A broken windlass, a fuel tank leak, and the resulting delays mean nothing when something as tragic as the school shooting in Connecticut occurs.  Yes, we would like to have been in The Bahamas by now and yes we don’t like spending extra BOAT dollars (Bring Out Another Thousand) on marina fees, we also understand how we fortunate we are to be living this life.  While Seas the Day might be a cutesy name for a boat, we often reflect on how accurately it describes our lives.

We are still in North Palm Beach because our windlass won’t be delivered until Monday.  We left Stuart one week ago and have come about 25 miles.  However, if we have to be somewhere waiting, this neighborhood is wonderful.  The photo above is the walkway next to our boat slip, which leads  past condos to the marina office, laundry facility, restaurant, cruisers’ lounge, showers, etc.  Besides being pretty to look at, it’s a pleasant area to walk Daisy.  Daisy simply likes all the smells in the grass and doesn’t fully appreciate the beauty of our surroundings.

Of all of the places we have stayed at during the last four years, this area has the best variety of nearby stores and other places we need within walking and/or biking distance.  Of course we have been visiting the Starbucks each day enjoying “buy one, get one free” and along the way we have stopped at the grocery store, drugstore, West Marine, and even a Bed, Bath and Beyond.  There is a Tuesday Morning, Steinmart and numerous other stores as well as dozens of restaurants within a mile.  Two miles away, an easy bike ride, is the gigantic upscale Palm Beach Gardens Mall.  We haven’t needed to go there, but might before we leave.  I had forgotten to buy a 2013 desk calendar for the chart table and sure enough, we found an Office Depot a few blocks from the marina. 

Today was wash day.  I did the laundry, Mark washed scum off the sides and bottom of the boat and Daisy got a bath and haircut. Later, Mark installed LED lights in the salon.  We’ve wanted to do this for a long time, as LED’s take much less power and are a great deal brighter than regular lights. We have delayed this purchase as they are expensive and there are 12 overhead lights in the salon with many others in the cabins, heads,companionways, and outside in the cockpit.  Eventually, we’ll replace them all.  Stopping at the new West Marine on US 1 yesterday, we left with much more than we had on our list.  I’m sure drivers who passed us as we rode our  bikes back to the marina chuckled since Mark had a boat chair strapped to his back and we had bags hanging from our arms, handlebars, and in the bike baskets.  Mark had the big desk calendar balanced on his basket.  Quite a sight and no doubt a regular occurrence when cruisers stop and shop here.