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| What a beautiful spot. |
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| A walk across the mangroves to the community glof course |
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| Our marina pool |
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| An endlessly replenished popcorn machine, one of our marina amenities, located in the captains' lounge. |
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| A handsome local woodpecker |
This is not a red headed woodpecker, according to signs along the walkways. He's a red bellied woodpecker and his color contrasts of red head and sharp black and white wings are very striking.
Below, if you look closely you can see a bee busily working deep in the depths of this hibiscus, probably my favorite tropical flower. We're seeing all the best of Florida's flowers and plants this year, from hibiscus to bird of paradise to bougainvillea and many more.
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| Hibiscus flower and visiting bee |
Above is a great blue heron. They fish in the ponds around the community and here in the marina. We haven't yet gotten a photo of the distinctive rare, white pelicans that live in this area too, along with huge numbers of small, white ibis.
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| Our best shot yet of a manatee, nose coming up for a breath of air. You can really see his/her body shape under the water. |
We've spent the last several weeks visiting two local quilt shops and I had an opportunity to attend an author talk at the Vero Beach Book Center by author Jennifer Chiavarini, who wrote the newly released story, Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker. I enjoyed meeting her and letting her know how much I've enjoyed the 20 historical fiction titles she's written that revolve around quilting.
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| Author Jennifer Chiaverini |
A Visit From the Dogs
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| Captain Chloe |
Colleen also returned with her friend, Marla, to The Quilt Place in Rockledge to choose some lush Asian prints to make a quilt for her to use in her RV. That is proving to be a fun project. Marla joined us on the boat with her two standard poodles, Chloe and TeeDee, last weekend and we got started on the quilt. We had a few reservations about whether the dogs (each one the size of a small horse) could maneuver onto our boat. Our first effort to lure them on involved some comedic heaving and hoeing of the dogs on Marla and Wayne's part while Colleen stood by and laughed. Once they were able to pull the dogs' two foot long splayed legs, (that's four feet wide altogether!) up on the step and over the short water drop onto the side, everyone was happy - until we had to get them off again. More hysterical laughter on Colleen's part. No one ended up in the drink, though, and these two very smart dogs easily got on and off after that first boarding. All three of our visitors were a pleasure to have aboard as we enjoyed a take-out dinner of Sonny's baby back ribs, beans, and slaw and Marla's strawberries on our angel food cake with whipped cream.
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| Left to right - Chloe, Marla and TeeDee |
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| Chloe is the lap dog and where she goes, so does TeeDee Thanks for coming Marla!!! Really, we mean it. |
The Repairs Never End
We'd been feeling pretty lucky as far as boat repairs go during our first few weeks here. Wayne busied himself with some minor maintenance and repairs but mostly loafed around reading and taking me to a few movies. On the topic of movies we heartily recommend Le Mis, but The Hobbit was a bust as far as I was concerned. Wayne liked it somewhat but it was one of those movies that leaves the plot hanging at the end so you'll show up for the soon-to-be-released sequel. We've also seen Anna Karenina. The staging choice for this movie was unusual and surely was meant to make you think of Shakespeare's quote, "All the world's a stage. And all the men and women merely players." It's a lavish production - very beautiful costumes and scenery and a timeless plot. Wayne and his brother, Howard were not impressed while sister-in-law, Donna, and Colleen enjoyed it. (Wayne - sort of like Dr. Zhivago without snow, Alice in Wonderland w/o the rabbit, Phantom of the Opera w/o the Phantom, and Elvira Madigan w/o the bullets to the head - all rolled into one)
Anyway, after no major repair issues for several weeks we were feeling pretty complacent. That all ended this past Monday morning when Wayne and I both got up around 3:45 AM, he to sit outside for awhile and me to use the bathroom. Of course I left the lights off and then began to hear an odd toilet noise after leaving the head. I waited a bit, hoping it would go away and then thought I'd better investigate further. Lights on to see with horror fresh water flowing at rapid speed from something broken in the back of the toilet. The toilet bowl was overflowing and the small bathroom floor space was completely flooded. I started throwing towels on the floor and hollering for Wayne. He eventually heard me and came to the rescue, stopping the flow by shutting off the dockside water. While I went back to sleep, trusting in my faithful repairman to figure out the problem, he sat up for an hour reading the toilet system's owners manual to figure out how to fix things before going back to bed. After disassembling the flushing valve, he found that the valve consisted of a bronze shuttle valve mounted in a plastic housing. Green corrosion had jammed the valve and caused it to stick open flooding the toilet bowl. A good cleaning and some lubrication - problem solved in about one hour.
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| The toilet valve is located at the RH end of the white water hose |
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| Cleaning old fenders so the they only look used instead of ready to throw away |
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| The bathroom shower curtain over the window had corroded snap fasteners. After drilling off the old it was a cinch to install new snaps with the very expensive tool shown on the table. This tool has been used many times with canvas work over the last 5 months and is slowly but surely paying back its cost. |
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| We have been chasing a leak near our shower. First a window leak was sealed. Then Wayne cut the caulk around the shower sump, removed the sump plate and re-caulked it. We fervently hope this has solved the problem. |
Photos from around the marina
