Today we went to our regular breakfast place and checked out the Suzuki dealership marina to help us with our little moose dinghy. They put us on a list and said they would call us back and get us an appointment. They had a really cool ships store with some neat items. Maui Jim and Costa glasses, tons of neat fishing stuff. The store was located on the second story of the marina building. We walked around that area found a cool dock to walk on under the bridge, it has another one on the other side but they cant connect due to the boat heights that have to go under it. I love the dinghy dock here, it is very roomy and most of it is under the bridge under the shade and easy to tie up. People here are nice to sailors and their dinghys have a place to dock. So much to see here too. When getting off the dinghy dock you have to watch your head because the dock floats and when the tide is high the concrete bottom of the upper dock doesn’t. hahah It is actually padded on the bottom so if you do hit your head it wont be so bad. We also had a place to lock up our bikes there at the dock so we didn’t have to take them back and forth in the dinghy to the boat. I felt safe there due to the safety measures taken by the mooring field employees. Back to our great day, that evening we went to the Parrot Key Grill by dinghying down the mooring field and tying up on the north side and found two restaurants one being the Parrot Key Grill (actually Andrea and Barry had found it and suggested it to us). So Steve is still trying to get help for our dinghy NO NO NO return call yet. (from anyone). Little stressful not having a dinghy to boat around in. But our good friends and best boat buddies have really stepped up and helped us out. We sat by the water in the shade(inside not outside patio) and ordered our great meal. We wondered around outside, took pics in the big chair and looked around at the other shop with the ice cream that was closed, dagnabbit! It is fun looking around the docks at all the different types of boats, blue water sailboats, fishing boats, and just sport boats. Some huge yachts also. After viewing the boats we ran through the mooring field checking out all the sailboats and trawlers. SO many sailboats and so many people living on boats that work in the tourist areas tha cant afford to live on land. Saw one poor sailboat that had been beached and stripped. The sail was gone or i would have had some more sewing material, hehehehe. I did find one with a sail but the weather was bad and i couldnt get to it. Salvage boats are salvage boats in my book. Back at the boat and happy i didnt fall in the water going from the inflatable bouncy dinghy to my swim platform. Sort of looks like a monkey swinging tree to tree getting on the boat, hahaha. You get all kinds of good exercise living on a boat like core exercises(boat swinging side to side and maintaining ability to stand sideways while making sandwiches), agility ( grabbing mooring balls way low from the bow with a boat hook and ability to walk outside in rough weather throwing lines and maintaining place on boat without being thrown over), balance( leaning against stern door on platform it swinging open because it wasn’t latched and doing the “i refuse to fall in the water dance!”), and last but not least the upper extremity shoulder stretch when quickly turning the wheel because you weren’t watching and are now in shallow getting stuck depths and have to move FAST to turn wheel and get out. Still learning lessons with sailing and enjoying every minute.

Captains Log: Lithium batteries with solar are a must