2026 April: Time in Pompano Beach FL

 3-4 April 2026
No boat travel

With no set agenda and no travel plans for today, we slept in late. Mid-morning, Steve (our host) came down to the boat to see if I wanted to go grocery shopping with him. Steve is planning to travel to the Bahamas in the near future and is provisioning his boat for the trip. He plans to have a first mate along with him who provided him with a shopping list for food. 

He decided that we would go to Target for the shopping. The Target here in Pompano Beach is a two-story affair with an escalator to carry people and their shopping carts between floors. The only other time I saw this was when we shopped at a food store in Chicago. We did not ride the escalator, however, as the food market was on the lower level. 

Since Steve did not create the list and as some items on the list were foreign to both of us, our shopping trip turned into a sort of scavenger hunt. Neither of us knew where to look or precisely what we were looking for. Some items he specifically left off the list, such as fresh fruits, as he did not want to purchase them at Target. I got  my steps in at the store going back-and-forth from aisle to aisle in search of food stuffs I had never heard of before. We had a lot of fun shopping together. (we always do)

In the afternoon, after lunch, I sat down with my laptop and my Mah Jongg card to play Mahjong 4 Friends. The new cards came out for 2026, but today I continued to play with the 2025 card. 

Mah Jongg Card 2025

While I was playing on my laptop, Clark was busy adding a new item to our boat.  I found him standing on the cap rail doing something with the top of the boat.

It seems like every time we come by Steve's place, he gives us something for our boat. Mostly in the past it has been boat parts that he kept when he upgraded from a boat similar to ours to a Fleming. Since he no longer needed the parts, he gave them to us as a good "new" home. 

When we spoke yesterday, Clark and I told Steve how our dinghy cover had turned into "Swiss Cheese" after leaving Marathon. I repaired it as best I could with the materials I had on hand at the beginning of our stay at Marlin Bay. I checked it periodically while there, up until the day we leaved, and all looked well from afar. The winds of the trip must have been way too much for it because it became shredded as we traveled. 

We asked Steve if there was a place in town to buy a piece of canvas to make a repair, and he said, "I have a better idea!" He had a brand new dinghy cover that he bought and then did not need because, unexpectedly, one came with the purchase of his boat. He said we could have it. 

It's a little big in the stern as his dinghy is larger, but oh so much better than what we had or could even produce with a fabric repair. Clark was "installing" the cover onto our dinghy.

So that's what he is doing up there!

Clark rummaged around and found some pieces of line to attach the dinghy cover to the dinghy so it doesn't sail off underway. 

Wow! Looks so good!

Clark is / was thinking this is a temporary solution, and I am left wondering why it has to be temporary. We will have to see how we make out on the trip home with this new addition. I cut the straps and connectors off the old canvas cover and plan to sew them onto the cover to be used instead of the bits of line that Clark put in place. 

Steve is a great host and a lot of fun. After the dinghy cover activity concluded, he showed up on the dock sitting on a motorized scooter. He invited me to go for a ride with him around the neighborhood. He decided the one he planned to ride needed air, so we had a little work to do before we got underway.

Steve putting air in the tire

Ev ready to ride!

We took off down the driveway

and headed down the street.

Steve said we should just start riding and see where it took us. We scoped out some of the houses in the neighborhood, and then Steve showed me a huge Banyan Tree.

Banyan Tree in Steve's neighborhood

Steve said he had no destination in mind, but I think he had a plan. We wove through the streets and came out at a boat-building business where they build boats that cost, per what Steve told me, $15 million a piece. They are fishing boats with huge towers.

$15 Million

Steve is known here and no one questioned us riding through the area on the scooters. In fact several men talked to him as we wandered around. 

The place is called Merritt's. Steve told me he brings his boat here for work or under a hurricane warnings. That is why they all seemed to know him.

Merritt's boat lift

We poked our heads into one of the bays and Steve told me the boat was Jimmy Buffett's boat. 

Jimmy Buffett's boat

What I gathered from listening in on Steve's talk with folks at the boat yard was that the boat was to be Jimmy Buffett's but then he passed away. The boat will now go to some other lucky boater with a big bankroll. 

We wandered all over the boatyard.

Upper helm of a boat under construction

Men working way up in the top of the center boat's tower

The boats are big and appear even bigger out of the water. I felt insignificant walking beside them.

Steve walking between 2 of the boats

Pictures do not do it justice to get the feel for the height of these boats.

As it approached 5:00, Steve said we better get out before they locked the gates and locked us in, so we sped off on our scooters to return back to the house. 

When we got back to Steve's house, he wasn't quite done with his scooter. He put a battery on the floor and drove it to his backyard to his boat for installation. Clark took over from there to get the battery in place in Steve's dinghy.

Clark installing the battery for Steve

When we went shopping earlier in the day, we came home with steaks, baked potatoes, and vegetables for dinner tonight. Steve is an expert at cooking steaks. Perhaps that is because he is from Omaha! Anyway they were tender and tasty! By 9:00, we were all ready to say goodnight!

4 April 2026

No boat travel.

Clark seemed surprised when I said I wanted to get caught up on laundry while I had an available washer and dryer. Before I could get to that part of today's agenda, however, Steve came to our boat and asked if I wanted to go shopping again. This time to Publix. Of course I said, "Yes!" 

He brought the same shopping list as yesterday trying to cross off more items from our scavenger hunt. After almost 90 minutes of wandering the store, we gave up on some items like Ruby Red Monster Energy drink. They had many flavors but no "ruby red".

We left the house at 10:00 and left the store at 11:30. By the time we got home and the groceries stowed it was time for lunch. I decided to start the laundry going beforehand so that could be working while we were eating. Unfortunately, after loading the washer, I discovered that I did not know how to turn it on. It had no "On" button. It had a "Start" button that did nothing. 

I had Clark come to look into the situation, and he came up blank. When I found Steve, he checked the breakers and then just started punching buttons on the washer. Voila! It lit up! I got the wash going and returned to our boat for lunch. 

Around 3:00, Steve came down to our boat and asked if I wanted to go food shopping again - this time to "Aldi's". So, off we went for a third time in two days to a food store. As we pulled out of the driveway, he said he needed to buy a belt, so we stopped at J C Penney's first. I haven't been in one of those stores in years. 

Before we went out shopping this afternoon, we discussed dinner plans and agreed that tonight we would get take out from an Italian restaurant that Steve recommended. So, with all the shopping, I came away with a bag of bagels, a loaf of bread, and a couple of dark chocolate candy bars (cheap at Aldi's). The remainder of the purchases were for Steve stocking the house and provisioning his boat.

As we relaxed this afternoon in Steve's house, we ended up watching the movie The Goonies made in 1985. I remembered parts of the movie from year's back. Given the year it was made, I was impressed with the special effects and action scenes. It's a kids' version of Indiana Jones.

Clark and Steve went to the restaurant "Zuccarelli East" to pick up the food just before The Goonies ended. By the time they returned, Steve's wife, Judy, and I were watching The Wizard of Oz. Clark seemed very surprised that I knew some words to almost every song and could recite upcoming lines for characters before they were said. I guess I've seen this movie more than a few times. 

I "ran" back to the boat between movies, and as I did so I noticed the sky. I figured I'd be busy at sunset, so I grabbed the current picture for the blog.

View from the stern of our boat at Steve's place Next destination is Vero Beach!