and then there were 10...

...just 10 boats left at Banana Bay Marina, that is.  Today was the final preparations for leaving EARLY tomorrow morning...

I cleaned out the fridge, defrosted the freezer, then went to the grocery and spent $175 to fill it full to the brim :)  We'll be eating good this trip!  I also took care of some banking business, ran some final errands, cleaned the head, and did three loads of laundry.  Since most of the 'upper crust' folks have left, I took advantage of the hot sun and breeze and hung all the linens and delicates all over the lifelines of Marquesa.  We looked like the Beverly Hillbillies, y'all!  Somebody asked if I was too cheap to pay for the dryers (No, I am not- I had them full already, thank-you very much).  Nothing beats the smell of fresh sheets 'dried out on the line'.  I can't wait to go to bed tonight and bury my nose in the pillows.

Donnie got some fuel, and filled the water tanks, too.  We now have 100 gallons of water on board, and 40 gallons of fuel.  He also hung our radar reflector.  We likely won't need it as we are cruising up the west coast of Florida on the Gulf Side.  It is too shallow of waters to encounter anything too very big!  He also looked over the charts some more, got Larry to give us a pump out, stored the bikes, and got us all checked out for in the morning.  We were both busy, busy, busy all day long.

Cap'n also tackled his least favorite job, cleaning up around the chart table area.  Willis was 'helping', naturally.  After that, Cap'n tackled his second least favorite job- cleaning the cockpit port side hatch.  Pretty much anything involving cleaning is his least favorite job.  Willis looks like he was ready to call Mom for back up :) 

The furry beast makes a good straw boss :)  Such a sassy butt.

Dan and Biddi kindly invited us over for dinner at The Beast tonight.  It was thoughtful of her to offer to cook, that way I didn't have any galley mess to clean up tonight.  She's a sweetie, and Danny did a fabulous job with the pork chops and baked potatoes on the grill.  They're great friends.  Kenny and Fran also stopped by to wish us well, and to give us some cookies for the trip.  Cookies are ALWAYS appreciated on a boat!

Right at dusk, the boys saw the lionfish again by Danny's boat.  Donnie had been in the water once already this afternoon looking for him.  He finally got him.  The boys had to clean it just to see what it was all about.  Ewww...

As for me, the last item on my to-do list was to color my hair!  Gotta go rinse now and hit the sack.  AIS (a** in seat) is 4:00am.  Tomorrow is about a 15 hour sail to Marco Island; wish us well.  I'll update the blog as we have WiFi.  G'nite, y'all!