March 21 st: Interesting times

Refinished Railings

The teak railings are finished and look great. Very shiny. Still need to do the doors and head band but I'm sure I'll have plenty of time.
















Florida was slow to get ahead of the COVID-19. March is the highest revenue month for Florida tourism and I am certain there were many stressful decisions being made. Unfortunately it was later than we would have liked, but as you've probably seen on the news, Florida finally decided to take responsible actions. The Keys were becoming the one place people could still go to party!

They have now closed all the bars and restaurants. They also ordered all motels closed. Hopefully things can now be more successfully managed here in the Keys.  Fortunately, the road coming into the Keys is going to be closed to non-residents starting Monday. We considered options for other places to go, but decided we were probably as safe here on the boat as anywhere. The grocery stores plan to remain open so we should be able to get supplies. Enough about that, I'm certain you've already heard plenty.

Skip on Slew Foot

One of our boater friends, Skip, owns an electrical contracting business in North Carolina. He received a call requesting his company rewire a building for infectious hospital care, ASAP. He and his wife Sharon left Banana Bay to drive back and work on the project.

Packing the car

Waiting, not patiently, for Skip

Everyone was waiting to say good bye while Skip was obsessed with securing his boat. Skip is a great story teller with a great sense of humor, but doesn't move too quickly. They finally left about two hours later than planned.

Fun shadows

I walked down the dock to take a picture of the point. When I looked at the picture I saw the fun shadows. It reminded me of a fun shadow picture Rebecca took some years ago.










 It has been pretty windy so no fishing. We quit going to the gym for safety reasons so not a lot going on. Starting to feel like Ground Hog Day. I noticed our Captain Quarter's Brass plaque was looking pretty tarnished. Took it off, cleaned it just enough so it still looked a little rustic and it looks much better.

West view from the fly bridge

In these uncertain times it's easy to forget how fortunate we are. I went up onto the fly bridge and saw the beautiful view looking West.

East view from the fly bridge

Also a pretty nice view looking East across the marina. The weather has been beautiful. We really are fortunate to be able to stay here.







This afternoon 6 manatees came into the marina. I could not get a picture of all of them together but there are five in this picture. They hung around quite a while eating the vegetation off of the dock pilings and boat bottoms. They are super gentle and don't mind us watching them. I guess they agree that this is a good place to be.

Five manatees next to our boat

The weather looks pretty good for anchoring out next week. It would be great to get out on the water. We love anchoring out, in good weather of course. We'll see how it goes.