It’s still a bit chilly down here at the top of the Gold Coast of Florida. Bob keeps posting photos on Facebook, saying how cold we are, and you can imagine the responses from friends living in New England! They are NOT sympathetic!
However, we are cold! Try living outside in 50-degree temps with near gale force winds. There is no going inside for the day when you are under way; you simply must stand in the chilly gale in order to steer the boat and navigate. Then after 12 – 14 hours of this you can go down below which is the same chilly temperature, but at least without wind, and try to warm up. In the long run we get into bed each night as cold as we’ve been all day, and get up each morning still cold. Oh! And I should mention that at least half the days onboard there is no hot water, so I also have to wash up with 50-degree water in my tiny 50-degree head (boat-ese for bathroom). It’s not all bliss down here!
But I admit it looks pretty blissful….Pandora on a mooring in Vero Beach….she’s the boat at center in the distance.
But the sea life, the birds and the plants don’t seem to be suffering. We still see dolphins playing around us every single day as if life is very good indeed! Yesterday Bob missed the most exciting photo opportunity of this year. We were several miles offshore, sailing from Ft. Pierce to Lake Worth, and at one point we passed a giant sea turtle! It was right near the boat! The turtle’s shell was almost 5 feet in diameter, and his head was like a cantaloupe! Bob said he raised his head and looked right at Pandora! I missed this auspicious moment because I was in a stugeron– induced fog due to always being seasick when we are offshore!
Such lush ivy growing on a wonderful tile. The climate is certainly mild enough for tiles outside!
Doesn’t this palm frond make a lovely headdress for Bob?
Every year Bob and I plant a window box of herbs and flowers that becomes my little garden onboard. It’s my one little connection to life on land. This year I could not get to my favorite nursery in Ft. Pierce, so I’ve had to make do with plants from the Lowes that was right on the bus route in Vero. I’ve got a small mint and parsley plant and two red geraniums. I hope they will thrive as well as the plants in previous years. This little bit of green and red makes me so happy!
I need to knuckle down on my little landscape tapestry. Time is growing short if I am to finish this in time to send it off to Scotland for an exhibit of miniature tapestries called “Postcards from Home.” First it will travel to New Hampshire where it will be boxed up with other tapestries before it goes on its journey across the Atlantic. Doing this piece has made me realize that I’d like to do a series of miniatures based on the changing scenery we find as we head south each winter. It will be a nomad’s view of winter along the US East Coast. But first, I need to stop weaving/unweaving and just finish #1 of this series! At this point I am not ready to photograph it! It still has so much that disappoints me….hopefully soon it will be looking better.
And I’m making good progress on the Carol Sunday sweater, “For Irene.” There was a glitch with the sleeves, but once again, Carol came to my rescue very quickly. I had gotten an email ages ago saying there was a corrected version of the pattern available with a link . When I followed the link and downloaded the new pattern I really couldn’t see any differences between the two, but I figured I just wasn’t looking carefully enough. Well, it seems I have two copies of the un-corrected pattern. Carol very nicely sent me the corrected pattern as an attachment. It does mean that I had knitted most of a sleeve where I kept fudging the lace pattern in order to get it centered. I have set that aside to knit the correct version and am now nearing the end. I will then rip out the first sleeve and knit it again. If I can just make some good progress on my little tapestry I will get this sweater done in no time! And if it does get done soon I’ll be wearing it too!
Bob and I vacuum packed our down coats and wool sweaters about a week ago. We regret that but haven’t yet taken the plunge to dig them out. We did UN-vacuum seal one of our blankets though since we’ve been very cold at night after all the long hours of standing in the wind and chill each day. That means we hae 3 lightweight blankets on us at night! Anyway, I’ll be happy to have another new sweater to wear!
I’ll close with this morning’s sunrise. I was up for it, but it was Bob who took the shot!
