goodbye and goodbye

I left at 7am this morning with Fran to take Emily back to the Miami airport.  Not gonna lie, it was a difficult goodbye.  She has really grown and matured in so many ways these last three and a half years.  It was kind of Grandma to buy her plane ticket to Florida to celebrate her early graduation from college.  I thoroughly enjoyed having her these last ten days, and I was just reminded again of the remarkable young woman she has become.  She has an amazing future in store for her, I have no doubt.  Ironically, she was getting home in Indiana about the same time I pulled back in to Banana Bay!  The traffic on Highway 1 in the Keys was nearly at a dead stop through the Islamorada stretch.

I was greeted by a Willis when I returned to Marquesa.  A Willis makes it all better :)

Even better, he was purring and flopping...he loves me.

While I was gone all day, Donnie spent the day with Matt and Karie.  For those of you that have been following us for some time, you know that they are our cruising buddies from the Bahamas.  We met here at Banana Bay, and soon became fast friends.  Things happen that way in the cruising community, friendships usually forge pretty quickly.  Because many live aboard and are 'transients', frequently cruising and on the move, you often meet up again at a future destination.  After we cruised to the Bahamas and dropped our anchor at Staniel Cay, the boat right NEXT to us was Tide's In, who 'lives' across the channel from us here at Banana Bay.  It's a small world, afterall.  I think because so many people cannot relate to the desire of living on a sailboat, we are especially supportive and helpful to each other in 'living the dream'.

Matt and Karie have been visiting here for the last several days, and today, decided to pull anchor and sail to Marco Island.  Who knows when we might see them again.  They decided that given the wind and the anticipated length of sail to Marco Island, they wanted to wait and leave at 3:00pm this afternoon.  They had nothing but time on their hands today, and offered their help with our growing list of boat projects.  REALLY???  They chose to crawl around a hot, dirty Marquesa, to help us out?!  In the end, the three of them removed our old VHF radio, wired the new one, pulling wire through the binnacle to mount it at the helm!  No more running down below to the chart table to use the VHF!  No more awkward speaker in the cockpit (which limited comfortable seating) so that we could monitor the radio traffic while underway.  Best of all, they also rewired Agnes, also running her through the binnacle so that there's no more tripping on her wires laying on the cockpit floor at the helm.  Things are cleaned up, stream-lined, and looking good!  Matt & Karie, thank you, Thank You, THANK YOU!!!  Be safe travelling tonight.  I think it was best I was not here for that goodbye.  I couldn't handle two goodbyes in one day.  Fair winds and following seas until we meet again...

That's a happy Cap'n Donnie that can be on the radio, looking at the chartplotter, and at the helm all safely and conveniently!

And that's a happy First Mate who loved the new pretzel burger for lunch at Wendy's!  Fran agreed with me, too :)

Tomorrow Donnie is turning his attention back to the gauges issue we still have, and Agnes, who also got fritzed when the cockpit filled with water this summer.  Eventually, the waging war on the To Do list will be done.  Then Marquesa can get a proper washin' and waxin' and we can be about having some fun on the water!  It's been a rough start this season.  As for my agenda, I will be on the down low for the next couple of days....it is time to tackle and complete our tax stuff and get it sent to our accountant back home.  I always try to be done by Valentine's Day.  I also need to get Willis' paperwork going for entry into the Bahamas this year.  He's looking forward to his first crossing :)  G'nite, y'all!!!