Saturday, 22 May 2021 - This evening Susie and I enjoyed a nice dinner out with Chuck Henderson and Catherine McCole at the Hideaway Cafe on Grassy Key. This restaurant is so ritzy that they have white table cloths and a dress code stating "Business Casual". Susie called to confirm that that includes shorts and a tee shirt for the gentlemen to make sure I could get in. We had a pleasant evening dining on the second floor patio where we had a great view of their private beach with an old Cuban escape boat and I got to watch several kiteboarders making turns in the distance. Later, Susie and I went to Dockside for entertainment and dancing. We both thought the band was better than usual, but were surprised that Catherine and Chuck didn't show up.

Sunday, 23 May - Susie's toilet has been frequently running without shutting off when flushed. She can't hear it if she doesn't have her "ears on", so I fixed that today. The toilet, not her ears. Around 6 pm we went to Dockside once again for dinner and their Sunday Jam session.

Monday, 24 May - Well, I guess pickle ball is over for the season. I was the only one that showed up today. I practiced serves with 21 balls for about an hour, then took the net down, turned it in and told the park supervisor that we wouldn't be needing the equipment until fall. It's too bad. I valued the exercise and the challenge.

Tuesday, 25 May - I recently broke a crown off of one of my lower teeth so I headed over to the dentist to have it looked at. He ground the remaining part of the tooth smooth and amazed me when he said there would be no charge. I'll get my teeth cleaned next week and probably get that crown and another that is missing replaced, too.
                    Susie and I went to Dockside for dinner and their "Country Music Night". Their idea of country music and mine are different and included music by The Doors and The Grateful Dead. I only recognized about 4 or 5 songs all night. I wasn't impressed. Susie said it's because I'm from the west, and that Country is from Tennessee, West Virginia, Alabama, etc. Oh! My mistake. Oops! I thought it had more to do with cowboys or cowboy wannabes regardless of where they are located.

Wednesday, 26 May - Today I was still weighing different approaches to ridding Island Time of termites; heat, CO2 via my generator, CO2 via dry ice or canister/tank, carbon monoxide, or Vikane poison via a professional exterminator for about $1500. With the Vikane, I would have to leave the boat for two or three days and although sealing the boat up would be easy, Vikane can't be purchased without a license.
                    This evening I picked up Susie at the marine and we headed out into the harbor for a full moon dinghy drift. Because of clouds at sunset, we didn't actually get to see the sun dip below the horizon, but the clouds lit up like they were on fire. I had had to correct the person organizing the dinghy drift this morning on the Cruisers' net. She had wanted to have the drift Friday night, thinking that's when the full moon was. I said the moon wouldn't rise until about 11 o'clock Friday night, so we changed the drift to tonight. Since I had influenced the changing of the day, this evening about 8:30 everybody on the drift was asking me, "Where's the moon?" I told them to be patient and wait about another 15 or 20 minutes. At about 8:50, the first person spotted where it would be and it rose big and orange and beautiful.

Thursday, 27 May - Mary Ackroyd of M/V Island Girl, Walt of S/V The Gloaming, and another girl went kayaking today with the main objective of determining the water depths in Whisky Creek incase any of us needs to run in there during a storm to get away from the wind this summer. There's only one spot in there I'd like to anchor because of the depth and because my draft is six and a half feet. The other girl gave up and turned around at that point and we had barely started. The three of us continued on, running the trails in the opposite direction than we usually do. As we approached Silver Pond, I told Mary and Walt to go on without me because I wanted to put the new saw to use doing some trail maintenance. They continued on and I spent about an hour and a half totally reopening the short trail that I had worked on a few weeks ago. The tide had gone from pretty high to very low during that time and I ran the stretch in both directions to make sure it would be possible at both tidal levels. After that, I worked on a short, dead end, tributary to that trail, but got to a point that I needed to cross a log that was just below water level. I know that trail is short and a dead end, so I decided not to cross the log because I was afraid if I spent much more time in there, the water could drop further, making it difficult or impossible to get back out.
                    I headed out and when I got to Silver Pond, the water had dropped so low that I couldn't get to the Burdine's trail, so I followed the deeper, south side of the pond and exited into Whiskey Creek again. I wasn't tired so I took another trail off the north side of Whiskey Creek and cleaned up that trail and another branch off of it. The sun was low enough that the shadows were beautiful and the water was clear. I saw lots of fish on this trail and the water almost glowed bright yellow from the tannic acid. I thought, at one point, that I could see a spring bubbling up up ahead, but it turned out to be a side channel that was about a foot higher pouring into the channel I was in. These trails are very narrow with few turn-around points and it's really pretty going through the tunnels that the mangrove canopy makes. I saw lots of of fish in those channels; tarpon, snapper, and mullet, too. Birds that One night heron that I came across let me get within about five feet of it, plus, I also saw a bald eagle, ospreys. egrets, ibis, a wood pecker, lots of mangrove crabs and Cassiopeia jellyfish, and one blue crab.
                    I got back to the boat at about 4:45 after having left at 11 am. I cleaned and put the kayak back on the deck, rinsed the saw, depth finder, pruning shears, and myself, then went for a swim by diving off the bimini top, then showered and had a Dr Pepper. A good day, indeed.

Friday, 28 May - My Cruisers' Net this morning lasted about 45 minutes. We've had numerous boats leave the harbor now that the wind has settled down and several new ones show up, most probably on their way to the Bahamas or headed back north, but some come for the summer.

Saturday, 29 May - We had an unusually high tide associated with the recent full moon today so that made it easy for Sangria, Susie's labradoodle, to get out of the water after retrieving the tennis ball. The ramp we made for her won't work on low tides, so she doesn't get to go swimming unless the high tide arrives mid-day, allowing time for her to dry off before coming in the house. This evening, we're going to go back to Dockside to hear FiddleRock play. That duo, Randy on fiddle and Steve on guitar were the best entertainment on the island until hurricane Irma destroyed Steve's boat and he moved to Portland, Oregon to live. He's back for a visit and will join Randy tonight and Monday evening again. Since Steve doesn't make it back here often, I suspect that they'll be accompanied by drummer, keyboards, and bass guitar for the evening, but we'll see.