Monday January 7: It's Always Nice to be Back

What a surprise! We arrived back at the boat on Dec 31 when it was just getting to be dusk.

On the hand hold railing of the aft deck was a red ribbon - our Christmas gift from Sharon :-) Not only was the teak on this hand hold sanded and completely finished, but the whole starboard and aft railings and gunnel's were finished with six coats of cetol! And the green tape was all removed as well.

Truly a gift from the heart - even if Sharon loves doing teak, this was truly above and beyond :-)

I think Santa needs to find a gift for Sharon!

It really was nice to be back to the boat though.




The Franko reunion in Cleveland wonderful. So many of the children of our nieces and nephews that we had never met along with some of the extended families that we hadn't seen in almost 10 years!

This family - all beginning with Steve's parents John and Julia Franko in Cleveland, Ohio - now ranges west from Washington to California and east from Vermont to Florida and everywhere in between :-) And I must say not a bad one in the bunch!!

We were back just a few days before Randy and Cindy and of course Gigit and Cricket on Love You More arrived.

They are docked next to us and finally it feels like things are really right with the world :-)

The weather has been great - sometimes more wind than is necessary but Steve put the plastic up on the flybridge and it works great.





It was nice enough that Steve was able to be out fishing under the bridge for an afternoon - with good success. A big plus was that the shark was not keeping him company :-)

He managed to land two nice mangrove snappers, one yellowtail snapper and one porgy! Definitely fresh fish for dinner :-)







We've seen many manatee around the marina lately. Cindy spotted two of them reaching for the fresh water which was dripping off of the boat as Steve was cleaning the walk around deck.

They do love the fresh water. Sadly the manatee begin to associate fresh water with boats and marinas - which in turn puts them in harms way.

Almost all of the manatee have scars on their backs from propellers from boats. It's actually illegal to give manatees fresh water for this reason.

Over the holidays we also had an opportunity to have lunch with 2 of my 4 brothers - and with Donna Spreng! She's our sister-in-laws mom and is always fun to see :-)

A gift from her was four snowman who now live on our freezer :-)

I think they will just live there year round :-) A reminder of Christmas is always a good thing!


Tomorrow is a trip to Ft. Lauderdale for a checkup for my hand. An ex-ray to make sure the bone is growing around the screw that was in place to fuse the joint that is causing all of the problem.

Before

After

I know it may not look a lot different but it sure feels a lot better :-)

Another a month with a splint and this hand should be done!!!