You never know what’s going to come at you next – good or bad – and we’ve had some of each this week.

First, the bad: Jim’s little intestinal bug turned out to be a big one that has laid him low for almost a week now. As a result of the antibiotics he took for an ear infection back in Fernandina Beach in early Nov, the good bacteria in his gut were destroyed along with the bad bacteria in his ear! So after a couple of weeks of feeling fine, he got sick again, and instead of shaking it, he kept getting worse. He is now on a new round of antibiotics to fix his intestinal system – I wonder if that will trigger some other body part to rebel! It really hasn’t been a laughing matter – he has had no energy at all and needed to be close to the head, and that leads us to the next bad part of the week. You guessed it – the tank filled up. It really shouldn’t have filled that quickly despite the frequent use so we think the last pump out was not entirely successful – which means there is some other problem in the system.

While Jim languished in a hotel room bed (a boat without a functioning head is no place to be when you feel that miserable so we relocated for a couple of nights) I set to work to try to identify where the problem was. When I went in search of a hose clamp, Ed and Karin (Passages) not only offered the clamp, but came over to help. We’ve decided to confer sainthood status upon them because only saints would get that close to someone else’s head problems! We thought we were done with those after replacing the lines this year, but it turns out, the vent tube was not replaced and so that may still be the problem. At any rate, 15 feet of new tubing is now sitting in the cockpit waiting for installation, and the pumpout yesterday got the level down enough that the head is now useable at least. (I am really so sick and tired of head and holding tank problems!)

So … now that I have told you far more than you ever wanted to know about our latest glitches, let’s (ahem) move on. May I just say that Jim is improving a little bit every day now, and we hope that in another few days he will be back to his old self again.

And now for the good: We are blessed with wonderful neighbours, Dennis and Vivian (Aliva) as well as other friends in the mooring field who have offered help and good wishes, and we know there are many others in the area we could have called upon if needed. Jim received excellent medical care at the Indian River Walk in Clinic just up the street from the Fresh Market on Miracle Mile. (He had to hand over his Visa card at the end of the first visit, but they didn’t charge him for the second one) and the folks at the pharmacy at Publix made me feel all warm and fuzzy. I’ve been there 3 times over the last few days picking up drugs for Jim. The pharmacist wanted me to call and let him know if the first ones worked (they didn’t) and on the last visit, the technician asked, “How is he doing now?” When I replied that he was finally improving, she responded, “Oh, I’m glad to hear that! We’ve seen you far too often this week!” We are itinerants here, and we are still made to feel welcome and cared about.

Bruce (Zingara) arrived a couple of days ago and although we’ve had just one quick conversation, it was so good to see his smiling face again. Mark and Julie (Rachel) dropped by this afternoon to say hello. We met them our first year out – in Exuma Land and Sea Park – and since then they’ve been exploring the western Caribbean. We hope to sit down with them soon to look at some waypoints for our trip this year. The way we connect and reconnect in this cruising life never ceases to delight us!

Jim is feeling enough improved to want a change of scenery now and then so we took a little dinghy ride up the river (creek? stream? bay?) past the north end of the mooring field and around to starboard. We have never gone up there before, but Dennis told us there is a spot where one can tie up to a palm tree, walk across the road and be at the beach so we went in search of it. Sure enough – there it was – along a lovely waterway lined with beautiful homes. We kept on going to the end and discovered a couple of sailboats, and after stopping to chat with one fellow who was working on his boat, we discovered that the folks on the catamaran farther along are fellow Nova Scotians. Of course we had to go check it out, and so it was that we met Sheila and Chris (Never bored) from Canso. (That’s the pic at the top of this posting.) You just never know whom you’ll meet along this waterway!

On the way home, we stopped to say hello to Don and Nancy (Maja) on the Bayfield 40 just past us, and arrived home at Madcap in time to have a salmon and pasta dinner before the brightly lighted boats in the Christmas boat parade started to come by the marina. Horns honked throughout the mooring field and we waved wildly at the boats that came up this far.

We’re still planning to get to Stuart before we fly home on Dec 9th. There were no moorings available today, but with luck we’ll get one in the next couple of days.

P.S. still no available moorings in Stuart on Saturday morning, and if something does open up, it will likely be gone by the time we get there. It is more than a little irritating that they won’t even take same day reservations.

Oh dear - this sounds so horribly whining ... things will get better and next posting will be upbeat ... shadows and light go hand in hand.