And the seal replacements only took 6 hours; that included break and lunch! In and out in one day and not a single penny (coin or plastic) left our pockets. Laundry, as you may recall is cheap at the Boat Yard so I did 3 loads for only $6.

Did I mention we are down to one inflatable kayak and it has a tiny leak? These kayaks gave us yeoman service, a comfortable ride and were easy to tote around; can’t complain that after more than 7 years they crapped out. Over the summer we’d checked out tandems and then discovered that 14ft was too long. Ok, that saved a grand; we’d keep the two we had until they fell apart. Didn’t know the falling apart would begin in earnest a few months later. We checked around; new, used, and then West Marine had one at a decent price while we were here in Marathon. The store would order one for stock and we’d be under no obligation to buy it if we (read: Russ) didn’t care for it. Great. Now how does one get this 10ft long, 50 lb tub, I mean tube, from the store to our boat? With help from Lady Luck. West Marine is right next door to Marathon Boat Yard. The kayak arrived the day we were at the marina, so after the engine work was complete we walked over and simply carried it to the boat.

By 4:30pm Thursday we had reunited with our mooring and our neighbor on O4 got his answer to where we’d gone.

Our own Sunshine Yellow

Doing the laundry- nope that did not get results. Send emails and call- not much happened from that. Ok- take a day trip to Key West- yes! That did it. Russ was almost done chowin’ down on a yummy chocolate covered key lime pie on a stick as the phone rang. Good news: Yanmar had finally given the go-ahead for the warranty work; oh, they wanted photos of the seals, etc, but we surmise that’s more likely related to the work done in Feb by the boat yard. Bad news: mechanic on vacation for a couple of days so the work couldn’t be done until Thursday. Sure, why not, we always spend more time in Marathon- the Velcro Beach of the Keys- than originally planned.

At the bus stop we met a young guy from Texas who’d sailed his boat down from North Carolina so that he could meet with the Admissions folk at Florida Keys Community College. Despite not having his subsequent calls returned or emails answered, he headed down the ICW to Boot Key Harbor, then hopped the bus to Stock Island (just before Key West).That’s what I call determination.

Noticed that while much of Marathon is decorated for Christmas, Key West, in contrast showed very little holiday spirit. I think that spirit will appear around New Year’s Eve!

Cool dog, grouchy guy

Mr Plumpie hangs out

We’ve found new employment as match-makers. The owners of Sunshine Yellow hail from Anchorage Alaska. We introduced them to Lorax, the newbie couple we’d met earlier after finding out they too were from Alaska. What’s up with this? Too cold in the 49^th state? I don’t blame them a bit.

As a side job to the match-making, seems like there’s a market for making dinghy chaps. Like I want to undergo that ordeal again. Well, maybe I would, but we are leaving the country soon. Several people have stopped and asked us about the chaps; happened again while we were filling our water jug. After we docked, Sunshine Yellow folk came along and before we did the match making thing, they told us how our dinghy chaps are quite the talk. Whodathunk?  Last year we saw a lot of dinghies with chaps and this year hardly any, so I guess we stand out in the crowd. Helps too that they still look really good.