Our last day at the dock; got up early and showered. Sometimes it is a necessity. Guess I had gotten to that point!
Headed over to the Green Market afterwards to find
breakfast and fill up on fresh fruit and produce. Gorgeous day; warm with just a little chill
in the air to make it bearable. On the way
over, I came across a parade of ibises high-stepping it across a main road;
they each stopped to check some spot in the road, but I hurried them along
because while the pace of life is supposed to be free and easy down here, the
driving certainly is not. 
The outdoor market is located right by an
ampitheater and the main road of the town of Stuart. I could hear faint music and realized that
the voice singing sounded so much like my friend Stuart Whitford that I had to
walk over and see what the heck he was doing in town. It ended up being someone else, but the voice
similarity was uncanny.
Honey, hummus,
and honeydews line stalls.
Delicious smells came from the conch fritter lady, but I was pulled in
by the crepe man; his recipe is from his wife's family in France from about
1907. He's tweaked the recipe to
incorporate rice flour and coconut milk.
I opted for a savory omelette and it was delicious, so filling, yet
light at the same time. Reminded me of
the creperies on almost every corner in Paris.
C'est bon!
A tap on my shoulder announced my son's arrival, so
he got a crepe, too. He chose
strawberry, banana, and Nutella. Another
delicious treat.
When he heard the music, he looked at me quizzically
and asked, 'Is that Stuart?" We
both laughed when I told him I had reacted in exactly the same way.
Elliott, being the motorhead that he is, noticed a
guy driving by in an older, fantastic 1973 Ferrari. He waved, the guy waved, and we noticed that
he had a parrot on his shoulder. A
little while later, he came over to the market.
Elliott said hello and told him how much he adored his car. The parrot was chatting amiably, too. After a few minutes of Elliott's drooling
over the car and finding out that he knew Alain De Cadenet (well known LeMans driver and the commentator of some DVDs Michael Carter loaned Elliott), the owner said, "You can go sit in it if you want,"
pointing to the direction in which it was parked. Amazed, we walked over to the car, which was
unlocked with the window rolled down.
Elliott got in it and grinned from ear to ear. I know his heartrate was up, too.
While we were still there, the owner of the car
returned with his jar of local honey and the bird still perched on his
shoulder. Elliott thanked him for the
hands-on car experience and gave the guy his card. Then the parrot started making noises again,
this time a very distinct "Meow."
We laughed and then the parrot mocked my laugh almost perfectly dead
on. Freaky.
We went back to our shopping. Got some hummus with jalapeno, German
stollen, sourdough bread, finger bananas, and some nice vegetables from an
organic farmer. Since we were expecting
a guest, we hightailed it back to the boat to take care of some chores before
his arrival.
We filled the water tank, got rid of trash, and
tidied up. It got hot quickly, so all
vestiges of my great shower in the morning got sweated right out of my
pores. Elliott and I took a break to watch the phosphorescence float by
the boat. Interesting creatures; blobs
of clear blobness, but veins of disco-light liquid pulsing through their veins
made them a rainbow of color. Very cool.
Our friend, Dave, arrived and we retired to the boat
for a quick tour and some great conversation.
This guy is an adventurer and loves to travel. He told me about a recent trip he'd taken to
hike part of the spiritual Camino de Santiago.
He said that I would love it; I don't know. Hiking for hours a day? But the way he talked about it definitely
piqued my interest. I'm almost always up
for something new.
Gary had biked into town to get some hardware and a
few more groceries. While Dave and I
were sitting in the cockpit chatting, we noticed a large powerboat coming in
slowly and looking at us, a lot. Dave
offhandedly mentioned that maybe they were looking for C-14, our slip. We laughed and continued chatting until one
of the marine folks rolled down the dock and stopped at our pier, didn't even
look at us, but radioed out to the boat that yes, this was the slip, and that
they (us) would be leaving in 15 minutes.
We were? Oops. News to us.
Right then, a red and sweaty Gary rolls up and said
that we're leaving now and to come and get the hose (which was attached to the
dock.) (Just so you know, there was nothing criminal in this activity; we had said we would be out that day, but just a little later than they thought.) Dave and I hopped up and helped
and we were underway and out within 7 minutes; take that, marina dude!
Elliott had been in the lounge, so we didn't have
time to let him know we were leaving.
Imagine his surprise as he came down the dock, raised arms like
"What?", as we were motoring out.
We told him we'd pick him up later.
Bwahahahaha!
We had decided to use a mooring ball, but instead of
going straight to it, we took a little sail around the river, giving Dave a
little more experience and some time at the helm.
Hooked up the ball fairly easily; this was our first
time. Settling in again, we talked about
boats and travel until the sun started floating towards the horizon. We headed to shore to get Elliott and have a
drink (or two) before Dave had to drive back to his friend's house for a
lobster feast. It was a great visit and
I hope he knows he's welcome back anytime.
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