Panty Gram and a Haircut

Lately, we have had a bout of company on the S/V Thin Line.

For Donnie and Janet Chambers, it was a return visit...this wasn't their first sailboat adventure, nor will it be their last.

You may remember them from their last trip... [if not, click here] ...most people seem to remember Janet as "the one who wrote on everything" as she was left unattended on their last night and while everyone else slept, she wrote little notes with a permanent marker everywhere. We found them for weeks after they had departed and even found a previously undiscovered one while unpacking the contents of the boat during our time in the boatyard.

Fortunately for me, Janet accidentally left a pair of her under-lovelies behind and they ended up in my laundry basket, hence giving me a chance at a bit of payback.

I held on to those underwear for almost a year without ever letting her know I had them.

With less than a month to go before their annual visit, the Chambers received a "Panty Gram" in the mail. In it were drink tickets for the flight, a little Keys reading material, and the wayward underpants...now with a few notes of my own added. The outside of the envelope was decorated with a variety of my artist's rendition of underwear and in great, big letters, "Panty Gram - I see London. I see France. Guess who left their underpants..."

I hope the mailman got a chuckle out of it.

After the long drive from the airport, we finally managed to coax Janet into dropping her jeans and giving us a peak.

This was only the start to the great time we had while they were here.
First off, we headed back to our mooring ball...quite the momentous occasion for Jeff and I after being in the yard for so long. Then we spent most of our time floating around, looking out for dolphins, catching some rays, eating our fill of seafood, concocting new rum cocktails, and watching the sunset. One of the most exciting events that happened was a storm that blew in during the middle of the day bringing with it gale force winds. Jeff and Janet had the misfortune of being out in the dinghy while Donnie and I remained dry inside the sailboat.


The storm didn't last long, but it was quite a blow.
Jeff and Janet made it safely back to the boat, albeit soaking wet.
They got dried off while I made shrimp po' boys for lunch - left-over shrimp sauteed with carrots and celery, topped with a slice of cheddar cheese and a creamy mustard sauce, all on a bakery-fresh bun.
The sun came out and all was well again.
After sunset, we headed across the street to Annette's for dinner.

After another day of floating and sunning, Janet did something rather unexpected: she made an appointment to get her haircut at Salon Blanco with my friend, Jen.
She said she was ready for a change.

Come Friday morning, I thought sedation was going to be necessary to get her through the ordeal, or at the very least, a box of tissues for when she burst into tears. But, she got through it like a champ and loved the results.


I think it's the perfect hairstyle for her and looks fabulous!




With the weekend, came the Seafood Festival - an event I look forward to all year around. Once again, Janet and I volunteered to work the front gate...which gets us free admission and our matching t-shirts. The food is always excellent and there's live music all day long.

And with that, came our second set of company.


Meet fellow Louisvillians, Coley and Karin McDevitt.

Coley had to make a business trip to Fort Lauderdale and made arrangements for his wife, Karin, to meet him so they could drive down and spend a few days in the Keys. In the short time they were here, we were able to go to CastAway's for dinner, the Stuffed Pig for breakfast, and the Seafood Festival for Howard Livingston. Sunday, they planned their own catamaran outing in Key West, complete with snorkeling and kayaking, and Donnie and Janet tagged along.

Monday morning had Karin and Coley headed for the airport.

We all met for another breakfast at the Stuffed Pig and when they headed North, the remaining four of us went South to Bahia Honda where we did a bit of beach combing and exploring.

Next stop was Veteran's Beach located at the far side of the 7 mile bridge.

Then it was back to the boat to grab the dog and the dinghy and do a little exploring of Boot Key.
We pretty much wore ourselves out and ordered pizza for dinner.

This time around, the Chamber's stayed longer than they ever have before, and once again, it was over much too quickly. Tuesday came around and it was time for them to catch a flight. We had one more meal together - breakfast at the Wooden Spoon - and sent them on their way.
We miss you guys and hope to see you soon!

We're Back....

D-1 is no longer "Out of Service."







D-1 is no longer unoccupied.












We're back on the ball!




We took the short trip from Marathon Boat Yard to Boot Key Harbor this morning and tied up to our mooring ball.

We've had our celebratory champagne and are having a nice casual day floating around the ball. There's about 15 knots of wind blowing a nice breeze out of the south and it's currently sunny skies and 83 degrees.

Dolphins just swam by the boat - much to our delight.


We also have company...Donnie and Janet are back for a visit...good times are sure to be had.



[Details to follow...]


Life is good.

Memory Lane

On April 1, 2009, I boarded the motor vessel Yachts a' Fun and left Boot Key Harbor. My traveling companions and owners of the boat, Dominick and Valerie Lichioveri, had left their home in Maryland on November 1st [2008] and headed south with the hopes of crossing to the Bahamas. They landed on mooring ball G-1 of the City Marina a few days before Christmas. We waved in passing - we were on mooring G-2 at the time - and promised to meet for cocktails Christmas Eve. We were fast friends from that point on.

We rang in the New Year with Dom, Val, and their dog - Prince, and the rest of the winter months were spent swimming off of their boat, cooking dinners, and exploring the area. We spent my birthday rafted up together at Bahia Honda. We went to the flea market in Big Pine, spent a day in Key West, attended the Pig Races, volunteered at the Seafood Festival, and hosted a St. Patrick's Day get-together complete with corned beef and cabbage and green jello shots...just to name a few of the fun days we had together.

Spring arrived and their talk turned toward heading home. We hated to see them leave and even came up with a plan to "buddy boat" with them up the East Coast.

But then a position became available at the City Marina and the staff coaxed Jeff into applying. Needless to say, he got the job, hence putting an end to our travel plans on the sailboat...but not necessarily an end to mine. I decided to accompany them on their trek back north with plans to fly back to Marathon when the trip was over.

Our first day out of the harbor on the open water got us all the way to John Pennekamp State Park in Key Largo. It took us the whole day to get there by water. Jeff hopped in the car and met us there in an hour. We stayed at Pennekamp for 3 days due to high winds and when it came time to throw off our anchor lines and head for the mainland on the fourth day, Jeff headed back to Marathon and his new job.

You may ask what brought on this stroll down memory lane?

Valerie and Dominick arrived in Marathon this past Tuesday. An opportunity arose for them to deliver a motor home for a friend and they jumped at the chance to flee from the cold and head south.

We were quite happy to see them and our time together has been spent laughing and reminiscing about our Winter of '08 and the trip of '09. I kept a travel log of our month long journey and got it out to look at it for the first time since I wrote the pages almost 2 years ago. The journal is a fair account of our daily accommodations, the weather, miles traveled per day, but mostly it talks about the food. I can tell you what we ate for almost everyday of our voyage.

In No Name Harbor, we watched the dolphins and had popcorn for dinner.

At Crandon Point, the starboard motor failed and we had to wait for a part. We ate clam linguine while wicked winds picked up blowing white caps across the bay.

Next day we arrived at Los Olas after traveling 48 miles and going under 21 bridges. We did a load of laundry and walked down to the strip for a slice of pizza.

We anchored the next night at Phil Foster Park in N. Palm Beach where we cooked corned beef and potatoes and took a rogue wave at 4:50 am.

The next day was Vero Beach with dinner at the Riverside Cafe. The next day, after a hair-raising bus ride into town, we made alfredo with chicken and broccoli.

From there, we were off to Melbourne to stay put for the Easter weekend. We dyed eggs and checked out a couple of the local eateries.

Our next stop was the 7 Seas Marina in Daytona where we sat out some bad weather. We made the best of it with a walk to the beach and a trip to the liquor store. We had BLT's for dinner.

The next day found us in St. Augustine where we explored the historic city and took in some live music. The next day we headed to the spanish bakery for breakfast then toured a few of the old homes and their gardens and found a quaint little park with a huge jasmine arbor that had just come into bloom. We discovered a little Cuban restaurant right on the water front that had great food and the most excellent margaritas.

Underway and leaving St. Augustine at 8:18 am, we arrived at our anchorage in the Brickhill River [Georgia] by 4 pm. It was quite the adventure when Dom sheared a pin on the outboard while going to shore and had to row back. We had grilled brie and black forest ham sandwiches with baked apples for dinner and saw wild horses in the morning as we weighed anchor and headed to Savannah.

A boat repair kept us in Savannah for several days, but we didn't mind. We made good use of the marina's courtesy car and explored the waterfront nightlife, shopped for provisions, found the oldest living live oak [over 900 years old!], and sampled the local BBQ.

Charleston was just a hop, skip, and a jump away on the ICW [Intercoastal Waterway] and we spent our first evening sitting at the bar at Hank's drinking dirty martini's and eating rock shrimp, calamari, and shrimp and grits. The following day we explored the city market - where Valerie thought shea butter was something she should eat and found out differently while I giggled hysterically at her faux pas.

Lunchtime found us at Hyman's Seafood where we split a pitcher of Long Island Ice tea and ate fried green tomatoes, she crab soup, and hush-puppies. We toured the Provost Dungeon and had drinks at the Blind Tiger in their beautiful and ancient courtyard.

We left Charlestown and went "outside" - meaning we didn't travel the ICW but went out of the harbor into the open the open water of the Atlantic. We hauled ass to Cape Fear, North Carolina, but it took us over 200 gallons of fuel to get there. Once docked at Southport Marina the journal simply states, "Dominick grumpy." Probably the fuel bill.

So Val and I took our leave, found the Indian Trail Marker Tree -estimated to be over 800 years old, and then the Cape Fear Restaurant where we split a bottle of wine [Pinot Evil as a tribute to Dominick's mood] and ate caesar salads topped with grilled steak.

Next stop was Swansboro where we had steak fajitas for dinner.

Travelling 91 miles the next day, we pulled into a quaint, little marina in Belhaven, NC, and ate dinner at River Forest Manor, a Victorian mansion built in 1899.

The following day found us in Elizabeth City where we were greeted by the famous "Rose Buddies" [i.e. retired old guys with nothing better to do] who promptly alerted the mayor of the arrival of several vessels and threw us a complimentary wine and cheese party.

We spent the next night rafted up with several other boats at the Great Dismal Swamp visitor center and continued on into Virginia and into Chesapeake Bay. The end was near, but the Chesapeake is a big body of water. We called it a night at a small marina on the west side but we were up bright and early the next morning because we knew we could arrive at our final destination by noon if we got an early start.

It was May 1st...exactly one month from our departure from Boot Key Harbor...when we arrived in Whittman, MD. All of Dom and Val's best friend's greeted us at the dock with baskets of goodies and bottles of champagne. A welcome home dinner was planned, and we were left to unpack our things and settle into the house.

I stayed a view more days with Dom and Val. They showed me St. Michael's, drove me out to Tilmon Island, and took me out for a traditional crab dinner.

But it was time for me to go home.

The day of my flight arrived and Val, Dom, and Prince drove me to the airport in Baltimore.

I've missed them greatly since then and we think of them often.

So imagine our surprise and delight when they called to say they were headed our way!

We have had a great time the last couple of days. Dom has been helping Jeff with a few boat projects in the yard and Valerie and I have done the shopping and meal planning...just like old times.

The night of their arrival, one of our favorite local musicians, Dan Sullivan, played at the RV park where they are staying. It was a good time watching the 2 of them tear up the dance floor.

Yesterday, we had breakfast at the Stuffed Pig, and after dropping Dom off with Jeff, Valerie and I drove to the beach and waded in the warm surf. We watched the sunset and threw some horseshoes before grilling some burgers and calling it a night.

Today, the boys are off to the boatyard again and us, girls, are relaxing at the motor home.

Tonight, we'll watch another sunset and share another meal.

Tomorrow I will be sad to see them go.

I can only hope that when I become a septuagenarian I am still following whatever path life maps out for me whether it be waterway or highway and that I am just as spry and spunky, fun and funny, and as ready to roll as these two are.

Love you, Dom & Val!

Rehab for Boys and Dogs

I think the dog needs to go to rehab.

[Amy Winehouse sings, "No, no, no..."]

As of late, he has been totally addicted to peanut butter...totally.

It all started when my friend, Angela, came for a visit last spring break. She brought Janus 2 toys: one made of fire-hose which she deemed "indestructible" until she watched Janus shred it in front of her very eyes; and a KONG. She picked out the "Extreme" variety made for voracious chewers, and it IS indestructible. In his previous life, Janus had an orange KONG that was used as a training device.
This one is just for fun.

At some point, we started putting peanut butter and a dog biscuit in the center...the KONG is made to do just such a thing...and he received this treat every evening to give a dog something to do.

We created a monster.

He now starts "asking" for the peanut butter-filled reward each afternoon.

He barks. He looks at you. He wags his tail. He cocks his head. It's all real cute... to start with.

His "asking" becomes more aggressive as you tell him it's not quite time.

He barks louder. He cries. He whines. He growls.

Try to ignore him and he will get the KONG and drop it front of you [or ON your toe]...over and over and over again with the crazed eyes of a junkie.

The best thing to do is to prepare the KONG early in the day and stick it in the fridge...this slows him down a little and is easier on the metatarsals.

Last night, I simply cut to the chase and shoved a dog biscuit in the practically empty jar of peanut butter...which I dubbed "creamy crack 4 dogs."

When he started to eat the actual jar, we took it away.

I'm telling you...rehab may be the only answer.

In other news, Jeff is doing a little rehabilitation of his own.

He had surgery on January 28th to try and fix a repetitive motion injury to his left elbow. It had been bothering him for quite a while and was gradually getting worse but he put off the procedure until the boat was back in the water.

On that Friday, they knocked him out, made an incision, moved the tendon, scraped the area clean, and sewed him back up. He woke up wanting a hamburger, which I got him on the way home.

He had strict orders to wear the arm in a sling and limit it's movement for the first week and a 1/2. It was very, very sore.

After his first follow-up visit, he was allowed to remove the sling and start stretching and extending the arm.

He just came back from the Doctor's office with reports that he is doing just fine and that the arm is healing as to be expected.

It's still sore, but better, and he's able to little things around the boat...within reason, and the incision is dwindling to a slight scar.










So, that's my boys in rehab...

...on the S/V THIN LINE

Life Resumed

So, Life has finally resumed on the sailboat...
....hereby known as THIN LINE.

I don't have time for a big, lengthy blog about how happy we are to be back on the boat and the perils of living on land...I honestly don't know how you all do it.

We'll save all that for another time.

But yesterday was a good day.

First they picked the boat up.

Then moved her just to the right of where we have sat high and dry for the last 5 months.


Then they placed her very gently in the water.






That's when I popped the cork on the bottle of cheap champagne and took a swig.





The motor fired right up...amazing after sitting for so long...and Jeff maneuvered backwards down the canal to the space on the dock we'll be calling home for just a bit longer.







Doesn't that boat look beautiful in the water?










Once parked, Jeff took a sip from the champagne bottle, gave a sip to the boat, and then a sip to Neptune.

































And of course, the dog had a sip as well!



I know some of you must be curious about the name change. The boat was formerly named "Exposure" because the previous owner was a photographer. Jeff found the name to be apropos because he thought of the lifestyle, travel, and the new places and things as being "exposed" to new experiences and cultures.


But after all the blood, sweat, and money that got put into this overhaul it was time to make it our own.

We thought of naming the boat "Groove Billy" in honor of the late, great musician, Tim Krekel.

We also thought of "Derby City" to hail our hometown of Louisville, KY.

Another option, "Parking Lot," was an reference that only the two of us understand.

And after a day of cartoons, we considered "Tuff Puppy."

"Thin Line" won out for several reasons. The first is we really admire our friend Dave Johnson's song writing talents and the line "it's a thin line between here and gone" really rings true when you live on a boat. If you don't like it HERE anymore, it's time to move on and go anywhere but. We really miss Dave since he's left Boot Key Harbor but we wish him the best in his musical endeavors upstate.

The other reason "Thin Line" works is as a reference to Jeff's prior occupation in law enforcement, retiring from the Louisville Police Department in 2007...the police often being referred to as "the Thin Blue Line."

And finally, there is the hope that someday we will pick up our mooring lines and travel. Then we will be a "thin line" on a map as we wind our way to destinations unknown.



That's all I have time for today.
Check back and I am sure there will be a slideshow of the whole remodeling process.
But for now, the long awaited day when we would be floating again is here and I just wanted to share.

Birthday Fun

My birthday started a little early this year when the birthday celebrating started Monday morning.
Like any other Monday, I arrived at the marina to do the Net [VHF channel 68].
By the time I finished, 2 of my partners-in-crime for the day [Jen & Cindy] had already congregated in the parking lot with presents in hand...a tiara, a wand, flashy crown earrings, flashy crown bracelet, and a large bottle of champagne.

As you can see, you couldn't ask for a more beautiful day with the sun shining and temps in the upper 70's.

Once I donned the proper birthday bling, we were off to pick up our remaining cohort and designated driver [Karen].

Our only real plan was to have a good time and get out of town so we headed north.

First stop was The Island Grill, one of my all time favorite places in the Keys located about an hour away from Marathon in Islamorada by the Snake Creek bridge. We promptly ordered the tuna nachos which may quite possibly be the best thing to eat in the entire world: Fresh ahi grade tuna nestled on a bed of sesame seaweed salad over crisp wontons and topped with wasabi drizzle, sesame seeds, sweet soy, sriracha and scallions ...YUMMY. I wished I would have taken a picture of the plate as it arrived, but it's just too tasty not to immediately dig in and eat up. Instead, we took a picture of the group of law enforcement officers that had the misfortune to be seated next to us.

After filling our bellies, we loaded into the car and headed back south.
We had made a mental list on our way through of all the places we wanted to stop on the way back. Even though Islamorada is just a few islands away, it has remained mostly unexplored by me.

The first place that we came to that I-always-wanted-to-stop-at-but-haven't was Holiday Isle, a beautiful resort area on the ocean side. We found a place to sit and a nice, young man to take our picture and soaked up some sunshine.




Next stop was Bud n' Mary's Marina. Although mostly under reconstruction and not really a hang out and party kind of place, we made our way to the upper deck [At Our Own Risk] to take in the spectacular view and stuck our hands and heads in the giant shark...also At Our Own Risk.



Then it was back in the car until the next stop.

Anybody who has read my blog before should recall me mentioning Robbie's in prior entries.
It's one of our favorite places to have people stop either on the way from the airport or back to the mainland. With it's outdoor shops and $1 cold beers, it's a taste of the keys and a nice place to take a break.

Not to mention the interactive feeding of the tarpon.

18 years ago a tarpon showed up at the marina hurt and floundering. The local vet was called and that particular tarpon was the first known to ever receive medical care.

He survived and apparently spread the word that Robbie's was a good place to hang out and now you can see hundreds of them everyday...just waiting for you to feed them a snack.

For a small amount of money you can purchase a bucket of fish, head out on to the dock, and risk life and limb [<~~not really...but kind of] dangling dead pinfish in front of the large, gaping mouths of the prehistoric-esc tarpon.

And if it's your birthday, and you tell them, you get a free bucket.

And in my case, a strange foreign guy holding a net on the dock to keep the pelicans at bay asked me quite seriously if I was a queen.

I replied, "No, it's just my birthday," and he went and got me another free bucket of fish.

Must have been the tiara.


We wandered the premises a little bit longer, taking in the wares, snapping pictures, and trying to get the fishy smell off of our hands.




Then it was back in the car and off to our next destination...



...The Safari Lounge, otherwise known throughout the Keys as "the Dead Animal Bar" because of all the big game heads mounted on the walls and ceiling.



The lounge is located on the second floor with a glassed-in panoramic view of the ocean. They don't serve food and you can smoke inside and this is most certainly where our day started to spiral out of control. We already had drinks, so we ordered shots. Then we ordered more, stronger shots. Then another round of shots after that. We might have been a bit obnoxious, but I guarantee that 3 out of 4 of us were having a really good time.

Back in the car, I noticed our designated driver seemed a little disgruntled and I started looking in my car for a snack for her...thinking that should fix the problem.

Instead, I found my taser.

Now the batteries in my taser have been mostly dead for a very long time.
You click the button and nothing happens...no shock, no jolt, no 400,000 volt pick-me-up.
Nada.
Except for when I laid it down in my lap...then it zapped me with some sort of residual charge left in the prongs. It didn't hurt, but it will get your attention.

I decided to see if it would do it again and not wanting to try it myself, I zapped the driver.
Bad idea.
An already grumpy, designated driver who really just needed a snack and a nap did not find the humor in being tazed...no matter how slight.

Jen [the redhead], always a sport, lightened things up by bouncing up and down in the backseat saying "Do me! Do me!"

So I did.

And now to change the subject...

It's a little known fact, but beaches -especially nice ones, are not very prevalent in the Keys. The Keys are basically a string of rocks dangling off the end of Florida, dividing the Gulf of Mexico from the Atlantic Ocean.
So, when you come across a good one, it is compulsory that you stop and wiggle your toes in the sand.
Anne's Beach is a good one and so we made the stop.
We had seen kite-surfers there earlier in the day, but they were all gone by the time we made it back. So, we waded in the water, took a few more pics, and gave Karen a bit of time before getting back in the car with us.

Then it was back to Marathon.
Food was eminently important for at least one member of our party, so we headed to Burdine's.
After a quick stop at Porky's and then a drop-off at the Marina and I was ready to head home.

The actual day of my birthday was spent a little more sedately, but it was still good, none the less. It was a boatyard day since we still have work to be done. Jeff went on ahead of me to the yard giving me a little extra time to lounge about.

The day was warm and sunny, Jen came over, and cocktails were had. I opened presents and received Happy Birthday phone calls and Facebook messages.
By the end of the day, the first coat of varnish was on the wood and that was a great thing to see.

Dinner was at my favorite mexican restaurant and we called it an early evening.

So, until next year...
Happy Birthday to Me!

[And just remember, drinking and tasers just don't mix.]