It is Still Windy in Boot Key Harbor

Day 30: Tuesday, March 22, 2016

And again, we sat in a bouncy boat watching the GPS to make sure that we are staying put.  The night, again, was noisy but we both slept relatively well.  We keep the anchor drag alarm on all night and most of the day to warn us of a move.

Early morning in the neighborhood

We have run out of our canned and prepackaged breakfast food so it was Cheerios and oatmeal for breakfast.  We do have some gravy mix left so a trip to a store will allow us to finish out the trip with a complete sausage gravy breakfast.

Again today, we spent the majority of our time reading.  We have both consumed a number of books.  A trip to the marina office later will refresh our literature supply. 

More Neighbors. We are quite small compared to most.

We did the regular lunch thing.  I had my beef and black bean soft taco.  Janine has finally run out of her

Smucker’s Uncrustables (PBJs) and is now having tuna tortillas.  We brought along a number of single serving packets of tuna which are handy.  I also have some backup single serving packets of Spam that I have strategically hidden from my first mate. Just in case, you know!

In the middle of the afternoon, this sitting thing finally got to me and I offered that

This "Old Broad " is somewhat pereinantly at the marina office

we could take the Dink for a supply run.  The going was slow and somewhat rough as we bounced directly into an east wind.  Where we are anchored, it’s probably ½ mile to the marina office and another ½ mile to the Dockside Tropical Café where we found that we can dock the Dink and cut our long walk to the Publix grocery in half.   

At the marina office, we each picked up another book and dropped off a couple that we had consumed and I checked on our position on the mooring ball waiting list.  We are next in line but the lady at the desk was not encouraging for today considering the fact that the weather has still not moderated.

Beautiful old steel hull boat

On to Publix, we picked out some fresh meat and salad.  We prided ourselves in having prepared enough food for the trip without needing ice.  We canned brats, chicken, spaghetti sauce, pork chops and ground hamburger.  However, after eating three weeks of these pre-cooked foods, we both are really enjoying grilling fresh meat. 

On the way back to Second Wind we passed a boat that had drug its anchor and ended up on the bud bank near the mangroves.  It is a sad sight to see a boat lying

Derelict boat blown aground in wind.  Note red sticker on the cabin

helpless on its side.  This one, we had noticed earlier, had a red sign pasted on its cabin indicating that it was a derelict and had been served some sort of official notice.  We discussed what could be done with these abandoned boats.  We see many in really bad repair; some of them are lived on by “live-aboards” and others are just abandoned.  This is not the first place we have seen these guys.  I have read that it is a real problem both here and in the tropics.

I also watched a guy from one of our neighboring boats take his dinghy over to the mangroves and recover a runaway dinghy and return it to its rightful owner.

So upon returning, we grilled a NY strip sirloin steak and accompanied it with

And another sundown

steamed asparagus and peppers.  Of course, we also had our hors d’oeuvres of cheese (white sharp cheddar) and summer sausage on crackers (provided by Mike and Frankie from the boat, Bumbye).  We quenched our thirst with a red zinfandel provided by Gnarly Head.  

The wind continued to blow quite strongly as we spent the pre-bedtime hours playing dominoes.  We retired at our usual 9:00.