Every once in a while something happens, you meet someone, or an event occurs that simply makes you realize how lucky two people can be. Heaven knows Barb and I don't always get along. I can tend to be short of temper and snappish of conversation. Barb doesn't always listen, pay attention, or hear me, and, truth be told, vice versa. But today around 1500 a small, and I mean small, about 22', cabin cruiser pulls into the marina and up to the dock immediately behind us. Close immediately up behind us. If our boats were biological they would have to get married close up behind us. His pulpit rail was physically under our davits! But, "Fret not, Mike!" says I, "The boat ahead of us is leaving and you can slide forward." So that's what I did. I think the guy of the two of them is used to being dumped upon for some of the things that he does because when I went back to tell him that I was shifting Nelleke, in spite of the fact that I was less than six feet from him and there was no ambient noise he refused to meet my eye or even to acknowledge my presence until he realized that I was not going to be confrontational. That was our introduction. For the rest of the afternoon and into the evening we were treated to him and his wife going at it hammer and tongs (and not in a nice way), dropping the F-bomb frequently and don't think poor woman. From what I could see she was instigating things and giving better than she got. Personally I think that the two of them are pretty stupid: 1. A 22' boat is an awful small place to be living on if you are having marital problems, and 2. It would be too easy for one of them to be lost overboard at night to resolve things. Nope, the admiral and I are fortunate in that we share so many goals and can compromise on the ones that we don't. And when we do have a disagreement I'd like to think that our dirty laundry is not brought quite so much into the open as these guys. Oh crap! Now they're fighting over what they agreed to for dinner! Jeez. I hope they're gone tomorrow!

This morning I got a phone call from an Officer Aluarsi of US Customs and Border Security who was calling to correct some errors that we had entered in our application for the Local Boater Program. As of this moment we are trusted traveler's both through Nexus and Local Boater Option which will allow us to clear US Customs by phone when we return to US waters. This'll be really useful as it will preclude any necessity for us to chase down customs agents etc. we actually don't need to do the interview tomorrow as we have already been approved but we will do so anyway to see if they can tie the Local Boater Option to our passports rather than to the Nexus cards.

We did a few more small chores aboard: covering the dingy and the instrument panel, brought the outboard below for storage and began putting stuff away, we called for the cab ride tomorrow to pick up the van, packed up most of the stuff from the heads, and otherwise are twiddling our thumbs, and leaving only daily toiletries and our clothes for packing on Thursday morning.

We are having some very interesting menu choices for meals these days as we are doing what we can to consume what is in the fridge and freezer. Last night we had chicken breasts and tuna steak on the BBQ and tonight we will have sausages and salmon filet, also done on the BBQ. Hopefully the only thing left in the freezer for us to carry onward will be some wahoo and mahi-mahi which we will hope to entice Pete and Lynn to have with us in a fish fry during our visit. Heck, there is enough for them to invite some of their friends over for a visit to have some too.