Cats, Manatees, Friends and Dogs...

We start this belated post with a view of Spooky in a representative daytime sleeping position.  She only stresses when approached by strangers.

We had a visit by a mother and calf manatee the other week.  They just passed through and left when they realised our marina bottom wasn't very grassy.

Richard and Carol wanted to exercise their boat so we joined them for a cruise to Fort Pierce.  We had lunch at Cobb's Landing and cruised back in the sunshine.

Richard is also the instigator of our weekly poker night. Between 4 and 7 of us get together for a friendly game for quarter chips.  I had beginner's luck for the first three sessions then gave it all back in the next three!

We got a call from some friends whom we met at Hope Town in the Bahamas.  Scott and Kathryn from Bermuda had bought their boat over to Florida for some work and were an hour south near Stuart.  We met for lunch at Wahoo's Riverhouse for lunch.

Beautiful location.  We had a long very pleasant lunch.

I had a complete new canvas made when we bought the boat home three years ago.  The thread they used degrades over a relatively short period in harsh sunlight.  For a few bucks more there is a better thread made of PTFE.  I wasn't offered it then I didn't know that then but I do now.  The thread on our top was breaking down and I was constantly repairing it so I paid a local seamster to restitch the whole top with Tenara.  This will extend the life of our canvas by years since the clear plastic and Sunbrella are still in fine shape.  Of course it took a few days to do and we were without our aft deck enclosure and upper helm bimini and enclosure while this was done.

Spooky really enjoyed the open air feel of the aft deck!  A couple of birds crapped on the upper deck.

I, and a cocktail, usually take Spooky out for a walk along the dock around 4 in the afternoon.  We are now full of boats so there are more folks and dogs around than makes us comfortable so we just bring Spooky out behind the boat.  Before long other folks were joining us for an afternoon cocktail until it became a regular event.

This is Richard and Carol's peek.  He's a real cutey, more like a Gunn toy really!

This is Mark repairing the mast head light that suffered from a bridge transit that was a non-fit.  He, Julie and their catamaran left for the Bahamas three days ago.

Shirley, a Brit friend on "A" dock celebrated her 61st birthday two nights ago.  We were pleased to be invited to celebrate with her.

Spooky often wanders down the finger dock opposite us.  This in between Marshal's and Joe's catamarans.  

Spooky finds Joe's spare anchor on the finger particularly reassuring and marks it for minutes at a time almost every day.

I have tried image stabilized binoculars before but didn't realize that some could be had for a not unreasonable price now.  I decided, for safety reasons, that we needed some and bought these to help us read sailboat names, speed limit and warning signs and buoy numbers on the intracoastal waterway.  They really do work well.  They also make viewing birds, aircraft and the night sky so much easier.

So, right now everyone is watching the Super Bowl in the Captain's lounge as I write this.  I will go up for the halftime show.  Take care, all. February now.