February Update - 28 Feb 2010

Let’s see, what do I tell you about our activities? First I’ll tell you about the miserable and uncharacteristic weather we’ve been experiencing. Unfortunately the weather scenario seems to be affecting the entire country's activities this winter.

Instead of the usual low to mid 60s at night and mid to upper 70s during the day, it feels like we’re living in an icebox. Night time temps have been in the 40’s with a few extreme nights in the 30s. Daytime temps are only in the 60s. Its not exactly what you traveled south 1000 miles for. About once every two weeks or so we get a warm, bright sunny day with temps in the mid to upper 70s. Only then do we break out the short, t -shirts and sandals.

Donna has forsaken some of her art and craft work and taken to doing knitting and crocheting. That’s how cold it is! It had been so long since she had done those things, she had to teach herself how all over again.

I haven’t done much in the way of work on my list of boat projects either. The dinghy still needs the floor re-glued, we’re still waiting on a hose for the engine and negotiating prices for adding solar panels. We did make several “boat” purchases this month. First we purchased an Alfa WIFI adapter and now have excellent WIFI reception on the boat. Second, we went to the Miami Boat Show and got a new foul weather jacket for me and a Rocna 33# anchor. Maybe now I can stay dry now and sleep better when we are anchored out.

Despite the chilly weather, the trip to Miami with Walter and Maggie was a lot of fun. Walter drove us down early Saturday morning and we went straight to the boat show. We looked at a bunch of the new sailboats and talked with lots of accessory vendors. After the show we went to a motel over in Kendall to spend the night. We also went to Kegs, a locals hangout, played pool and had dinner. The next morning we took advantage of the motel’s free breakfast and then went to Coconut Grove for the big art show. Donna and Maggie cruised the art exhibits, while Walter and I mostly walked along and talked boat stuff. It was a great weekend, especially the sleeping in a warm roon with a real bed.

The party life here at Sunset Bay still continues despite the cold weather. “Meet & Greet” socials with beverages and finger foods happen every Tuesday and Thursday. The women have a luncheon get-together at different restaurants on Wednesdays and a few men have a breakfast get-together on Thursdays. Everyone gets together for a cookout on the grill each Saturday afternoon. The Canadians were big on watching the Olympics in the boaters lounge so that added two weeks of informal parties to an already full schedule. We also now know more about “Curling” than we ever wanted to.

Oops, almost forgot mention one other important purchase. We got tired of lugging around the big camera and trying to keep it from getting wet. Consequently, no pictures of our activities. So…we got a new pocket sized digital camera. It’s easy to use and carry around so hopefully we will be able to put up more pictures on the blog.

The “Buddy” report finds him well and a bigger PITA than ever. He’s up a daybreak wanting to be fed and allowed out on deck. Turn you back and he’s in the dinghy. He even expects a clean litter box every time he needs to use it. And complain about the weather…Sheez, he gets really vocal, like now when its cloudy and the wind is blowing 25+ and he can’t sun himself on top of the bimini. He sort of yells and looks at you with a “why don’t you do something about this” look.

That’s about it from chilly FL. More to follow later.