19 March 2025
After we waved goodbye to family, it was time to put the boat back in non-guest mode such as beds stripped and converted back to non-bed positions. Clark had signed up for an AGLCA (American Great Loop Assoc.) virtual meeting from 7:00 until 8:30. Consequently, we had (for us) a very late dinner after the meeting concluded.
20 March 2025
Unfortunately, Clark was not feeling well today. I took all the laundry I had gathered up yesterday (sheets, towels, etc) and headed up to the washer / dryer. Knowing I would have a bundle of laundry, I signed up for 2 time slots equaling 3 hours of washer / dryer time - 9:30 to 12:30. Afterwards, before I could make lunch, I needed to bike to the grocery store to buy some provisions. We had not a single slice of bread on the boat, and Clark was looking for chicken noodle soup for his irritated throat.
Although I had considered attending a jewelry session for making a charm bracelet this afternoon, I did not make it there. After lunch I laid down and closed my eyes for just a few minutes and work up 3 hours later. The session was from 2:00 to 4:00. I woke up at 3:30. Oh well - maybe next season!
Even though Clark was feeling "under the weather", we attended a dinner at St. Columba church recognizing the church musicians. Of course, since he plays guitar on Sunday services, he was one of the guests of honor. We biked there, and Clark kept his distance from other attendees so as not to share his germs. Dinner was at 6:00. We were back on the boat by 7:30.
After catching a glimpse of the sunset, we relaxed on the boat while watching a movie.
21 March 2025
Like last Friday a group of women I met as a result of art at the library gathered together to be creative. Last week we met at Irie Eats. This week the group met at Mr. Bean's Books and Beans coffee shop. I have biked or walked past this establishment for the past 8 years. Since I do not drink coffee, this is the first time I ever went inside. We grabbed some tables with two giant stuffed bears looking on as we worked on our artwork.
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| Picture from the internet |
A lot of the women do watercolor. Today I decided to draw a miniature schnauzer that is owned by my friend Nancy's dog named Diesel.
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| "Diesel" - where's my dinner??? |
With Clark taking it easy while he gets better, we continued to have quiet days and movies at night.
23 March 2025
Feeling somewhat better Clark played in the church band today. After service, we joined folks afterwards to help consume the leftover lasagna from the Musicians supper on Thursday evening.
24 March 2025
Today was a nice sunny day with a light breeze. At 4:00 the marina offered bingo at the pool bar. I decided to join the fun. The first contest was a traditional straight line. The second required the card to show two parallel lines. The last contest was the most interesting as we had to get the squares required to depict a turtle on the card.
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| Required bingo design for last prize of the day |
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| Ev and Amanda |
After dinner tonight, we had a video chat with our son and his family in Idaho. As per usual, the call latest about 90 minutes. With 3 granddaughters, we have a lot to talk about and then towards the end of the call, they always get silly and start changing the screen to depict themselves as various cartoon-looking characters with a lot of giggling going on.
25 March 2025
As today was Tuesday, I had a busy day at the library planned. The instructor for art decided that attendees would make their own tempura paint using egg yoke. I decided I wanted no part of that exercise and worked on drawings for greeting cards.
My cards ...
My friend, Pat, had to drive her friend, JoAnne, home, so I went with her for the car ride. At 1:00 it was time for crafts. Today's session was beading to make pens, bracelets, and key chains. I made all three.
Angela, the instructor, asked me if I liked blue. I wonder why?
I got back to the boat around 1:30 to find Clark already gone to guitar practice at the church. Although it was supposed to start at 2:30, he went early. He planned to go directly from the church practice to the MTOA meeting (Marine Trawlers Owners Assoc.) being held at the Marine Park in Marathon. Since this is the last meeting of the season, I decided to attend as well.
When I got there at 5:00, I found Clark playing his guitar in the park waiting for the meeting to begin.
Only a handful of people came to this meeting as many people have already left the Keys to head for their next destination - some heading north and others to the Bahamas.
26 March 2025
Being Wednesday, I had a reservation for laundry at 9:30. After lunch, Clark and I had errands to run. We stopped by the church where we dropped off some food. Afterwards, I headed to Walgreens and Publix while Clark went to get the Sojourner's Permit renewed for the boat.
Clark is back to jumping from boat to boat looking into other boaters' battery issues. Our departure date is coming up fast, so he is hurrying to fit it all in.
27 March 2025
We had 20 knot winds all day today. Even so, the weather today looked perfect for the pool. As soon as we get off the dock, the sun takes over. I was disappointed to learn that Clark would be making house / boat calls today, so I was on my own for the pool. Fortunately I found several boat friends there enjoying the warm water. Unfortunately, the high winds were blowing palm tree debris into the pool. Tree bark and palm seeds floated around us.
We are scheduled to have three straight days of high winds from the east. At least when the winds come from that direction we do not have the rocking we get with north winds.
28 March 2025
The wind continues unabated. I decided to head up to the club house to work on the current jigsaw puzzle that my friend Marcy brought with her to work on. She does not pick easy puzzles!
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| Turtle-shaped jigsaw puzzle |
When I walked up to work on the puzzle, I took the garbage and recycle out. The wind nearly ripped it out of my hands.
29 March 2025
The high winds stopped and today we had cloudy skies and light rain. Marathon got 0.08 inches of rain while Key West received almost 4 inches of rain in the same time period.
Clark went off this morning, before the rain started, to check on someone's electrical panel. Of course he found a lot more issues than anticipated.
When the rain finally stopped, we walked up to see what progress had been made on the puzzle. I found Marcy and Jeff working on it and found they had managed to make it into the shape of the turtle it's supposed to be.
When we walked back to the boat, we found our dockmaster and her dog. I asked if it was "bring your puppy to work day".
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| Dockmaster Kiya and Luna |
30 March 2025
Today, being Sunday , started with our weekly bike ride to St. Columba church where Clark plays in the band. Since we leave on Tuesday, today was his last "gig" until next season.
We stayed for a brief while after services to grab a cookie and talk with folks. Pastor Deb gave me a hug as we said goodbye until next season. She said this is a sad time of the year, and I agreed. During the announcements portion of the service, she had said farewell to Clark and Bob in the band. Then, she had those of us in the congregation leaving, and therefore not attending any more services this season, stand and said a group farewell to us. I was close to tears.
Knowing we had early dinner plans, we headed back to the boat to grab lunch. Afterwards, we walked up to the pool area to see who was around to say goodbye to. In truth, we never got to talk to any of the folks in the pool.
We decided to take a look at the latest jigsaw puzzle, and I got engaged in trying to solve it. Clark sat to one side looking at his phone. A short while later he was lying down on the settee with his eyes closed. Suddenly 90 minutes had passed and my phone notified me it was time to go out to dinner. We rushed back to the boat to get ready and then rush back to the street to meet up with Nancy and Steve who were driving us to the restaurant. It is a quarter mile from the building to the boat, so to go to the boat and then meet up with Nancy and Steve, we covered almost a mile's distance.
As we walked out of the marina, we saw this tiny guy hiding in the leaves. He was no bigger than one of the leaves on the bush.
We ate dinner at Castaways. I ordered the crab cakes and the plate came with 3 of them on it. I ate one; I gave one to Clark; and I took one home for another day - so much food! Clark requested the Lionfish, but they were out. The waitress suggested he try the "Golden Tilefish". Neither of us had ever eaten that before, and he decided to give it a try. Delicious!
After dinner we drove back to the marina. Steve works there some days and wanted to see what the marina looked like at night. We strolled over to the west side of the inner basin to sit and watch the sunset.
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| Steve, Nancy, and Ev |
After watching the sun set, we took the long way back to their car walking around the marina to view the docks, etc. As we walked past the sunset viewing group on the east side of the inner basin, we stopped to chat with fellow boaters including Robin and Dell on Avalon.
From there we walked Nancy and Steve back to their car to say goodbye. On our way back to our boat, we stopped to chat once again with the folks on the east side. This time, I mostly talked with Tiffney and Jim from "Soul Mates". After an hour, we finally said goodnight and made our way back to the boat. Afterwards, we watched a movie before calling it a night.
31 March 2025
Today, with this being our last day in Marathon, we had a busy schedule planned. We had a lot of people to say farewell to.
I started the day by doing two loads of laundry where I said "until next season" to members of the marina staff. While I was off doing laundry, Clark spent some time sorting his guitar music and storing his guitar for travel instead of weekly play.
After a quick lunch on board, our singer friend "Johnny Live" came to our boat for a short visit before he went to perform at Docksides for the evening. Clark and John immediately dove into talking music and discussing a bit of a mix up that happened during the playing at the church yesterday. Something to do with misplaced capos.
I had to leave earlier than John. I left John and Clark talking music theory as I ran off to meet Nancy who was coming by in her car to take me to the food store to provision for our voyage.
By the time I got back from the food store and put everything away, it was getting late in the afternoon. With the weather being hot with very little wind, Clark suggested we go for a last swim in the pool. Since I was still hoping to get to say goodbye to a few more folks, I agreed.
Yesterday, when we walked past the pool, the "boater's corner" was so full of boaters it looked like there was no room for one more. Today when we arrived, we found the pool basically empty except for our friends Bill, Roxanne and Ed. Bill and Clark immediately started talking about alternators, so I quickly headed for the other end of the pool!
We hoped the water would be refreshing; however, it turned out to be quite warm. A slight breeze developed, so I would dunk down to get wet then stand up to let the breeze cool me. We are hoping that we can find some breeze when we anchor tomorrow night, or it's going to be more than a bit "sticky".
We briefly spoke with Jeff and Marcy at the pool who informed us that they finished the jigsaw puzzle yesterday. At some point they became obsessed with getting it done and worked on it to the end. Clark had seen the finished puzzle when we was in the Club House and took a picture. It was a tricky one.
There are some foods that we don't generally eat on the boat as we make our wake along the coast to New Jersey. Pizza is one of those foods, so I bought a frozen one today at the store, and that is what we had for dinner.
Afterwards, we watched a Jack Ryan movie before calling it a night. We need to get back into travel mode with earlier starts to our mornings.
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