Linda is back! We're enjoying the hot, sunny weather by snorkeling and going for walks on Peanut Island. Yesterday we visited the Sailfish Marina for their Thursday art show. They had lots of little booths set up along the dock to explore, and a yummy conch fritter stand with bottled beer. Inside at their bar, two beers were the same price as a bucket at Tiki. Lots of staff in colorful shirts, but no Miller High Life - I can picture the guy with the hand truck wheeling it out saying "$10 for a cheeseburger! That's not the High Life!"

Lindy let us use her car for the day last Saturday, when I went to pick up Linda from the airport. In addition to the items that came in the mail, I picked up some spare electrical parts in Ft. Lauderdale, like a starter for the generator! I got my scuba tanks back from their "hydro", a test to make sure the tank is strong enough to get filled and refilled to 3500 psi. The test has to be done every five years. We also made the rounds to WalMart, Publix, and Lowe's to really stock up.

Sunday, on the way back to return the car, we joined Lindy at a guided tour of one of the Everglades managed conservation areas. We saw lots of neat stuff, including a hawk eating a snake. The only gator we saw was the huge one that hangs out near the fishing pier, waiting for someone to hook a fish. Not sure how many catches actually make it out of the water!

Maintenance wise, I finally found (online) the correct lightning arrestor for the masthead antenna. The current one had the antenna attached to the "equipment" side and vice versa, but most of the places I checked only had a generic version. The one with correct polarity is now installed, although I still think a direct strike would smoke the diodes and fry the west marine radio. Oh well, it can't hurt, let's hope I never find out.
Let's see; I also restrung the preventer (translation: block and tackle to hold the boom in position when sailing downwind) onto a new fiddle block as one of the old ones was deteriorating, and installed a new latch onto the dinghy bow locker. I'm pretty happy I was able to find the exact latch online for $9. It's been three months since the teak on the handrails had a coat of sealer, and over six months for the teak in the cockpit, so they all got another coat (two for the handrails since they don't see much shade, and it only takes another ten minutes).

We're going to spend most of the weekend with Lindy and Rich, and then see if we can finally overcome inertia and head someplace else. Happy Memorial Day, everyone!