A Sailors Plans Are Always Written In The Sand...At Low Tide!

5/24/23

We spent a day restocking our food supply back in Ft Pierce and doing a few errands while we still had our rental vehicle. We cleaned happy wife up again to continue our trip

I still fit in my workouts and did so before leaving at 10am. We took a video going through the bridge that kept us Stuart bound for the month of May! We were going to pick up a ball in Ft Pierce but they didn’t have one available at the location we chose. We chose a nearby anchorage as our plan B. We had a big sport fishing boat push us around just before we reached Fort Pierce. Broken glass was everywhere in the kitchen but almost all of everything on Happy Wife can fall over and not break just as I designed it to be. We ended up reporting him to the coast guard as it was such unnecessary behavior and it’s only the 2nd time all of our boating years that we have had to deal with an obnoxious (or intoxicated) captain this way!

We nostalgically visited the quaint Fort Pierce Downtown in the morning…This is where we found our Happy Wife 7 years earlier, almost to the day! In fact, the day before, a picture popped up on facebook and I was having lunch at the exact same time anchored here yesterday as I was having my first takeout lunch on board happy Wife (who was out on the hard right after our purchase) on May 24th 2016. Incredible.

We took a picture right next to the slip where she was docked and if felt so good to realize that the purchase we made was exactly the right one for Shaun and I. Follow your heart…it’s usually right!

We left at 6.30 in the morning to skip the very busy waterways over the memorial weekend and headed to our anchorage at Cocoa Village. We had storms all around us and had to wait out a heavy one for about an hour until we could make our way to anchor in the thick rain. We hired a car the second day and made our way over to Cocoa beach, which we always love to visit. Stocked up on a few necessities and shopped a little at our favorite surf shop, The Longboard House and took Cali to a dog park

Cali has had an upset tummy and so we both had a very unsettled night with her. During this period of sleeplessness, I came to a realization and couldn’t wait for Shaun to wake up to talk to him about it.

I have felt so uneasy since leaving our coastline. My mom is very, very frail (the main reason) and I realized during the night what has been actually been bothering me. Whenever we are home in Tampa, I want to be out, and when I’m out, I want to be back home. lol

But what I realized most, is that that whenever I dream of being away, it’s to go to the beaches or to anchor at our favorite private anchorage, where we are alone with the ocean. We are both so happy at any beach and going up the East Coast just does not fit well for me. Shaun was SO relieved when I told him how I was feeling. He was thinking just the same. We love the carefree bikini-clad island lifestyle, not the town style…no matter how cute or quaint…we decided we can visit there by car. plane or train lol

Let’s turn around! we decided! Let’s head back to the beaches and our Ten Thousand Islands where we can eat healthfully, workout, study, paint, and be creative.

Perhaps this city to city trip will suit us much, much later in life? I’m not sure. Will It? At least we’ve tried it and realize that the Florida Keys, The Bahamas, The Caribbean, is much more our laidback boating style. In short, we are true Floridian’s…it’s been decided!! :o)

And so it is that we stayed at Meritt island for the weekend so Shaun could surf a bit and began making our way back to our beloved coast as fast as we could. We have a commitment to be together with our family and friends in Kennebunkport, Maine for the week of July 4th. So we will leave Happy Wife in Marco Island while we enjoy a road trip up there and will come back to our happy home on the water.

Another thing we know for sure: a sailors plans are always written in the sands… at low tide!

My very dear friend Philaine shared a poem by Don Blading with me that I just love and it so epitomizes everything I feel and it goes like this :

The Double Life

How very simple life would be

If only there were two of me

A Restless Me to drift and roam

A Quiet Me to stay at home.

A Searching One to find his fill

Of varied skies and newfound thrill

While sane and homely things are done

By the domestic Other One.

And that's just where the trouble lies;