We Are Here…finally!

We are finally on SYL in Ft Myers, Florida though it was like walking through wet cement to get here.  We left the lake with hugs and waves and high expectations of being on SYL at long last in about 48 hours.  We were well on our way, making good time and as we approached the “Mandeville Triangle” as we have recently coined Mandeville, La; Rusty told me we better call our dear friends Michael and Guiann Carpenter and let them know we are passing thorough and stop and say hello if they are free.  Rusty also add, “we don’t want any car problems”.  We have made this trek from Texas to Florida for many, many years when we were bare boat chartering are when we leave SYL in Georgia and several times we have had car trouble, I am taking MAJOR car trouble like losing a transmission kind of car trouble.  Michael and Guiann always helped us by loaning us cars, putting us up in their home and treating us like royalty.  I called Guiann and made arrangements for us to stop by.  Guiann wanted us to spend the night but we really wanted to get a few more miles toward Ft Myers.  It was not fifteen minutes later that the car started dying.  We had to pull over several times, turn the car off and start again.  We called Guiann and made arrangements to spend the night.  We had always joked that Guiann, the quintessential southern belle, placed a “voodoo” on our car so we would have to stay.  We love, love, love Guiann and Michael and staying at there home is like staying at a 5 star resort but it seemed we were usually on a tight time schedule.

Early the next morning Rusty took our car to the Dodge dealership and we were told we needed not one two fuel pumps.  We had gotten bad gas.  We asked if they could expedient the parts and it seemed the best they could do was Friday, this was Tuesday, and if it didn’t come in Friday then it would be the next week.  Rusty found some after market fuel pumps he could get in by Wednesday at 6:00pm but Dodge wouldn’t install them.  Rusty decided he would do the install, which he did and we were on the road again Thursday.  Schedules changed for the couple we had hired to take the boat the Marathon and they needed to leave ASAP.  We found this out Wednesday before the parts were in.  We couldn’t guarantee we would be on the road by Thursday so we spent Wednesday on the phone trying to figure out what our options were.  We had planned on Mark and Julie taking our car home but they really needed to get home and we  couldn’t be sure when we  could make that happen.  Ultimately we had friends who live in Ft Lauderdale that said they would come get the car and keep it at their house for us……………these were friends we met in the Bahamas in 2010 who have a Seawind 1000 like ours.  We rented Mark and Julie a rental car one way to Corpus so they didn’t have to wait on us.  It all worked out well.

We contacted the water taxi and told them our stationwagon was packed and could we transport our “stuff” as well as us to our boat.  We were told “no problem, I will even have someone to help you”.  Awesome!!  Well when we get there, there is this older fella that was none to thrilled about our stuff and said he didn’t have any help and we would have to do the loading.  So he talked on his cell phone, complaining about the time it was taking for Rusty to haul all our stuff from the car to the loading dock.  We filled up half the water taxi.  Rusty was not feeling great but he got it all done.

I had not been on the boat in months and it had been a long, long time since she had had a “deep cleaning”.  We had quite a bit of repairs done but everything else was pretty much the way Rusty brought it back from Florida a couple of years ago.  There were can  foods that had leaked and created quite a mess, so much stored food that was out of date, etc.   I have never provisioned this way before and I hope I never have to provision this way again. Usually I clean everything from top to bottom and provision in stages.  I buy a little put it away, buy more, put it away, tec.   We only had the car for yesterday morning so Rusty went to the store with a list for what I thought we would need for the entire trip.  Trying to clean out everything while the boat is cluttered and I mean cluttered, is awful.  I started out cleaning like I normally do and organizing everything but this is not going to work.  I have changed to taking everything out and cleaning things thoroughly but to say I am organizing what I put back well………I am using the “stuffing” technique for now.

I cleaned the stove but when I asked Rusty to remove the stove so I could clean behind it he looked at me like “really?”.  I guess that can wait…Rusty is still feeling pretty weak and runs out of gas quick.  The refrig, freezer and major storage areas have been emptied, clean and now I am just “stuffing” things and making list of where I have “stuffed” things.

Rusty is off to the store for fresh produce that he didn’t get yesterday and I am taking a break from cleaning to write this.  Well, back to cleaning and “stuffing”.

We are on our boat and we are in Florida……………We are choosing to be happy!!!!!

Sea Yawl Later!!

Linda