Wednesday, 9 February 2022 - Susie drove me the short distance from the Gates Hotel over to the surgical center at 8AM where I had my hernia operation. By noon we were in her car and headed back to Marathon. We watched a couple of the "Mission Impossible" movies that evening. I assume that the anesthesiologist put a tube down my throat during the surgery because my throat was very sore and I had a hard time sleeping that night.

Thursday, 10 February - Susie pampered me all day and we went to Fish Tails diner for supper then watched another "Mission Impossible" movie in the evening after trying to finish the checkers game we spent a couple of hours playing, but not finishing a few nights ago. We finally called it a draw, went to bed, and I slept much better because my throat isn't hurting as much as it did last night.

Friday, 11 February - Susie had to work here at her home as usual, but still pampered me in her free moments.

Saturday, 12 February - Susie and I went to Crane Point, a nature reserve, here in Marathon, and walked the nature trails. I was curious to see what a Lignum Vitae tree looks like. Lignum Vitae is the heaviest commercial wood in the world and was traditionally used for blocks, deadeyes, and bull's eyes on wooden sailing ships because of its properties of oiliness, self lubrication, and strength. There is an approximately cubic foot sample of the wood down in Key West at one of the museums. It weighs 85 lb. per cubic foot compared to a cubic foot of water at 62.3 lb., so it quite literally sinks like a rock and lasts almost indefinitely. Here in the Keys is the only place in the USA that it grows and is endangered. I was expecting to see a very large tree, but the trees here are small, not near large enough to have produced a one cubic foot block. I guess they were almost decimated during the Golden Age of Sail in the 1400s through the 1800s for use on ships. There is a key near here that is named Lignum Vitae Key, but it is in the shallow waters of the Gulf, so my boat probably can't sail there because my draft is too deep.

Sunday, 13 February - Susie worked at Christina's Consignment Boutique today from noon to about 4:45, then came and got me to go catch the very end of a pre-Superbowl party at Kim Brown-Stamp's house. Kim inherited the house from her parents who had inherited it from their parents and it is almost like a museum filled with old Florida Keys and fishing memorabilia on the upper floor where she lives and has been modernized on the lower level that she rents out occasionally. It is on the Gulf side of the island, on a large property, and seems to be almost surrounded by jungle, although all the plants and trees were planted by occupants of the property. Very nice. We then left and drove to Dockside but Susie was too cold in the outdoor setting, so we didn't stay, went to the Florida Steak and Lobster Restaurant for dinner, then returned home.

Monday, 14 February - Valentine's Day - Susie worked at the consignment store again today. I tried to order some roses to be delivered to her, but there are only two florists on the island and one doesn't deliver and the other delivers normally but couldn't accept any more orders today to be delivered and didn't have any long-stemmed roses anyway. My bad. I should have ordered them last week...or maybe earlier.
                    Much of my day was spent reading a small book that I picked up at the marina's cruiser's library called "Journeys Through Irma". Shortly after hurricane Irma in 2017, Mike Barber, a sailor in the harbor published the book "Irmageddon" which was the stories of 20 of the boaters that had been here in the harbor when the hurricane hit and what they had done to prepare for the hurricane and what their experience was in the aftermath. This book, "Journeys Through Irma" is a similar book written by a local resident of the town and written from the perspective of home and business owners. Each one would be excellent textbooks for people that are in the line of possible destruction from hurricanes here in the future. The books really make you aware of what you need to do, or not, and how far in advance you need to accomplish tasks before a hurricane is due to arrive. One of the biggest problems for people leaving in cars was not being able to acquire gasoline at the last moment. Even as far north as Alabama lines at gas stations were miles or hours long; or the gas stations were totally out of fuel even two or three days before Irma made landfall here. That, and the fact that residents couldn't re-enter the Keys for two weeks after the hurricane passed, and when you get back here, there was no clean water, telephone or internet service, or electricity. You couldn't even flush your toilet. Eye opening books, indeed!

Tuesday, 15 February - Susie and I got up early in order to arrive in Key West for a followup appointment at 9AM about the surgery I had last week. The traffic was moving fine so we arrived in plenty of time. The surgeon examined me and said that it seems a bit early to tell how well or how poorly the repair was and I now have another appointment on Tuesday, March 1st. Susie's car needs a scheduled checkup and some minor repairs so we went to the Toyota dealership to make an appointment for that, too. They can't do that until about 3 or 4 March. After that, we headed to IHOP for breakfast, then realized that we were to go to a dock party of S/V Queequeg's this afternoon. Mike and Bev now have their boat, Queequeg, at the dock and also a very unusual boat that they built from scratch and sailed for 7 years. That boat is a flat-bottomed and flat-sided sailing vessel with bilgeboards instead of a keel or centerboard and has a draught of only 2 feet with the bilgeboards raised and 7 feet with them down. The boat is a cat rigged yawl and, having tabernacles at both masts, the masts can be lowered easily by only one person to pass under a bridge. They sold the boat when they acquired Queequeg but the new owner showed up down here and they met. After that party we headed to Skipjacks for a few slow dances and then to Dockside, too.

Wednesday, 16 February - Susie missed work yesterday so she had plenty of catch-up work today.

Thursday, 17 February - Susie had business meetings via the internet today and I killed time surfing today, the internet, that is. It's getting pretty boring having to do almost nothing.

Friday, 18 February - More of the same during the day although I did spend a couple of hours repairing another of Susie's expanding and shrinking water hoses. I had one of these and the outer sheathing wore out quickly, but on hers, the inner tubing spring leaks. I think this is the third repair I've done on hers, two at the ends and one near the middle. If anyone out there knows how to make them last longer than a few months without need of repairs, I'm open to suggestions. I think the best way is to NOT buy one in the first place. I'm pretty sure I won't be purchasing another anytime soon even though they certainly save space, which is handy on a boat.

Saturday, 19 February - Susie and I took a walk over to a thrift store, bought a pizza cutter there for a dollar, then walked through a nearby marina and RV park. Later, we had stuffed mushrooms at Sparky's across the street from her home and, later yet, joined friends at Skipjack Resort and Marina for dinner and a few slow dances.

Sunday, 20 February - Susie worked from 11:30 till 4:30, then we went to Kim Brown-Stamp's party again and then Dockside. Kim had another party because the weather was poor last weekend and the band didn't get to play then.

Monday, 21 February - Susie filled in at Christine's Consignment Store again today, all day. When she got home she was tired so we went out to eat at the Key Colony Inn and upon returning to the house, she went almost immediately to bed.

Tuesday, 22 February - Again, Susie filled in for Christine at the store, but only for the afternoon. While she was out I repaired the pull cord on the shade for her double, sliding glass doors.

Wednesday, 23 February - Susie seems to be quite allergic to something here and she felt terrible all day. We stayed home for her to rest and get some sleep.

Thursday, 24 February - Susie's still not feeling well but since we did need to eat, we went to Skipjacks for dinner and met the usual suspects, Rowland's Rowdies, there to listen to Rick and Dana play.

Friday, 25 February - We spent much of today trying to track down a wheel chair for Susie's mother to use while she's visiting. We tried the American Legion, the Elks Club, the Moose Lodge, two different churches, rental shops, and others, but with no success. One rental shop in Key West wants $95/day or $450 for a month. That seems a bit much. While at one of the churches, we realized that they'd be having a yard sale tomorrow, so we went over to see what they'd be selling. Susie immediately spotted two bright green Adirondack chairs that she "just had to have" to replace her two recently broken chairs. We couldn't buy them then, but will return early tomorrow to get them. We went to Dockside for dinner and were surprised to see Leta, Rowland and the guys show up early, so we couldn't all sit together because of the crowd.

Saturday, 26 February - Susie and I got up early and went to the yard sale at the church. Unfortunately, the two ladies running the sale were sitting in the "must have" chairs and wouldn't sell them. We drove to Key West to get her mother and brother who flew down today. Since they had gotten up an 3am to catch their plane, we headed right back to Susie's but did make a short detour to show them some unusual homes in Summerland Key. Each home has an aircraft hanger on its ground floor with living space upstairs, a runway across the street and a canal in back for their boats. Her mother will be staying for a month and her brother for about a week in a rental house two doors down from Susie's house.

Sunday, 27 February - By the time I got up and 7:30am, Susie and her brother were chatting away on the back porch. Susie had ordered groceries for them last night and found out then that they wouldn't be delivered until about ten this morning. Ten o'clock became 11 and 11 became 12:30, then they were finally delivered about 3pm.

Monday, 28 February - Today was my brother's birthday so I talked to him for quite awhile then worked on my taxes for 2021.

Tuesday, 1 March 2022 - I finally had my appointment for the doctor to follow up on my surgery for the hernia today and, as I was already convinced. the surgery had failed. He says I need to wait at least two months before I consider repairing it. I had been convinced it failed starting the day the surgery was done but the doctor had insisted that the bulge that I still had was simply puffiness caused by the surgery and that it would go away. On the other hand, I could still feel my bowel extruding through the hole occasionally. I certainly wish he'd been right. I feel like I wasted three weeks of my life. Not only that, but I certainly was an imposition on Susie for that whole time that I stayed at her house.

Wednesday, 2 March - Susie brought me back to the marina today and Walt Avery came ashore in his dinghy to return me to Island Time since my dinghy was stored on the davits on my boat. I stayed onboard long enough to find out if the pickleball schedule had changed, then headed to the park to play. I was a bit late so I only played for about two hours but, boy, was I tired. I don't know if I was just totally out of shape from sitting around for three weeks or if I let myself get dehydrated while playing, but I returned to the boat and took a nap, which I rarely do when I'm active.

Thursday, 3 March - I played pickleball for three hours today, then Bob Dahmer and I walked across the street and ate lunch at Overseas Restaurant. After that, we returned to Island Time and installed my spare Evinrude 8 hp outboard motor on his new dinghy that he had to buy because he lost his during an unexpected squall a couple of weeks ago. He got lucky enough after losing one that he found and bought a really nice, new dinghy that had been donated to a charity to sell for only $150. I'm sure it would have gone at retail for well over a thousand dollars. He's borrowing my outboard while he looks for a replacement. I haven't started that engine in at least two years and we were blown away when it started up on the first pull of the cord.

Friday, 4 March - I resumed my job as Friday Net Controller for the morning Cruiser's Net this morning which meant that I was late for pickleball this morning. Bob Dahmer is anchored outside the harbor and has no dinghy dock privileges so he came to Island Time and we rode in together again to go play pickleball, then had lunch at Florida Keys Steak and Lobster.

Saturday, 5 March - We had another Nautical Flea Market at the marina today. I only took about five items over and came home with six, although I didn't buy anything. A fellow gove me a color Raymarine fish finder. After that, we had another meeting about installing more markers around the grass flats in the harbor so people will quit running aground in the shallow water. We're finally going to get a prototype marker made up, so that's a start. I think they're going to be so expensive and labor intensive that we can't afford to install as many as I think we need.

Sunday, 6 March - Bob and I kayaked the Boot Key mangroves today and both of us got to experience trail that we hadn't explored before. I introduced him to several that he hadn't been to before and as we were exiting the channel into Whisky Creek, he noticed a trail that I hadn't explored before. We took it and, although we had to cut quite a few downed limbs and mangrove roots, we went quite a way before we decided to turn around. It's pretty easy to get stuck in a trail when the tide is running out. I want to explore that trail more because I can't imagine where it ends up, if anywhere. We got cleaned up then met Leta, Rowland, and Justin, who had, today, given Bob an outboard motor that was exactly what he was hoping to find; a two stroke, 8 hp, short shaft engine. Bob must be living right to have found a virtually new, two thousand dollar dinghy for $150 and an engine for free after having lost his dinghy and engine during a storm last week. Not only that, but the guy threw in a fuel tank full of gas, half a gallon of two stroke oil, and the fuel lines, too. FREE! Wow!

Monday, 7 March - I played about 3 hours of pickleball today then went to the marina to stuff Cruiser's Bags with brochures. I had told Jessica that works in the office that I would stuff some in Saturday afternoon, but totally forget to de so until yesterday afternoon, and it was too late to do so then. I stuffed 50 bags then played ping pong with Walt Avery, Fred Rybczynski, and Kevin for about two hours.

Tuesday, 8 March - Pickleball this morning, then back to the boat to compile a food list for the grocery store. I think I set a new personal record for spending at the grocery store of $212 on one trip. I hate going there so I try to buy everything all at once instead of multiple trips per week. Susie called at about 3:50 as I was standing in front of the grocery store waiting for a cab and said she would pick me up at 5PM to go to Skipjack Resort for dinner. Luckily, the taxi I had called showed up about 4:10 and as I started to load the groceries into the dinghy back at the marina, a fellow volunteered to hand me the groceries from the dock to the boat. That saved me some time, then I unloaded and put away items that needed to be refrigerated and left the others to stow away later. A quick shower and I was on the way back to the marina and arrived about 5:05. We had dinner with Anne Mullins, Nick and Linda, Pete and Dee Schwartz, and Roland and Leta Kok and their son and his wife. Roland's son is a retired Major General in the army. It must be fun, upon being introduced to someone new, when they ask what he did before retiring. "Army." "Oh, how long?" "Twenty years." "Wow!, I was in the military too, but not that long. What was your rank?" "Two star general." "Oh yeah, right." "No really." "Yes, really, Major General,." "Wow."

Wednesday, 9 March - Pickleball after the net this morning, then put the rest of the groceries away. After that, ping pong.

Thursday, 10 March - Pickleball, then, in the afternoon I joined Mike Grady of M/V Cool Beans on the gulf side of the island to put together and test a prototype grass flats marker to keep people from running aground here in the shallows in the harbor. It's made of 6 inch PVC with end caps and an eyebolt. We glued one cap on, then took it into the water and filled it with sand from the beach until it stood vertically in the water, then weighed the sand so we'll know how much weight to put in the final fifteen that we make. The marker weighed 25 lb. empty and needed 30 pounds of sand as ballast. Finished with that we headed to Skipjacks for dinner.

Friday, 11 March - I ran the Cruiser's Net this morning then headed to the park for pickleball. It's getting really hot on the courts when the sun is shining. I heard one girl say she was on her fourth bottle of water about noon today. If this is winter, I hate to imagine what summer is going to be like this year. After pickleball I defrosted the freezer.

Saturday, 12 March - This was a nice breezy, sunny day here until about 4 o'clock post meridian when the temperature took a sudden drop, precursor to 30 to 40 mile per hour winds caused by the cold front. This is the weekend for the Marathon Seafood Festival with lots of good food, musical entertainment and over 200 vendors of food, clothing, jewelry, art, and almost everything else imaginable. When the winds hit vendors were scrambling to save their displays and wares. At the tents for eating and seating for the outdoor entertainment people were literally standing on the bases of the support poles too hold the awnings down. The worst quickly blew through, however, and the show went on. Bob Dahmer arrived at the festival before I did and I met him near the stage and we watched two musical groups, Igor and the Red Elvises and Rock Show for the evening. After mentioning how warm it was yesterday, the temperature dropped into the low sixties tonight.

Sunday, 13 March - I was up before sunrise this morning since daylight savings time kicked in. That's a rarity. After I defrosted the refrigerator/freezer, Bob and I both returned to the festival today.

Monday, 14 March - Pickleball this morning and I was serving well. With only one game left for the day, someone complained that they just couldn't seem to serve a ball well at all today. I said, "Well, I hate to brag, and I'll probably jinx myself, but I haven't hit a bad serve all day." Of course, my next two serves went long.

Tuesday, 15 March - Pickleball in the morning and I met Susie and Dockside this evening. It wasn't very crowded so we had plenty of room on the dance floor, which is unusual.

Wednesday, 16 March - I played pickleball this morning, paid mooring ball rental fees for another month, and looked forward to hearing Wyatt Hurts play at Dockside this evening. He has an elderly gentleman that accompanies him on the pedal slide steel guitar. I've always enjoyed that music. Unfortunately, when I arrived, they weren't there. I had the wrong day and the wrong time so I ate dinner there and left.

Thursday, 17 March - While playing ping pong yesterday Walt suggested kayaking today, so we headed out at 9:30 this morning along with five others including Fred Przbyski. Since we had a lady along that was a novice paddle boarder, we made it a shorter trip than usual. We did, however, venture up the channel that I had opened up last time I was out with Bob Dahmer. We had to cross a couple of logs that were barely submerged and since the tide was receding, we couldn't stay long for fear of not being able to recross them on the way back out. On the way out, Walt and I detoured over to another trail that I had tried to open up a year or two ago, but it is really filling in with fallen trees. I'm thinking of buying a Ryobi saber saw that is compatible with my existing 18v batteries and will significantly expedite clearing the larger fallen limbs. Later this evening I picked up Susie and the dock and we headed to the middle of the harbor to rendezvous with the dinghy drift under the full moon. There had been a huge turnout. I think there were somewhere near 30 dinghies tied together. Unfortunately, Susie had had to work so late that we didn't get there until almost dark, but it was a beautiful, clear, calm night with the full moon and all the masthead lights reflecting on the water.

Friday, 18 March - I dinghied over and met Susie at Dockside for some dancing this evening. Susie's mom called in a panic while we were there. There was water all over the floor in her apartment, which is two doors down from Susie's. We didn't know she had called until the band quit playing and Susie checked her phone. In the meantime, her mother was standing in the living room with her walker and afraid to take a step because she was afraid she might fall. She has fallen twice in the past, the first time breaking her hip and the second time hitting her head and getting a very serious concussion that she still hasn't recovered from. She stood there for over an hour before I could go to my boat and get a plunger and then meet Susie at the dock to go to her mother's house. Luckily, the water had stopped running and subsided before we got there. We couldn't tell what the source of the water was, but discovered that both toilets, when flushed, backed water up into the bathtub or shower and the bathroom sinks. We dried up the floors and called the rental manager to arrange for a plumber to come the next morning, then said "good night" to her mom about midnight.

Saturday, 19 March - A plumber arrived at Susie's mother's rental house this morning and replaced one toilet valve and ran a plumber's snake down through the roof vent and through the system to clear up the problem. On my way home from Susie's, we stopped at Home Depot so I could buy a lid for a 5 gallon bucket and a Ryobi reciprocating saw that will work with the 18v batteries that drive my water pump and drills. I'll use the saw to clear fallen trees and limbs in the mangrove trails in Boot Key.

Sunday, 20 March - Spring Equinox - I had intended to spend most of today in the mangroves clearing trails but refrigeration repairs got in the way. My refrigerator/freezer had stopped running and I needed to repair it again. The freezer is water cooled and the water pump has stopped running. I checked the wiring and determined that that wasn't a problem. The problem could still be the thermostat or the electronic controls, but I decided to check the pump itself next. I took it out and hooked it up to 12 V but it wouldn't start at all. I had two backup pumps onboard, both of which I had rebuilt, but one still wouldn't run, so I replaced the one that had been in the system with the one that runs and everything is running fine again. I still have a refrigerant leak in the system but for the life of me still can't detect where it is, even with my electronic sniffer. I did, however, discover that packaging on hotdogs sets the sniffer off.

Monday, 21 March - I disassembled the water pump that I replaced to see why it wouldn't run. It had gotten water past the seals and into the motor and had shorted out.

Tuesday, 22 March - Out of curiosity, I disassembled the spare water pump that I believed I had rebuilt, but wouldn't run. It was obvious that I hadn't had it open. It was really rusted up for the same reason that the one I just took out was. Bob Dahmer has been hosting night nets on the VHF to teach other boaters how to catch lobsters here and today had gone out to reconnoiter a good location to take his "students" to later this week. He caught a couple and brought them to me live. I cleaned them and Susie and I will have them for dinner this weekend. Later, Susie and I went to Dockside but she was so tired that we didn't even dance one dance. That's never happened before!

Wednesday, 23 March - I skipped pickleball this morning and spent from about 10:30 to 5:30 today trailblazing and doing trail maintenance in the Boot Key mangroves with my new battery powered reciprocating saw. It's hard, hot work, but for some reason, I enjoy it. It is going to be very difficult to keep from ruining this new saw and its batteries. Twice, while sawing on a limb near the waterline I caught myself concentrating on keeping the blade out of the water that I dipped the back end with the battery on it into the water. So far, it seems okay, but I've got to figure out a way to protect it when my concentration slides. I got back to the boat just in time to rinse off my hand saw, pruners, paddle, and take a shower before picking Walt Avery up at his boat to take him to shore so that he could leave his dinghy at his boat while he visits his daughter up north for her baby's first birthday.

Thursday, 24 March - It was one of the hottest, most humid mornings I've ever spent on the pickleball courts today. Everybody quit early and Fred Rybczynski says he drank six bottles of water during play. Afterward, Bob and I checked at the post office for some outboard motor parts he's expecting and are overdue, but the still hadn't arrived. I spent much of the afternoon searching online for a replacement backup water pump for the refrigeration and got is ordered from Go2Marine.com in Washington State for $128.

Friday, 25 March - Right after I hosted the morning Cruisers' Net this morning, Bob Dahmer came to my boat for a ride in to pickleball again today, then, after pickleball, he headed out in his dinghy to show a few people how to hunt and catch lobsters. Bob says he had to reorder the parts he was expecting.

Saturday, 26 March - I didn't see Susie today because she took her mother the airport in Miami and didn't get back until about 9 this evening. I cleaned the boat up a bit today, then decided to have dinner around 7 pm. About four or five years ago a friend gave me a package of Daily Bread cheesy mac that he said tasted pretty good and stays good for a long time. The package says it is "25 year worry-free food storage". I thought tonight would be a great time to try it out although according to the package, it's only eleven years old. Simple instructions: boil 4 cups of water, pour in contents of package, simmer for eight minutes. Eight minutes later it looked like macaroni soup so I simmered for 16 more minutes until it thickened a bit. It smelled bad and tasted worse. It was so bad I couldn't eat it, and that's saying something. Terrible stuff!

Sunday, 27 March - The weather was perfect today and I led a group of four paddle boarders and five kayakers through the Boot Key mangroves today. After cleaning up, Susie picked me up at the marina and we went to Dockside to have dinner and listen and dance to music.

Monday, 28 March - I played pickleball and ping pong with Walt Avery after picking him up at the docks since he had just returned from a trip today.

Tuesday, 29 March - After pickleball this morning I returned to the boat to quickly clean up, then met Kindra Warnygora, the lady that I'm having do my taxes. We went over my return for 2021 and she gave me the bad news; I definitely owe money to the IRS. On the way back to the boat I stopped by the marina to check out the new tool instructions that have been posted for the vise, drill press, bench grinder, and shop press that one of the boaters made up and posted. When he sent me the instructions for the tools, I hadn't even seen the new vise. It has jaws on it that can be rotated in two different planes, which I had never had the pleasure to work with. Because of that, minor additions need to be inserted into the instructions. This evening, Susie and I joined Leta and Roland, Anne Mullet, Linda and Nick, Kim Brown-Stamp, Michelle and Donnie McDaniel, and others to hear Donnie and Four Sheets to the Wind sing at Skipjack Resort. Girls in our group wore black and stood in as backup singers with the band on "Under the Boardwalk".

Wednesday, 30 March - At 10:30 Phil of S/V Uno Mas and I headed into the Boot Key mangroves to do some trailblazing and maintenance. The high tide seemed to be receding faster than I had assumed it would and we didn't get to the end of either of the deadend trails that we worked in to extend them, but we still accomplished a lot. By cutting several logs across the trails and cleaning up the bottoms of the channels, we made in a lot easier for kayakers to travel those two trails at lower water levels.
                    Bob Dahmer had ordered some engine parts on March 9th and was planning on heading north to Ft. Meyers Beach tomorrow, but as of yesterday, the parts hadn't arrived. I checked at the marina for them today and they had finally come in. He had been using my 8 hp Evinrude outboard motor and returned it this afternoon. While preparing to store it on my rail, the pull cord on it broke and I pulled a muscle in my right arm while in the process of trying to start the engine to prepare it for storage. He helped me replace the cord, then we celebrated his departure with a couple of margaritas onboard Island Time.

Thursday, 31 March - Pickleball in the morning. Paul Durocher on S/V Shevard came by again today and asked if I would go onboard his boat on Sunday and run the bilge pump for him while he's away this weekend. We went to his boat in Sister Creek for him to show me where the switches are for the pump, then returned. Susie worked at Christine's Consignment Shop today and around 3 pm I remembered that I'd promised to go help her install a shoe rack on top of a clothing rack there. I headed over near there in my dinghy, walked a couple of blocks to the store, installed the rack, then, when she got off work, we had dinner at Burdine's.

Friday, 1 April - April Fool's Day - I hosted the Cruiser's Net this morning then headed to pickleball. I don't know what the temperature and humidity actually were, but I can confirm that it's already starting to feel like summer here. This afternoon I made up spare starter cords for the Evinrude and Yamaha outboard motors and the Honda generator. I had just enough time before Susie picked me up to collect my dirty clothes and bedding so that I could wash them in Susie's washer this weekend. This evening we went to see "The Outsider", a funny play at the Marathon Community Theater. They have very good volunteer, amateur actors and it was a very funny show about the ineptitude of elected officials and the manor and reasons they are elected in our country.
                    Bob Dahmer left the harbor yesterday headed for Ft. Meyers Beach and called today to say that he was safely anchored off The Pink Shell Resort there after sailing the 125 miles in 25 hours.

Saturday, 2 April - Today, Susie and I returned the walker that we had borrowed from the Elk's Club for her mother to use during her visit here. After that, we had dinner at Brutus Restaurant. We had a cobia fish dinner and, to be honest, it was a bit thin, overpriced and too well done. We finished dinner just in time to go see Sandra Bullock in her latest movie, "The Lost City", a fun romp reminiscent of "Romancing the Stone".

Sunday, 3 April - Susie worked at Christine's Consignment Store and when she got off work, I met her at Dockside

Monday, 4 April - As usual, I played pickleball this morning, then, just as I returned to the boat, the marina called and asked that I come in and stuff Cruiser's bags with brochures for the new arrivals in the area. I got finished with that just in time to play ping pong with Walt Avery.

Tuesday, 5 April - Pickleball in the morning. As boaters are heading to the Bahamas or returning home in the north we are losing lots of our players. We are suddenly down to two courts, about 8 to 10 players. Back at the boat, I cleaned up the water catchment filter and lines then headed to Dockside for dinner and dancinp. My arm hurts so much I'm having to dance and lead Susie with only arm, but that still works.

Wednesday, 6 April - I played pickleball this morning, went by the marina to check my mail and found the water pump that I had ordered last week there, then returned to the boat for lunch. I got a call from Walt Avery about 2 o'clock. He had been sitting in his dinghy for about 3 hours trying to figure out why in wouldn't start. The pickup hose inside his fuel tank had broken so no fuel was reaching the engine. I took him to shore and he had to go to four stores here to get the right fuel line. It cost a dollar. When he returned to the marina we played about an hour of ping pong. I have a sore shoulder, so I was playing VERY poorly.

Thursday, 7 April - Our pickleball numbers are certainly declining. When I arrived today, thirty minutes late because I have to announce the games on the net in the mornings to attract players, there was only one of our regulars there before me, Phil of S/V Uno Mas. Luckily, there were three out-of-towners that showed up, but they'll only be here until Monday. We did accumulate enough to fill two courts, eight players, before the play had ended, but the heat and humidity cut the day short.