A few days ago we had the great pleasure of spending the afternoon with a friend we know from SpiritFire, the fire festival in New York we attend every year (also the place where K. and I met). Katherine, a warm and generous woman who is a kick-butt drummer, has connections in the Keys and had been here for the last few weeks. On her last day here we finally managed to connect up with her and she drove us around in her car so we could run errands that are difficult to do on foot or bike. So we went to Home Depot and got big pieces of wood we are using to create new hatchboards and cockpit locker lids, and tons of groceries, etc. She was an angel to us! We have been missing our “fire family” so much, and to make even a brief connection with someone from our fire tribe was food for our souls!! Thank you Katherine!

So Katherine is also a sailor, and a hardy one at that! She made an epic trip to Antarctica on a sailboat a number of years ago. Since then, however, she has been mostly kayaking, and we were talking about the simple pleasures of wee boats that paddle. A lot of people around here have kayaks on their sailboats, and we have been looking enviously at lots of them for awhile now. There are tons of very shallow areas around tiny islands here that are perfect for exploring in a kayak. The other day, K. went to West Marine to get a few bolts, and came back with a brand new tandem inflatable kayak that was on sale for half off! It’s a truly marvelous thing: it’s very lightweight, it collapses very small when not in use, it’s surprisingly durable, easy to use, and it was really cheap!….in short, we are absolutely in love with it and are going out this afternoon to paddle to our hearts delight.

Wanna come out and kayak with me? There are two seats!