keep on, keepin, on.

The first two days of this week have been a blur.  Donnie escaped the boat projects Monday to go fishing with the boys- Kenny, Ken, and Richie. They came home with 25 lane snappers, grunts, and porgies.  We now have a fish fry planned for 14 of us tomorrow.  It's been quite the undertaking to organize everybody and what they plan to bring.  (Thank you, Fran!) We'll be feasting tomorrow, for sure!

It looks like Ken started feasting out on the boat.  A big
bite was missing off the hind end of his fish!  Looks
to me like a barracuda or small shark had a snack
as Ken was reeling his fish to the boat.

Donnie caught a cero mackerel.  Donnie gave fillets
to Richie for dinner, and to Richard and Travis, our
friends here at Banana Bay.  Karyn won't do mackerel :/

While Donnie was out fishing, Paps took me to find the scrap metal place to sell our cut up fuel tank.  It took driving around and asking two different people before we happened upon the place.  I got a whoppin' $7.00 for twenty-three pounds of aluminum.  I guess that's better than a kick in the head.

When Paps dropped me back off, I hopped on my clown bike and pedal, pedaled, pedaled to McDonald's for lunch.  With my seven bucks I got lunch AND a giant black sharpie to color the registration numbers on the dinghy.  I also stopped at the Winn Dixie for groceries.  I'm up to a 96 cent discount the next time I fill up the Malibu with gas.  Whoo-hoo!  I feel like I should buy a lottery ticket at this rate.

The down side to the day was I hit yet another snafu in getting all of the proper documents to China to process my work visa.  The last two hang ups are getting my diploma from BSU in a scan file, and my 'original' marriage certificate (like the Hallmark one in a satin folder) that was signed by our preacher, also in a scan file.  I sent China the marriage certificate that was filed at the courthouse, which was sealed and dated by the clerk, but this was not the document needed.  Who new?  I would have thought that the courthouse version is the "official" certificate, but not so.  The other hang up was that my diploma was in my former name, not the 'present' married name (which it has been McDaniel for nearly 18 years).  This of course required me filling out an additional name change request form.

While this may seem like petty annoyances and just some good ol' fashioned jumping through hoops, that is not the case.  I do not have a scanner or printer on the boat.  Furthermore, mailing anything from here for some reason takes 10-14 days to get off the islands and up to Indiana.  It's ridic.  I express mailed my duplicate diploma request form last week to be certain the Registrar at BSU would receive it in a timely manner.  Trying to conduct any business here is like living in a third world country.  I went to the resort office this morning to download and print the name change form, which needed to accompany the duplicate diploma request form that BSU already had.  I then pedal, pedal, pedaled my clown bike to Office Depot to scan the form and save it to my flash drive.  It seemed to be a reasonable task.  However, the power went out briefly all over the island (got no idea why) and I was told that all of the printers had crapped out (the clerk's words, not mine).  They tried rebooting them all, but none of them seemed to be working.  She asked if I could come back in TWO HOURS.

I pedal, pedal, pedaled my sweaty self back to the marina while trying to formulate a Plan B in my dehydrated state of mind.  I've done so well with the helpfulness of several boater's generosity these last few days, maybe I could find some sweet soul who would help an old lady out.  I know several boat owners here continue to work and run their businesses while living aboard, so it seemed reasonable that one of them may have a scanner and printer.  I scored on the second boat I knocked on :)  Jim from Mimi got me all fixed up in a matter of minutes, and I had the diploma request documents stored on my flash drive.  I then emailed Angela back at BSU and explained my time frame predicament....hang with me a few more minutes....

I had to get a criminal background check from the State of Indiana (which also must have the "official" seal).  The one I got from our local sheriff back in December, was not the "official" one.  We delayed coming to Florida by a day as I had to go to Muncie on 12/28 (by appointment only, and appointments are only given twice a week) to complete the process.  This "official" criminal background check is safely in the hands of China now, but it expires before the end of the month.  (because, you know, I have felt the need to engage in criminal activity down here in the Keys in the last three months.  Ok, maybe I shouldn't say that.  There's a lot of seedy characters down here!) Anyhow, if I do not get the aforementioned diploma and marriage certificate to China before this expiration date, I have to start the process all over which is incredibly more problematic.  I am a resident of Indiana, not Florida, so the three hour trip to Miami to get a new criminal background check has several more steps, documentation, appointments, fees and such.  In other words, a HUGE HASSLE. 

The good news?  Angie scanned me the duplicate diploma this afternoon once she read my sob story of an email, and express-mailed the original duplicate diploma to me which I will receive no later than Friday.  The other good news?  I called upon my dear friend Sue, back in Middletown, to break into the log cabin, and get my "original" marriage certificate (fortunately I knew where that little gem has been stored all these years).  By late this afternoon I had a scanned copy of it, and by this evening, I had both scanned documents emailed to the contact person in Beijing.  I actually felt myself breathing easier once that was taken care of.  What would have been a 10 minute task if I were at home, was a day and a half ordeal on a clown bike, by foot, by phone, and eventually by email. WHEW!

Today, Cap'n continued to work on making sense and making room in the engine compartment for a new fuel tank.  After he ran about on his scooter and surfed the web the last two days, he settled on a polyethylene tank.  The downside is we went from a 30 gallon tank to a 23 gallon tank, as the former one was a custom cut that the boat was built around.  On the other hand, Cap'n scored two more five gallon diesel jerry jugs at a garage sale earlier this year.  Where we previously had 30 gallons in the tank and 10 gallons lashed on deck for cruising, we now have 23 in the tank and will carry 20 in jerry jugs on deck- so we are 3 gallons to the good- that's about another 40-45 miles :)  We scored the new tank from Amazon and we got free two day shipping and no sales tax. We paid $195 for the new fuel tank which would have been $330 at the local West Marine.  SCORE!  The new tank will be here Thursday, and if all goes well, we should be reconnected, fueled up, and ready to go by sometime on Friday.  HOORAY!

Meanwhile, Lori, who is the foster momma to our Simon
(only the best. dog. ever.) sent Cap'n and I a care package
full of sailing goodies.  We got a hat, beach bag, key chains,
and poster that all say...

Perfect slogan, right?! Especially these last several
frustrating days.  Lori, your timing was PERFECT :)

Willis lives by the "Keep Calm, Sail On" credo every day. Dern cat.

Tonight was another beautiful sunset :)

Late this afternoon, after I had finished coloring the registration numbers on the dinghy, I walked around Paradise Pointe to see what I could see in the water.  I almost grabbed my snorkel gear and jumped in, except the water was flat calm and crystal clear....it was like looking into an aquarium, right off the end of the Pointe.  I saw crabs, lobsters, a big school of rainbow parrotfish, wrasses, needlefish, baby porkfish, juvenile tangs and blue tangs, schools of neon gobies, a bicolor damselfish, two gorgeous queen angelfish, two barracuda (one with a fishing lure in his mouth), a school of mangrove snappers, a red parrotfish, a four eye butterfly fish, sergeant majors, and a trunkfish. Donnie also saw about a three foot nurse shark!  I would have to have been in the water to see that one; he was sleeping up under some rocks.  Speaking of sharks....our friend Greg, on the Wanderer in front of us, caught a lemon shark today just messing around at Vaca Cut.

I got the video from his buddy's IPhone :)  Pretty cool!

While Cap'n was in the water at the Pointe, he snared four lobsters, but
three of them were let go.  Only one was legal size.  He was cut up, rolled
in bacon and made into lobster bites on the grill in a matter of minutes.
It doesn't get any better than that!  They made a nice little appetizer
with dinner tonight.  YUM!

Tomorrow seems to be the last of the nice weather and flat seas.  By Thursday weather is coming in, along with a blow and small craft advisories through the weekend.  We'll see what Kenny has up his sleeve in the way of plans by the morning.  The last chore we need to do on this fuel tank project is to give the bilge a thorough scrubbing with some Dawn detergent.  Though all the fuel is off the boat, there still is the slightest film on the water's surface, each time our bilge pumps out.  It's always somethin' with a boat.  At least we keep on, keepin' on.  G'nite, y'all!