Wednesday March 11: Sewing Sweatshop .....

The sun is now finally setting over the water so every night is an opportunity for the green flash.

Steve was the lone spectator the other night - I checked and determined no way was it going to happen - too many clouds.

But you know Steve - ever the optimist! He was the lone spectator to see one of the "brighest yet" as he deemed it.

Next time I'll listen when he says I should do something. Mmmm ... we'll see how that goes .... :-)

The fishing the other day was ok but not spectacular.

Sometime before we leave, perhaps Gary and Steve will find the perfect combination of wind, current and sun which will enable them to haul in a boatload of mangrove snappers!

In the meantime, they still go out enthusiastic and with dreams of the best of the fishermen :-)

For entertainment, we've recently discovered wine clubs! It's interesting with a wide variety of wines we would otherwise never try.

Introductory offers produce anywhere from 6 to 15 bottles of wine from small wineries worldwide.

Shipped free. Delivered to our door by the dockmaster. For about $7 a bottle - how do you beat that?

Bonus: last club included a free opener. Nice as ours was on it's last legs. Of course once we leave here all memberships are canceled - too hard to keep up with as we move :-)

 What I've missed the most for the past 4 days: the parquet floors at Matt and Wendy's home when he was stationed at Cherry Point.

Those floors were so AWESOME when making the front shade cover for Guppy. We are now reduced to using covered space by the pool or trying to work inside the cabin.

For the limited space, I've been quite happy with the finished products especially as two of the covers were close to a finished size of 12 feet by 7 feet!



Steve's been a great help by doing the 'on the hands and knees' work needed for some of the cutting and pinning.




And measuring. And sewing.



In the past 4 days, we've made three shade covers for three different boats!


One for Randy and Cindy on I Think I Can ... , one for Mike and Andi on Two Hearts.

And of course when we realized our cover needed to be replaced as well, that became the third cover to be made.

Even the duct tape we used in an attempt to temporarily fix ours didn't do the job! One the few failures for duct tape as it seems to work for just about any patch job ...

Steve was his usual inventive self again with an umbrella as he finished putting the last of the grommets on the cover for us.

Project completed!

This was not all work with no play for Steve.

Last week the local airport hosted the 1928 Ford Tri-motor airplane. Want to ride, anyone?

Several folks from the marina were game - including Steve!

Thank you, but I'll wait on the ground if it's all the same to you. 1928? Really??


But both George (Jenna Star) and Steve said it was great! About a twenty minute fly around over Marathon - including a flyover Banana Bay!

Sure is easy to see where the dredged channel out of the marina ends. The depth goes very quickly from about 10 feet in depth to about 4 1/2 feet just across from point on the right of the picture.

The yellow arrow is us!!

If you want more info about the Ford Tri-motor plane, click here.

This particular plane is owned by the Liberty Aviation Museum in Port Clinton, Ohio - close to our old stomping grounds!