Bits & Pieces from Dinner Key

First thing Wednesday we were off to the dentist for Brian’s crown.  Not having asked about price when we made the appointment, it was a little intimidating to see the staff cars were Lexus, BMW’s and Land Rovers.  True to their word the whole procedure took 90 minutes.  At home a crown would take about 3 weeks and at least a couple of appointments.  The inside of Brian’s mouth was all mapped out using a wireless USB stick.  The old filling was removed and a platform made for the crown.  Then his mouth was remapped.  A square cube of porcelain was shaped by computer to perfectly fit the space as a new tooth.  It was then glazed and baked using UV to make it ultra hard.  Final fit, glued on, all done.  Brian got to watch all this on big screen TV’s.  The bill although expensive was no more than it would have been at home even after insurance paid their 50%. 
Throughout this I lounged in the waiting room on a leather couch reading my book.  It would have been great if the air conditioning had not been set to flash freeze.  Even with my jacket on I had to keep going outside every 15 minutes to thaw my feet.  Another guy waiting with me kept pulling his arms inside his T-shirt.

We rented a car for a couple of days because it would have cost nearly as much for a day as a taxi just to get to the dentist and back.  We were given a brand new Chevy Sonic with only 8 miles on the odometer.  I liked it.  It was small, great on gas and fit all our supplies in the trunk, propane tanks and cat litter included. 

During our stay here there have been lots of sailboat races.  Every morning they would all file out of the bay.  I like to watch them weave through the mooring field with their sails snapping.  They race all day then file back like hundreds of ants.


We have been experiencing a strong east winds for a few days now which makes for chop on the bay.  It’s surprising how we get used to the motion in the boat.  Mostly I don’t even feel it any more.  The boat rocks front to back and even sleeping in the aft cabin where it’s most noticeable we sleep well.  If you watch a goose fly, it’s head never moves.  Brian says that’s the way I pour coffee.  The pot stays level and my body absorbs the rock.  I rarely spill a drop.  Only when we get a sideways wake from a passing fishing boat does it throw us off.  More often than not this happens at the worst moments.  Like when we’re trying to climb from dinghy to boat.  The boat goes up, the dinghy goes down and an arm or leg get stretched farther than you thought possible.  We all have good sea legs until we reach shore.  In the shower I don’t dare close my eyes without bracing against a wall because I’m likely to fall over.  When standing still on shore I wonder if I am actually bobbing up and down or if it’s just my head.  It must be my head because nobody has been giving me funny looks like I’m doing a bobble head dance.

We have 2 outboards, a 2.5HP which is light and uses very little gas and a 15HP which weighs a ton and uses a lot more gas.  We are using the 2.5 right now just for convenience but it doesn’t move us very fast.  The wind blows directly into shore so the ride is easy that way.   About every 5th wave will catch up to us and we surf at double the speed.  Coming back to the boat is a different story.  Once out of the marina the farther out you get, the choppier the waves.  Brian navigates a zig zag and tries to miss the big ones but by the time you see them coming it’s too late.  I play blocker for him being in the front and usually get the worst of it.  I hear an “Uh oh” from him and a wave breaks over the front of the dinghy and into my lap.  The waves are warm but it makes a shower on shore kind of pointless.



Kitty number 3 was camera shy

Inside the marina one of the piers is full of commercial fishing boats.  Mostly grubby, smelly working boats.  Yesterday while walking the pier we saw a cat on one of these boats.  Me and cats, well I just had to go say hi.  Not one kitty, triplets.  One of the neighboring fishermen told us the owner was in jail and the boat had been found abandoned, loose and had been towed in.  He had been feeding them but was sure the boat was going to be demolished.


Like the stance? 

Poor kitties!  I asked Cricket if she wanted to adopt some orphans but she said Nooooooo!  Some cats that we know don’t know how spoiled they are to have regular meals, snacks and a comfy place to sleep.



 

we thought this was a Barracuda (or is it a Wahoo?)

our Canadian flag now has a permanent mount
on the rail around our solar panels

So now we are just waiting (again) for our weather window to cross to Bimini.  We have several other boats to travel with and it’s looking like Wednesday’s the day.