If you’re just tuning in, CLICK HERE to start at the beginning. 🙂
We’ve been anxiously awaiting our first real cold front while living aboard “No Tan Lines.” (“Tanny” for short.) And, we’ve been blessed with a whopper just before Halloween! It’s almost noon as I’m writing this and it’s sunny and only 64 degrees. The wind is blowing 20 mph so it’s quite crisp outside indeed…for Florida anyway!
Last night, when we were sitting in the cockpit, I realized that every one of my sweaters was in storage. So, I grabbed a blanket. Since nobody in the marina is running their air conditioners right now, we could hear everything…and I mean EVERYTHING our neighbors are saying on their boat. Ahem…. Learning from others’ mistakes, we spent the evening whispering.
At bedtime, Max took his blanket and pillow outside, and fell asleep in the cockpit. We had all our ports and hatches open and it was lovely curled up under the comforter! Rambo (Max’s cat) carouses the neighborhood after dark, and always returns around 2 a.m., crawls in our bed, begs for scratches, and curls up by my head.
I woke up around 3:00 a.m., and didn’t see Rambo on our bed. I assumed he was out in the cockpit with Max so I wasn’t too worried. Just then, I turned over in bed, and just so happened to open my eyes, glancing through the hatch above our bed. Two glowing eyes were staring back at me! After I sucked in my breath and woke up Richard with a yelp, I realized the eyeball glow belonged to Rambo. He was standing there above me, creepily staring at me as I slept. I pulled out the hatch screen, and pulled him into bed. He begged for scratches, purred really loudly, and then finally fell asleep.
This morning, we woke up freezing but we didn’t mind because it sure feels like Fall!
While it’s quite chilly, I’m glad because this weekend we’re attending our first outdoor Murder Mystery Dinner. My female gangster costume includes a dress, a blazer, and knee-high boots. I was NOT looking forward to wearing a blazer and boots in 88-degree heat!
The boats are “decked” for our favorite holiday of the year – Halloween! Here are some photos:
NEXT: TAKING CLASSES AT THE BOAT SHOW
* * *
Angela Hoy is a publisher, a blogger, and the author of 19 books. She lived on dirt her entire life before her family gave away almost everything they owned, and moved onto a 52-foot Irwin Center Cockpit Ketch. They all live, work, and play on board full-time.
Angela is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, a free source of paying markets for freelance writers and photographers. If you want to write for magazines, websites, businesses, or others, check it out. It’s free! Her publishing services company, BookLocker.com, has published more than 9,000 books over the past 18 years. If you want to publish a book, she’d love to hear from you! Abuzz Press is BookLocker’s hybrid publishing company. And, PubPreppers.com offers services to authors who are having their books published elsewhere.