Margaritas and Turkeys

The beginning of November was actually uneventful. We realized that working on the boat all weekend long usually results in something else breaking or going wrong… and it always happened around 5:00pm. So our official quitting time from all boat labor activities became 4:30-5:00pm.

At that time, we would stop and do what we saw all the other boaters do…. sit around outside, drank margaritas, watch the rental boats crash into the docks, grill and eat food, talk about what our neighboring boat will look like when it shows up, and mosey over to watch the sunset. We also learned a few more songs on the ukulele, and would have band practice at night in the boat.

Speaking of margaritas… one of the seasonal couples that comes down to live on their boat during the winter, hosts what’s known as Margarita Monday’s on their boat. Each Monday during “season” they give out margaritas to dock dwellers and staff that pass by.

Since we are one of the few non-retired liveaboards at the marina, we missed the first three Margarita Monday’s in a row! Finally they decided to make a random day honorary margarita day just for us, so we went aboard and got to meet Mike & Marleen and their pup Heidi. That’s when I had one of the best margaritas I ever tasted!

The actual best margarita I’ve had was from Tequila Grille, in Charlotte Hall, MD, which I visited shortly after. While we didn’t plan on going to Maryland for the holidays this year, the sudden loss of my Grandfather prompted us to travel home Thanksgiving week.

It was a short visit, and we were back in Florida before Thanksgiving Day. As we arrived home and walked the dock to our boat, I stopped and starred. I told Tiff, “You won’t believe what kind of boat is next to us.” And sure enough, it was another 51ft Bluewater Coastal Cruiser, literally our twin!

We chuckled as we both said “are you serious??” We thought Bluewater’s were somewhat uncommon, and now our marina had four of them!

We celebrated Turkey Day at the Mullen’s household for obvious reasons. While our boat does have an oven, it’s not very big, and we hadn’t used it much to trust it with baking an entire bird. So, to avoid our vision of exploding boats and flames as described in previous blogs, we quickly volunteered the Mullen’s to host our “Friends-giving” dinner.

We loaded up the dock cart with pies, pumpkin beer, and my grandmothers mac n’ cheese ingredients and headed to see our “land friends.” As I dragged the cart with half of our Thanksgiving meal down the dock, Tiff stopped to snap a pik, laughing and giving thanks for the interesting, quirky, adventurous lifestyle we had chose for ourselves.

As November passed we watched more and more boats fill the marina. We had heard that the marina would come to life once the snow-birds arrive, and so we anxiously awaited.

For those unfamiliar with the term, snow-birds are the seasonal residents, usually at least 60 years or older, whom flock down south to escape the cold winter months. Most are retired and own a second home, or boat, in Florida, where they spend four to six months of the year basking in the sun-shine and causing traffic jams with their horrible driving skills.

Would the snow-birds like us young whipper-snappers? Would we like the snow-birds?? Only time would tell! For now, we just enjoyed each day of peace and quiet and beautiful waterfront views all around us.