29 January 2026
Every alternate Thursday we have the opportunity to paint rocks. Grace, concierge at Marlin Bay, bought a bag of white rocks at Home Depot meant for landscaping but workable for rock painting. On alternate Thursdays they provide coconuts to be painted. I decided to participate in rock painting again today. Having painted some coconuts, I'll stick with rocks as they are a lot smaller.
I went on line before the session and got some ideas. These are the ones I painted today.
I like the tree scene and am not too pleased with the butterfly. Some of the other "works of art" are shown below.
The best part of this rock-painting session was making new friends. Three women who are staying in one of the villas / condos here came to paint rocks. They are quite friendly and fun to be around. We are having a chilly spell in the Keys and indoor activities are appreciated. We painted our rocks in the Marlin Bay club house.
Later in the afternoon, we were invited to the boat "Dreamer" to chat. We had some hors d'oeuvres, and guess what!, we talked about our boats. One problem we seem to have is with the headliner that gets sticky over time. They have found a solution. Now Clark wants me to get to work!
Apparently the combination of the above products (with a lot of elbow grease) brings back a smooth surface.
Before we left, we got a group picture including Sully the dog. Sully is on Facebook under the profile "Sully does the Loop".
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| Sully, Ev, Clark, Scott & Lauren |
Clouds rolled in to give the sky an eerie appearance for our walk back to our boat.
30 - 31 January 2026
We had a couple of "routine" days taking care of business. On Friday we biked to Publix looking for bagels (we found them!) and then on to the new Auto Zone store and Home Depot looking for an empty gallon container that Clark could use to hold hydraulic fluid. He found nothing satisfactory and eventually ordered something on line. We did find a couple of things in Auto Zone to buy, so it was not a waste of time. The store is brand new and located next to Winn Dixie.
On Saturday, our friend "Johnny Live" picked Clark up in his car (due to inclement weather) and they went to practice music for Sunday's church service at the church. Clark had recorded the music from the Tuesday practice, so they could work with that to get ready for Sunday.
While Clark was away from the boat, I took the opportunity to give it a good cleaning inside and try to put things away. Between Clark's guitar and my arts and crafts, we are overflowing with "stuff".
After cleaning, as I sat on the boat staring at my phone, I got a phone call from one of the women I met at rock painting, Lisa, who invited me to come to the club house to play Mahjong with her and the other two women who also painted rocks with us. The first, last, and only time I ever played "American Mahjong" was a year ago. At that time I learned how to play with two people. The rules are different for four players, and my head was spinning as I tried to keep up with the other players. We played three rounds. In all three games I failed to collect the correct tiles to make Mahjong. Even so I had a good time with these very lively women.
They were going out to dinner, and Mahjong broke up just before 5:00. I planned to go back to the boat but decided to take a peak upstairs in the club house before doing so. I found several boater friends playing a card game they called "Trash". I did not recognize the game by name, but as I looked on, I remembered having played this game before. They invited me to join so I pulled up chair number 7 and sat down to play. These were all boating friends I know from several seasons at Marlin Bay. Fun group!
Meanwhile, Clark was back on the boat doing yet more guitar!
1 February 2026
February came in, quite literally, with a bang. A cold front moved in during the night causing high winds and increased wave action in the marina. All the boats in the outer basin, where we are docked, got tossed around with the winds. At 11:00 last night, just as I went to get ready for bed, Clark said he would need my help outside retying one of the lines to get us away from the dock.
Every once in a while we would get slammed up against one of the poles making the boat shudder as we collided. Of course he had to wait until I left to go to bed to decided to do something about it. I put on work gloves to protect my hands. It took all I had in terms of strength, fighting the wind, to pull on the line, so that Clark could tie another line tight enough to hold us off the dock.
Today's weather forecast showed temps in the 40s with wind chill into the 30s. Folks are not using the pool these days, but we still see folks walking around in bikinis who have just stepped out of the hot tub.
I feel (somewhat) sorry for the folks here for just a week or so, staying in a villa, expecting nice warm temperatures and needing to bundle up. One of the women I met at rock painting had to shop at Beall's to buy warm clothes as she had not packed for the current temperatures we are experiencing.
With the rocking and rolling of the boat last night and with intermittent pings from messenger, I woke up this morning sleep deprived. Being Sunday, we had church to attend, and unlike every other Sunday, this week (once a year) we had to be there by 9:00. Today's service was a single combined service at 10:00 to have the annual meeting afterwards. Clark had to be there for 9:00 because of band. Normally he has to be there by 10:00. Knowing the weather would be crappy, I had asked our friends Steve and Nancy to collect us by car, so at least we did not have to deal with the big chill to get there. Otherwise, since rain was expected, we would have walked not ridden bikes.
A few of those of us that have been here at Marlin Bay for several years have a group chat on Messenger. After addressing the boat line issue and as I laid in bed, I started getting dings on my phone coming from a group chat session discussing the high winds, high water level, and the effects of both on our boats. We have a rather big boat docked next to us giving us some amount of protection from the wind. Even so, we were rocking and bouncing in the slip. Others apparently had it quite a bit worse than we did. Our friend "Johnny Live" gave us a ride "home" as Nancy planned to stay for the church meeting.
In the afternoon, sitting on the boat, I felt like my brain was foggy due to lack of sleep. I managed to fix a ripped seam for a belt loop on Clark's pants and accomplished basically nothing else the rest of the day. Clark did not seem to be doing much better than I was as far as energy.
Meanwhile, near home in New Jersey, people there are taking advantage of the big freeze. A neighbor posted a picture on Facebook of the Ice Boating happening on the Navesink River. The river has not frozen enough for ice boats for several years, so I expect that folks there are quite excited to pull their toys out of storage.
Our son in Connecticut took advantage of the heavy snowfall to go skiing in Vermont last Sunday and posted a picture on Facebook. He said he had 15 inches of fresh snow. Getting home turned into a challenge as the road he expected to take home ended up closed due to weather.
As chilly as it feels in Marathon right now, I am happy to be here and not in New Jersey, Connecticut, or Vermont! Anywhere up north sounds brutal right now.
2 February 2026
Big surprise (not) Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, so we will have 6 more weeks of winter. According to what I read on the internet, Phil is only right 1/3 of the time.
Clark and I stayed on the boat for most of the day today. Eventually I said I wanted to walk up to the Club House, and he joined me. We checked upstairs to see who was around and found three guys playing pool. Even so, we decided to sit down for a while as Bingo would start at 5:00, and we expected a few more people to show up as it got closer to game time.
By 5:00, the room was packed full of people with some folks sitting on the floor due to an insufficient number of seats in that room. Clark was having a good time chatting with everyone. When the bingo calling our numbers began, he left as he did not want to play and he could not talk. I stayed. We played four rounds, but I did not win anything.
I stopped to grab a sunset picture on my way back to the boat. The sky has been exhibiting beautiful shades of pink / rose colors. The camera does not do it justice.
3 February 2026
Being Tuesday, today was art-at-the-library day. I forgot that the instructor, Maria, wanted to continue on the fruit theme for today's class. I could not work with the apple I brought last week, regardless, because I ate it for lunch last Tuesday! I found a picture of an apple on line and worked from that.
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| Internet Apple |
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| My apple from art class |
I did not want to be bothered with using watercolor paints today. I struggle to get anything I like using that medium. The apple shown above was done using colored pencils.
After I finished the apple drawing, I tried a banana.
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| Instructor Maria |
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| "Lemons" by Helene |
Clark spent the bulk of today with his guitar - first on the boat and then later at the church for band practice. I needed to get to Publix and the post office, so we agreed that I would ride with him when he left. He would turn off for the church and I would continue on for my shopping.
I had a birthday package to mail, so I hit the post office first and then on to Publix. Without Clark to carry groceries in his backpack, I had to be selective about what I bought. When I left the boat, I had my backpack on my back, a thermal bag I modified a long time ago that attaches to my handlebars, a thermal bag especially designed to attach to the bike itself, and a shoulder bag in case I needed it. I did need all of it. Every bag was stuffed and either hanging off me or the bike as I made my way "home". I amazed myself with just how much I could carry on the bike!
When I got back to the boat, I left my bike on the dock. At 5:00 Clark and I planned to attend the bi-weekly MTOA meeting, and I would need the bike again for that outing. Clark was not sure if he would make it back to the boat before the MTOA gathering, but in fact, guitar practice ended early enough for him to come back to drop off his guitar before we biked together over to the meeting.
The gathering is held at the covered area in the city park across Route 1 from Marlin Bay. As we biked "home" at sunset, we were glad we had brought heavy coats to fight the chill going back to the boat.
Before crawling back onto the boat, I stopped to grab this evening's sunset picture.
4 February 2026
Wednesday is my chosen laundry day, so Clark and I walked up to be there for my 9:30 time slot. I hung out in the boaters' lounge, read a book for Book Club ("Soul of an Octopus"), and had a cup of tea from the "coffee bar" offered there. Clark did not hang around for too long though he did end up getting involved in a discussion regarding the water depths on the bay side of Marathon.
A boater who came in yesterday ran aground trying to get to the marina. His attitude seemed to suggest that him running aground was the marina's fault. So many factors contribute to water depth around here including the wind and the period of the moon. They were showing him charts and talking about water depths. Clark joined in the discussion after that guy left and gave some input to the staff about his experience with navigating the waters here.
Later, after lunch, we had a knock on the boat. A boater had come to talk with Clark about his solar panels not working. They talked for a while and then Clark went to his boat to look into it. The "blue tooth" seems to not be working as Clark could not even find a signal on his phone. Fortunately, the company that sold the unit had already decided that a replacement part was needed to fix the issue and is on its way.
I have gotten to know Heidi, who works here at Marlin Bay, quite well. She tends the bar and does jewelry classes. Today, she held an earring-making class and invited me to attend as a birthday gift to me! Wow! She does beautiful work with wire and has pieces for sale on show at the Guild Hall Gallery in Key West.
Today, the marina had a bit of a challenge figuring out where to hold the jewelry session. It is too cold to sit outdoors to make jewelry and sections of the club house were closed due to a special event taking place here. Folks who may be familiar with an Apple TV+ television series called "Bad Monkey" may be interested to know that a film crew was on site at the marina today to do some filming. Apparently it is not a too-well kept secret.
Besides cameramen outside shooting scenes, people have taken over the upstairs bar for photo shoot and grabbed tables downstairs in the clubhouse to use their laptops.
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| Cameraman setting up his equipment |
I was amazed to see yesterday and again today, people running around in bikinis and swimsuits (as I had on a winter coat). Apparently they were filming scenes for the show. What actors / actresses have to do!
Anyway, the earring class finally found a place to be held in a currently unoccupied villa here at Marlin Bay. When I got to the club house, I was redirected to the villa and told to enter via the garage.
Heidi did not know how many people to expect. She is always concerned that more folks will show up than she can handle. When I arrived about 1:30, two women were there ahead of me. Another woman I know from boating, Carol, came around 2:30. Start time was flexible anywhere from 1:00 onwards.
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| Heidi's earrings |
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| My finished earrings |
When I finished my project, I did not really feel like leaving yet and stayed to help Carol complete hers. Between the two of us, we got her set made. She made her set from green stones with dark read beads on the ends of the chains. I did not get a picture unfortunately.
As today progressed I moved from wearing a fleece and a coat to just a coat. Looking at the weather moving in tomorrow, by late afternoon I will be back in both the fleece and coat. Wind chills in the 30s and 40s are back on the forecast even in south Florida!
There's no sunset picture today. I missed the sunset while working on this blog update!
