Time Flies!

September already?? I thought I'd add a few photos, and found updates of friend's blogs when I ck'd in. I'm glad to hear that Michelle and Joe on Simple Life are heading back down to the Keys. Daren and I've been busy when he's home, but decided to postpone the haul out and bottom paint job until we get to the Bahamas next January. We had a great visit from Don and Cheryl in July for Daren's birthday.

This is that corner cushion that caused me so much grief! I was happy to finish it about 2 days before Cheryl and Don came to visit, thanks to upholstery tips from Welder Dave! Isn't it great to have company to inspire you to finish projects!? Things are pretty quiet in Marathon, but we're getting some things done when Daren's home. Right now, the 3 of us are at the Motel 6 in Dania Beach and Daren's watching Monday Night Football! Libby and I will drop him at the Ft. Lauderdale airport first thing in the morning and head back to Marathon and drop off the rental car. Libby and I are getting pretty good at finding our way back and forth...it's actually a very scenic 3 hour drive...well, especially the Keys part of it! Here's a funny picture Don took on Daren's birthday at Lazy Days! Great view and has a creative chef! That's raspberry sauce with his key lime pie!

Luperon!

So much has happened! Mom passed away in her sleep on May 9th, so I'm very grateful that I got to say goodbye! Her Pastor Bruce has been on a mission trip, so tomorrow, July 1st, is her celebration of life service in Denver. I thought Daren would be gone back to work, so I'd decided to stay here In Marathon with Libby, but he was just given time off for Independence Day until July 23rd! Of course, Libby and I are thrilled to have him home for so long, and we have plenty of projects to do. We're having the boat hauled out and painted August 9th and Daren's going to replace the wheel in the cockpit with a tiller, so we'll have more room outside. We found a great little Yeti cooler that fits the gaps in the cockpit seats perfectly to make a bed on each side. We love the new fridge, which is very efficient and runs very well on the solar panels. I made a water-catching awning for the forward hatch, but Daren's going to get a water maker as well. He's also putting in new chain plates on the outside of the hull and new davits so the dinghy will be higher off the water when we're underway. We're planning to spend next hurricane season (summer) in the Dominican Republic. I met Griselda, a lovely Christian lady from Puerto Plata, who's been helping me with my Spanish. She's married to Roger, an American on a sailboat here and they just left for a family visit to Domincan Republic last Thursday. They kindly loaned us their car while they're away, and we've been exploring the area, finding more dog-friendly places to eat! Libby enjoyed the Coco Plum dog beach Friday AND Saturday, but today we took the day off to give her a rest! Luperon sounds like a wonderful place to live and a perfect hurricane hole, since the mountains block them! They grow most everything there, and none of it's sprayed or GMO! It's a Christian country with little violent crime and no drug trafficking! Most of you boaters have read Bruce Van Sant's great book, The Gentleman's Guide to Passages South (the Thornless Path to Windward). We just bought his 12th and final edition. He's made dozens of trips from Florida to Venezuela, and lives in Luperon, so that's quite a recommendation! The Dominican Republic's not very far from the Bahamas and airfare's cheap, in case Daren's still working for MVE by then! We're looking forward to it, but are enjoying the preparations and living here in beautiful Marathon. I recently discovered frozen conch at our Publix fish counter, so we've been eating a lot of it...sauteed in butter with Tiger Sauce. I think I'll make some right now!!

Denver and Florida Road Trip

Mom had a massive stroke on Mary's birthday, Monday April 15th, and Daren insisted on flying me out to Denver on Thursday, the day after he got home from CA! It was a great visit, under the circumstances and in spite of snow! Mom is out of the hospital and happy in her new nursing-care room. Everyone's really nice there, and most of the staff know her since she's lived on the assisted living side for several years. It was sure good to see Mom! She's doing SO much better and miraculously, her paralysis went away! All 4 of us daughters were there, and I got to see 2 out of 4 of our nieces, too. It was a nice family reunion! Daren & Libby picked me up at FLL Monday and we drove up to see boat friends in Stuart and Green Cove Springs (near St. Augustine). Daren is so sweet! He thought I'd need cheering up, and it was also a birthday road trip, since he's going to miss my big 60th birthday May 3rd! We had a great time, although it was pretty cold in St. Augustine and Green Cove Springs! I had to get my Colorado clothes back out! It was a whirlwind trip and we got home Thursday night. Daren added more insulation to the fridge, but still plans to buy a new one. At least the old one's back together and working! He left this morning, and I still have 2 cushions to sew, but they're the tricky ones. It's nice to be home again, but it's better when Daren's home, too!

Weather

Daren's back in Modesto, after a weather delay that stuck him in Austin Tuesday night! Last night, we were expecting a big blow here in Marathon, but it didn't hit until 3 AM! We were hunkered down and fine, but Libby was terrified by the loud thunder, and wanted up in the V-berth with me. That's always been the one place she's not allowed, but she looked so pitiful I helped her up and played music on my little radio to calm her down! She was quite comfy this morning, snoring softly as I had my tea and read in bed. We listened to the Marathon Cruisers' net on VHF 68 at 9 am, to learn that a 30 ft Catalina was dis-masted here last night! YIKES! There was a huge group to help get the mast back on deck this morning. This is a very helpful place, and apparently, the owner is fine, as well as his macaw! There's an open FB page called "Boot Key Harbor Cruisers", and was told there'll be photos posted this afternoon. Libby and I came to shore this morning before more rain hit, and are planning to sew a couple sail bags and a propane cover if and when we get off the computer! : ) My friend Michelle, with the cool blog, showed me how to put the photos in the right place, instead of off to the side. Like this:

Happy Easter

What a great Easter Sunday it's been! We've been having a great time since Daren got home! We went to see The Sound of Music at the local playhouse last Sunday, and it was excellent! What a happy story and lovely songs and it was fun to see sailing friends in it! Steve, Mimzie, Jacob, and Danielle were all involved and the local paper did a great write-up on them. The weather's been perfect and Daren's building a cabinet over the chart table. Every time he's home, he has a new project! Last time, it was a new dining table! This boat just gets better all the time! The next project is a new fridge. Our Adler-Barber uses too much juice because it runs so much, so Daren wants a low-energy Engel system. Our friends Michele and Joe on S/V Simple Life have a keel-cooled fridge that sounds interesting, but you have to haul the boat out to install it, and we're not quite ready for that! Our wind generator's been humming along lately, but it takes a lot of wind to get it going! It sure beats running the engine! Daren just finished scraping the bottom of the dinghy, and reports that the water's pretty cold! It's all relative, as I'm sure we're still in one of the warmest spots in the Country! You must check out friend Michele's blog, which should be listed as one that I'm following. It's www.sailingsimplelife.blogspot.com Excellent, and she's already posted photos from this morning's Easter sunrise service! We got to Skype Mom this afternoon! It was great fun to see Alex and Barb's new standard poodle puppy, Oliver, just 8 weeks old! CUTE!

Left Behind!

Sorry for the blog gap! I've gotten some interesting e-mails from friends wondering what's happened to us!! I always thought "No news is good news!" Everything's great and the harbor's been packed with boats. Time slips away down here! Daren's still commuting to Modesto every other 2 weeks, and Libby and I stay busy with projects. Bill and Diane on Tugnacious left Monday, and JoElla drove her car up to Jacksonville. Gary left with their boat Caveat yesterday, and I miss them all already! Lots of boats are leaving the harbor because of the fair weather. The wind blows ALL the time around here, which is why it's so nice in the summer. Libby and I are working on new interior cushions out of Sunbrella velvet, which is washable. Daren hates slipcovers, but these I can peel off and throw in the wash! We've been meeting lots of nice new people and last night, I went to a potluck at the chiki hut, which was a fare-well to departing boats! This morning looked like a boat parade! Soon we'll be among a few dozen boats instead of a few hundred!

Gilligan's Island Picnic!

What a fun day today! Bobby the Viking had the great idea of inviting everyone in the harbor (on the daily VHF radio net) to dinghy over to an uninhabited island past Sombrero Beach, called Gilligan's Island, for grilled chicken fajitas. He brought his grill and big bag of marinated chicken breasts and tortillas and cheese and I brought grilled onions and others brought chips and homemade salsa! Yum! 15 of us from 9 boats followed "Beastie" over to the island at 11 am for a great lunch! There would've been a bigger turn-out if the weather hadn't started out cloudy with a bit of rain, but by noon, it was another Keys-perfect day! Libby had a blast running off-leash with 3 other dogs and one 25 pound cat, named "Crew" from S/V "Old Broad". We all had such a great time, that we voted unanimously to come back every Saturday from now on! I'm happy to report that Daren got our wind generator up and running and it's nice and quiet and seems to be producing electricity, too! Daren took a photo of it spinning, but the camera froze the blades! Anyway, you get the idea! We had a wonderful grilled snapper dinner last night on M/V "Caveat" with JoElla and Gary and their neighbors Bill and Diane on M/V "Tugnacious". JoElla and Diane are both talented quilters and Mah Jongg players and we all go to the same church, New Life AG, down the street. JoElla has a missionary friend in the San Blas Islands near Panama, and she's making gorgeous wall hangings and book covers using the Cuna Indians' intricate cotton molas to sell and help finance the mission..."Molas for Missions". Diane's making quilted notebook covers for a girl's orphanage in Brazil. They both have sewing spaces on their boats! I'm inspired by them to make new cushions, but will prob'ly work in the marina's "club house", since I like to spread out and make a mess! Hope you're having a great 2013 so far! Daren's going back to Modesto this Thursday, Jan. 10th, and Libby and I miss him already! Time sure flies when he's home!