Changing Our Plans Again | The Shortest Bahamas Cruise Ever

Anchored at Lake Worth. It was gusty at times.

 
"Well, that doesn't look good," I said to Scott as we were taking our dinghy over to West Palm Beach in search of the public docks.

"You're such a worry wart. There's no way we're going to hit that boat," he replied as he glanced back at me.

"Uh, yeah, that's not what I meant," I said pointing back at Tickety Boo anchored behind us. "Besides, I'm not a worry wart."

Scott gave me a dubious look.

"Okay, maybe I am a bit of a worry wart. But about important things, like running out of chocolate or water. Or dying from scurvy because we don't eat enough citrus fruit."

Scott gave me another dubious look. I changed the subject.

"No, look at the bottom paint on our boat. That doesn't look good."

Scott looked back at Tickety Boo and then he gave me another look. I wish it had been a dubious look that meant something like, The bottom paint is fine, now stop your worrying. Instead, it was a look that said, Crap. 

****

If you're not into boats, you're probably scratching your head and wondering what bottom paint is all about. It's basically paint you put on your bottom. No, not that bottom. The bottom of your boat beneath the water line. It keeps evil wee beasties from attaching themselves to your boat.

You've probably seen pictures of boats covered in barnacles. It's not a good look. Bottom paint helps keep that sort of thing at bay for a while.

We redid our bottom paint a little less than two years ago. The paint we used is a super expensive long-lasting kind which is great for boats that remain stationary in their slips for a long time, as ours had at Indiantown Marina. (Interlux Micron 66, if you're interested. It was what the previous owners had used.)

We knew it wouldn't be in great condition, but we had hoped that it would be in okay enough condition to allow us to head to the Bahamas, spend a few months there and then we would deal with it (along with other boat projects) when we got back to Indiantown Marina and hauled out for hurricane season.

It seemed like a great plan. An awesome plan. An outstanding plan. Except for one tiny issue that we didn't think through:

Indiantown Marina is in freshwater. Our paint isn't suitable for freshwater. When it's exposed to freshwater it flakes off. 

I don't know about you, but I love a nice, flaky pie crust. But what I don't love is flaky bottom paint. Not only does it look weird, it also means it's not effective. {We discovered the bottom paint issue on Pi Day, so naturally my mind went to pie. Sorry about that. Now you probably want some pie. I know I do.}

We both sighed, took another look at Tickety Boo and headed off across the channel to find the public docks. Rumor had it that you could tie up there for free and walk to the nearby Publix grocery store. I was hoping to pick up some apple pie.

Turns out the public docks don't exist anymore due to the expansion of a nearby marina. Another disappointment for the day. Not to mention a decided lack of pie.

We headed back to Tickety Boo, circled around her in our dinghy and had another look at what we could see of her bottom paint. Which was a lot more than we could see back at Indiantown. That brings me to some fun facts:

1 - Boats are much more buoyant in salt water than fresh water. 

2 - Tickety Boo sat lower in the fresh water at Indiantown Marina.

3 - The water in Indiantown is a delightful murky brown color. Scott says that's due to tannic acid, vegetation and other marina what-not. There was a lot of what-not in our corner of the marina.

4 - Once Tickety Boo was in salt water at the coast, she floated higher in the water, giving us better visibility of her keel. The water is much clearer here, so we could see what that bottom paint looked like.  

Yeah, fun might have been an overstatement. That was Scott's description, not mine.

Over drinks and dinner, we talked about options. Should we carry on to the Bahamas and ignore our flaky bottom paint? Should we postpone the Bahamas and head back Indiantown Marina to haul out and redo the bottom paint? Should we try to figure out how to make pie with the provisions we have on board?

In the end, we decided to skip the pie and make our way back to Indiantown in a few days.

It's disappointing on so many levels - not getting to the Bahamas (yet), having to spend a bunch of money we weren't quite ready to spend at this point, not knowing how long we'll be hauled out for (the old paint may be a real nightmare to get off), not really being ready to do other major boat projects (like a composting toilet) and feeling like we're not maximizing our time on the hard etc.

But on the bright side, we'll get to see our friends again and there's always Taco Tuesday at JR's Saloon.

Of course, by the the time you read this our plans could have changed again. Stay tuned to find out what happens. It's almost better than a soap opera.

Flagler Memorial Bridge. There's construction going on. Only one boat can pass through at a time.

Boats you wouldn't want to drag into and damage unless you had amazing insurance.

Sunset at Coconut Grove anchorage in West Palm Beach.

Cruising Log | Monday, 13 March 2017 - Wednesday, 15 March 2017

13 MARCH
Anchored at Lake Worth (south of Peanut Island). Lazed about. Checked out temp and oil sensors. One of the water jerry cans is leaking. Bummer. Gusty day. 101 amp hours from our new solar panel. A new world record. Nautical Miles = Nil. Engine =  Nil hrs. Spending = Nil.

14 MARCH
Very gusty in the early hours (near gale). Anchor up at 9:15 AM. Anchor down at 10:30 AM at Coconut Grove in West Palm Beach across from the Trump Plaza building. Took dinghy out - discovered public docks no longer exist, discovered condition of our bottom paint. Sad. Nautical Miles = 3.3. Engine = 1 hr 15 min. Spending = Nil

15 MARCH
Very gusty in the early hours. Lazed about. Made plans. Lazed about some more. Made more plans. Stuff broke. Nautical Miles = Nil. Engine =  Nil hrs. Spending = Nil.


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Flashback Friday | Cruising Couples & Ways Of Sailing

Today is Michael d’Agostino’s Flashback Friday. The idea is to republish an old post of yours that maybe didn't get enough attention, or that you're really proud of, or you think is still relevant etc. We started this blog three years ago and have lots more followers now then we did back then (thank you all!) so many folks may not have seen some of our earlier blog posts. 

I originally wrote this post when Scott and I were getting ready to move onto our sailboat in New Zealand full-time. Living and cruising on a boat full-time really puts your relationship to the test. The quarters and cramped, there are some very stressful moments and you have to work as a team. Fortunately, we passed the test.

It's interesting to look back on this in terms of how I wrote blog posts back then. Talk about some long paragraphs. I try to write in a shorter, sharper style now, although I don't always succeed.

{This post was originally published in November 2013. You can find it here.}

****

This is what we could call our team-building event - "Hands Across The Sea." How very mushy and romantic. Somehow I don't think this is the way to get Scott on board. Maybe we should go with something like "Battling Together Through Monster Waves & Gale Force Winds (With Valium For Ellen)." That might do the trick.
Image via the Graphics Fairy

Back when I worked in corporate la-la land, we used to do all sorts of fun team-building activities. Well, they were fun for those of us in the HR team who “facilitated” the activities. HR people like to use the term “facilitation” in relation to energizing, productive activities which everyone gets to collaborates in and which improve business outcomes. Other people might call them “time-wasting” events made even worse by the lack of catering due to budget cuts. These naysayers clearly don’t work in HR. We have their names on file.

Since I don’t have anyone to “facilitate” anymore and I really need to keep my skills sharp, I decided that Scott and I should do a team-building activity. He is so excited. (That was sarcasm just in case you aren’t familiar with the concept.) I’ve decided we should think about our “ways of working” while out on the sailboat. If you abbreviate it you get WOW!!! Which makes it sound so exciting!!! And, if you use lots of exclamation points, your teammates can’t wait to join in the fun!!! At least that was our theory in HR. Scott isn’t really buying into this, so I’m calling it our “ways of sailing” or WOS which sounds rather dull but a bit more acceptable to Skipper Scott. I think he went into archaeology for a reason – most of the people he has to deal with are already dead and team-building isn’t really a priority for them.

But if you’re going to start cruising full-time as a couple, then you really should think through how you’re going to communicate, what each others expectations are, what each of you brings to the party and how you’re going to work together. Otherwise someone could end up dead. Literally. Or you could just end up getting on each others nerves. Not as bad as dead, but not so much fun either. After all, our boat is only 26’ and it is pretty hard to avoid each other. And as much fun as a mutiny sounds, it really isn’t all that practical. So instead, here are a few preliminary ideas of things we need to think about when putting together our “ways of sailing”. We’ll be spending this summer in New Zealand cruising full-time which will give us a good opportunity to see what works and what doesn’t so that we can establish some awesome “ways of sailing” before we buy our next boat in the States and continue our cruising adventures.

Communication 

When I took my sailing course with Penny Whiting, a number of the women were telling stories about their husbands yelling at them. It sounded horrible to be honest. I guess that under pressure some of these guys get frustrated and take it out on their wives. You’ll be glad to know that Skipper Scott isn’t the yelling type. He has only yelled at me once and that is when I did something phenomenally stupid and almost lost a finger. And that’s probably when yelling is appropriate – to alert someone to danger. Other than that, it really isn’t useful. But I do think we need to work through how to communicate when the pressure is on (like mooring the boat in really high winds or anchoring in difficult situations when you can’t hear each other) so that we each know what needs to be done clearly and quickly. 

My very clever sister studied American Sign Language and while we’re not going to learn a new language, I think developing some sort of simple hand signals would be useful for shorthand communication in certain situations. The only sign language I know has to do with your middle finger. But that's never a nice sign to make so I’m going to ask my sister for some tips for more productive signs. 

[Side Note: I do have one sign language tip if you happen to find yourself in New Zealand. If you want to wish someone "peace" make sure you have the "V" you make with your fingers the right way around. Otherwise, you've just said something very naughty. I am always getting this one wrong. It's embarrassing.]

Learning Styles

One of the things we found when we chartered boats up in the Bay of Islands in previous years and then sailing on our own boat last summer in the Hauraki Gulf is that Scott and I have very different learning styles. Scott is by far much more experienced at sailing then I am, so he is often in the position of having to teach me things. He has taken the approach of telling me how to do something and then showing it to me several times. Over and over and over. I rarely learn the skill he is trying to teach me despite the number of times he tries to explain it to me. And that’s because that's not my ideal learning style. Things work better for me if I read about it and then try to do it myself until I figure it out. Which still takes me ages but I find it less frustrating to be experimenting on my own rather then watch someone do something. Scott learns differently so he teaches the way he likes to learn. It took us a while to figure this out. There might have been some tears along the way. But nothing some chocolate couldn’t fix. Something we’ll keep working on this summer as I have lots and lots to learn about this sailing stuff.

Sailing vs. Traveling

One of the things that seems to be discussed in the cruising community is whether you’re in it for the sailing or traveling. Some people love the sailing aspect of cruising, others see the sailboat as a means of transportation to exotic destinations. While Scott loves traveling, he also loves sailing. He thinks racing is exhilarating and big crashing waves and high winds bring a smile to his face. I am the exact opposite. I’m looking for a pleasant day out on the water, a chance to read my books, lots of yummy snacks and the opportunity to enjoy different anchorages. One of the things we’ll need to work through is the right balance of sailing vs. travelling for both of us. And maybe as I learn more about sailing, one day I’ll think that being heeled over at an extreme angle with water crashing into the cockpit is the best thing since sliced bread. Or maybe not. Time will tell.

Pink & Blue Jobs

In our non-cruising world, I would never expect or accept such a demarcation between “pink” and “blue” jobs that you can find in cruising couples. But it seems like many women gravitate towards more pink jobs such as provisioning, cooking, cleaning, laundry etc. whereas the menfolk have more responsibility for boat maintenance, the engine, lifting heavy things like anchors and dinghies etc. And I can see why. I would much rather do the shopping and make dinner than fix a toilet or figure out what is wrong the engine. But this isn’t probably sustainable in the long run. Sure, there will always be things that only Scott can do because he is stronger, but we probably both need to make sure that we have familiarity with all the different types of jobs on the boat. It just makes good sense in case one of us is sick or incapacitated. And I also think it would take the pressure off of Scott to be the “expert” in everything. And I know one day he would love it if we were co-captains. Personally, I think that day is a long way off. But that’s what our shake-down summer cruising is all about, to figure stuff like this out.

We would be interested to hear how other cruising couples work together as a team on their boats. What issues have you worked through and what ways of sailing have you developed together?

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Wordless Wednesday | Provisioning On A Sailboat

Wordless Wednesday is supposed to be about posting a photo(s) without any words. But, I'm a rule breaker, so here are a few words:

1 - Provisioning is my favorite boat project. After all, what's not to like about stocking your boat up with food and drink?

2 - We squirrel stuff away in cubbyholes underneath and behind the "furniture" on our boat. 

3 - Lots of cans - mostly of tomatoes, corn, fruit, beans and the like. As well as some beer. Probably not enough beer though. We'll see. 

4 - Our goal is to only buy fresh stuff in the Bahamas like eggs, milk, cheese, meat, vegies etc. and mostly live off of our food stores.

   
What words does this picture(s) bring to your mind when you look at it?

For more Wordless Wednesday fun, click here. 

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We're Breezy | Changing Our Bahamas Cruising Plans

Making our way from Indiantown Marina to the St Lucie Lock

“Yeah, we won’t cross over to the Bahamas tomorrow. It’s no big deal. After all, we’re breezy,” Scott said to me the other day as we were sitting in the cockpit of our boat in Lake Worth sipping on sundowners.

I almost snorted my gin and tonic out of my nose when he used the phrase “we’re breezy.” After all, this is a rather stoic guy from North Dakota we're taking about who isn’t known for using flowery phrases like “we’re breezy.” He tends to go with more ordinary phrases like “yes,” “no,” and “it’s okay.” Except when he’s trying to make me laugh. Then he says silly things. Sometimes, he makes silly faces. When he says silly things while making a silly face, that’s even better.

He knew I needed a good laugh because after weeks working on boat projects at Indiantown Marina, we were both really eager to cross over from Lake Worth to the Abacos Islands in the Bahamas. We had been watching the weather and thought we would have a window to make the crossing the next day. And, we probably could have done it. The winds would have been coming from the right direction and the waves would have been manageable. But there were some serious winds due to come in after we made it to the Abacos and we could have been caught out in them without a good, sheltered anchorage to hide out in.

“Silly girl,” I hear you saying. “Why didn’t you just cross to the West End, book a slip in a marina, clear customs and immigration there and hang out until the weather got better before you headed onwards in the Abacos?”

That’s a really easy question to answer:

We’re cheap. Why pay for a marina when you can anchor for free?

We toyed with the idea of making the crossing, skipping Mangrove Cay (because it doesn’t provide much protection) and heading to Great Sale Cay where we could get protection from northerly winds. It sounded great in theory, but we worried that the anchorage would be full and we’d be out of luck as there’s no bailout option nearby.

We also toyed with the idea of trying to outrun the weather and keep going past Great Sale Cay and trying to make it to another anchorage further along the Abacos. But trying to outrun weather on very little sleep wasn’t really appealing. (Last time we crossed, it took us 21 hours to reach Mangrove Cay and getting to Great Sale Cay and beyond would have added on many more hours to our passage.)

After talking that all through, we decided to “be breezy” and change our plans. As much as we both wanted to get over to the Bahamas as soon as possible, we opted to skip the Abacos and head further south to the Miami/Key Biscayne area to wait for the next weather window and cross over to Bimini instead.

It’s actually a clever phrase he used – “we’re breezy” – because it actually all comes down to the wind. Too much wind from the wrong direction is a bad thing. That’s the thing about cruising – you’re not really in control, nature is.

As we continued to sip on our sundowners that night, we talked about how much this reminded us of our cruising days in New Zealand. There were many, many days when we were stuck in anchorages or had to change where we were headed to because of the weather.

So that’s where things are at with us. After leaving Indiantown Marina, we spent our first night anchored west of the St Lucie Lock (having missed the last lock of the day), then made our way the next day down to Lake Worth and hung out for a couple of days waiting to cross to the Abacos. It will be interesting to see where we end up next. Will we make our way down to Miami/Key Biscayne and cross to Bimini? Or will we do something completely different? All I know is that no matter what we end up doing, we’ll try to be breezy about it.

Derelict boat seen on the way to the St Lucie Lock.

Our first night at anchor at the St Lucie Lock.

Macshack - a boat we know from Indiantown Marina, tied up at the campground across from the St Lucie Lock.

Tickety Boo with her headsail up.

Cruising Log | Thursday, 9 March 2017 – Sunday, 12 March 2017

9 MARCH
Left Indiantown Marina at 2:10 PM with a fabulous sendoff from our friends. Anchored at St Lucie Locks at 5:20 PM. Stuff broke. Nautical Miles = 12. Engine = 3 hrs 30 mins

10 MARCH
Anchor up at 7:15 AM, went through locks at 7:30 AM. Easy peasy. Put up headsail on St Lucie River and turned off the engine. Yay, Tickety Boo remembers how to sail. Can’t say as much for me. Thought about anchoring at Peck Lake, but too crowded. Lots of bridges between Stuart and Lake Worth. Bridges are annoying, especially when you miss the opening by minutes. Anchor down in Lake Worth (south of Peanut Island) at 6:00 PM. More stuff broke. Nautical Miles = 41. Engine =  9 hrs 45 mins. Spending = Nil.

11 MARCH
Lazed about. Tried to fix the stuff that broke. More stuff broke. Got organized for the crossing. Nautical Miles = 0. Engine = 0 hrs. Spending = Nil.

12 MARCH
Dragged anchor at 10:15 AM. Reset anchor at 10:30 AM. This was the first time that we’ve ever dragged anchor. Not a whole lot of fun. Crazy winds and current at Lake Worth. The windlass decided to start working again. Then it decided to stop working again. Stupid windlass. Decided not to cross to the Abacos. Nautical  Miles = 0 NM. Engine = 0 hrs. Spending = Nil.

Do you like it when your plans change due to things outside of your control (like the weather)? Are you breezy about it?

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Cost Of Living Aboard Tickety Boo | February 2017

It’s time for our regular cost of living update, which I've been doing every two months. We've been tracking how much it costs to live aboard our Moody 346 sailboat, S/V Tickety Boo, at Indiantown Marina in southern Florida, where we were initially laid up during last hurricane season and where we're currently living while we finish up some boat projects before we head off to the Bahamas for the season.

Because we headed off cruising in March, I'm closing out this series of posts with our expenses from February. I'll then do a round-up of our cost of cruising in Florida and the Bahamas once we're back in the States for hurricane season.

You can find links to other cost updates from ourselves and others on this page, as well as on The Monkey's Fist. If you want to know the details of how much we spent over the past two months, have a look below.

Cost of Living Aboard | February 2017

Overall, we spent $3,653 during February which is a lot of money, but isn't all that surprising given our long list of boat projects.

Before we get into the nitty-gritty details of what we spent, here are a few things to note:

1 - All costs are in US dollars.

2 - Not all expenses are included - here's what we've left out:

(a) We don't report how much we spend on alcohol. I remember reading some horrible, judgy comments in a blog post a few years back about how much someone spent on booze, so I left it out when we first started tracking our cruising costs back in New Zealand. For consistency's sake, I've continued to leave it out when tracking our cruising and RV costs.

(b) We haven't included costs related to storing our Scamp travel trailer ($21 per month) because we track the cost of our RV and cruising adventures separately.

(c) We've also left out our costs for medical insurance. We didn't think it made sense to include insurance costs as they can vary so widely depending upon your nationality, where you cruise, what level of coverage you want and can afford etc. In case you are curious, while we're back in the States, we do have insurance through the health insurance marketplace (aka ACA/Obamacare), primarily to protect our assets and cover us in case of a catastrophic medical condition. We renewed our policy for 2017, but as things are up in the air following the election, we'll have to wait and see what happens with coverage this year.

 3 - I've included any shipping and taxes we've paid in what we report. Florida has a 6% sales tax. Boo.


GROCERIES | Total = $763

This category includes everything we put in our bodies in terms of food and drink (excluding booze) that we prepare ourselves. It doesn't include things like paper towels and ziploc bags, which I know some people would classify as groceries. Sure, you could probably eat them, but they wouldn't taste very good.

This is a lot more than we usually spend each month, but we did a final provisioning run before heading to the Bahamas. We found groceries to be really expensive last time we were there, so we're trying to stock up on as much as we can.


PERSONAL & HOUSEHOLD | Total = $75

This is the category where we include household things (like paper towels and ziploc bags) and personal hygiene items (like soap and shampoo). We also capture items for the "home" here - like bug spray.


ENTERTAINMENT | Total = $122

In terms of drinks and eating out, this includes everything we don't prepare ourselves, even if we get something to go and eat it back on the boat. We also track how much we spend on books, magazines, DVD rentals and going to the movies in this category, as well as the occasional lottery ticket.


One of the great things about hanging out in Indiantown is that there really isn't all that much to spend your entertainment dollars on. But since Scott has been back, we have been going out to eat a bit more. Plus there have been a couple of times that we've been so tired from working on boat projects that we've gotten a pizza instead of making dinner ourselves.


COMMUNICATIONS | Total = $120

Our cell phone is actually one of our biggest non-boat related expenses. We have a $60 monthly GoPhone plan with AT&T which includes 8GB of data and unlimited calls and texts.


BOAT FUEL | Total = $68


We spent $28 on diesel for our inboard engine and $40 on gas for our outboard engine and our generator.


LPG | Total = $14

We use LPG (or propane) for cooking while we're out cruising. We filled up both of our tanks before heading out.


MARINA COSTS | Total = $593

Keeping Tickety Boo in a slip is one of our biggest expenses. The monthly cost of a slip with electricity at Indiantown Marina for a 34.5' boat is $572.40. The guys at the marina will also come pump out our holding tank on demand - $5.30 for each visit.


BOAT STUFF | Total = $1,791

This category is for all the stuff we've been buying for the boat and repairs and maintenance costs. During February we continued with our spending spree and bought a freshwater hand pump, a new bilge pump switch, some 3-strand nylon line, an auto pilot drive clamp kit, an auto pilot belt, an impeller for our outboard and lots of other bits and bobs.


TRANSPORT | Total = $62

This category is for costs related to our vehicle, mostly for gas to keep it going and drive into the nearby "big city" of Stuart for errands.


MEDICAL EXPENSES | Total = Nil

This category includes medical expenses outside of our monthly insurance premium (which aren't included here - see section on exclusions above), like over the counter medications, prescriptions and things for our medical kit. It also includes the costs of doctors visits and medical tests which aren't covered by our insurance.


OTHER | Total = $102

In this category, we break out how much we spend on clothes and travel expenses. We also include a catch-all miscellaneous group for stuff that doesn't fit neatly anywhere else - things like laundry ($3.25 for a wash and dry at Indiantown Marina). One of the things I bought last month was a new hat with a string on it to keep it on my head when the wind is blowing.

Are you surprised by how much we spent last month? Is it more or less than what you would have expected? Do you track your expenses?

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Wordless Wednesday | Lines On A Sailboat

Wordless Wednesday is supposed to be about posting a photo(s) without any words. But, I'm a rule breaker, so here are a few words:

1 - People give me disparaging looks when I call these things ropes. We have a lot of them on our boat.

2 - The proper term is "lines." There's an expression that there's only one rope on a boat and that's the one attached to the dinner bell.

3 - Just to make things more complicated, sometimes ropes are called "sheets."

4 - Don't even get me started on all of the other nautical terms I've had to learn. It makes my brain hurt.
   
What words does this picture(s) bring to your mind when you look at it?

For more Wordless Wednesday fun, click here. 

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Morning Coffee | Random Thoughts & Oddities

Image via The Graphics Fairy

Paul at Lat43 does these hysterical Morning Tea blog posts which are a brain dump of whatever pops into his head while he's writing them. I decided to steal his idea. Except, I'm drinking coffee while I write this and he drinks tea, so it isn't really stealing, is it?

So, here we go - all of the random nonsense floating through my head while I sip on my morning coffee.

• Today, we burn down the boat.

• You think I'm kidding, don't you?

• Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. It all depends how this morning goes. We're going to run the final experiment on our solar array (or disarray, as we like to call it). If it goes well, Tickety Boo lives to see another day. If it doesn't, well then you'll know why there's a dark cloud of smoke over Indiantown today. You know, there's dark clouds of smoke everyday here from the sugar cane field burning. No one will probably notice if we add one more dark cloud to the sky.

• Paul actually started drinking coffee. Nescafe of all things. Melissa from Little Cunning Plan has managed to draw another person into her mysterious cult of instant coffee. 

• What do you think we should drink at our boat burning party? Beer, wine, gin or all three?

• We'll have to remember to get the important stuff off of our boat before we burn it, like our passports and the secret stashes of cash I have squirreled around the boat.

• I hide cash in very clever places so that if anyone tries to rob us, they won't be able to find our cash and have to be content with the $20 and expired credit cards we have in our fake-out-the-robbers wallet which we leave on our chart table.

• The problem with secret stashes of cash is that sometimes I forget where they are. I found $300 hidden away months after we came back from the Bahamas last time. It was a nice surprise.

• The Bahamian dollar and the US dollar are on par. You can use the two currencies interchangeably. That's very handy for us Americanos.

• The Canadian dollar has been really weak against the American dollar. That makes the Canadians at Indiantown Marina sad. 

• The Canadian government is phasing out pennies. They don't have pennies in New Zealand. Pennies are annoying. We should get rid of pennies here. That would make America great again. 

• My mother taught me that pennies with their heads up were good luck and that you should pick them up. If it's tails up, you should turn it over and leave it so that the next person that comes by can pick it up and have good luck.

• I put all of the pennies I get in change into an old plastic jar. I think I'll leave them on the boat when we burn it down. 

• We could use some good luck with our solar array. Maybe I should empty my penny jar out and turn them all heads up.

• Scott has the headlights on our vehicle on to partially drain our car battery. It's all part of the Last & Best Hope for Our Solar (Dis-)Array Experiment. 

• We did this before and someone helpfully turned off our car lights. They felt bad later when they realized we had done it on purpose. I told them not to worry and that it was a very thoughtful and good Samaritan thing to do.

• I hear Scott making more coffee. I've already had enough coffee this morning. I've switched over to water. Later, at our boat burning party, I'll switch to beer, wine or gin. Or all three.

• I should probably go and witness the Last & Best Hope for Our Solar (Dis-)Array Experiment. Scott is so hopeful that this is going to be the answer. It's either this or our boat is haunted. 

• Maybe our boat is haunted. That would explain why the chocolate chip cookies keep disappearing.

I wrote this post a week or so before you're reading it. I wonder if the experiment worked. I wish Simon the Time Traveling Cat was around. He could take me forward in time to find out. That way I'd know whether to go to the store and buy streamers and balloons for our boat burning party or if I should start to do a final provisioning run before we head off to the Bahamas.

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