I had a great time Tuesday night at the Island Art Association Portrait Drawing Workshop. A group gathers every Tuesday night and my friend, Tina, is a regular. According to the association newsletter, there are lots of other opportunities to get involved in various classes and groups. I'm not sure that portraiture is my thing (in fact I'm pretty sure it's not!) but the group was so friendly and welcoming that I'd go back in a minute. With Tina's encouragement, I'm going to be quicker to get out my art supplies along with my camera and pen as we travel this winter.

Which leads me to the next learning experience ... another interruption in travel.

When I got home, it was to find a discouraged husband. While Jim had been happily reading his book, he heard the water pump start up and keep running. Since there were no taps turned on, it was a puzzle. As he pondered the cause, and then followed the sound, he traced it to the hot water tank. Upon opening the locker where it lives, he discovered that it was belching steam - like our own resident dragon. It turns out that the temperature must have gotten too hot and the escape valve was doing it's proper job, but why?

After some sleuthing yesterday by Jim and Ken (Oz) they determined that one of our water tanks was not filling properly. The vent line was blocked by backed up water from the other tank. Then, of course, it would run out of water too early. (We had already been curious that we seemed to have to switch tanks far more often than we'd expected.) That's what happened here we think. The hot water tank didn't have enough water pumping in and what was there got overheated. They did a simple fix on the vent hose for now, but we'll probably have to put in dedicated fill holes and vents for each tank later on. And if the dragon starts up again, we'll know we have a different problem entirely.

So the upshot of all that was that we didn't leave yesterday! Instead, after all the fixit work was done and the boat put back together, we took the advice of the many friends who said "Avatar" is a must see, and went to the movie theatre. Wow!! You were all correct! It is a truly amazing film and must surely be stretching boundaries in the movie business. The photography/scenery is astounding; the story has all the elements of any good story - adventure, battles between good and evil, love, tragedy - and lots of humour in the stereotypical characterization and names. It's done with amazing 3D animation and an imagination that combines elements of history and future into a remarkably entertaining story. We add our voices to the "Go see it!" group.

It has warmed up a little here and the wind has dropped. The pelicans that were huddled in next to the lounge building trying to keep warm have moved back to the pier.

Right now, (8:30 am Thursday) our keel is still nestled in the mud but as soon as the tide rises enough to float us, we'll head down the ICW in the direction of St. Augustine. It will be good to be on the move again.