch Part III. Knowing that there is nothing we like to watch on Wednesday nights, I told Clark I would be watching the final installment of the trilogy tonight. He helped me set it up. We have so many remotes on the boat, I am frequently at a loss on what to do and with which remote. After getting me setup, he left. I much preferred part I to the other two.

12 December 2024

The winds were wicked last night. All night long we could hear canvas flapping - sometimes flap, flap, flap, sometimes double time, and sometimes out of control wildly beating. Clark did check to make sure it was nothing on our boat that was being destroyed and came back with a report that it was the Bimini top on the boat next to us. As I lay in bed listening to never-ending flapping, I wondered what would be left of the canvas in the morning.

This morning, when I went out to look, I could see that the canvas was indeed damaged and still taking a beating.

With the change in wind direction, I saw an opportunity to help the sea grass move along to a new place of residence. I worked for a large portion of the morning raking the grass out of our slip. As I broke up the "island" of grass, it followed the current and wind past the stern of out boat, alongside our port side, and then gone!

Steady stream of sea grass leaving our slip

As I "raked" the grass with my boat hook, I found a fish lying on its side in the grass gasping for "air". It only had a small amount of water available to it as it sat atop the grass. I dug a hole in the grass until the fish sank below the surface. I hope it survived its ordeal.

The temperatures dropped significantly, and so we hunkered down on the boat and watched the Thursday night lineup on CBS. Fortunately, the captain on the boat with the flapping canvas used some large clips to reattach the canvas to the metal frame. We are blissfully canvas-flapping noise free for the night!

13 December 2024

I received a phone text first thing this morning that my laundry was ready for pickup and could meet the rep from Coyne's Laundry at 10:00. That was the good news. The bad news became obvious when I saw how much it would cost me to recover my property. I had been told $35 when I handed it over. That seemed expensive but I went with it. The $35 was only an estimate at drop off and turned out to be on target for the laundry to be cleaned. What was not explained to me at drop off was the $10 transportation fee was not included in that estimate.

So, I had to pay $45 cash this morning. The sheets and towels were clean and nicely folded, but since I could do this same laundry myself at the laundromat a mile down the street for about one fourth of the cost, I am unlikely to be a repeat customer. We were looking for convenience that wouldn't bankrupt us in the process.

After putting away the laundry, we jumped on our bikes and headed out to the stores for some provisions. We stopped at Home Depot first as we each wanted something there. Then we went to Publix for some food provisions. What we didn't find at Publix made us enjoy a trip to Winn Dixie as well. Winn Dixie must be thrilled (not) as half of the parking lot where they are located is torn up while the old K-mart gets turned into a surfer's store. Winn Dixie had posted signs - "We are OPEN!"

I tried out the new bike bag I bought for my bike. It is made specifically for my bike's make. For some reason I have yet to figure out, I could hear and feel something rubbing - rubber against metal perhaps. It seems to be related to using the new bag, but I have yet to figure out what was happening. Of course when I investigated after putting away groceries, the noise was gone!

The wind out on our dock is truly wicked. I made a joke that if I was the "Flying Nun", I'd be in Cuba by now. Someone pointed out that I was walking bent over into the wind. Only a short distance off the long cement dock of the outer basin, the wind drops down quickly and significantly.

I worked on the blog for a while this afternoon. Later, I got an invite to work on a jigsaw puzzle at the Club House with Annette, so I headed up there for a break from the windy seas. Meanwhile, Clark worked on getting some rust marks off the boat.

I spent a couple of hours with Annette and managed, in all that time, to find about 6 pairs of pieces. It will take a long time to complete this complex puzzle!

Walking back to the boat, I took some evening pictures at the marina.