February 19: Outrigger Splint in Action

Moving forward! Linda now has an outrigger splint. It is designed to lift her fingers so her ligaments and tendons don't heal in a bad position.  Low tech but interesting and seems to work. Note the rubber bands to adjust the tension!













We go back to see the Physical Therapist, Rosie, Tuesday. Linda is trying to be patient but I'm certain it is wearing on her, ......and me! :-)















We had a couple cool days so I decided to work on the teak.  Linda made sure to take some pictures so I would get credit. Encouragement is good.  Working on the teak is not my favorite thing to do.













We said there would be no teak on the trawler we bought to live on! Then we realized anything in the price range we wanted would have teak. They say "It's a labor of love", but I  haven't found anyone who would love to do it for me even though I keep asking! It is looking pretty good, slowly but surely.

We head to Phoenix to see the kids and Linda's brother Tom on Wednesday. Looking forward to a great trip!

February 13: Anchoring Stop and Fun Visit - Buck and Donna from Ohio/North Carolina

Our friends Paul and Colleen told us about a nice sand bar anchorage close by. Randy promised Mia and Liam that they would anchor out . The weather was so nice as we were leaving Bahia Honda we decided to anchor out with them for the night. Cindy dropped the anchor as Mia and Liam watched.

 Love You More's crew jumped into the dinghy and headed to the sand bar.

















I snorkeled in. We found lots of shells with hermit crabs in them and a couple horseshoe crabs. It was a great anchorage. We spent a very pleasant night and headed back to Banana Bay early the next day.












We were looking forward to our friends Buck and Donna coming for a few days. Buck taught math at Cuyahoga Community College with Linda and I worked with Donna in a couple school districts. We've kept in touch since retiring and always enjoy getting together.We were not disappointed this time.! It was a great few days.


We enjoyed catching up on what was going on and renewing our euchre competition, the men against the women of course. It was the men's turn to be lucky!

Saturday we went to Key West.  Buck and Donna had never been there so it was a must see! We did the Conch Train Tour and ate at Sloppy Joe's, Hemmingway's favorite hangout. It happened to be Put-In-Bays Days! We were lucky to snag a seat by the window.









The bands were from Put-In-Bay, an island on Lake Erie that is "Party Central". Linda's brother Pat loves Put-In-Bay and probably knows the guy that was playing, Ray Fogg, or something like that. The place was packed with Ohioans.










Key West has a lot of chickens roaming loose. Years ago the townspeople raised chickens for cockfights.  The government banned cockfighting and the people released the chickens into the streets in protest. To this day they  are thriving and legally protected. They have become part of the charm of Key West. Buck and Donna tried to get close for a good picture.









The pictures are the best we could get.
















Donna, however, found an alternative chicken at the gift shop which was very cooperative.























There is a lot of tropical vegetation in Key West. This is a large Banyan Tree. It was really impressive.

We toured The Little White house. It was an interesting tour. The sign gives a brief history of the property. Click here for more interesting info.    The Little Whitehouse

We ended the trip with a picture at Mile 0 for Route US 1. We are told they have a hard time keeping the marker on the pole, especially during spring break. Buck and Donna settled for the picture and left the sign alone!











We returned to our laid back marina and the next day went to Crane Point and for a kayak ride. Buck borrowed our friend Sharon's kayak and Donna and I headed out in ours. Linda of course could not join us given her hand surgery. It was a little windy but we saw some big iguanas and a few fish. Headed back to the boat for a great Ahi Tuna dinner on the boat.

We woke the next day to a beautiful sunrise. The Bambics were heading back north.













Buck decided to wear the gold beads a street Elvis mime gave Donna when we were at Key West. We all agreed they looked better on Donna!

We said goodbye and Linda and I headed to the Cleveland Clinic Weston in Miami for a followup meeting with her surgeon. The plan is to get her left hand scheduled!

February 9: Fun with Visitors

We continued to enjoy spending time with Liam and Mia. Their energy level is daunting. We gave Randy and Cindy a break from entertaining the grandkids once in a while, but they actually rose to the challenge of keeping up with them quite well.















The dinghy ride to the mangroves was a hit. They saw some good sized iguanas. This one was very colorful.











The weather became very favorable so we decided to take an overnight trip to Bahia Honda, a very nice State Park. The office not only registers boaters but also sells very good ice cream cones!













 Our boats looked good together.  Although our's is an Albin and Randy and Cindy's is a Monk they look quite similar. Bahia Honda has very tropical landscaping and is beautiful.







I like to explore the beach, which is left natural, no raking, etc. I asked Liam and Mia if they wanted to come and they were all in. They are just finishing rubbing in their sunscreen. The sun was very intense.













 The recent winds washed a lot of sea life onto the beach.We found a lot of sponges, sea fans and shells. This is a nice cup sponge. Hard to smile for the camera when the sun is blinding you!




















The excursion included a walk up on to the old railroad bridge. It gives a great view of the marina, park and ocean. This view is overlooking to the north and the Gulf of Mexico. The view from the opposite side of the bridge overlooks the Atlantic Ocean. The picture just cannot do the beautiful views justice.








We stopped at the visitor and were surprised to find a sand sculpture, still in progress but looks almost finished.

The path up to the railroad bridge is a great place to see really cool, large spiders and their webs at night.  I caught this one on camera!

All in all a great trip.  We are looking forward to the visit tomorrow of our Ohio friends, Buck and Donna. We are still anxiously waiting for Monday when we go to Miami for Linda's next visit to the surgeon. Her hand is doing very well and we know he'll be pleased.

February 5: Hmmmm! Starting to Get Suspicious

So the situation is that Linda cannot do dishes nor housework until her stitches are removed. We thought that was going to happen when we went to the Cleveland Clinic Westin last Friday to meet with her surgeon. Turned out he said she needs to leave the stitches in for another 7 -10 days! Starting to wonder if she worked a deal with the doctor to get more time off! :>)


Seriously, her surgeon said her knuckles were doing fine but she just needed more healing time with the stitches in, in order to be safe. Of course we were disappointed but appreciate the "safe rather than sorry" approach. Means another trip to Miami February 13th. Maybe the flowers from Sharon on January 19th were an omen. These are the same flowers that were in the January 23rd blog post. It is amazing that they still look great and it is February 5th. We checked again, and yes, they are real live flowers. Sharon must have found Superflowers!

January 14th

February 5th

Staying with the botanical theme, I decided to see how fast the coconut (palm tree) that sprouted was growing. (See the January 14th blog post).  In 22 days it has sprouted some new leaves and if you look closely you'll see some roots are coming out the bottom of the coconut! I'll have to keep watching it.

January 22nd

Might as well include the plantain (banana) growth, also pictured in the January 22nd blog post. They still look like plantains to us but have gotten a bit fatter and longer. Time will tell!

February 5th

Randy and Cindy's kids, Nick & Nikki plus grandkids, Liam and Mia came to Banana Bay last night after a trip to Disney World. Nick and Nikki are going on a cruise and Liam and Mia are staying on the boat with Randy and Cindy. It was an especially nice night so we had a spaghetti dinner on the picnic table.

The kids were up bright and early sitting on the swim platform with their feet in the water when a manatee came to visit. Very fun! I have been trying to get a good picture that shows how large the tail is compared to the body. I finally succeeded.








Having come from Canada the kids were really enjoying the beach and warm weather. Then they asked to go on a coconut hunt so we could break open and eat a fresh coconut.

Mia shaking her coconut to see if it's a good one.

They both quickly learned how to identify a "good one". You simply shake it and if you hear coconut milk it's a winner. After finding six winners Cindy and I declared that to be enough.

Liam with coconuts and large seed pod

Liam was quite the little bushman carrying back his coconuts and a seed pod.

















Once back to the boats we proceeded to use our drop a rock on it coconut opening strategy.

You can see the rock bouncing off of the coconut and the coconut rolling away. Note that Cindy and the kids are a safe distance away.

Once again it was successful and we enjoyed the fresh coconut milk and coconut. We have plenty left.

February 1: Just Kind of Hanging Out

The weather was pretty windy so I decided to get to a couple projects. We have a 12 volt water pump that runs to supply water to the faucets on the boat. If it's quiet, we can hear it run.

If we hear it running without turning on a faucet, it means there is a leak. As I'm sure you've guessed that's what happened. I started at the front of the boat and checked every hose and clamp. Of course I finally found the leak in the last place at the back of a fully packed closet in the aft head (bathroom for landlubbers). I just had to tighten the clamp to stop the leak, the hard part was getting to it!






Woke up the next day to a beautiful morning. Caught this young Ibis on camera as he was looking for a snack. You can tell it is young because it has brown on it. The adults are all white. I love their curved beaks!

Decided it was time to start working on refinishing the teak. I borrowed Randy's heat gun to remove the old finish and it is working great. This will be a lengthy project.















While I was working I heard an unusual sounding plane going overhead. Turns out there was an air show going on and some of the old planes were flying over our marina. After a couple tries I got a good picture of this airplane flying over.  I am certain my brother-in-law Warren knows what it is but sadly I do not!. But it was fun to see.

It was time to enjoy one of the Porgy I caught. Fish is not Linda's favorite so I made Tater Tots to go with it, her favorite vegetable(?). She actually enjoyed both.























We went to meet Linda's physical therapist today in Key West. She is very nice and seems very competent. I'm sure Linda will enjoy working with her. We head to The Clinic in Miami to meet with the surgeon Friday and then the physical therapy will begin in earnest. It's amazing to see how well Linda's fingers are moving already. She is doing very well and fortunately experiencing minimal pain.