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| Singers at Library Concert |
1 March 2026
We started today with a quick change in weather. As I sat looking out the back of the boat around 9:30 this morning, thick fog rolled in and I could see nothing but white as I looked at the water. As quickly as the fog rolled in, it dissipated. I attempted to capture the transition as the fog back vanished as I watched.
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| Low-level clouds |
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| Buildings reappeared |
Where we had no air movement in the morning, the winds came in later in the day. I tried to close the top part of the Dutch door on our boat and my hand got smashed as the wind slammed the door shut. Fortunately, it was just an ouch with no damage to the hand.
Being Sunday, we were off to the church this morning for the 11:00 service. We aim to arrive at 10:00 because of band practice before the service begins.
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| Clark at St Columba |
Given I had some time to kill before the service began, I decided to walk around the grounds to see if the rocks I left hidden here a while ago were still there. Two of the three were gone, but one was still waiting to be found.
In the past years, those of us attending the 11:00 service only heard about the bagpipes being played at the 9:00 service.
Clark said we would motor out towards John Sawyer shoal, turn around, and return to the marina. The only problem - we had difficulty finding John Sawyer. Clark had the boat pointed in a slightly wrong direction to spot the marker for the shoal.
Today we got a surprise, the piper actually played for us!
After the contemporary service today, we rushed back "home" to the boat because we had boat maintenance projects planned for the afternoon. We had an oil change to set up for, prep work to get setup to swap out our autopilot hardware, and Clark needed to repair the anemometer that he found hanging by a wire the other night in the wind.
Clark pulled out the epoxy kit to repair the wind finder. Once he was done, he had me throw a couple of coats of paint over the epoxy as it does not stand up well to ultraviolet rays.
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| Anemometer repair underway |
The can containing the hydraulic fluid for the autopilot presented a bit of a problem when it came to opening the can. Neither us nor anyone I polled in the marina had an old-fashioned can opener to punch holes in the can. Clark used a screwdriver to puncture the can.
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| Bottle opener anyone? |
After boat chores, Clark said he had two choices of what to do next - taxes or guitar playing. He went into the pilot house to work on taxes and came back almost immediately. He said it was too hot and sticky to sit and do taxes, so the guitar "won".
I spent several hours today bringing the blog up to date.
By 5:00 the wind came in and the temperatures dropped rapidly making working on taxes more reasonable (we almost never use the air conditioning).
2 March 2026
Boat Maintenance Run
Even though we had a windy day today, we decided to take the boat out for a maintenance run to warm up the engines in preparation for an oil change. Clark said we should go out in the morning, eat lunch, and then complete the oil change after. Taking the boat out heats up the oil but it also heats up the engine room. It gets brutal in there.
Our maintenance run took us out to John Sawyer Shoal. The trip out today on the boat was the first time the boat has moved out of our slip at Marlin Bay since we arrived on Thanksgiving Day! I always worry when we move the boat that we will not get the lines back in the right positions for easy on/off at the dock. Before we dropped the lines, I marked them with a permanent marker where they attach to the cleats to help get things set up the way they were when we pulled out.
Having not moved the boat in so many months, both Clark and I needed a moment to feel comfortable with getting the boat underway. We had a bit of a wait before we could get moving as the chart plotter decided it needed to do an update. Eventually we got underway. Given the proximity to the first of the month, some folks in the marina thought we were leaving permanently.
Eventually we figured out we needed a correction and found the marker.
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| Shoal marker on the horizon |
We turned around near John Sawyer and headed back towards Faro Blanco before returning to Marlin Bay.
Clark spent the rest of the afternoon sweating in the engine room. He did the bulk of the work without my help, but I was useful in one way. I remembered some procedural steps that Clark did at the last oil change on the hard-to-reach side of the starboard engine. That helped speed up the process by a bit.
3 March 2026
Today I decided that I had to go shopping before I did anything else, so I had Clark pull out my bike for a trip to Walgreens and Publix. He had plans to go work with Dan on his boat, so he was not available to join me. When that happens, I have to be well-behaved at the store so that I don't buy more than I can carry back on my own. I had my backpack, a bag that attaches to my handlebars, and a spare bag "just in case". I used up all the planned space, even filled the spare bag, and tied it to the handlebars for the ride back.
The wind in my face made getting to the store difficult. Since I wanted to get back to the marina as soon as possible, I pushed to get to Publix quickly. The only good thing about fighting the wind all the way to the store is the helpful boost on the way back to the marina!
Slightly out of breath, I made it back to the boat just in time to play Mahjongg with other boaters at the marina. Today, we had two tables of three players. The fourth at each table was "Bob" the dummy player.
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| Carole, Robin, and Francine |
The tables we use have holes in the center for umbrellas, so we need to cover the hole so the tiles don't fall through to the ground below. I took a Turkish towel with the Marlin Bay logo on it (a welcome gift when we arrived in November) and cut it down to size to make it a Mahjongg mat.
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| Roni and Ronda at my table |
It's a very good day at Mahjongg when I win a round, and today I got to declare "Mahjongg!" for one of the four rounds we played.
When I play Mahjongg that means we have a late lunch as it typically does not end until around 1:00. After lunch, Clark headed off to guitar practice at the church.
Clark's guitar practice ended a little earlier than usual today which was good in that we had an MTOA meeting this afternoon. Part of my rush to Publix in the morning was to get something to bring to this get together. We had a small turn out for today's MTOA meeting as only 4 couples attended.
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| Clark talking to Mike |
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| "Sinbad the Sailor" dog at the MTOA meeting |
With so few folks, the meeting got over early enough to get back to the marina in time to see the sun set. I headed for the west side of the marina first. I grabbed some random pictures as I walked towards the obvious sunset viewing spot.
As I admired the sun from the west side, Clark was hanging with the folks on the east side of the inner basin. When he left sunset setting, he told the folks there to tell me he went to "DanCyn" (the boat he has been helping work their battery issues). The folks there, however, heard him say, "Tell Evelyn, I went Dancing" as he walked away.
I happened to pass Clark as we changed sides of the marina, so I knew where he had gone. It was pretty funny to find the confused folks telling me Clark went dancing without me!
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| Crowd on the east side of the inner basin |
I talked with the folks there for a while but eventually the group broke up to go find dinner, etc. When Clark passed me on the way to "DanCyn", he said he would not be gone long. However, when I walked back to the boat in total darkness, there was no sign of Clark.
When I got to our boat, I had a problem. I had my prescription sunglasses and a water bottle with me. The boat was a large step away from the dock. I feared that if I put the sunglasses down on the dock, they would blow off the dock with the strong winds. I had no where safe to put them and I could not wear them to get on the boat because it made it too dark to see where to step!
While I fretted about what to do, I got to see the moon rising in the distance.
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| Big moon rising off to the east |
I looked around for a person to help me get onto our boat and found no one - not a single person was in the area. Frantic and angry to find myself in this situation, I called Clark and insisted that he come back and help me on board! His "only a few minutes" had turned into an hour. By the time I got on board it was 7:15, and I still had to cook us some dinner.
The lines are not quite as nicely set up as they were before we went out for that maintenance run. I hate being unable to get on or off the boat due to wind!
4 March 2026
This morning, I got my exercise walking back and forth from our boat to the washer / dryer at the marina office. Clark was busy on board working on installing the hoses for our new autopilot unit. He was deep down in the lazarette and I kept returning to see if he needed any help. A few times I was able to "go for" stuff to save him some climbing out.
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| Clark in the lazarette in the cockpit of the boat |
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| Parts lined up for installation |
After lunch, I went to the pool to meet JoAnn for a swim. When I got back, Clark was ready to do a preliminary test of a new autopilot pump after correcting the plumbing for the pump installed last summer which continued to fail. This showed that it was not a bleeding problem but likely a problem with the pump. The new pump, a different brand without shuttle valves, was able to move the rudder from stop to stop without hesitation.
As I sat nearby ready to go get something if needed, I looked up and saw a rainbow off to the east.
I captured a couple of videos to demonstrate their amazing musical talent.
I noticed the sky, off to the south, had turned various shades of pink as the sun set.
Shortly after I announced the presence of a rainbow to Clark, it started to rain. We had all sorts of things out on the cockpit and had to scurry to move them out of the direct path of the rain. Some things moved to hide behind our dock box, and others were quickly moved into the cabin of the boat.
I did not get to see the sun set tonight, but I did get to see the glow of the clouds to the east as the sun set in the west.
5 March 2026
This morning it was back to work on the autopilot to adjust the pump and strap down the pipes and new hoses. We got going first thing and worked until 1:00 when we stopped to eat lunch. A fellow boater here offered to help Clark on the project, but I told him to decline the offer as I would skip Mahjongg to assist. I know, from experience, where Clark keeps his spare parts and tools. I knew it would be a lot faster and easier if I was the one doing the "go for" work. As the morning played out, I knew I made the right decision as things Clark asked for were scattered in various places on the boat and would have been nearly impossible for someone else to retrieve quickly.
We had a treat in store for us after a morning of hard work, however, as "The Kennedys" were performing this afternoon at the Marathon Public Library. The music was fabulous. I could have watched the finger work on the guitars for hours. Unfortunately, the show was only one hour long.
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| Maura and Pete Kennedy |
I captured a couple of videos to demonstrate their amazing musical talent.
Besides writing and playing songs, Pete has written a couple of books. One of them is a memoir of his 50 years playing with famous singers like Frank Sinatra.
Our friends, JoAnn and Jim, came to the concert with us. They struggled to get to the library in time for the show as Route 1 near the Marathon airport was highly congested with construction. They did make it to the show just a few minutes after the performance began.
After the show, I asked JoAnn if they could take us shopping to complete a few errands. They took us to Home Depot to get some parts for the autopilot project, stopped at Walgreens to pick up a couple of items, and then a quick run through Publix to pick u something for dinner tonight.
After they dropped us off at the marina, Clark headed back to DanCyn to look in on the battery situation while I walked up to the marina Club House to see who was around. I found someone I know from Mahjongg in the Club House and ended up staying their for an hour or so talking. When I walked out of the Club House shortly after 5:00, I was shocked to see no one in the pool. Given that I looked to the pool bar expecting to see a bunch of folks hanging out (as per usual), and there was no one there either.
Where did they all go? It felt like I had entered the "Twilight Zone" as it was eerily quiet. I did find the bartender preparing to close up early for the day due to lack of business.
I left the pool area and walked back towards our boat. Along the way I found folks already sitting in the "sunset seats" waiting for the big event of the day.
Tonight, it was, once again, 7:15 when I climbed on board our boat. Fortunately, tonight, Clark had found his way to the sunset area before I wanted to leave, and we walked back to the boat together so I had him there to help me, if needed, to get on the boat.
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