The Sad Facts Surrounding Our Current Lavatorial Plight

With tenuous wisps of sorrow, wrung from the once-supple sinews of a shimmering and momentaneously inexhaustible faith, will they, in successive dawn-brought bursts, tread, with or without malice, through the ruins of their legacies, those woebegone remnants of possibility ravaged by the myopic zeal of their ancestors.

Ah, but sadly, one cannot spend all one's time penning a pasquinade of Faulkner's prose style. Some days, one must look for a hose. Not really "a hose," which is to say not just any hose or even, for that matter, just any category of hose, but a special, nay, in fact, singularly unique type of hose. A plumbing hose, a hose that will, by its very purpose and design, enable us to use one of our two heads.

Ship Shape

Hard at work as usual

So often do I find that this life we now lead, this life we have adopted, is a life steeped in mystery and wonder. Every so often in the evening as I watch the sun take its last bow, a good stiff whiskey on the rocks close at hand, my mind drifts and I find myself pondering them. It is ever a mystery to me, for instance, why we aren't dead yet. I perpetually wonder why this boat breaks down so often and why any of it works at all. And I muse about other cruisers and how they don't look as fat as I'm getting. 

Eons ago, while we were in the too-stupid-to-turn-back-while-there's-still-time phase, I was told repeatedly how cruising would get and keep me in the best shape of my life.  "It's a very active lifestyle," "You'll work harder than you've ever worked," "Great for your core muscles" were just a smattering of the reasons given as to why I would, like the legion of scrawny sailors who had gone before, never need to count my carbs or watch my waistline again. In tallying the results of the surreptitious glances unbefitting heterosexual men that I have cast upon other guys (for the record, I do not glance at women surreptitiously or otherwise just in case my mother was being truthful when she said doing so would instantaneously fry my eyeballs--who wants to chance that?), I have to admit that it does seem to be the case. Most guys, if not buff, are at least not puffy. This leads me to believe that, as with countless other aspects of the cruising lifestyle, I am doing something wrong. How do they stay in shape? There just aren't that many ways to exercise on a boat, especially not aerobically exercise.

Salt, Salt Everywhere

Our days are numbered here at the marina.  They number 6 as of today.  By God, that's our story.  That's the plan and come hellish weather and high water we're outta here...well, at least to Boot Key Harbor around the corner.  We utter this as a declaration now to all who, with unnerving smirks, ask when we'll be leaving.  Our slip lease expires on the 10th and if we do not leave as planned there is only one explanation.  We died and didn't notice.  If that's the case, you can probably guess to which eternal plane of existence we'd believe that we'd been relegated.

Easy peasy

All this pondering of being bewitched, falling victim to a conspiracy, facing doom, suffering eternal damnation and whatnot has been brought about by the freak circumstances that surround the demise of our generator.  The generator, mind you, that energetically supports our brand spankin' new air conditioner and the old one as well and that without which we will surely wilt whilst in the tropics.

Pretty as a Pixel

Some pictures are worth more words than others.  Up to now, sad to say, every shot we've taken has been either on a smartphone or on an entry level point-and-shoot camera.  If some have looked amazingly good, it's likely that they got cosmetic assistance a la Photoshop.  

Since beginning this adventure, I've gotten to experience the torture, albeit only mild to moderate, of losing both pictures and fish (and yes, even pictures of fish).  My fortune as a fisherman will likely only improve with experience, but technology has ameliorated my photo woes in a, er, snap.

After extensive research, we chose a Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ47.  Consumer Reports categorizes it as a "point-and-shoot super zoom."  We decided this was the best choice for the money we were willing to spend.

Here's the dif:  (All shots composed on cameras' "auto" setting.)

Bougainvillea shot with htc smartphone

Bougainvillea shot with Lumix

Marina shot with htc smartphone

Marina shot with Lumix

 'Nuf said?