2020: Marathon Theater Outing

7 February 2020

Our very own Terry Israel who has a boat, "Caretta", here in the Faro Blanco Marina performed in a play at the local Marathon theater. Ann, "Morning Star II", organized an outing for boaters to go see Terry in the play. Over 30 people signed up with Ann to attend the show. No wonder the theater had a big sign up saying "Sold Out" when we got there! We took up almost one-third of the theater! It turned out to be a laugh-out-loud success!

As part of the outing, Ann also organized a group dinner at the Marathon Steak and Lobster House restaurant. Over 20 people participated in the dinner before the show. Besides attendees from Faro Blanco, folks from Skip Jack Marina as well as Marlin Bay Marina participated.

9 February 2020

Facebook and my Blog have helped me reconnect with a number of old friends. One of those, someone I knew in high school, made the effort to come visit me in Marathon. Although I have not seen her in many years, we talked non-stop the whole time she was here. Sadly, her visit was only a few hours long. Her husband and Clark talked non-stop as well. I am hoping that Colleen and her husband Vaughn find their way to connect with us again in the future.

Colleen and Vaughn at Burdine's Restaurant

2020: Faro Blanco Chili Cook-off Event

2 February 2020
No boat travel.

The Chili Cook-off event planned for February 1st had to be postponed due to rain. After checking with the contestants that entered the challenge, a decision was made to move the event to Sunday afternoon so as not to conflict with the Super Bowl parties.

Faith Paddock organized the event.

Ann was an integral part of the party planning.

Ann - Jello Shot!

Tasters had lots of pots of chili to compare -- vegan and non-vegan entries.

After 90 minutes of folks sampling the great chili, fixings, and corn bread, the winners were announced.

Jim has the results!

Staff at the marina offered their services as judges for this event.  Judges included Aaron Debbie, and Mike.  They selected the best vegan and best non-vegan entries.

Joe Wendler - Boat "Salyna" - Vegan

Lisa Marshall - Boat "Rae of Sun" - Non Vegan

In addition to the judging team, a peoples' choice award was named. The winners were Jeff and Jasmine McElroy on "Mystic Gem".

Happy winner - Jasmine.

Jeff showing his winnings including apron!

We had live music for the event performed by Wilson family members ... Nina and Anna May.

Little Cora  bounced along to the music!

The original date for the event coincided with Mel's birthday. In addition to homemade ice cream, Ann provided football-shaped (Super Bowl) cakes to help him celebrate.

Some of the event attendees ...

"Zoey's Adventure"

Canine attendees

Nina and Cora

The event concluded at 3:00 whereby people cleaned up and scattered relatively quickly. Clark and I returned to our boat and decided to hang out there and watch the game in the comfort of our own salon. Many folks gathered at the Lighthouse Grille to watch the game on the big screen. Clark and I enjoyed the back-and-forth performance as opposed to a one-sided game. The half-time show did nothing for me.

2020: Junior Paint Session

31 January 2020
No boat travel.

When I held the acrylic painting demo / class a few days ago, the younger crowd had prior commitments and could not attend. I invited them over to the boat today to have a painting session. We had just enough room around the table in the salon to spread our work out and get creative.

I gave the girls two choices for paintings - the one with the palm tree I did with the adults or one with a sunset.

Ella made the decision and chose the sunset picture because it had the palm fronds as well as being colorful. Our session latest for about two hours.

Evelyn describing the next step in the painting process.

Working on the background ...

Adding sun and palm fronds ...

Anna May's great painting ... Complete with signature!

Ella - adding the palm fronds

Ella's beautifully finished painting!

Jasmine ready to add the silhouetted palm trees.

Jasmine's amazing art work!

Everyone was afraid that trying to add the grass over the water would ruin their pictures, so we decided to stop while ahead of the game.  When the girls left, they all appeared satisfied with their finished works. I thought they all did a marvelous job painting! They were well-mannered and all, very graciously, offered to assist with clean up. What a great group of girls!

After putting away the paint supplies and getting the boat back to its more normal state, Clark and I went for a stroll around the marina. We found several folks to talk to along the way, so it turned into a rather long stroll that ended with us joining in the discussions at docktails.

Later, after hearing the local weather and news, we walked over to Beverly and Dave's boat, "Amalie". Beverly's brother, Richard, and sister-in-law, Adrienne, are visiting from Beaufort, NC. Richard is well known for his chocolate martinis, so he played bartender. In addition to Clark and me, Mel and Ann, and Lisa and Ken joined the party. Somehow the conversation segued into story and joke telling. Of course, we heard some Mel classics and laughed hysterically. Somehow they never get old no matter how many times we hear them!

We got back to our boat around 8:30 or so after drinking chocolate martinis for nearly two hours. (Clark drank only water of course.) Cautiously, I managed to get off their boat and back to ours. Since we had not eaten dinner before we went visiting, I then set to and made something for us to eat. I put together a shrimp and broccoli over rice dinner that didn't require too much focused attention.

A while later we got warnings of bad weather approaching. When it arrived, it brought lots of rain and dangerously close lightening. As we watched the old movie, "The Apartment", starring Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Ray Walston, and Fred McMurray, the satellite television suddenly came up with an error message. Apparently, the cloud cover was such that we could no longer get a satellite signal. When we finally got the signal back, more than an hour later,  the movie had the credits rolling. Ah well! Time for bed!

Bill Forrestall posted the following video on the thunderstorm ...

https://www.facebook.com/bill.forrestall/videos/10221898016705766/?t=4

2020: Parasailing off Marathon

30 January 2020

While on the Great Loop in January of 2016, Clark came up with  the idea of an air-boat ride through the Everglades as a great birthday gift idea for me. He would not tell me what he had in mind for a gift until the day of the ride. Two years ago Clark decided that, since neither of us had done it before, we should rent a PWC, i.e. wave runner, for my birthday present. We took out one and rode together.

This year when we arrived in Marathon, we stopped into the visitor's center to ask for coupons. While there I saw an ad for the parasail trips here in town. I turned to Clark and said, "That's what I want for my birthday this year!" He remembered!

Almost every time we take "Sunset Delight" out for a maintenance run we see a parasail boat running about with folks having fun, and I drool with envy.

Folks out enjoying a parasail ride.

Clark has been watching the weather for a good day. He talked to someone yesterday about times and what we needed. However, yesterday the captain had a family emergency, so he was not taking anyone out. We decided to go today. Jim on "Hour Plan" expressed interest in joining us when we went, so we invited him to join us today for the fun.

The outing almost did not happen because the captain's 3-year old daughter took the business phone and put it somewhere such that the parents can't find it. They did not get our phone messages! By luck, Clark had the phone number of someone else at the launch site, and she had the owner call us back. He told us to be there at 1:00 for a 1:30 take off. Yay!!

Of course we had to sign away all liability for the ride. We used our coupons that we got at the visitor's center. No one else wanted to  go on the 1:30 ride, so we had the boat to ourselves. We wanted to go earlier in the day rather than later and that meant we had picked a time with somewhat higher wind velocities. I had no idea if more or less wind is preferred. I just wanted to go and enjoy!

The parasail can handle one or two people at a time. Because of the windy conditions, the captain said we would need to go two at a time for balance. Since he had 3 guests, (Clark, me and Jim), he asked, "Who wants to go twice?" Clark immediately offered up the "Birthday Girl" for the extra ride.  Clark and I went first, and then Jim went with me for the second turn. (No extra charge for my second trip up!)

Preparing the parachute for the ride!

They launch right off the back of the boat. We got safety instructions on what to do if there is a failure. We were told to pull on the red strap and throw the anchor in the water to stop the parachute if we got disconnected. Given the wind direction, Clark said we could end up in the Atlantic if the parachute got away!

We left all our phones on the boat in case we got dunked. Jim strapped a go-pro on Clark to get footage of the trip! That was the only item we took up with us.

Harnessed and Ready to Go! Who's coming with me?
Bag with red handle over my head contains the emergency anchor!

Clark and Ev going up

and up ...

Crew keeping an eye on the parachute

Up at 800' and looking below for sea turtles in the water!

When we prepared for the ride, the captain asked if we wanted to get dipped in the water. I said, "Well, I don't want any more than my toes wet!" He replied, "All the way to the nose! Got it!" As he reeled us back in, he dipped our toes in the water. It was amazingly warm in temperature - warmer than the air temp for sure. The captain said the water temp was 72 degrees. Nice!

I stayed strapped in after we got back while Clark and Jim traded places. Jim wore his go-pro. While Jim and I admired the view of the clear teal water, Clark took pictures and videos.

They told us to look for sea turtles and such. Clark and I saw nothing in the water on our trip together. Jim spotted a ray when we were up. We saw no turtles at all. With the wind direction, we had a great view of the water. If we turned our heads, we got brief glimpses of the islands of Marathon, but the wind kept us pointed in the wrong direction for a good look at Marathon.

All too soon the adventure was over, and it was time to turn the boat towards the dock. I enjoyed the boat ride out and back. It was a great boat and fun to be on a fast boat for a change!

Parachute stowed, time to return to dock

Jim, Crew (Jackie), Captain Alex, and Evelyn

Clark is now in the picture. 

Captain Alex docking the boat

The place where we went for the ride is a very short walk from our marina - Captain Pip's Parasail! As we walked back to the boat, Jim asked me what I had in mind for my next birthday. I said I would have to think about it. He suggested jumping out of a plane with a parachute! I'm considering it.

When we got back to the boat, I pulled out my computer and the camera to see the pictures and update the blog. Clark pulled out his guitar!

We went to Thursday night "Heavy Hors d'oeuvres" for dinner. When we came back to the boat, a couple of folks joined us for some more guitar playing and a bit of singing.

Clark with Adrienne and Richard (visiting "Amalie")

Beverly and David, "Amalie", and Evelyn
Listening to the performers