It was supposed to rain today and Bud wanted to get groceries. He decided to go early and Fuzzy and I stayed behind on the boat. He was back by 8:30 and by then Fuzzy and I had everything ready to jump in the dinghy and go. We brought the groceries on board and Bud put away the things that went in the freezer and refrigerator while I loaded the dinghy for the next trip.

Fuzzy was relieved to finally get ashore. I took a shower while Bud kept Fuzzy and then Bud returned to the boat while I took Fuzzy to his vet appointment. It still hadn't rained, but looked like it would at any minute. I decided not to take a bike because the ones at the marina had no fenders and if I rode one in the rain I knew I'd get a stripe of water up my back from the back tire. I did take the front pack to carry Fuzzy in case it started raining. I didn't want him to be soaked for his appointment. It wasn't as far to the vet as it looked on the map, an easy walk. Fuzzy got his papers filled out for the Bahamas. They decided not to put an identification chip under his skin because he is going on 15 and already has a tattoo in his ear. The chip goes in with a big needle, and the vet didn't think it was necessary to put Fuzzy through that. It isn't actually listed with the requirements for a pet to visit the Bahamas, but they do ask for the chip number on one paper. Instead the vet filled in the information of the tattoo. Fuzzy dodged a bullet there.

I noticed how much this feels like Florida, now. Just walking around felt so familiar from when I lived here almost 40 years ago. It was warm and muggy. The grass is coarse and there are all kinds of strange bushes. There are birds everywhere. I took this picture of four birds pecking like chickens in someone's front lawn. I think they were wild birds, but they just kept pecking away as I struggled to get their picture (with stuff in my hands and Fuzzy on the leash).

When we got back to the marina I tried our new communication method. I had the hand held VHF and called Bud on board. We had specified we'd use channel 72, so he had the radio on that channel on the boat. "Earendil, Earendil, Earendil, this is T/T Earendil, come in please, over." (T/T Earendil specifies the dinghy; I don't know why I didn't just say Jill, except I've always used VHF radios for calling from boat to boat or boat to marina, and I couldn't say it was Earendil calling Earendil.) I felt a bit conspicuous calling like that in front of the marina, but it worked. Bud answered and came and got me with the dinghy. It still hadn't rained.

In the afternoon Bud took a nap, Fuzzy was napping in his bed and I went up in the cockpit and watched the wind and clouds and read my book. Finally, at about three o'clock it started to rain. We had a tornado warning in the area, but it never really got bad here.

After supper when we went to dinghy back to shore, one side of the dinghy was partially deflated. We were worried that the dinghy was defective. We pumped it up and went to shore. It's 1 AM (I fell asleep in the salon, again) and I just went out to check on it. It's still fine, so maybe we just didn't get a valve tight when we added air yesterday. Who knows, we'll watch it and see. It seems there's always something.