Last night was my first sleeping on the boat down here, and I'll have to say it wasn't too bad...until about 5 in the morning. Let me tell you, I haven't seen 5 in the morning since I worked at Channel 9's morning show. Apparently that's when all of the fishing boats here in the marina have decided is the best time to leave and provide all the fishies with a nice breakfast. Wonderful. So, needless to say that's when my boat started rocking back and forth because of all their wake. Honestly, it wouldn't have been near as bad if it wasn't so cold. Who knew that it was cold down here in the winter? Anyway, so it took a little while to get back to sleep, but I figure it won't take long to get use to the motion of the boat.

I finally decided to brave the cold and wander out of the berth around 7:30. It was time to mark another 'first' off my list. It was time for my first marina shower. If you've taken a look at the boat then you know I don't have my own shower, so I'm at the mercy of the marina. Luckily, Bear Point has two bathrooms, both with showers. One of them is for the general public, and the other is keyed, and is for boat owners that reside at the marina (I'm one of about 20 or 30 who live on their boat here). I apparently caught it at the right time, because the better one, (the one that's normally locked) wasn't occupied so I was good to go. It is kinda weird knowing that you have no clue who all you're sharing this shower with, but it seems to be pretty clean, so I'm not that worried about it.

After all that was over, it was time to get a few things done in town. I opened up a bank account, and then went to talk to MediaCom about getting hooked up with internet for the boat. That all worked out pretty good, because they've got a special going on for the next 2 months so I'll get cable internet for less than $25 a month. Not too shabby. The only problem is that they can't come install it until Wednesday. Eh...good enough. They had signs everywhere posted that they were hiring installers immediately...hmm, I'm betting I could do that job without training...I grabbed an application and decided to sit on it until I see what happens. Later, I rode by the Florabama, and it seems that they're hiring. The soonest interview they had was Wednesday. Go Figure. Sorry momma...this place is legendary...I gotta give it a shot.

For dinner I rode over to Foley and met Matt Huff at Lambert's. Home of the Throwed Rolls. Matt's a trip and I look forward to riding over to Mobile and hanging out with him some. After dinner he rode back over to take a look at my setup. As we were walking to the boat, we met Byron. His boat is over in the calmest part of my side of the marina. If it's on the gulf coast, Byron's seen it...I think he's been all around here. At one point he was giving me pointers on sneaking into Cuba. After a while, I couldn't really remember exactly why I was trying to sneak into Cuba, but I now know how if I ever decide that's an option.

After Matt left, I noticed that there were a couple of guys hanging out around a fire pit on the other side of the marina so I walked over there to see what was going on. I met Randy and Sailboat Terry. Randy has a powerboat over on that side, and turns out that Sailboat Terry lives on 'Serenity Now' and is only about 3 boats down from me . He said that somebody had made him start drinking, but for whatever reason, his vodka bottle was practically empty, so it promised to be an interesting evening.

Terry is probably in his late 30's and has been living on his boat for the last 5 or 10 years. He tends bar in the summer, and does odd boat jobs in the winter and seems to be living fairly well. He hopes to save up some money and one day start a bar in the Dry Tortugas. I love his boat...(I'll try and get some pictures up of these people, or at least their boats). Anyway, by the end of the night, he'd taken me for about $1.25 worth of nickels in cards and told me he'd talk to some people and find me a job. Who knows?