Where are we going?

Back to Florida the slow route. This is Don's new passion - well not that new ...the car or the passion. Another boat without a shower I say.

Where have we been?

October 11,2009 ~ Where have we been? Working ! 36 privately owned homes for weekly summer rentals - yikes - that proved to be a little much.

What were we thinking ~ somehow when we got back to Maine we just dove in to land life – Don helped his cousin John through a very difficult time with bladder cancer. We are happy to report John is doing quite well and is wintering…brrrr….in the windy city of Chicago with his daughter and her family. I got totally and completely engrossed is pulling in reservations in a tentative economy. A lot of hard work but we ended up only about 15% down from the previous year. Renters didn’t take 2 week vacations though and we were turning over 27 houses a Saturday – I can’t even bare to think about it.

Don had foot surgery at the beginning of June so it was really tough losing his help with mowing and running here and there and everywhere which is what this rental business takes. So I put my head down and plowed through. Bright spots were our nephew Luke on his annual visit to us. He and our neighbor Olivia are our most valuable helpers. Tiller…well Tiller has been in 7^th heaven, catching as many mice as possible out doors and once again hanging out at the golf course behind our home – he apparently is their mascot – we don’t’ golf so had to find this out from our great friend John Fleming. "Everyone knows Tiller" he says ! Too bad he only knows how to golf and not do paper work I say.

Re-Entry

Bayside , Maine - this is a 2 yar old photo - but you get the drift !

Home

1540 miles - home safe and sound

I 95 - What Fun !

South Carolina - 24 degrees

Putting Heron Away

Dropping The Sails

We had a beautiful and calm evening on anchor Saturday night ~ our last night out in an anchorage with no one else around. We were wind blown after the trip up the Indian River and went to bed early. I slept the best I had in weeks. No lines creeking between boats, no lights from the marina, no dingy engine noises ~ just the spray noise from the dolphins feeding. We were up early to get ready to head in the residential canals to move the boat to the home of Burt and Crystal " " . We had to open the jib all the way to drop it to the deck - Tiller was full of himself. Running around and around the deck sensing his world was changing. He loved the tunnels in folds of the sail. We went through the Mathers bridge to top off our tanks at the marina and pick up Crystal who would guide us through the canals about 5 miles to their home. It was fascinating seeing the houses and going through 2 very small bridges . We arrived at the dock and Burt was there to greet us. Don eased in and we ran aground just a we expected to about 5 or 6 feet from the dock. The water is very low right now.

We Hear The Skiing is Great

Mile 914.2 ~ Indian harbour beach around Dragon point - Too bad I got the water in this shot taken this morning as we first got back on the ICW leaving Vero Beach ( at long last ) and headed north ~ otherwise you might think we were headed to Sugarloaf. It was in the 30's this morning. The other day I was sweating my bejesus off. Don and I have spent a lot time in these exact same outfits moving this boat. The winds were straight out of the north blowing 20 - 30 - the seas on the Indian River were 2 - 3 feet.

It felt good to be underway ~but one of those nice Florida days shouldn't have been too much to ask.

As we undid ourselves from Greg's boat "Southern Cross" Tiller was running around looking back at Greg saying goodbye. He was a great raft mate and we've made a truly great friend. We are eternally grateful for the fabulous homemade lasagna he fed us for our farewell dinner. We have been very lucky with our rafts mates this year and last being to hospitable to Tiller.

As we continued up the waterway giving our opinion of every oversized home Tiller decided he was ticked off clearly in a bad mood. He finally curled up in his basket and didn't move until we got through the bridge in the Banana River where we have anchored. It feels good to be "on the hook" again though sort of humorous that we couldn't remember how to tie a rolling hitch for the snubber line. We got out the book and literally held it out on the bow as we worked together to tie the knot ~ that's when you know you've been in Velcro Beach too long.

Don,Greg & Mary ~ Big house ~ Seagull that followed us for an hour; herd of pelicans

A Gorgeous Day - 35 degrees tonight?

Vero ~ Yesterday was a gorgeous day - in the mid 80's ~ sunny ~ breezy. Last evening was one of those evenings that was just pefect. The air temperature was warm to stay in a t-shirt, there were no bugs , a decent sunset and beautiful stars. The kind of evening I'm sure many of you think we experence all the time. We sat out in the cockpit talking with our neighbor Greg well into the evening. Even after we got into the bunk it was the first night in a long time we had the hatch wide open. I lay awake thinking about going home and being cold and being closed in . When we started this trip last year one of the things I got frustrated with was the weather ~ our exposure ~ vulnerability ~ how it often dictated what we did or didn't do.
Now I appreciate it. I realize that even in nicer weather when we live in a house we don't pay enough attention to the sunrise and sunset. Most of us don't pay attention to the wind exept when it really gets in our way. It's quite a force this weather thing. I'm not saying I will like it when it's windy I think I'm just trying to say that camping on this boat makes me aware of my surroundings, not listening to the TV news all the time ads peace and moving at 5 miles an hour allows us to see details that we won't want to forget.

Today it's rain, wind and dropping temperatures - it's currently 70 ~ here is what is in the weather forcast for tonight ~ "Tonight
Clear and cold. Lows in the upper 30s. Northwest winds 10 to 15 mph. Lowest wind chill readings 30 to 33 after midnight."

So yesterday was about as hot as I can stand it ( I am a heat wimp ) and tonight will get us primes for our move north. Yikes all those warm clothes are packed in the car !

Headed North

Vero Beach ~One of my favorite lines is that the only thing that is certain is that everything changes. We are headed North instead of South , taking our boat to Satellite beach then driving back to Maine. We had been dawdling because we have been talking about giving up our trip since way back in Georgetown , SC when we first learned that Don’s cousin John ~ our dear friend and "brother" to Don had bladder cancer. We want to be home to help him with the challenges ahead. Sailing can wait for next year or this summer ~ Maybe the O’day 22 lawn ornament we have in Maine will get put in the water this year and we’ll have some great summer sailing.

Don flew Monday to Richmond ~ thank you so much Bob & Sara for moving our car and having Don overnight ~ Gratefully Don’s trip back to the boat was uneventful.
I spent 2 nights alone on the boat – cleaning, packing, pulling things apart. A big job and not easy while floating. We have been taking stuff by dingy and inventorying what we will leave on the boat. We have never left a boat in Florida and never left a bot in the water so Don has been varnishing to help protect the wood from the summer sun. I believe we will put a dehumidifier in the boat and white tarp over as much as we can. WE’ll leave canned goods and some sodas and things – storing them below the water line. Truth is we have been cleaning nooks and crannies that really could have used cleaning !

Tiller is very good at packing :) ~ We leave Vero on Saturday ~ a wonderful couple Don met here in Vero are allowing us to keep our boat on their dock for a reasonable fee. It will be interesting as we hear there may not be quite enough water to get us all the way to the dock.

So back to my previous post about this cruising thing being about friends, the ones we already knew, the ones we have come to know and the ones we haven’t yet met. As we passed the word we needed to leave we have had many offers of help including Ron and Dawn on "Dawntreader" who will help us get our car to the boat once we leave Vero. We have also found several cruisers with information about bladder cancer that will help us give John information and options.
Now I just need to figure out how to bottle this sunshine and warmth and take it back to Maine ~Brrrrrr