Slowly Heading Home

5/19/22

Yesterday we started the big uninstall after being settled in Key West for the past two weeks.

We had a small problem with the dinghy motor which Shaun managed to repair as there is a Yamaha dealer virtually at the dinghy dock there.

We had food to restock, items from the hardware store to pick up and so on. We enjoyed our last lunch on the waterfront and then brought the bikes and trailer back to the boat.

The heat was sweltering but the water is so crystal clear in the anchorage that you can see the bottom and so we just jumped in at the back of the boat whenever possible to cool off.

We still have our resident rodent with us. We have tried every conceivable way of trying to trap it to no avail…its so frustrating and we discovered that it is now eating at some of the wires along the hull so now its on. We read up to antifreeze which is highly poisonous but to our dogs too so we will put it in the engine rooms and see what happens. We are NOT looking forward to a dead rat smell in the heat on board but it’s now urgent.

We left Key West at daybreak and it would take us about 10 hours to get back to our favorite anchorage of all again.

The hours at sea leave room for thought and detaching from the “matrix” is just magical and what I love most

Once you stop watching TV and start watching the world, things shift. You realize how small you are in the scheme of things, how little you actually need and how much our planet matters

During this time I have written the next two children’s books in my series of three for Pirate Pete. Even though we have all of our comforts at the dock, its wonderful to trade our cars for bicycles, the gym for the beach and the ocean and the big open sky instead of a roof

People always ask us if we get bored when we are out but every day is different and our days are so full and different each day that we barely have time to sit still.

The other thing they always ask is what do you do when you want to get away from each other? We are fortunate enough to get along with each other so well. We can be quiet, together in the same space whenever we want to, but anyone who knows me, knows that that is not too often lol

Our resident rodent was eventually caught 15 days later after numerous attempts with traps, buckets, poison and so on.!! It was half alive after and we had to throw it overboard. Being animal lovers, we hated to do this, but it was the only way.

We spent 8 days at Tiger again then 2 nights at Panther Key before making our way to Marco Island. We docked, refueled, filled the water tanks and pumped out before anchoring in the basin for the night. I use an app to order the supplies we need from Publix and have that delivered to us so that we don’t have to carry it all which would require multiple trips

On the 31st we set sail bright and early at 7am for Boca Grande, The conditions were absolutely perfect and we put the auto pilot on to take us up and in.

We arrived at around 2pm and anchored in our favorite spot.

We would stay for a week enjoying the beach and Boca Grande. We went for lunches, picked up our good friends Philaine and Johnny on one day and took them to Cabbage Key for lunch too. We had one storm come through while we were there. The anchorage cleared out and it turned out just to be a heavy downpour overbite and nothing else

We headed up to Gulfport on a beautiful still, calm morning on June 7th and anchored mid afternoon

We stayed for a week, met friends for coffees and dinners and spent time at the beach too. After 2 months out on the water we were ready to be home and get back onto routine but so very thankful for the precious times we shared together again.

Yes, we ate too much, had far too many cocktails, stayed up too late on some nights but that’s what it’s all about. It can be a crazy time out there; dealing with he elements and there is never a dull moment for sure.

We feel overly relaxed if there is even such a thing, over tanned and happily blessed!

I wrote this little poem while were out which sums it up for me:

One of the things that we all do,

And it always does amaze

Is that we make time for other things

While we wait for better days

But better days they may not come

With lists of things to first be done

See time it simply marches on

as it waits around for us, not one

We primp and prep the little things

Before we’ll have some fun