Friday February 13: Early Valentine's Day!

I just never know what Steve is going to pull out of that backpack of his!

He went to the store for a few groceries and came back with a vase and flowers :-) How sweet .... guess I better get something for him! Good thing I still have a few hours :-)

They look really nice on the table, don't you think?

Meanwhile, the Auxillary Coast Guard came to the marina to inspect anyone's boat who signed up. Thanks, George (Reflection) for arranging this.

We were totally up to snuff on flares, documentation, horn, life jackets, placards and the rest of the list of about 20 items a boat our length should have on board.

Which earned us a sticker for the flybridge that shows the boat passed the vessel safety check. This doesn't mean the Coast Guard can't still stop us and perform the same check but we feel it'll go a long way to lessen the chances of being pulled over and inspected.

But more fun things this week: an electric fillet knife!! Randy and Cindy (I Think I Can) gave it to us as a thank you for them using our front berth as sleeping quarters while their daughter and family were visiting.

We had seen a couple of guys at Bahia Honda using one to fillet fish - it seemed to take no time at all. Mmmm .... put that on my list of things I need!

I'm sure I didn't say that out loud but Randy and Cindy must have noticed how enthralled I was watching the guys use their electric knife.

What a nice surprise :-) And just in time, too.

Steve and Gary had a good day fishing under the bridge the day the knife was delivered!

A nice bunch of mangrove snappers and one little grunt (it was caught first and I would guess there was some fear that this was all they were going to catch!).

With the electric knife, I made short work of cleaning those fish!

Thanks, Randy and Cindy!!!

In the meantime, it was another lost "washer" - this time from one of the kayaks as Steve had them apart to dry out.

Where could it be? So Steve asked George (from Jenna Star the boat next door) if he happened to have seen it in the water (George was under his boat checking zincs and stuff).

Sure enough, George had seen it, picked it up, checked it out and left it in the water!!

Steve tried finding it yesterday without his air hose but couldn't stay down long enough to find it.

Success today though :-)  The kayak can now be put back together. The water temperature? 67 degrees ...... yikes!!

Steve's brother John and his wife Daisy arrive tomorrow! We're looking forward to their visit - it's only in the mid 70's as the north winds continue to blow but it still beats being in Ohio!!