Sat:There is a light at the end of the tunnel......15th............

Praise God !! We have sunshine!! It's not raining!!

Jean Marc, the French Canadian from Montreal has lost his marina key/card. The marina will charge him $150.00 US dollars if it is not recovered before he leaves. Poor guy he's had a rough time of it. So I'll go shower and look around.....I searched everywhere (even the men's stalls) nothing. While I'm blow drying my hair, some woman knocks on the door and ask's if she left HER key/card in there! How you could lose this thing in the first place is beyond me.(Except in JeanMarc's case. His stepson may have taken it with him when he was flown back to Canada. He's very ill.........note: see yesterday's blog.) Anyway, this key is attached to a huge wooden lighthouse. I'm talking 12 inches high, 10 inches across the bottom and say 5 across the top. then you have a key and a metallic card attached by a little chain. I don't know but I guess some people take them apart so they don't have to carry this big thing around with them. In fact we've started teasing people when we see the lighthouse sticking out of there back pocket. "Hey, whered ya go?" or "Where ya goin?" So, hence the lost key.

A couple of large sport fisher's left this morning early and are OK. Another one left later and came back saying how awful it was.

I'm glad we are sitting tight.

Kim and I took "BOTH" bikes and trekked off to the ACME market for provisions. This is an important point because once AGAIN I was right :- ) . The bikes are a great asset to have. Gary balked at taking 1 and then we "discussed " the value of 1 bike. Roy was monumental in the decision to take the other bike. Thanks Roy......:-) To rent one is 8 bucks a day! AND What a gorgeous day for a bike ride.We had a great time trying to navigate the bikes with the traffic and then with all the groceries. Under such a heavy load our tires complained, but we made it back before any major repairs were neccessary.

Upon our return we realized that the boys (Gary, Jean Marc, Bill and David) were on the "Magoli". Earlier some new friends Bill and Leona sailed in on the "Voyageur C ". The bimini (sun cover) was folded up and the sun poured down on a thankful happy group. The crowd grew from there. The crowd consisted of Gary, Victoria n Brittany (Victoria), David and Kim (Amanzi), Jean Marc (Magoli), and Bill n Leona Voyageur C".

As the afternoon wore on the crowd dispersed and everyone went about getting chores done, preparing dinner, Kim mended my rain jacket, and some got the community grill ready. Jean Marc (pronounced John Mark for you American types) shared a trick to getting a charcoal fire going like he learned in Africa. It worked great! The atmosphere was jovial.

* Now I'm gonna tell you a little background story. Ever since weve been staying here we walk Eddie (our Corgi) around on a leash. While walking past the office a few times we noticed a gorgeous and VERY aggressive German Shepard up on the second floor. Her name is Gretel. I spoke briefly one day to the owner and she said the dog was a gift, but she's crazy, ...literally. She's even had her looked at by professionals. Anyway, the dog would spot Eddie and stand up on the sliding glass door and dig at the glass. Like..........frantically. It is scary and I told the owner that. Keep this in mind while I go on with my story.

So, where was I? The atmosphere was jovial. I decided to get some ice before they closed so I set off up the dock ramp. It was low tide so it was uphill. :-) Anyway, Gary was up by the grill and he had Eddie with him..........off the leash. So I'm walking to the ice cooler and within seconds ...I looked up, the son of the owner is diving for the leash, I'm sure he got hurt cause he fell on the gravel .........and the dog broke away from him. She ran kinda confused and then stood still looking menacing. I'm standing within like 10 feet of her hiding in the ice cooler, using the door to stand behind. Well bone head Eddie runs right at her, Gary's yelling, the guy's yelling, I'm hiding and trying to process everything that's going on. Now Eddie always ACTS tough, but he never expected Gretel to really bite him. But she did. I heard Eddie yelp and he tried to get away as fast as those little legs could take him. but he wasn't fast enough. I didn't see any blood till I got back to the boat. It was a surface wound, no bone or anything. Hardly even bled. I put some macurachrome on it. It's a little sore if he bumps it, but I think he'll be fine. We'll have to watch it for infection etc. But scary...........I was shaking.

After everything settled down we got together around the outdoor grill and started eating. People brought what they had and noone went hungry. Then the real fun began. Jean Marc brought out all the musical instruments he has on board. Kim brought out some real cool spoon's. Brittany played some guitar (JeanMarc) is an excellent teacher (Brittany said). Gary even played the harmonica. A great time was had by most (unless you were on a nearby boat and not interested in joining in) . We made up songs like Ode to Jean Marc, and a couple of unamed tunes with lyrics revolving mostly about the weather and getting out of NJ!!! WOO HOO looks like Monday................................... time will tell, and I'll tell YOU as soon as we know. Oh, my gosh...look at the time 12:12AM ! !! Time flies when your having funnnnnnn.........................!!!!

Note: in the picture from left to right is Bill, Gary, Jean Marc, Kim, Brittany, Leona, and David.