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Showing posts from January, 2019

Midday Manatees and Later, Gators

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We woke up on the East side of Lake Okeechobee excited and relieved to be in a non-tilted boat again. The day was warm with very little wind; perfect conditions for crossing the lake. (Provided you have a motor, but we'll get to that in a bit.) Justin untied us from the dolphin he had lassoed the night before and we started off. A lot of the cleats on these dolphins are installed really high for big, commercial boats. For little sailboats like  Mischief Managed,  they can be a pain to reach. Look what Justin caught! It was a short drive to the final lock that marked the entrance to the lake. Unlike every other lock we had gone through, this lock was weird because it didn't send us up or down. It's only used when the water level in the lake is unusually high. The most boring lock so far. And then we poked out into the calm and serene Lake Okeechobee. After being in canals and rivers and the Intracoastal, it was neat to be in fairly open water again. Very

A Little Tipsy After New Year's

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Remember when you were in high school geometry (I know, those are painful memories, but bear with me) and your teacher asked you to solve some absurd question that had nothing to do with real life? That question might be something like this: some weirdos need to know the angle of inclination of a right triangle given the base and height of said triangle and some convoluted formulas with letters in them? And you always wondered, who were these weirdos and why didn't they have a better hobby? Well, I can now tell you, those weirdos are us. (I still can't tell you why we don't have a better hobby.) That's right. I am now a real-life math problem.  But I'm going to get back to that in a minute. It would be mean to deluge you with too much math all at once.  Compared to our weeks of naps, relaxing, hanging out at the beach, and napping some more, the last few days at our marina in Stuart were busy. Oh, and our last day at the beach was gorgeous. * Moana  so

Chillin' Out, Maxin', Relaxin' All Cool

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Ahh, warm. We had heard rumors, stories were told, we didn't dare believe it existed. But, lo, we have found the truth. We valiantly sought the elusive warm, and it has shown its sunny face. Finally. I know it's been a while since the last post, but honestly, there hasn't been much to tell. We parked the boat in a small marina in Stuart, and it hasn't moved an inch since (except for the tides, I guess.) I would love to say we spent every day working on the boat, or exploring, or just...moving, but we've done an awful lot of sitting. And you know what? I don't feel bad about that. Right now, I'm sitting in the cockpit, enjoying a cold beverage and watching the sun set beyond a wall of greenery and palm trees. My laziness knows no bounds. I suppose there were a few days when we did things in the past month, though. Right after we got to the marina and rented a car, we crossed a few bridges over the Intracoastal and went to check out the ocean.