Random thoughts

We finally got all the mechanical work finished on Saturday! Unfortunately when Crystal dove the boat on Friday she saw that our rudder is bent and we need to have our bottom painted. So now we’re trying to figure out when and where we can get that work done. It’s always something!

We tried to go to Sunset Grille Saturday night for dinner, but after being seated and waiting for 15 minutes with no one even acknowledging our presence, we left. They had a “band” playing, but I’ve heard better high school bands. They could barely play their instruments and they were constantly singing off key – add that to the fact that we seemed to be invisible and there was no way we were going to stick around.

We ended up at Castaway, which has become one of our favorite restaurants. I had seen a picture on their website of a sushi roll called the King of the Jungle roll and had tried to order it twice before, but they were out of it. Luckily for me it was available that night!

The roll is called king of the jungle because the fish used in it is the lion fish. The lion fish is a very invasive fish in Florida waters as well as in the Caribbean. There is a lack of predators for them and they like to eat the fish that hang out in reefs, so they are a real threat to the reef systems and and food web relationships. There’s a real effort to reduce their numbers, so I was quite happy to be able to help out by eating one of them.
The roll was placed between the head and tail of the fish – only a little bit creepy.
The head

We were seated at an outside table right on a canal. Guess what was in the canal? A very large manatee!

The manatee will definitely not win any awards for being beautiful!

Sunday afternoon there was a large gathering of Loopers at a nearby resort (almost 200 people, some of whom drove several hours to get there). We got to visit with several people we had traveled with earlier in the trip, had some great appetizers and drinks, and saw a great sunset. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon.

The water was incredibly calm that afternoon. This little island is just a few hundred yards from the water’s edge at the resort.
I love sunsets!

Yesterday was laundry day. I sat by the pool while the clothes were in the washer and had a friend sit by my chair and watch me for a few minutes.

It looks larger than it really was. It was about 6” long.

When we were in Fulton MS in October we spent several hours in the boaters lounge because of a tornado warning and a tornado touchdown less than 20 miles away. Our next marina stop after that was in Columbus MS, about 60 miles south of Fulton, where a tornado touched down this past weekend, killing one person and doing major damage to many buildings. I had never thought of that area having tornadoes. Part of doing the loop is learning about different parts of the US and realizing how little I know about some places.

Rich started noticing how many convertibles there are down here, and Mustang convertibles in particular. When we went to Key West last week he counted 31 Mustang convertibles from the 7 mile bridge to the outskirts of Key West, approximately 40 miles. We saw about the same number on the way back, and that didn’t include all the Chevy, miniCooper, etc. others that we saw!

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