2015-1/1 to 1/31 - Paradise - Finally

 2015 - HAPPY NEW YEAR

Another quiet day in paradise. Jay & Karen, on LARGO, are developing an on-board exercise protocol which apparently includes jumping off the highest point of the boat. Passage Maker magazine will include their articles every month.

Karen - (picture by Jay)

Lots of wind for the next few days with intermittent rain showers. A full moon means extreme high & low tides.  So, the highest possible tide occurred Jan 4th at midnight -  of course.  Anchors up at 11pm. (I hate traveling in the dark especially when I'm normally all cozy in bed) It takes about two hours (going slower than normal -if that's even possible) to arrive at the anchorage near our house.  There are several spots of very skinny water, so we crept around the islands until we passed Mary's hole (a very deep area for good fishing, surrounded by extreme shallows) & anchored in Niles channel at 1am. 

Again, you can see the purple tracks of some of our cruising history 

Ahhh...warm, gentle breezes. We deserved a night of no cooking (I make up reasons to not have to cook) Perfect night at the Warf, lobster dinner & the first night of the TV show, The Bachelor, with my favorite guy from last year, Chris. 

Pleasant weather lasted a few more days.  
Karen booked a hotel for the 7th as she was flying out early on the 8th to attend her son's 'winging' (Marine helicopter pilot). We all drove to Key West & this gave us a chance to introduce them to one of our favorite, less known, restaurants at the Key West Harbor on Stock Island (shush, it's a secret).

Great small plate dinners that aren't so small, drinks & sunset views...Yahoo!...another night of no cooking. 

 Just as Jay, Wayne & I got back to the dinghy a cold front came in - temps dropped to the  60's & the wind howled. Going against a two foot chop back to the boats was a real challenge - it felt like someone was throwing buckets of water on us - the three of us were drenched. High winds & colder temps continued for a few days. 
Jay had a fold-up boat made by Porta Boat in addition to his Livingston dinghy. Jay tied it up to LARGO, went to bed & in the morning it was gone - kaput! Using our dinghy, Wayne & Jay looked everywhere for it...no luck. So, for the next few days, Wayne & Jay drove up & down the keys looking for another dinghy. Amazingly, they found a Novurania, a bit bigger than ours (very large yachts use this type of dinghy).

The "boys" working on their dingies

It came with a 40 hsp. motor & on a trailer.

We had been wondering how to take our dinghy to Stock Island for repairs. (the repairs never end!) So, now we now had a trailer. After the boat yard examined our old 30 hp Honda motor, it was determined that we have a rather complicated problem with the steering system & would be a substantial expense to repair it.  Reluctantly, we ordered a new 30hp Suzuki motor - sigh.

Ours is on the left with new motor

Everyone wonders "what the hell DO you do on the boat day after day?". Sometimes it's hard to say what happens to the days...all of a sudden, it's 5 o'clock & the dogs are barking & begging for their dinner. Then there's the sunset - some are more spectacular than others like this night. I couldn't decide which sunset pic to include so here are both of them. It was a beautiful & unusual sight. 

Wayne has projects & maintenance to do - sometimes he remembers what he has to to do in the AM - other times he doesn't remember until late in the day & it's dinner time (a no-no). But he did work for days on the inverter/alternators/electric system. Next, he moved a bank of batteries into the aft cabin locker so he has more room for his expanding waist-line in the engine room. Now he's working on the water maker's automatic flush system. Then there's regular maintenance. Let's not forget, he's an engineer whose brain never shuts down. He & Jay are also commiserating about changes to LARGO.
He uses CAD program & draws schematics for every system on the boat - hard copied & in a file. I'm exhausted just watching him do those drawings. Me? My friend, Susan, says "I do the pink things"...you know, typical 'women's' chores, cooking, cleaning, laundry, taking care of all financial activities sometimes spending countless hours on the phone trying to untangle computer programs and understand someone from another country. We have our time share condo listed on Airbnb so I spend a considerable amount of time responding to inquiries. I'm also in charge of keeping up with the teak cap & hand rails - sanding & painting - blah, blah, blah. Of course, we both take care of our babies.

As usual, joined at the hip (Jack on the left)

January is a weird month for weather; cold fronts that sometimes bring rain & cooler temperatures, overcast, sunny & hot, but, this year, the wind was constant - anywhere from 15 to 35 knots. Magically, there was a perfect day in which I was able to apply a 3rd coat of Cetol on the cap & hand rails. 

Jay had to fly out for business for a few days. So we had Karen here for dinner & a few games of Farkle. 
We're lucky to have a pump-out boat come once a week so we don't have to use fuel to cruise 3 miles past the reef (8 miles total one way) to empty the poop tank. This is a free service provided by a grant from the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Department. Unfortunately, this program has been under fire and may be discontinued which would be stupid but not beyond Florida's Politicians

Somewhat boring to be stagnant this long but enjoyable with the peace & quiet that comes with being on anchor - except, of course, the dogs barking at every boat, bird, fish & helicopter.

Hundreds of little fish swim around the boat seeking shade

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Some excitement on the 26th - I went outside for a break only to find that BLUE MAX was inching closer & closer to  a

large paddle boat anchored by the mangrove island. All hands on deck in a hurry. When we pulled the anchor & found the chain was totally wrapped around the anchor causing it to lose it's footing in the sand. This is the first time we 'lost the anchor' this way - very weird. We deployed the secondary anchor to keep us in place.  I maneuvered the big boat so the anchor could be dropped into the dinghy, Wayne was in the dingy & eventually got it untangled. Once done, we brought up the secondary anchor, relocated & re-anchored. 

NOW it's happy hour. 

Boring stuff for the remainder of the month: Dentist, Doctor & Ophthalmologist appointments - It was my son, David, & Karen's birthday on the 28th. I made a pasta dinner & chocolate chip cookies. I lit a strand of spaghetti & put it into one of the cookies.

Imagination is a plus when living on a boat.