Dunked

Boot Key, Florida N24 42 W81 05
January 7, 2006

This morning I installed the new heat exchanger. I’ll withhold the verdict about whether it fixes our chronic engine overheating problem until we take Tarwathie out for an actual cruise. I also could not find the thermostat that we took out off the engine last July. I’ll need to find one and install it before we leave.

The next chore was to go to the post office to fetch mail. I was late in leaving so I had to row like mad for 20 minutes to get ashore, then pedal like mad for 20 minutes to get to the post office. I got there at 1155 and they close at 1200 on Saturdays. What a bummer. Our mail hadn’t arrived. I asked to buy some of the new 39 cent stamps (stamp prices raise from 37 to 39 cents tomorrow). The post office was out of them. I asked to buy some one cent stamps to combine with our old 37 cent stamps. The post office was out of them too. They batted zero for three.

This afternoon I decided to take a sailing cruise of the harbor using the sail on the dinghy. It was a cool day, but sunny and breezy. I had great fun. The dinghy felt like a skittish horse under me. People called out to me as I went by, “That looks like fun.” “I’m jealous of you.” “Right on.” I sailed all around the harbor and looked at every boat. Here’s my official census.

• 190 sailboats versus 10 power boats Most of the power boats are in the marinas hooked to their 50 amp umbilical cords and to the fresh water hose rather than in the harbor. The energy footprint of power boats is much larger than sailboats.

• 20 luxury sailboats, 60 near derelict sailboats, 110 modest sailboats.
  
  Tarwathie was at the high end of upper middle class. Anorlunda, our Tanzer 27 that we gave to my son John and family would have been average middle class here in Marathon. That deflates my myth that the smaller, inexpensive and light weight boats designed for inland lakes would not be found on the ocean. Wrong. It appears that you can get started on this cruising life for much less than $10,000. You can probably even get a boat for free among the ones that were damaged by the hurricanes and abandoned, yet still float.
  
  
• 180 boats afloat, 5 sunk in the harbor and 15 wrecked boats on the shores. Hurricane Wilma passed by here only 3 months ago.
  
  
• One boat, 39 feet long, has a mother a father and 5 kids that live aboard.
  
  
• 40 dogs onboard boats. It makes me miss our dog Pup. Still, Pup hated boats and water and he needs lots of exercise. It would have been cruel to bring him. The Dog Whisperer says that exercise is very important for a dog’s mental health. I guess that many of the dogs I saw on these boats must be maladjusted.
  
  
• The prettiest of all boats in the harbor was Tarwathie. True there are a few other beauties, but they appear brand new. Tarwathie is like a woman who’s beauty increases as she matures. Like Sophia Loren. Like Libby.

I had so much fun that I wanted to go around again. Libby didn’t want to go so I invited Drew and Kia. Kia said yes, so off we went. She liked it as much as me. When we got to the far end of the harbor (about 1 mile away) I let her take the helm. She did OK for a while but about one quarter of the way back we swamped the boat.

Fortunately the water was warm. We righted the boat but it had so much water in it that it tipped over again right away. Dumb of me not to bring a bailer. Also fortunately we were in the middle of a crowded harbor with lots (maybe hundreds) of people watching us sail. We called HELP and within seconds there were two boats there to help us. One of them took Kavia back to their boat to get out of the cold air. I took the mast and sail off to make it easier for the dinghy to stay upright. Then we used the man’s hand pump to pump the dinghy dry. Then I re-rigged the sail, and we picked up Kia from her refuge and we sailed back to our own boats. Now the air felt really cold. Kia shivered and her lips turned blue. I was also thoroughly chilled. It took me an hour to warm up after returning to Tarwathie.

Tomorrow I’d like to sail the dinghy again.

Still don't have our digital camera working.