sailing...takes me away...

I'm not sure I could tell you where the day went to, but the evening was a ton of fun.  AIS was 4:00pm for a sunset cruise.  We were supposed to be buddy boating with One Gallon Don and Sandy, but we didn't actually meet up with them until just about sunset.  We had nine of us on Marquesa for good food and libations.  and laughs.  lots of laughs.  and one tense moment.  but its all good!

Momma K takes the helm while Cap'n Donnie gets the sails set.  It was a blustery 15-20 knots of wind, perfect for sailing.

Nancy made Bahama Mama's and the Red Solo Cup party was started!  Thanks, Nancy :)

Well, hello, Ken Mann...

...he was just checking in on Lucille, not that he had anything to be worried about!  She wants to be BAD!

Ron and Kenny were just checking for balls  (not theirs, I hope!)

Me and my pretty momma :)

I sure love my Cap'n...in the calm before the storm, in the storm, and after the storm ;)

Our bestie travelling buddies, Kenny & Fran.  We love these two people.

We've become fast friends with Ron and Nancy, too, not just because she makes a killer Bahama Mama, either.

Ron and I were on dolphin watch...we didn't spot any today. dang it.

I love sailing.

...and this guy.  bunches.

It was looking promising to be a green flash kind of night, but no.  Still beautiful.

Only Nancy had the hair for a windy sail...the rest of us were looking pretty windblown.

Frannie tried to tame her wings with sunglasses.  In the words of my Grandmother, she looked like she'd combed her hair with an eggbeater! lol

How's about a hat instead?!  Oh yeah, I'm lookin' fly, too!

We passed One Gallon Don and Thud's boat just after sundown.  What a beautiful vessel.  Thud is a legend around here.  Something about the Brass Monkey in town.  and one very. large. woman.

After Marquesa was safely tied to the dock, we all met at Salty's for Friday Night Pizza Night!

Momma and I always love to listen to some good music.

Misery Loves Company is a band of kids from Marathon High School.  These kids are THAT good, y'all!

I had my bestest dancing partner with me.  I was ready to kick my heels up with my twirly dress and cowboy boots on!  I got asked to dance by a couple of different men, average age was 75, lol! 

All in all, it was another wonderful day in paradise..what did YOU do this Friday night?  G'nite, y'all!

Five Sheets to the Wind

 

This is how we wake up most mornings.  His favorite spot is with is head in either Mom's or Dad's hand, or he is spooning with one of us- full body contact spooning.  Who knew a cat could be such a cuddle bunny?  Dern cat.

We seemed to have picked up a lobster pot ball last evening on our sunset sail.  When we stepped outside today, there were a hundred little shavings of styrofoam in the water and hugging the hull of Marquesa.  Donnie dove in to see if we had wrapped the prop.

Sure enough, here's the culprit.  Thankfully, it was more like wedged in between the prop and shaft, and not really wrapped, so there was no damage done.  But really, who paints their floats blue green for the blue green water on the Gulf?  We're thinking it may have been an illegal pot, as we didn't see any other's that color while we were on our sunset sail yesterday.

There was a flurry of activity on Paradise Pointe this morning.  The tiki bar was getting a fresh coat of paint, more picnic tables were being delivered, banquet tables were set up, all in preparation for this afternoon's Looper party.  If you remember, this is for all the boaters who have completed the 5000 mile circumnavigation of the Eastern North American Great Loop.  We did our part by calling Luis, our Bessie repairman to have him send one of his guys out to pick up the skid that Bessie was mounted on when she was delivered back to us all shiny and new.  He had someone here in ten minutes- now that's some service! We thanked him again for his work, Bessie is running beautifully.  She purrs like a Willis.

Every day was been getting warmer and warmer.  It now feels like the Bahamas- in the mid 80's and tropical humidity.  We had a hankering to get on the water and go dink around.  We can't wait to get cruising again!

We decided to go to Porky's for some barbeque for lunch.  As we were entering the channel, this lobster working boat passed in front of us...because we travel only slightly faster than the speed of smell in our dinghy!  It looks like they had a pretty good catch, as we could see lobster antennae peeking out.

 I had pork barbeque with North Caroline sweet bbq sauce, sweet potato fries, and a big ol' glass of sweet tea- Sweet!!!

This commercial fisher man had a god morning catching Spanish mackerel.  He sells them to Porky's for them to make the smoked fish dip.   The one in back is a king mackerel.  I don't like mackerel at all- it's too fishy for me.



There's always beggars when fish are being cleaned...how do they know?!

 

 

We hurried back to Banana Bay, (well, as fast as we can hurry with a 6hp motor) and got back just as Bryan and Polly arrived.  They had to unload and set up all of their gear for the Looper's party tonight.  I went with mom and hung out at the pool for the afternoon, since I already had my hors d'oeuvres  made for the party. I also swam twenty laps for good measure...I'm still waiting for Ken to call me!



Inroducing Five Sheets to the Wind!

Look at Bryan go on Horse with No Name!

Cap'n Donnie Ain't Misbehavin'....he did sooo good!

Paradise Pointe was a perfect place for good music, good food, good friends.  What a fun night.

It was such a good time...they all did so well they said it was the best. looper. party. ever.  They've already been asked to come back next year!  Though Bryan and Polly left after their 2 1/2 hour set was over, the rest of them sang, and played, and talked, and laughed until well after midnight.  Cap'n had some sore fingers when we woke up Friday morning!  I wish you would have been  here with me, we would have danced the night away :)  G'nite, y'all!

dolphins and sunsets, perfect

 

Rita and I began our morning at the Dolphin Research Center.  It was my first trip this season, and a good time for me to renew my membership for another year.  That way, when y'all come down to visit us, I can get three guests in for free each time I go there.  We had a really enjoyable morning there.  We watched several demonstrations, saw a movie presentation about the rescue of Jax (the dolphin who been two fins and his tail bitten by a shark), and....

We got to meet Reece, the 11 week old baby boy to Momma Tirsi!  Awww....God love him :)

Tirsi is usually the high flyer that squeals when she jumps.  You can tell in this picture that she is still carrying a lot of her 'baby weight'.  The late night runs to Wendy's for chocolate frosty's must have gotten the best of her.  Or maybe it was the pickled herring.  At any rate, she is eating about 27 lbs. of fish, dispersed over five meals/day for her to produce enough milk for baby Reece.  Reece nurses for a few seconds every 20 minutes, around the clock for up to three years.  Exhausting.

Another pair, coming up...

And going down!

SPLASH FIGHT!!!

Reminds me of the Geico car commercial with the little piggy hanging his head out the window crying, "WEEEEEEEE!"  Only better!!!  Doesn't that just look FUN?!

While we were gone, the boys (Cap'n and Peter) finished up their electrical project.  We now can identify passing ships on our GPS chartplotter that are registered through AIS.  We can 'see' what type of boat they are, their location, and the direction they are heading.  No more figure eights in the middle of the Gulfstream in the middle of the night in an effort to dodge a passing cargo ship!  Thank the Lord, and THANK-YOU Peter :)  If you want to relive that frightening moment, visit last year's blog as we were crossing into the Bahamas. http://marquesa34.blogspot.com/2012/04/crossing.html  In fact, if you want to relive the whole Bahamas trip, and see the gorgeous Caribbean waters, start on this date, and work your way through April 2012. Nothing like a little escapism while its snowing and sleeting outside YOUR window about now ;)

At noon, Donnie had to practice one last time with the band (aka Five Sheets to the Wind) over at Bryan's.  I tidied up the boat, and made some hors d'oeuvres for the sunset sail.  AIS was 4:00pm.  We had Peter and Rita, and Danny and Penny along for the ride.  These two take turns playing the stand up bass- professionally.  When Penny is on bass, Danny picks up his mandolin or harmonica.  They are crazy talented, and very fun people to hang with.

This is Peter and Rita, our new friends from Maryland.  You probably don't recognize Peter here, as you've only seen the top of his head!  He's been hunched over our cockpit with wires, pliers, or a soldiering iron for days!  Great people :)

And these are our friends, Penny and Danny.  Danny is a sailor, too, so it was nice having another set of knowledgeable hands on board to trim the sheets, take the helm, and such.  I think it's safe to say, he was having a good time.

And this picture captures why we work like h**l for eight months.  Cap'n at the helm, with a bottle of wine to share among friends, laughing and telling stories, listening to music, and nothing but the sound of the water rushing past the hull of Marquesa.  This is the picture of peace and contentment...and NO stress whatsoever.  He deserves it.

And this is why I work like h**l for eight months...to be able to watch the sun set on the ocean, night after night.  I never get bored in looking at God's magnificent handiwork displayed.  I have snapped a thousand sunset pictures in the three years we have been spending our winter's here in the Keys, and I have a hard time deleting any of them.  Each one is a gorgeous seascape of light and color....

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way...

When sorrows, like sea billows roll...

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say...

It is well, it is well...

...with my soul.

In these sunsets, there is a stillness all around me, as Marquesa ghosts along through the water.  I feel a connectedness to the earth...to the moment...to my heavenly Father.  In the quiet of the sunset, I reflect on my life...the people in it, the friends, the family, those who have passed before me, my children, and grandchildren, my husband, my career, my health, my log cabin in the woods, my boat, my Simon and of course, my Willis.  I am so blessed.  I lead a blessed life.  I am so very thankful, and I must remind myself to never take it for granted. 

I just feel Him in every sunset, and He gets me every time.  Thank you, God.  My heart is full. 

God is so good, he's so good to me.

I feel like I've just been to church, y'all...G'nite, y'all!

another day done

Where does the time go?  Peter, the electrical engineer called this morning offering himself to Donnie to interface our new VHF radio with the GPS chartplotter.  This biggest advantage is when we are cruising we will show up on other ship's radios, chartplotter and radar.  We do not have radar at this point, and we are tiny compared to other boats out there....so we want to be 'seen'.  Someday we'll break out a few B.O.A.T.S. and purchase a radar.  Maybe have a car wash and a bake sale or two to fund it.

Before that project was tackled, we were in a major hunt for a wire harness for the chartplotter,  It turns out we didn't have one, afterall, Cap'n must have dreamed that one up.  Gahhhh.  The good news is it caused Cap'n to organize his tools, put away the remnants of other projects and what not.  I was ready to clean, clean, clean, and purge, purge, purge.  We didn't get much purged today, but we are are better organized and we found some missing things! 

I went and got groceries and made a pot of vegetable soup from last night's roast leftovers.  A loaf of Cuban bread and it hit the spot- for lunch AND dinner!  I took Mom to run some errands this afternoon, and made plans to go to the Dolphin Research Center tomorrow morning.

Fish N' Fun was busy with the rentals today, so there was a bunch of foot traffic on the docks.  Willis was in fine form, flirting and getting pets from nearly every passerby.  I swear he was making a game of stalking them as they walked up the dock, then flopping at their feet when they got close as if to say, "You know I'm irresistable!"  Which he was, so he cashed in on the belly rubs today.

Willis, mid-ambush

Waiting on his next 'victim'

Trying to be cool, chewing on a stick...I knew what he was really up to.  Ridiculous.

What?!  So I'm distracted by a stick...secretly, I hear more people coming closer.

You KNOW you want to pet me.  And take my picture.  And give me lovin's.  Dern cat.

We had an absolute DOWNPOUR late in the day, before the sun went down.  I got wet exercising in the park, and....came home to a wet boat.  Donnie and Peter were deep in thought in their electrical project, and it didn't occur to Cap'n to close the hatched when the skies opened up. 

And....we got a wet bed.  Lovely.  I got the fans going, sopped up what I could, and handed them some soup for dinner.  For good measure, in the middle of my fussing at Cap'n, a soaking wet Willis jumped into the cockpit and shook himself off like no other.  It was like one of those slo mo commercials of a dog shaking off the spray from the garden hose.  He sprayed Cap'n for me- his timing was perfect :)  I knew he loves his momma best :) 

The guys were attempting to wire in the dark at this point, so it seemed prudent to call it a night.  Peter is coming back in the morning to help Donnie finish up, and I will take Rita and Mom to the Dolphin Research Center.  At noon, Donnie is practicing with the band for the last time before their gig on Thursday.  At 4pm, we plan to take Paul and Rita on a sunset sail.  I hope to grill out for dinner tomorrow night.  Just seeing the agenda for tomorrow, you can see how the days go so fast down here.  I'd better call it a night.  G'nite, y'all!