It’s a Sad Day – St. Augustine, Florida, USA, 4-8-22

The mood on board of our boat was somber at best.  We sat the night before watching dolphins and having a beer for the last time.  It was time to pack it up and put her away.  We had a lot of work to do, friends to bid farewell, and family to visit.  It would be the first time we will try out our new life to see if it fits.  We have not been retired on land, not been homeless on land, and don’t have much of a plan on land.  Somehow this feels different.  Will we like it?  I don’t know yet but for now, that’s the most planning we can pull together.

Today is haul out day and we awoke to a less than cheerful 58 degrees in Florida.  Are you kidding me?  I want to go back to the Bahamas where it was 80!  Apparently, there is a wicked cold front passing through.  I guess we will fight the weather to the very end.  

This is always stressful since as a rule, putting your boat on the hard is hard on the boat.  We are starting hurricane season early due to our sail drive (I think).  Let’s face it, it isn’t what the boat was designed to do.  I give credit to the boat yard as they do have a lot of experience even with boats much larger than our small little cat, but it is still nerve racking.  Thankfully this paid off and all went well.  Ron whipped out the sail drive sensor and indeed he was right.  The port side was leaking quite badly so the good news is we didn’t come back for nothing.  She has found her new home for the next 6 months.  

As our home was safe and sound it was time to move to step two…we needed some wheels.  Ron had reserved a car and we ubered to pick it up.  Our uber driver was roughly 80 and clearly only driving as he was a bit lonely.  After being completely terrified and hearing his life story, we arrived.  Sadly, our car was not ready and there was an issue with the reservation.  They said to come back in a couple hours.  Now remember, Hubby has lost his wallet including his license.  So now I got to reserve the car, but I was not a member of the “supersecret car club” to get the awesome price he did.  Our new friend (the outwardly gay & half in drag employee at the car rental office) worked us a deal and said there were a few restaurants close by so, we decided to find some breakfast.

Now visualize this…we had just pas a pawn shop, gun store, tattoo parlor, and gambling establishment.  I think this lets you imagine the type of neighborhood we were in.  Two blocks away we found the only place open (it was only 10AM) and much to my delight…wait for it…it was a vegetarian restaurant!!!  It wasn’t even my birthday!  I am sure you can guess how happy Sailing Hubby was about this choice.  I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face.  

After a lovely tofu scramble 😊, we packed up and headed to Clearwater Florida to see daughter #3 and meet the boyfriend.  As a father, this is always nerve racking wondering if this was a moment to ready the gun and shovel or, we may actually like him.  Good news is we actually like this guy, so this was a relief.  We had a nice dinner and it was great to see her happy.

After dinner we still had yet to book our hotel.  We had underestimated the hotel costs and quickly realized why.  It was spring break and not only was everything booked, but the cost was roughly triple.  A hotel in Clearwater was ~$450.  So, knowing that was not happening, we started to drive.  We were not able to find anything that was not 100% booked for about two hours and finally got a room about 9:00.  We almost drive back to the boat! 

A good night’s rest, a shower with as much hot water as I want without turning it off, and a magic toilet where all just disappears did us a world of good.  We took off the next morning to visit my parents in Jekyll Island, Georgia to spend a few days.  We were looking forward to being anywhere that seemed familiar and this will hopefully be it.