2/29/16       Monday     LEAP YEAR in Boot Key/Marathon, FL

David and I were up and moving swiftly this morning, off the boat by 9:30, missed Cruisers' Net in order to get the bus to Key West. Sweet ride. The land- and seascapes through the Keys are simply stunning. The water colors. The low to high mangroves. The palm trees. We're definitely in the land of palm trees of so many varieties. The mangrove "swamps", shallows...whatever they are called with the salt on all the mangrove roots as the tide goes out, giving them a frosted look....the white trails (underwater) in the shallows where boats have run aground and backed out...like slashes on flesh...what looks to be the solidifying of the "swamp" with water evaporating so that the sand/coral mud is growing red or yellow lichen...roots of Black Mangrove growing UP....such science fiction/ fantasy variety of color and form. Delicious and totally intriguing. What animal creatures are growing/living in these places?

Didn't take this today but...Key West
where the beginning and the end of the road
may be the same

Our visit with Sheila was equally wonderful. I've known her for 30+ years but we've never been particularly close, very respectful of each other and our places in the dance world of Maine but not close buddies. How lovely to enjoy each other's company and know each other better in our retirement years. She lives mostly full time in Key West but comes back to Maine for some summer fun.  Can't wait to see her in Maine now.

Back on the bus after a short but vigorous walk on a beach near Sheila's and back in Marathon at the marina by 5:15. Checked our mail and I got the Dry bag back pack I ordered. It is bright yellow but I think too big. We'll see if David wants it otherwise I'll return it and look for a 20 liter one rather than this honking 30 liter one.

Beer on the aft deck with handsome David and lovely Amelia. Amelia did not join us in drink but did get some kibbles. It was, I believe, the most luscious evening we've had in Marathon. Wind was gentle and warm, blue sky, and a little sailboat zipping and zigging among the rows of boats. About as good as life gets I believe.

2/28/16        Sunday         Boot Key/Marathon, FL

Gentle, slow beginning to the day this morning. Listened in on the Cruisers' Net and decided to buy the Rosette Stone Spanish Language CDs. Here I go again, learning Spanish. I've decided to just "learn Spanish" rather than "try to learn Spanish", hoping that trying has been holding me back all these many years. In reality I probably just need to immerse myself...you know, go to Costa Rica and live with a family who doesn't speak English, live there for at least one month.

Showered, danced/improvised for 1/2 hour in the park pavilion, back to marina to compute....and my phone broke. David and I are having a tough time w/phones. Don't know what happened. I was texting a friend and the keyboard quit working. I pressed send and the keyboard disappeared, not to be seen again....so far. I see/hear that I'm getting messages (text and email), I was able to answer a phone call but I cannot open the keyboard in order to get to my home page. All contact information, photos, etc are locked inside. I may just decide to never again "lock" my phone and need a password. The AT&T service person, Eddie, was great today but "the phone is broken". And I still owe abt $90 so they won't take it back and there is no guarantee (?). Not sure how long I've had this phone, pretty sure it is no longer under warranty. Might be time to check out those AARP phone plans. Meanwhile I'M WITHOUT A PHONE! I feel naked and invisible - odd combination - and really NOT independent. Damn and double damn. This will be good training.....for something...nursing home training.

We spent several hours in the AT&T store. The good news is that David did get all his contacts and photos and messages transferred from his broken LG phone to his unbroken Samsung phone. Larger than small mercies. I noticed that I wasn't pissy about just sitting and waiting for our turn. Grateful that my attitude of impatience has adjusted itself a bit. Grateful. I'm no fun for myself or anyone else when I'm impatient, pissy or snarky.

Back on the boat it is warm and comfortable. Kitty is happy. David is making a cob stew of some sort for his dinner. I had a really late lunch and may not indulge. I've a little computer battery left so might listen to a Rosette Stone CD.

We're going to visit Sheila in Key West again tomorrow. We'll take the bus, about 1 hour each way, $1.50 each way. Supposed to be beautiful tomorrow.

2/27/16       Saturday        Boot Key/Marathon, FL


Early morning dream about dancing, and my meed to do so. I was walking across a yard and heard loud music (Love Is a Many Splendid Thing) and couldn't resist the urge to dance, even though I questioned the appropriateness of it in this place I was...some big yard with clipped grass. I danced and danced, changing levels, a lot of low movements and I wondered if getting on the ground was a good idea (both because of mussing my clothes and wondering how difficult to get back up). As I danced I was no longer in control of my body, rather some power outside my ego was dancing me and I was enjoying the ride...sort of watching but still fully embodied. The dance ended and I went to great some friends. As I walked across the yard/lawn I was slightly appalled at the condition of my dress, a 1960s-style shift of large floral print. It was wet with grass dew, splotchy with grass stains and flecks of cut grass. I kept brushing myself off in an effort to be more presentable. But it was what it was and I'd enjoyed the dance. I saw Cathy Fitzgerald, a college friend, who was chatting with her girlfriends and getting ready to try out a new, low-slung motorbike. It was brushed silver and just her size but maybe longer than usual. I didn't really want to distract her from her friends or the bike.
Woke up.

Okay my armchair psychology friends - analyze and let me know what you figure out. Clearly, I'm missing dancing....but in addition to that???? I did remember this afternoon that I'd considered using that music for a Limon fall phrase I made for David Parker's class this summer. Something to recapture, maybe.

Well, now that we are in suburbia and securely, for the most part, settled onto a mooring...I'm ready to start moving toward home....sort of. Today was just a weird and not exactly pleasant day. We'd thought to go for a motor but the wind was stronger than comfortable and we wanted to go to the flea market. So, no. Flea market produced a couple books for me and a larger anchor for the boat. Expensive and a fine purchase for our safety. There was a trip to the food store, mostly to get cash for the anchor, and the Office Depot to get our absentee caucus ballots printed, then to the P.O. to mail them and back to the boat to test to see if the anchor fit. Score. David went back ashore for some reason and I had some alone time on the boat...very welcomed alone time. I did a few boat projects...coiling line, preparing solar panels for removal (we're getting new ones), read a magazine, battled the strong wind (while coiling line and preparing solar panels.)..so tonight I have a stiff neck.

David and I tried reading from our book together but it was growing toward dark and the book is too dark to read at dark. We'll continue it in the daylight. After dinner I spoke about some things I'd like to start and finish at the house before we settle back into it this spring. Refinish the living room floor is HIGH on the list and would be most easily done BEFORE we move in...given dust and fumes. New curtains. New sofa. And we talked about places we each want to stop on the return trip - me: St Augustine and the towns south of Cape River to explore by car; David: Mystic Seaport. We also talked about stopping to see Don & Dianne at the end of Long Island, maybe doing some boat work there. Also, how to avoid Chesapeake Bay and whether we were brave and/or experienced enough to do that open water crossing...and miss Lynda's dance concert. Clearly, thinking about returning home.

Time is an interesting aspect on our cruise. We've made some casual friends and some people could be long-term friends. But here we are in Marathon...in the creek for 3 weeks already and now in the mooring field for at least two more weeks. We don't know which boats are living here mostly full time, which folks are passing through, like us. Which people do we invest time in establishing or even researching possibility of friendships...beyond the casual acquaintances and how do we do that. And/but casual acquaintances offer limited satisfaction.

I was really glad to talk to a girlfriend of 30+ years today.

2/26/16   Friday  Boot Key/Marathon, FL

Today would have been the 81st birthday of our friend, Wayne Hollingworth. He died last April. I've been thinking about him a lot today, missing him, thinking how we might have been more helpful to him in his last weeks and days. Absolutely, we did the best we could with the information and experience we had. Only with the privilege of retrospect, we might have made different decisions with and for him. We might have let him die sooner. We might have brought him home to our house or even to his house. We might have stopped the teaching hospital's "another test" or "another procedure", knowing that his systems were shutting down and nothing was going to stop that process, at most a day or two delay in the progress. Deep sigh. And I know that we did the best we could and that everything we did was in love with/toward this dear friend. I look forward to seeing Wayne's family again and to scattering his ashes this summer.

Meanwhile, life in Boot Key Harbor is satisfying to me, today. David had a more difficult day...an alarm went off in our boat while we were at the marina so he had to come back to see what the problem was - smoke alarm had something sitting on it so it couldn't breath, FedX brought his new phone but no one was available to sign for it so David had to bicycle to the airport later to retrieve the package. It was a tiring and trying day for him.

I met a friend and we worked on sewing our pine needles into the bottom portion of our basket projects. And I stayed w/the boat - ALONE - well, with Amelia, while David went for his phone. Had a lovely conversation w/Mary Allen of Coffee By Design. What a lovely human she is. I didn't get as much computer research and work completed as I'd hoped but there is tomorrow...after the yard sale.

My life is rich and I am so very blessed.

Wayne

2/25/16          Thursday     Boot Key/Marathon, FL

Second evening in suburbia. I'm okay with this - close quarters and the security of a mooring. And it IS supposed to blow tonight. Already we're swinging around a bit.

Over dinner, on board, David and I had a moment of panic when we realized the date, the face that a friend is performing on 2/27 in Key West, that that is 2 days away (!), which means we have  only two weeks and two days if we are really planning to leave by mid-March. Holy cow patties!!!!!!!!

Meanwhile, I don't hate boating today. We were on the boat doing various projects until around 11:30 this morning. I was bored. Finished my book which was not as engaging as other John Grisham murder mysteries I'd read. David was working to fix, re-engage the electronics that have been scrambled by the EMFs we were exposed to out in Sister Creek. Hope it was only the boat electronics and not our own nervous systems.

Anyway, left the boat around 11:30 A.M. got to the marina (only 6 minutes away now!!!) in ample time for my Basket Making Class. Terrific! Tedious. Needs attention and precision. Patience (yeah, my strong point). Concentration. Some physical dexterity.  And so satisfying. I've made a date with a boating friend to meet tomorrow to work on our projects.

The teacher, Patty, provides starter kits for $25 with all you need to make a small pine needle basket w/beads and wrappings. Cool. I worked with 4 other beginners and we all got to about the same place in our first basket. That would be about 2.5 wraps of our center piece. Slow progress these first three wraps of pine needles.    

Basket beginnings

Pine needles are a foot or more long

The sweet thing is that I have a "hot pad" and a small basket that my grandmother made of pine needles - same process - when she moved to FL back in early 1960s (?). It is such a sweet memory that Mama was making this same stuff and that I thought it was something only OLD people would do and how boring, and now here I am (old people) enjoying it. I'm amazed at how beautiful and original some of the baskets and trays are that women have made here, and how beautifully precise is the stitching, both functional and decorative. Reminds me of aunt Kathleen and her, by hand, quilt making.

David was bored w/Marathon today. He did some errand while I learned enjoyed baskets and the women who were engaged in that. We talked tonight about how to become more engaged with this community, the Boot Key harbor community. Invite people for drinks, shared dinners, music or movies together. Interestingly we don't invite people to dinner, etc very much in Maine. Our socializing tends to be "running into people, out" rather than inviting people "in", with a few exceptions, of course. Ah, the skills and techniques of making acquaintances who may become friends. And then there is the challenge/perception of only being here a short time so what's the point. Well, the point is...to not be lonely, to not be bored, to learn about other people and their values, trials, and successes.

Today I met Denise and Roy who were obviously wealthier than I...and not that I consider it were obviously lonely, at least she was. They sat at my basket table after all my colleagues had left (I was the last sitting because I was a slower learner) and asked questions about what I was doing, where from, etc. I worked to be engaged w/them and not let our apparent financial difference get in my way. I did okay. I hope to run into her, especially, another day.

Interesting. The boat is David's passion, his toy (not to dis the importance of the boat and his maintenance of it which is potentially life-saving for us). My passions and toys are not here. I'm working to entertain myself and stay engaged in a way he doesn't have to work/concentrate. I think this may be true of other boating wives, so we look for other engagement outlets. Perhaps Sunday or Saturday I'll take my music to the band shell and dance, improvise for fun w/my passion.

Photos of my paddle boarding attempt...from yesterday...or the day before. The woman who let me borrow her paddle board took them on her phone and just sent them.

really bad form but at least I'm standing

Better...moments before I splashed

2/24/16      Wednesday        Bot Key/Marathon, FL


I told David, "This is not the truth but right now...I HATE sailing." "And this isn't even sailing," he said. "Then I hate BOATING," said I.

This was as we untethered ourselves from the mangroves, pulled the slimy lines on board, lifted the anchors which were muddy and slimy, while being chewed on my MILLIONS of no-see-ums. It took an hour and it sucked. David was similarly slimy and bug eaten, more than I was since he was in the mangroves. He's just afraid to vent, having to keep the good face on ALL the boating adventures, fearing I'll bail...which I won't. But these freaking little bugs are the worst.

But here we are, in the city...well, the suburbs, on a mooring along with about 250 other boats. We're quite a bit closer to the marina (a 6 minute dinghy ride - so close we went in for showers around 7:00 PM since coming back in the dark is not such a big deal in the mooring field). And now we're part of the anchor light star field that I've enjoyed so much in our evening dinghy travels.

Suburb neighbors

David had Alex (SeaTek) come out and make a proposal about our solar panels which don't seem to be providing much power these days. Alex looks about 17 but is probably 25 or more, cute as a button and apparently very smart about electricity and boats. He's been living on his boat off the grid for eight years and this is his business - SeaTek. He was great. And...chaching! The sound of dollars leaving our account and going into his. So next week we'll have a new solar panel and more juice going into our batteries and not have to run the smelly, loud engine every other day to charge batteries. Big bill but we're going for it. The refrigeration will have to wait.

In early today to do the laundry and shower before yoga. Then met David and we went on our bicycles, out for lunch. Back at the marina, a wonderful spotting of 3 iguanas in the bushes beside the dinghy docks.

This one was bright green - 18-20" long

This one more green/black

last 2 photos were in a sort of stand off on branches facing each other
these last two are a bit fatter and about 2+ feet long w/tails

Then back to address moving Grace.  We're delighted to be in the 'burbs, knowing it will make it easier to leave and come back - a short "release the mooring" event rather than an hour of disentangling ourselves from mangroves w/bugs. There are some bugs (no-see-ums) here but not as many. I'm confident we'll enjoy our 2-3 weeks here. And we're expecting our Nova Scotia buddies next week. Already it feels like we're in a neighborhood here, easier access to other people as well as the marine. We met Mary and Mark from the SV Marathon, one boat on the diagonal.

A front is coming through tonight. Some relief from the muggy weather of the past couple of days. To be clear, I'm not complaining about the 80+ degree weather or the humidity. But will enjoy a cool night or two and a little rain to wash off our decks.

2/23/16     Tuesday        Boot Key/Marathon, FL

A diving pelican (fishing no doubt), a white egret and a rainbow....all this before 8:00 A.M. Could be a good day in the making.  

yesterday but it was still beautiful and similar to today, maybe it was today
in paradise

We're now # 1 on the mooring ball wait list. Hoped that today would be our ball day but the wind was really blowing. Hard to imagine anyone took off for the Bahamas but maybe at least 2 could have decided to go up the west coast of FL. Sigh.

So.....to the beach!!! Took our beach chairs and our books, and our phones just in case we got that mooring. The wind was pushing waves into the mouth of the creek. Drama....and beauty. Love the sound of the surf. Windy but warm and sunny. After about an hour we moved to a slightly less windy portion. Two women and a man came down with paddle boards. "Its pretty windy and choppy," said one woman, "but we've always wanted to try this and our time here is running out," said the other. "I've always wanted to try it, too," said I. And so I did! I did let them go first since they'd paid the bill. The man got worried about the women after they'd disappeared for abt 1/2 hour. We three (nick, David and I) were about to get in the dinghy to go see if we needed to tow them back when they appeared. Then it was MY Turn. WhoooHoooo. It was a bit rough out at the mouth of Sisters Creek. Balancing on my knees was no problem and I learned quickly that shallow pulls w/the paddle were more effective than deep pulls. Getting back to the beach against the tide and wind was....exhilarating. Back in the beach cove I tried standing up....as the waves were crashing in. Challenging. I managed about 45 -60 seconds each time. The water was really shallow so falling off was no worries. I do have a nice bruise and laceration on my shin where the board ran into me. All in all, though, success. Don't need to own a paddle board but would definitely enjoy the activity again.

Thanked our new friends and headed back to the boat where we read, scraped the rails, talked to buddies who stopped by in their dinghy. On the way back we saw another iguana. They are so prehistoric looking.    

here's looking at ya

same lady