One thing leads to another...

Larry the Dockmaster had a Birthday BBQ for his fiancé, Bonnie, on Sunday
evening.  He treated us all to smoked ribs, pulled pork and such. He even made
four different kinds of BBQ, from scratch.  It was delicious.  We all pitched in
the sides, and spent the early evening eating and getting reacquainted with old
friends and even made some new ones.  There are several new boats here this year.

We were treated to an exceptional sunset, even though this time of year it
sets on the other side of the Seven Mile Bridge.  It will be another month
before we see it set on the water right off the bow of Marquesa.
I swear, we have the best view of all here in the Keys.

Monday morning I saw this barracuda as Donnie and I were walking the docks
to go to the gym.  He looks like he's grown from last year.  We've been working
 out most mornings.  I'm trying to get from flabby to fit- at fifty :)

After lunch, we took the Blue Hog to run some errands.  We stopped and
got an "Ironbeer" at a little store.  It's a cross between cream soda and
ginger beer, but with some other spice I couldn't quite decide.  It's
popular in Havana, Cuba.  I'd have one again; it was pretty good.

Today would have been a great day to go fishing. There wasn't a breath of
wind out there.  Cap'n decided to put the motor on the dinghy so we could
go exploring.  Ummm....no gas tank.

He thought maybe he had stored it down in our big
locker on the port side of the cockpit.  That locker
is a bottomless pit.  And here is where one thing
leads to another.  He hauled all of our crap out
looking for the gas tank- which he never found.
This lead to him going through all of the dive gear
and reorganizing it. He managed to get rid of one
whole bag of gear that we are not currently using.
Moving crap off the boat makes me happy, happy,
happy.  Storage space is at a premium!

He also found our 50ft. of expandable garden hose down in the locker.  I
decided to wash down the dock in front of Marquesa so we would stop
tracking sand into the boat.  Well, once I got started, I couldn't stop-
until I covered about 80' of dock and not a speck of sand could be seen!
Yeah, I might be a tad bit 'anal' about some things....

I stopped from my chore to take a look out over the Gulf.  It was like glass.
You can see a couple of kayakers in the distance.  It would have been
perfect for a dinghy ride, except he never found that tank of gas-
it was over at Mom and Pop's place.  This looks like the calm before the storm.

By 5:00pm, you could see the front moving in from the north, across the
Gulf of Mexico.  The wind was already picking up. We were
sure to be in for a bumpy night.

By the time we got home from dinner at Mom and Pop's, the temperature had dropped 25 degrees.  The wind was cranking out of the north at a steady 25 mph, with gusts nearly 40 mph.  Cap'n put out all the lines and fenders we had.  In all the bouncing, we wore a hole through our water hose connected to the dock.  We decided to deal with it tomorrow; we had bottled water on board to brush our teeth.  I was chewing on ginger as we were bouncing around so much.  I prayed that Willis and I wouldn't get seasick, which we didn't.  I wasn't taking any chances though.  I didn't sleep in the Vberth with Cap'n- it was way too bouncy.  I took my blanket and pillow and slept in the salon....much better.  It seemed like the Artic Blast that all of our friends to the north have been dealing with the last few days finally reached us clear down in the Keys.  I think we need to head even further south!