Well it has happened. My diving episode in these cold harbor waters has caused me to contract some dread disease which my father would have called the Epizootic. If it was really bad it was called the Creeping Epizootic. More on this later.
We are still in Fairhope, AL and getting eager to move on. But weather has been uncertain and the Admiral is hesitant to go. She paces the shore scanning for weather signs. We have an unwritten rule. In order to travel both of us must agree. Either one can veto a departure if they feel uncertain. A storm that was due today did not materialize and this could have been a good day but we already had a rental car and plans to see the town.
We left the marina with Pat Goewey and ran several errands first. Then we hit the downtown area. This is a great little town and you could spend a month here. Bought a few souvenirs and even a Christmas present for a certain little girl named Maggie. There are cats everwhere just like in Key West. All I saw were fluffy Persians.
We went back to the marina and picked up Ken for lunch at the R. Bistro. This is a must stop for lunch. It was so good we took six orders of frozen stroganoff to go and put them in the freezers for further down the road.
There is a small castle in Fairhope named appropriately Fairhope Castle. We walked there from the Eastern Shore Art Gallery which had a giant heron out front. Look at fairhopecastle.com for more info.
When we returned to the boat I tackled a small but nagging project. An amber indicator light that tells when the freshwater pump is switched on had burned out months ago. It is a bulb about the size of a little lady pea and has two wires the size of thread that have to be soldered in place. It is delicate work and I was not really up to it because a steady hand is required but between fits of coughing I got it done and will sleep better as a result.
Back to the Creeping Epizootic. I must have inhaled some bacteria from the water. There is always some fuel film floating around and some folks are too lazy or too cheap to pump out a waste tank so they illegally pump overboard. All I know is that I have a runny nose, sore throat, cough, sneezing and sinus pain. Thankfully I had the foresight to have my doctor give me a prescription for amoxicillin before we left so I have started that. If there are no more blogs I will have expired. If I recover we have a meeting tomorrow with the Harbor Host to review the route from here to Tarpon Springs. Don’t worry, I have survived worse many times.
