Monday January 6: Where Does the Time Go????

We're now tied securely to the dock at slip #11 in Banana Bay .... for the last four days. And I don't know where the time has gone.

Well, I do but it still doesn't seem like it's been four days already!

Once here we could begin to address the issues to get Yesterday's Dream up to speed: determine what we need for more battery power (for anchoring out), figure out the alternator issue, order and replace the engine heat exchanger and add some spare parts - all of which takes 10 times more time than you would ever think. Steve has talked to several of the other boaters here to pick their brains about DC electrical systems. The more we know the more we realize we were clueless! How in the world we managed to be on this boat for going on 4 years and not have known some of this is amazing to me. The boaters in this marina are amazingly generous with both their time and their knowledge.

This is the view on a good day. Warm, sunny, breezy. Not all days are like this of course. Some rain, some cold (well, relative of course - lows in the 60's).

Tonight the cold front rolling across the US is here. 35 mph winds from the north so very wavy in the marina with rain and wind for the next day or so.

No problem for us - lots of inside work to do.

Manatee visit today. The neighbor was washing his boat off so the fresh water runoff was attracting this one in.

They love the "sweet water" but it's not really good for them. Now this guy is checking out our the water coming out of our air conditioner. Sorry but it's just salt water :-) So instead he just floated around under the edge of the dock. They are always fun to see!

Highlight of the last few days? A visit to the local parish at Marathon that has an AMAZING Christmas light display in their prayer garden.

Sharon on "Stevedore" had mentioned it the other day and since the lights will be taken down in a couple of days, she made a special trip to drive us to the church Saturday night to see the lights.

How really incredible. I don't think I have ever seen anything quite like it.

Nearby was a home that part of which is a real ship! Just a fun place - perhaps this is something like Steve and I will have when we someday move off of this boat!

Reminded us of the Ship Residence which sits on South Bass Island in Lake Erie at Put-in-Bay, Ohio. After 50 years of service on the Great Lakes, the Benson Ford (built by Henry Ford and named after his grandson) was scheduled in 1986 to be scrapped. This is when an Ohio couple stepped in and the captain’s quarters of the Benson Ford became The Ship Residence, a private home on South Bass Island.

We saw it many times when traveling Lake Erie - fun to see a similar version here in the Keys!

Tomorrow? Rest of the week? The next 3 months? Not sure - will keep updating periodically .... I'm sure work and fun will be involved - as it should be, right?