November In Numbers

Clockwise from upper left: (1) Evy looking pretty next to one of my new cushions; (2) Our friends Charlie & Jane's boat as seen from our other friends Greg & Duwan's boat. A couple of boats over from them was my online Facebook and blogging pal turned real-life pal Susie & her husband Stan's boat. Nearby are also my Oregonian friends, Michele & Bruce, and my buddies Matt & Jessica. I was quite the social butterfly visiting everyone in the boatyard last month; (3) Peering into the depths of the lazarette to see if anything is leaking; (4) My impulse purchase - tacky coconut cups; (5) Sewing up cushions for the cockpit.

November was an interesting month. I did a lot of socializing, more than an introvert like me can normally handle, so I may need to do a little hibernating during December, but it was a heaps of fun. There are tons of folks at Indiantown Marina right now getting their boats ready to head out cruising. The marina had all sorts of festivities organized during Thanksgiving week. Not only did I get to enjoy free food and drinks, but I also had a chance to hang out with old and new friends. Jessica even convinced me to dance one night and that rarely happens. Perhaps the free beer might have had something to do with that?

One of my favorite expressions is take the good with the bad. Life is like that - there's good stuff and there's bad stuff. And often, even in the bad stuff, there's good stuff hidden away that you don't realize until later. So along with all the good stuff during November, there was also some bad stuff when things started to go wrong with the boat. But, even with stuff leaking and breaking, there was some good in that too as I'm actually learning lots about the systems on our boat. Something I probably wouldn't have learned as much about if Scott had been here.

So, here's the usual monthly recap in numbers of both the good and the bad:

• 6 - Number of hours our bilge pump continued to run when a mysterious leak appeared on our boat. Otherwise known as the Case of the Slowly Sinking Ship.
• 17 - Number of times I called Scott on the day of the Case of the Slowly Sinking Ship. I can't imagine it was easy for Scott to listen to me worry about our boat sinking and try to troubleshoot what was wrong over the phone. There's a five hour time difference between the East Coast and Scotland, so I kept him up way past his bedtime with my phone calls.
• 4 - Number of cats I looked after. Three of them belong to our friends Jane and Charlie, who left them with me while they cleaned up their boat and got it ready to move back onboard. The other one was Georgie the Sailing Cat, a regular visitor on Tickety Boo. I'm turning into the Crazy Cat Lady at the marina and I don't even own a cat.  
• Oodles < 50,000 - Number of words I wrote as part of NaNoWriMo. I had a goal to write a 50,000 word draft novel during November. I ended up falling way short of the mark, in part due to the time that the Case of the Slowly Sinking Ship took away from my writing and in part due to all the socializing I did. I'm still working away at it and will finish it up during December. 
• Nil - Number of books I read as part of my "Around the World in 80 Books" challenge. I really slacked off on this one. I didn't actually read too much during November and the five or so books I did read were all mysteries as part of my research for my NaNoWriMo novel writing.
• 100% - My score on the Technician level ham radio operator test. I not only surprised myself by acing the test, I also surprised the examiners. I got 86% on the General level test, not as good as the first one, but still a passing grade.
• 800+ - Number of questions I studied before taking the two ham tests. My brain still hurts from all of that studying.
• 1 - Number of slices of pumpkin cheesecake I had on Thanksgiving. I usually pass up pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving, but pumpkin cheesecake is a whole different story. That stuff is delicious! I had Thanksgiving dinner at a friend of ours who is a host at a nearby campground. There was also a dinner hosted by the marina, so I could have really pigged out, but I restrained myself.
• $9.94 - How much I spent on two plastic insulated coconut cups at Walmart. Scott and I saw them earlier in the year and I fell in love with their utter tackiness. However, they were over $8 each back then which seemed foolish for such a frivolous item, which we really didn't need. But when I saw them on sale, I gave in and bought them. A complete impulse purchase that really doesn't fit with our frugal lifestyle, but sometimes you just need to indulge yourself. 
• $27.50 - How much our 2016 US Customs & Border Protection user fee decal cost us. We need the magic number on the decal to clear back into the States on our boat. I know some folks don't buy a decal or clear back in, but I figure not getting on the wrong side of US Customs & Border Protection is one less thing to worry about. I've got enough going on with our mysterious leak.
• 10 - Number of pillows I made on our Sailrite sewing machine. Four for our cockpit and six for our saloon, which is fancy boat talk for living room. Americans usually say salon, but I learned about boats in the UK and New Zealand so I use the British English term, saloon. It's more fun anyway - makes you think of cowboys and the Wild West frontier. Salon just makes me think of getting my hair cut and colored.

Hopefully, you had lots to be thankful for during November and have a truly wonderful and festive December.

In case you missed them, here's some of our favorite posts from last month:

The Case of the Slowly Sinking Ship | Nancy Drew Investigates, Part 1
What Makes a Blog or Facebook Post Popular?
Four Ways That Writing a Novel is Like Being a Sailor

Thanks for stopping by our blog - we love it when people come visit! We're also on Facebook - pop by and say hi!