13 February 2025
After our Vero Beach friends left us, Clark once again got busy helping some of the boaters here with boat issues they have been struggling with. Recently, he has been bouncing back and forth among three boats. While he crawls into other people's wire closets, Ev has been busy creating goofy greeting cards to send to the grandchildren. A sample is shown below.
16 February 20025
Art at the library got canceled for a week as the instructor had to make an emergency trip to see her mother in Canada. Given that, Ev decided to pull out the acrylic paints and do art on her own. The results of her efforts are shown below.
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| From a picture taken at fort at Dry Tortugas |
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| Rose from picture on internet |
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| Parrot from picture on internet |
Every evening a group of boaters gather on the dock to watch the sun go down and "blow the conch shell" precisely at sunset. Roger on "Moonglade" is particularly good at this. We stopped by tonight to say hello and watch the sun drop below the horizon.
17 February 2025
Tonight we decided to walk over to the west side of the inner harbor for the sunset view. We got to see the sun go down while talking to our friends, Deb and Trevor, on "Hanalei". They had their bulldog, "Bok Choy" with them. He is rather lazy, so he has his own stroller. He lounged in the stroller while we talked and watched the sunset. We should have gotten a picture of him!
19 February 2025
Walking around and near Marlin Bay marina provides plenty of photo opportunities.
We have a large family of iguana that live in the rocks on the property at Marlin Bay Marina.
Besides the large iguana inhabitants, we also have tiny lizards here. Both species are considered to be invasive, uninvited, and unwelcome.
When we walked by the pool this evening, the reflection of the building in the pool was quite fetching.
20 February 2025
Today, two of our grandchildren had birthdays. Sierra in Idaho turned 11 and Lillian in Connecticut turned 9. February is the month of birthdays for the Idaho clan. Our son, Jeff; his wife, Devon; and two of their children, Sierra and Zoe have birthdays in February. Zoe was in Colorado for a ski trip for her 5th birthday, so when I called to wish Sierra happy birthday, Zoe got in on the act. We had a lovely long video chat where Ev got the low-down on Sierra's presents. Zoe decided that Ev should try to guess what she was drawing without showing her the paper. Hints helped to identify a snowman and a sun.
Ev had called Lillian before calling the Idaho grandkids since Lillian is in the east coast time zone, and Idaho is on Mountain Time. We got to discuss her gifts and party plans.
21 February 2025
After being on the phone for 90 minutes with Sierra and Zoe, it was time to say goodnight last night. Violet felt left out, so we agreed that Ev and Violet would have their own call tonight. Ev spent over an hour with Violet getting all her updates.
22 February 2025
Clark and Ev took a trip to Publix and Winn Dixie today to stock up on food. As we left Winn Dixie, Clark paused long enough to take the picture below of the iconic train car advertising Crane Point Hammock.
23 - 24 February 2025
Clark continues to be in the band at St. Columba Church. The band leader is away on vacation for three weeks. The rest of the group have practiced extra hard over multiple days for Sunday service this week. There were a few glitches in timing, but otherwise, all went well. Given the need for extended practice, the group met on Monday to go over the music for next week.
It poured all day today. Clark got a car ride to practice, but he had to walk the .25 miles to the street to get the car ride. He wrapped his guitar case up in a garbage bag for the trek up front and back to the boat after practice. When he returned to the boat after practice, his shorts, socks and shoes were soaking wet and had to be put out to dry.
Meanwhile, our friends from New Jersey, were driving to Marathon in these rainy conditions. On top of the weather, they hit construction near Islamorada that brought traffic to a stop due to the road being reduced to a single lane. Their drive was lengthened by at least an hour due to the traffic issues.
They arrived in time to check in and then join us for dinner at Lazy Days.
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| Rich, Janet, Ev, and Clark at Lazy Days in Marathon, FL |
25 February 2025
Although we visited Pigeon Key recently, we wanted our New Jersey visitors to see the island. We took the 10:00 trolley.
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| Ticket Booth |
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| Rich, Janet, & Clark on trolley |
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| Fully loaded trolley |
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| Edgar greeted us at Pigeon Key |
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| Eric gave a very, very long history of the Key |
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| Looking towards Gulf at old rail trail to Pigeon Key |
Ev walked out to the docks where she found folks who wanted their group picture taken and insisted on taking her picture as a thank you.
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| Ev posed by photographer |
Ev took a few pictures of the scenery at Pigeon Key.
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| View of 7-mile bridge from Pigeon Key |
After our tour of Pigeon Key, we took the trolley back to the car.
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| Photo taken from trolley on the old bridge |
Even though we had gusting winds that would deter most boaters from a leisurely cruise, we wanted to entertain our guests with a tour of Boot Key harbor / anchorage and Sisters Creek. We enjoyed lunch on the boat at dock and then took off the lines and went adventuring. When we returned to dock, we still had some time for another activity, so Ev suggested a trip to Sweet Savannah's for ice cream. It's so nice to have folks visit with a car!
After our sweet treat, we got back in plenty of time to see the sunset from the top of the tower at Marlin Bay marina.
Sun going down behind the foliage at Marlin Bay ...
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| Looking down the stairs from the top |
Views from the top of the tower ...
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| Outer Basin ... Our boat is out there somewhere |
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| Inner basin |
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| Rich showing us West |
With the sun setting and the wind blowing, we found it to be quite chilly at the top of the tower. We had on wind breakers. Two young women were dressed in sleeveless dresses, and a photographer was busy taking pictures. Brrrrrr!
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| Quite breezy up here |
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| Cold with the north wind |
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| Multiple layers required tonight |
We were anxious to see the sun set so we could find someplace warmer to hang out.
Clark and Ev had on shorts, so before we all went out to dinner, they ran back to the boat for warmer clothes! Having eaten a fancier meal last night and dessert late this afternoon, we opted for bar food at Marathon Ale House. After dinner, we said our goodbyes as Janet and Rich are traveling to Key West next for the end of their Keys tour.
Since we took the boat out today and that warmed up the engines, Clark decided that tonight was the perfect time to change the engine oil. We worked until midnight emptying out old oil, changing the filters and adding new oil. He decided not to run the engines at that time of night.
We needed to get the laundry done which meant a bike ride to the laundromat. We were up and out shortly after 8:00 a.m. to get this job done. Having done this several weeks in a row now, we have it down to a science. If the laundromat is not crowded, we can be in and out quickly. By 10:15 we were back on the boat with the laundry folded and put away.
Clark was anxious to run the engines after having changed the oil last night. He got right on that task as soon as we got back from the laundry. After starting the engines he added the final oil needed to complete the job.
Our boating friend, Trish on "Journey", invited Ev to join her for a bike ride to an artist's house to see art she had on sale there. The artist is leaving the Keys and selling the contents of her home starting with her art. The weather was perfect for a bike ride. The house sits on Sombrero Boulevard. Having never biked that road further than the "Docksides" restaurant, Ev found it an interesting ride past the golf course.
The majority of the items for sale were prints of watercolors that she has done over many years of work. A few acrylic paintings were also available as well as some art supplies. She is known for pictures of sea life.
To thank Clark for his help with a GFI wiring concern on their boat, Dave And Tina on Our Turn, took us both out to dinner tonight at Steak & Lobster. It's a very short walk there from the marina, and the food was great.
27 February 2025
Last Sunday, Clark replaced the depth finder on our dinghy. The display had gone black making the instrument unusable. He sent it away last December to be repaired. The repairman finally sent it back to us via our New Jersey address. Our neighbor went and rescued it and sent it on to us here in Florida. Today as his first opportunity to install it since it finally arrived here about a week ago.
I sat up on the upper helm to assist when needed - mostly to fetch something he needed. He had to hang upside down using a mirror to do the rewiring of the depth finder - very uncomfortable activity. I helped him test is when he had the device in place. He tried testing it in place on the upper helm and could only see a depth of 60 feet displayed. He went and got a container of water and then he got more sensible readings of around 1 foot depth from bottom of boat to floor of the helm. He declared it a success!
With that job out of the way, Clark said he needed to do some errands. I decided that I needed the exercise and joined him on his bike travels. First we biked about a mile west to West Marine for wire, then we biked about 1.5 miles to Home Depot to buy some wire ties, then it was on to the post office to mail banking documents, and finally we stopped at Walgreens to pick up a prescription.
We only cross Route 1 at traffic lights these days, so after Walgreens we biked further east to the traffic light before turning to return back to the boat. All told, we biked about 4 miles round trip.
When we got back to the marina, we found our boater friend, Mike, fileting the fish caught this afternoon.
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| Atlantic Jack Cravelle - known for their strength, speed, and fighting spirit. Mike worked hard to bring this one in! |
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| The pelicans were fighting for the scraps as the fish were fileted. |
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| Yellowtail Snapper - very pretty fish |
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| Hungry Pelicans |
Storm coming ...
View looking east as the sun is setting in the west ...
Pretty sunset tonight ...
Up until the skies clouded over and we got that very brief rain, the weather today was beautiful for a dinghy ride. Some folks went to hang out at a sandbar at low tide. Another couple went to see Sombrero Beach since they leave on the 1st of March and had not yet been there.
While we were shopping, some folks took their boats out to see the S. S. United States pass by on its way to its final resting spot. It will be sunk south of Destin, Florida in the Gulf to become a reef.
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| S S United States on way to become a reef |
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| Photo from internet |
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