Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

After breakfast, Steve and Suzie were on their way back to catch the bus to take them to Key West, to take the ferry back to Ft. Myers.  There was fuel on top of the water in our side of the marina, and we were prpaying it wasn't coming from us.  Donnie fired up Bessie, and she squirting a drop of fuel from one of her injectors, but not enough to make that kind of mess.  Since Dan's boat was recently filled, he was afraid it was coming from him.  Both guys checked their bilges, then cleaned and hosed them out good...it didn't appear to be coming from either of us.  Another boat, maybe?  You don't want to be leaking fuel.  Not only is it bad for the environment, but its far too costly these days to be dumping out the bottom of your boat!

I was stuck up on the Vberth during this project, as
Donnie had all the cushions and floorboards up to
get to the bilge.  There was some nasty sludge
coming out of there- yuck.

Paps took Biddi and I to get groceries...that's three times I've been in the last week.  After all the company, I think all the holds are finely restocked- at least for the time being.  I cleaned up the boat this afternoon, because with any boat project you tear into, it creates about 10 more projects and messes in the process.  After everything got put back together, the fans aren't working.  Screw it, that's for tomorrow's list.

Dan and Biddi invited us to take a dinghy ride in their boat over to Porky's for some BBQ.  We took their dinghy as it's a bit larger and has a 15 horse motor, unlike our 2 horse slightly-faster-than-the-speed-of-smell
dink.  It was a beautiful evening for a boat ride.  The BBQ and sweet potato fries were to die for :)

Can you decipher the sign on the men's restroom?

This was taken as we were leaving...note that we are all dry and full of smiles.

What I don't have are the "after" pictures.  While we were eating, the wind had picked up and the waves had kicked up, and we were beating straight into it.  Biddi and I started out by hiding under a beach towel, but that was soon abandoned.  The waves were like a wall of water coming over the boat.  Remember the opening scene of Gilligan's Island, where the Skipper and Gilligan were getting smacked in the face by waves?  "The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed..."  Yep, that was the four of us. There wasn't a dry spot to be found on us anywhere, nor did Dan have a bailing bucket on board!  Donnie stuck his finger in the hole of a coolie cup, and bailed for all it was worth.  The gas can was even floating, we were carrying so much water.  He'd bail a cup or two, then throw a cup or two on Danny as he drove.  At least the water was warm :) We all had a good laugh over it, but we looked like drowned rats by the time we got back to Banana Bay.

After we enjoyed a beautiful sunset, we all headed to the hot tub
to get the salt off of us.  Just another day in paradise.