Calm, and Party, Before the Storm!

     After a great breakfast of home-made French toast. Pete was up in the cockpit reading while I did some chores down below.  We are invited to a Pock luck dock party at 4 later today. Since Pete wants to explore areas where he can start practicing with his new drown, we will also make a stop at Publix for something to bring to the pot luck.

    We headed south, checking Pete app to see where the green areas appear for him to fly the drown. All of Marathon is either yellow (requires making calls to get OK to fly) or Red (no fly zones). Our search took us across 7 Mile Bridge onto Bahia Honda Key, where we found as small waterside park and Bahia Honda State park. Hopefully, he will have a chance to start practicing soon.  We then returned over the bridge and drove Marathon from bottom to top checking things out.  Stopped in at West Marine for a dinghy light replacement. The old stern light apparently had water migrate into the housing and short circuited the connections. I had hoped to find a Tilly hat that fit, but was unsuccessful. Instead, I found a Stetson that still provided protection as well as looking cool!

     Since Pete had to work for a couple of hours and I did the shopping at a well-stocked Pubix’s.  It was great to park the car and carry the bags a whole 15 feet onto the boat! Once everything was put away, I made a large pot of sausage and peppers (putting away enough for a dinner later this week!)

An unexpected guest to the Pot Luck Dinner
Hanging on for another drink!

    We met couples from about 12 different boats, They came from all over; Vancouver, Buffalo, Long Island, Mississippi, Minnesota, Pittsburg and Tennessee to name a few, and a mechanic, who hails from Kent Island!. Lots of great foods including fresh, fried red snapper, Hungarian goulash, another sausage and pepper, scalloped potatoes, green bean casserole, macaroni salad, Greek salad, cold slaw, brownies and cupcakes. A good time was had by all.

     Even though updates were given for the Green Bay / Atlanta playoffs, Pete really wanted to see the Pittsburg / New England evening game so we said our thank you’s and good-by’s as the gathering began to break up.  Unfortunately, Patriots dominated.  I don’t think Falcons will be able to really challenge the Patriots’ machine for the Super Bowl.

     Before heading to bed, we checked all our lines and the forecast again. The winds are still out of the S/SE at 15-20. The massive cold front that has spawned deadly tornados across the south has a strong line of thunderstorms heading our way!  A tornado watch had been implemented for all of Florida. Around 3 AM, things should get real interesting.  Hopefully, we will get some sleep tonight.

~ ~ ~ /) ~ ~  K & P