2/21/16        Sunday           Boot Key/Marathon, FL


How did that happen?!? Third week in February?!! So we've been here in The Keys for 3 weeks. Dear friends, Nora & Dick, left today. They arrived a week after we did. We've had wonderful adventures together and now we're back to discovering another new "normal."

Today was a vacation day for the most part. We did not leave the boat all day. Well, we each got in the dinghy to do some beautifying efforts on Grace, so we were really off the boat but we didn't leave the boat....really. David skinned (scraped) some more railing and I oiled some more, different railing. David also washed the deck getting the mud off from the anchoring he and Dick did earlier last week.

New neighborhood David and Dick moved us to early last week
out of direct line of Voice of America broadcast to Cuba

The move down (up?) Sisters Creek puts us about 5 minutes closer to the marina and 5 minutes farther from the beach...which I don't seem to be getting to very often....YET.

clutter of line but a very clean fore deck
that little oriental carpet is from Wayne's house,
his birthday is coming up late this month, missing him

David, with my help, did a yeoman's work on an electrical improvement that did not improve. We have a new switch, though, and may be able to use it at some point after David does more reading and research. I was hard pressed to tear myself away from my book by Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin. Such a fine piece of literature. She is such an exquisite writer/storyteller! I finished it just a few minutes ago. It is just so touching...narrated by an aging woman who recalls her youth and marriage. and there is another novel within her narration and it is confusing...until the end...who are the participants in that interior novel. Wonderful. Definitely recommending this one.

David and I dined on board which we'd not done since Nora & Dick arrived, eating out or at their campsite. Nora is allergic to cats so couldn't stay inside on the boat. It was nice to sit at our table in the pilot house and enjoy food together, alone, with Amelia.

And tomorrow we'll see what it is like to be in the marina again, perhaps to move to a mooring tomorrow or Tuesday. The wind is shifting, giving those wanting to make it to the Bahamas a good 2-day weather window...if predictions hold true.

We spoke with our friends Dan and Wendy - David and Dan spoke. They are on the west coast of FL thinking of coming further south in another week or so. We expect to hang out w/them, do some island hopping then probably buddy-boat to head north by the middle of March. Aah, yikes. Middle of March is only 3+ weeks away. How did THAT happen?!!? And David and I will have to learn, all over again, all our sailing skills since we have barely been off anchor in 3 weeks. Thus, the island hopping will be good practice for us.

David and I started thinking about big (that is, expensive) boat improvements (like home improvements) today, thinking about how to balance the importance of money spent on boat home relative to money spent on earth home (7 Lavers Pond Rd) and thinking about future different or additional earth home in a warmer climate...for when snow birding on the boat is less possible due to our knees and other frailties or responsibilities or interests. Big subjects with no concrete decisions but the conversations are important if for no other reason than to alert each other that we are thinking about eventualities.We hope for those eventualities and long lives in good health.

And tonight, the full-ish moon.

 
Full ish, not fool ish