Chillin' Out, Maxin', Relaxin' All Cool

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.

SHHWWOOOSSSHHH (I speak ocean.)

I wandered along, checking out the beach and stumbled across something oddly shaped and blue. No, it wasn't a hungover smurf, nor was it a deformed blueberry. I cautiously approached the blob, my heart pounding in fear because I had been warned of such blobs. I picked up a stick and poked it. It didn't move, but that didn't keep me from quickly backing away. I believe I had discovered a piece of the evil, the deadly, the poisonous, the conniving (okay, I suppose something without a nervous system it can't be too conniving) Japanese man-of-war jellyfish. (Or it could have been a weirdly shaped blue condom. I'll let you decide.)

Evil incarnate. 

After seeing that monstrosity, I decided I didn't want to go back to that beach for a while. So we decided to visit Universal Studios!

I forgot to wear my Ravenclaw or Mischief Managed shirt that day. Oops.

In case you haven't noticed, Justin and I are giant Harry Potter fans. (Hence Mischief Managed.) Walking into the Wizarding World at Universal was like going home. (If my home was a giant, crowded theme park.) They did a really great job at Universal though, bringing everything in the wizarding world to life. From the pygmy puffs in Weasley Wizard Wheezes, to the winged boars outside the castle gates, it all looked incredible. And believe it or not, the Butterbeer tasted pretty good!

I thought about hiding in the Room of Requirement and never leaving.

There was a vacuum cleaner and a toaster in the Museum of Muggle Curiosities.

When we weren't riding rollercoasters and checking out wands, we went to visit a very important individual right near the Mar-a-Lago club. (No, it's not Trump. Ew, what are you thinking?) It's my grandma! It turns out she lives about half an hour away from Mar-a-Lago. We busted her out of her assisted living facility and took her out for some afternoons on the town. Grandma has years of sailing experience under her belt, and she and my grandfather even took almost the exact same trip we did down the Intracoastal about thirty years ago. Except when she went, she had to use real charts and navigation techniques, instead of looking at the Navionics app like we do. Plus, she took the trip in a much smaller sailboat with no fridge, no shower, and not much power. I don't know how she and Grandpa survived.

Grandma was so thrilled when we took her to check out our boat. I think she was happy to see that her thirst for adventure carried on. (And that her son's-my dad-aversion to boats was just a fluke and not a recurring genetic disposition.)

Sailor selfie!

And then we napped for a few days.

Sometimes, while we were napping in the cockpit, we would let the cats come out and explore. Up until this point, our furrier crew members have not been very interested in leaving the cabin; it was either cold or wet or both. But now, with the boat tied up and the weather warm, they're starting to get adventurous.

Sputnik is the big blurry black blob. Apollo is the smaller blurry black blob. 

Sputnik is a little braver than the other two when it comes to adventuring outside. One evening, he decided to hop off the boat and check out the land next to our dock. It took us a few minutes (and some panicked hyperventilating from me) before we found him and chased him back to the boat.

He's plotting another escape.

On another rare non-napping day, we decided to check out one of the highest points in Florida in Jonathan Dickinson State Park, called Hobe Mountain. It was not a mountain. I think it would be more accurately described as the Hobe bump. Maybe the Hobe pimple. Anyway, I'm pretty sure the pile of dirt in our backyard was taller than this.

It wouldn't even make a good sledding hill... Also it's hard to sled without snow....

Since the rest of Florida was so flat, this little bump was enough to give us a good view of the park.

If you look closely, you can see Texas. 

We then walked through what Floridians call a "forest." I don't think it's a real forest when you can see the nature center half a mile away. The trees were so spread out and far apart that it looked like a few trees had gotten lost and wandered into a field. Plus, I thought we would be walking through something with a leafy canopy and did not bring nearly enough sunscreen.

Again, that's sand on the ground, not snow. Weird, right?

So, we left the path. At the edge of the "forest" was a stream that was lined with trees at the correct density for exploring. Instead of dry, yellow grasses, there was verdant green undergrowth and plenty of shade to protect my un-sunscreened self. . It looked like a great place for alligators to hang out, but I didn't see any. We did see some weird dunce-cap shaped things, though. Justin said they were roots. I like to imagine the trees were just really excited to see me.

Much better woods.

One of these is the Sorting Hat on vacation. 

As the month went on, the weather got steadily warmer and warmer. As soon as it was in the mid-seventies, I was determined to go swimming. About a twenty minute drive from the boat is Bathtub Reef Beach, which became my favorite swimming destination. According to the internet, there was a coral reef that enclosed the water by the beach like a bathtub.

I jumped in on a calm day and immediately loved it. The water was super clear and warmer than the air. (Justin decided to be a beach bum and sit on the sand.) As I was splashing around like a little kid, I noticed a couple of guys snorkeling a little way out from shore. When they came in for a break, I gathered my courage. For the past few weeks, Justin and I had been racing south, which meant minimal time for contact with other humans. If you'll recall from some previous post, we had devolved from normal English to a series of grunts and groans that the other person intuitively understood. But here I was, on my own, about to engage with humans I had never spoken to before in conversation. (Plus it didn't help that all parties were out of breath from swimming.)

Somehow, I managed to remember enough English to ask them where the reef was and the best places to check it out. Their names were Frank and Larry, and they were happy to point out where they had snorkeled. I cheerfully thanked them and said that once I had a chance to pick up some snorkel gear, I would head over.

They left the water and I silently congratulated myself on successfully conversing with two humans without looking like a moron, when a few minutes later they came back. Larry approached me and handed me a snorkel mask. He explained they had an extra one, and that it was a great day to check out the reef, and he didn't want me to miss it. I gathered my courage again and asked if they were going back out they wouldn't mind me tagging along. It turned out they were happy to escort me out to the reef.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get pictures, so I'm going to have to use flowery words again. The reef itself looked gray and rocky with unexpected bright orange splotches. Zipping in and out of the coral were dozens of fish. Larry pointed out a school of silver "jacks," each with a fairly condescending facial expression. My favorites were the bright, striped yellow fish that would flash by, catching my eye and disappearing behind an outcropping of coral.

These are jacks. I stole this picture from the internet. 

We even saw some very not-natural marine life: a pair of scuba divers were cruising by on the ocean floor, looking for fish to spear. They were pretty terrifying, and Larry said that it wasn't much fun to snorkel after they killed something because the water would get all bloody and gross. Frank and I agreed that would be unpleasant, and we were both pretty exhausted, so we all headed back to land. I thanked the two of them profusely and handed my mask back over, trying to burn the images of the vivid fish and clear water in my mind. It was a successful interaction between both humans and fish, and I felt pretty proud of myself.

When Christmas got here, it was a gorgeous 78 degrees and sunny. Naturally, we spent Christmas morning at the beach, then moved on to a traditional Jewish Christmas of a day at the movies and Chinese for dinner. We saw Mary Poppins Returns, and I loved it. Emily Blunt is a treasure, and I worship Lin Manuel Miranda. (I'm working on a Helga Pataki-esque shrine.)

Yes, this is the same picture I used on Facebook. I forgot to take more beach pictures, okay? Sheesh. 

A few days after Christmas, I decided I wanted to go kayaking. Justin did not understand why I felt the urge to paddle around in a boat when we had a perfectly good dinghy with a motor on it. I explained that I really wanted to see an alligator or a manatee, and they would probably be scared by the loud noise. (Plus all of the napping I was doing was giving my body the consistency of mashed potatoes.) So we drove a few miles south to a river where there had been lots of alligator sightings and fairly inexpensive kayak rentals.

At this point, Justin and I had been living in pretty close quarters for more than three months, and there have been surprisingly few murders so far. We've successfully coexisted and, believe it or not, even enjoyed each other's company on this trip. We've learned when we can push each other's buttons and when it's best to leave the other person alone. (Those times strangely correspond to how recently I've eaten...) But our relationship skills were about to face the an unexpected and formidable test: the two-person kayak.

{The selfie that was supposed to go here was deleted because Justin was annoyed.}

Unfortunately, the kayak rental place had run out of individual kayaks before we arrived, but I assumed we would be fine sharing a boat. Oh, how wrong I was. Justin wanted to go left. I wanted to go right. Justin wanted to check out some random guy's sailboat. I wanted to look at birds. Justin wanted to sit back and do nothing while I paddled and did all of the hard work. After some intense bickering and many threats of capsizing, we finally managed to get into a good rhythm. The two-person kayak did not break our marriage, but it got a lot closer than I ever expected. (I also got a lot closer to smacking Justin with a paddle than I ever expected.)

Whether it was because of our arguing or just because they were being rude, I didn't see any alligators. We did see a bunch of turtles, though.

This is the only manatee I saw. He is very jolly, but not very alive. 

I forgot what I named this turtle. I shall rename him Galahad. 

Justin tried to escape the kayak. His success was short lived. 

Eventually, we realized we couldn't stay in our comfortable marina forever, and we should probably get to work on the the boat repairs that were best done at a dock. Justin spent a few days replacing the shower drain pump. I worked on cleaning the boat as much as I could. The mildew was creeping back into the cabin and sand from the beach had gotten everywhere.

We also noticed that the pins securing the shrouds to the boat had gotten rusty. (Shrouds are the big, metal wires that reach from the top of the mast to the deck of the boat, securing the mast in place.) It was my job to remove the pins and attack the surrounding metal with CLR and a toothbrush.

Ew. Rusty. 

The end of our stay in this marina is rapidly approaching. Our next day or so is going to be spent getting as much out of the car as we can: picking up groceries, doing laundry, driving to West Marine and Home Depot over and over again.... But even amidst the napping and the working and the napping, I managed to find time to be outside and enjoy the weather. My favorite thing to do was take a leisurely morning stroll across a nearby bridge and look out over the river and see our boat in the distance.

Ten points to your house if you can find Mischief Managed!

A part of me doesn't want to move on, but I think that's the part of me that associates driving with freezing cold weather and long, tedious days. I have to keep reminding myself that this next leg of the trip is going to be very different. The weather is going to be beautiful, and we don't have to rush to get anywhere because we're already here! So most of me is pretty excited to start our trip across Lake Okeechobee, and down to Key West. (After we re-stock on sunscreen!)

tl;dr: We spent a month at a marina in Stuart, Florida.