Christmas on Agave

Avi is back on board, and we're having Christmas on Agave:

Besides that, we are getting ready for our next passage. 

Today we drove to Key West to go to the US Customs and Border Protection Officer to get Avi, Sayan, and Kehan's Small Vessel Registration System card (see post below for explanation).

We are also trying our new Single Side Band radio which will allow us to receive weather forecast faxes offshore. We have a free software that decodes the broadcasted faxes onto our laptops.  We'll get surface, wind, wave analyses several times a day. 

Our outboard engine is shutting itself down.  We got to service it. 

In the next few days, we'll repair the anchor light, try to repair the wind display instrument, change the engines oil, set up the liferaft on deck, pre-cook meals, etc...

An awesome week with the Romanos

The Romanos just left... They are great boat guests... easy, helpful, flexible.  It all went like a charm.  They left Agave better than they found it. We had an amazing week together and the one person missing of course was Avi. 

Let's recap the week in pictures:

On & nearby the water:

A manatee drinking fresh water dripping from the dock

By the water:

A ceremony for Opa, the kids'grandfather, ....

...whose ashes are to be disbursed to where ever Natasha travels

 

At the Marine Turtle's Hospital:

Yep, a turtle's ER... http://www.turtlehospital.org/blog/

A turtle with big tumors...

.... now removed.

How can one help these endangered animals?  Click on http://www.turtlehospital.org/

Around the dinner table:

Kids'favorite: chicken wings at Lazy Days..

Onboard:

Board games are popular

Yoga anyway one can...

You can't expect to come on Agave and not do some work...

Kehan fixing our flag

The Romano Family is coming...

You could feel the excitement on Agave: the whole day, we were at it scrubbing, cleaning, tidying up in anticipation of the arrival of the Romano family.

They made it by 6pm.  Next morning, Kehan and Isabella prepared breakfast for the 8 of us!  What a treat: delicious warm multi-grain waffles with nutella in the middle, strawberries all around, and the whole thing drizzled with maple syrup...

Recipe elaborated by Kehan.

 

We then headed for Key West where I had an appointment with a US Customs and Border Protection Officer to get our Small Vessel Registration System card which allows us to telephonically report the arrival of Agave and to make customs declarations, and be cleared without a face-to-face inspection.  After dealing with that (which was a long story not fun to recount), we went to the beach north and south of Key West.

Got back to Agave, had a nice dinner and we made the whole family watch Captain Ron, the movie... that is the fee you gotta pay to be on Agave....

An evening in Miami at the American Airlines Arena

Saturday Dec 14: end of the Miami Heat/Cleveland Cavaliers Basketball game-Score: 114/107 Hence the happy face of the fans!

A day in Marathon

Up by 6:30-7am when the sun comes up.  Check on the lines (holding the boat to the dock), batteries, cleaning up if it rained at night, weather and tide check, kids get up; breakfast; 9am cruisers' net on the VHF radio; boatschool; repairs and errands; lunch; finish some boatschool & boat work; then we head off to the City Marina to join all the other kids by 3 or 4pm....

Back around 6-6:30; cooking dinner with the boys help; we put on a movie - lately Hatari! with John Wayne -- or the boys go to the marina's Captain's Lounge to watch a sport game on TV.  Blog update; boat accessories/parts research on the internet; home/business affairs; and by 10-10:30 pm we'll call it a day.

Most long-timers liveaboard kids always walk around barefoot.