Ooh ooh, that smell, can you smell that smell?

Notice the blue gloves. I think if I had that job, I might want one of
those for my whole body (including my whole head) because
you never know what could  escape and slime you. But that's just me.

We had our holding tank pumped out today. For those of you without boats or RVs, "holding tank" is an innocuous sounding name for a disgusting box of fermenting excrement that accumulates over multiple days (in our case, 10 days, 4 people--if you get the picture, then I apologize). We are too close to land to dump our human waste, so it goes into the tank.

Here at Lake Sylvia, there is a boat that comes around and pumps your poop out for you (in many places you have to dock). I'm not squeamish, but I don't even like to check the tank to see how full it is (you just look at the translucent tank, but still), so $20 for boat-to-boat service to pump out 25 gallons of week-old stinky slime seems very reasonable. Of course pumping it out means you have to open up said disgusting box...I used to think garbage trucks smelled bad.  Trust me, they have nothing on the smell of the pump-out boat in action.

We had a great evening with some boat friends (Waterbug and Spirit) back at Lauderdale Marine Center and the boys got the chance to run around with other kids for a change. It was fascinating to hear about the experiences of more seasoned cruisers. We learned what an ocarina is and that New Zealand requires that you have a bucket on board your boat.

We were also able to pick up some packages that we had shipped from various places. Among the goodies were Easter chocolate, board games, and books sent by both sets of grandparents (we were forced to confiscate some of the dark chocolate--because it's...bad for the kids.  Yeah, that's the ticket). The boys loved it.

Here is a picture of Conrad swimming/taking his needed bath off the back of the boat. While the water isn't poop-filled,  it is far from the crystal clear azure waters of the Bahamas. The picture doesn't do justice to the brownish tannic water of the intracoastal waterway.  It will be good to get things fixed and move on out of here...