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| Drone Photo of Marlin Bay Inner Basin |
The above picture was taken by a fellow boater's son who was visiting this past week. The boat was on the west side of the inner basin, thus the focus of the picture.
14 February 2026 - Valentine's Day
Clark and I are not big fans of crowded restaurants. Given today was a Saturday and a notable calendar day, we decided to postpone our day out together until sometime later in the week. Given that, we treated today like a "normal" day and went about our tasks as needed.
Saturday morning appears to be a good day to hit Publix when they are stocked for the folks coming for the next week, but the folks have not arrived yet. Heading there this morning was top of my to-do list. I had a couple of essential items to go after. On the way there I stopped by the St. Columba Farmer's Market. The only produce they had available when I passed by around 10:30 was tomatoes, but since tomatoes was what I wanted, it was a successful stop.
While I was out on my shopping trip, Clark was, guess what, on some other boater's boat looking into an issue they are having with their, guess what, batteries! After he concluded that business, he dove into working on taxes! Another great Valentine's Day task!
Meanwhile, I noticed that the windows on the boat were dirty from all the recent heavy winds blowing salt spray at them. I cleaned the windows and then noticed the railings were showing discoloration, also from salt spray. I spent the rest of the afternoon polishing stainless steel railings and boat trim.
15 February 2026
Today, being Sunday, we were off to church. We targeted getting there for 10:00, so the band could practice before the service began.
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| Practice: John, Vicki, Clark, Steve, Nancy, and director Tom |
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| Director Tom on Guitar |
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| Reverend Nancy on Mandolin |
Pastor Deb leads the service.
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| Pastor Deb at the Contemporary Service |
Screens are used during the service to display words for hymns and prayers. The screen below depicts the origins, African, of the first song of the service.
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| Clark on Guitar |
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| Jacob on far left on drums Nancy here on Violin / Fiddle |
As the folks in the congregation left the church today, the band played their final song - "This Little Light of Mine". The hostess for the Haitian dinner, Winese, came up and joined in the fun. I planned to take a picture but grabbed a video instead.
Lunch and cookies are served after Sunday service, and folks gather to chat before heading on their way. Today we were quite late leaving the church as we sat and talked with Pastor Deb and our friend Nancy well after everyone else had left. Clark was telling interesting stories that kept us entertained, so, no, they were not about batteries!
Later in the day, we got to enjoy a lovely sunset. Moving from place to place around the marina, I took a few pictures. Even though they were all taken within minutes of each other, they are all quite different.
Through a doorway / across a porch of one of the villas here on the property ...
Clear view across the water with Faro Blanco in the distance, i.e. no obstructions like above photos ...
From the east side of the inner basin looking at the Marlin Bay tower and beyond ...
From the end of our slip, looking at the boats on the west side of the outer basin ...
16 February 2026
I told Clark that since I washed the windows and polished the chrome on the boat for Valentine's Day, the least he could do would be to put the new tire on my bike. He just repaired a flat on my bike last week. I told him we had a new tire for my bike, but he did not believe me and asked me to pick which old tire I preferred be put back on the bike instead. Reluctantly I picked one.
Then the next day, I found the new tire, still in the packaging it was mailed in, stored in the closet where we keep bike-related "stuff". I brought it out with an "I told you so" and asked him to install it on my bike. With some grumbling, he did so. Now I have a patched tube inside a new tire. Hopefully that will keep me in business for a good long time.
We are both sick of me getting flat tires. For the most recent one, he found a tiny piece of coral, from the grounds here at the marina, embedded in the tire, which he speculates put the hole in the tube. The tire is so many years old, it is not surprising that it has been giving us grief.
We had some time after the bike repair and before the concert we planned to attend late afternoon, so we decided to go jump in the pool for a couple of hours. There, we found a few of our boater friends, cool water, and warmer-than-recent air temperatures to make for a pleasant way to spend some time. After that it was off to a "garden party" with live music.
The MTOA (Marine Trawler Owner's Assoc) organization that we belong to informed the group of the event. Not too many of the MTOA folks came. They missed an interesting event.
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| 2026 Garden Concert |
The first folks to perform had to leave early to put on a show at Porky's restaurant. The restaurant was closed earlier in the day due to "Bad Monkey" being filmed there, so they had some time to play at the party before they had to run off to Porky's.
Unfortunately, the one person planning to play throughout the event woke up in the morning with a sinus infection making singing difficult. He requested others to help him out.
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| She has a great, deep voice |
After that, he asked Lady A to come up and help him out.
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| Busy listening to the music |
I pass by the street where this house is located all the time going to church or Publix or almost anywhere and had no idea the street existed let alone the "Keezy" houses on the street like the one shown below.
The surrounding area is jungle-like with tall trees and plants all around.
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| Flamingos (fake) |
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| "Flip flop" Tree |
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| Skeleton Crew on hand |
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| Clay / stone kitty |
The weather did not yield a good sunset tonight, even so, we could not have seen the sunset from this property through all the foliage!
17 February 2026
This morning I had a tough decision to make. Should I go to the library as usual for art or stay at the marina to play American Mahjongg with boating friends. I opted for Mahjongg as I am trying to learn it, and I can do art on the boat on my own. We started at 10:30. I left around 12:30 or so, but others stayed for another round after I left.
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| Francine mixing up the tiles |
We had enough folks to have a table of 4 and a table of 3 to start. Then a person, Mary, stopped by whom we did not know but who did know Mahjongg, so she filled in the vacant seat for us.
Clark needed to bike off to the church for guitar practice this afternoon, so I fixed lunch. After he left, I pulled out my pencils to do some art on my own. Once again I made greeting cards to send to my grandchildren. I was pleased with my results, but my favorites, of the ones I did today, are a rabbit with a puzzled look on his face and one of a couple of butterflies.
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| Tiny Dancers |
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| Triplets |
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| Wacky Rooster |
At 5:00 I met up with Clark at today's MTOA meeting (Marine Trawler Owner's Assoc) held at the City park on the opposite side of Route 1 from our marina. Clark took my bike off the boat for me earlier in the day, so that I could ride there when it was time. I was so consumed with my art that I had to hurry when it was time to leave!
We had the business meeting, met some new attendees, and ate some goodies before heading home.
I had trouble dragging Clark away, and the sun had already set before we finally left the meeting. When we got back to the marina, however, we did find a number of people still standing around at the place where the sunset watchers gather. We stopped to chat there. Eventually, we made it back to the boat where I quickly threw a frozen pizza in the oven for dinner.
After that, Clark disappeared to work on his laptop, and I worked on the blog to bring us up to date.
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