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| Florida |
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| Found this cute guy living on the aloe vera plant on our boat |
It is January 4th, 2023 and we are currently
located in Hallandale Beach, Florida in an anchorage on our Catamaran,
SeaBreeze. What happened on the days leading up to this day I hope to convey in
this blog entry.
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| Idaho |
On November 29, 2022, we left chilly Idaho with 4 large bags of
luggage, two back packs, and arrived in sunny Puerto Vallarta, Mexico late
afternoon. We were greeted at the airport by our friend Larry who lives in
Mexico full time. He drove us to our hotel which was our home base for the five
days we spent there. During our time spent in Puerto Vallarta, we met up with
good friends Jean and Jacinthe from S/V Arcane on two separate occasions. One of
the days I was able to squeeze in a visit to my acupuncturist, Tatjiana, and to
spend an afternoon with my friends at my Naturopath’s office…Dra. Sophia, Dra.
Yusemi and Carolina. All so special to me…happy to see them all and get a long
awaited ‘tune up’.
But our main reason for being there was to get our things
from our previous sailboat, Solastra (which is currently for sale) that were in
storage and to pack them up and get them to Florida to where our new boat was
located. We thought we could just box them up and take them with us on the
airplane along with our other luggage. Well it wasn’t that easy. It would have
cost us a fortune to do it that way. So we had to send them by way of UPS. This
was not cheap either but we didn’t really have any other option. We were able to
take a few on the plane with us but the other 7 were shipped separately. So on December 3rd, the day we left Puerto Vallarta and after a
lengthy flight with a long layover in Dallas which actually turned out to be
just enough time to get through customs with all of our stuff, we made it safely to
Florida late evening. Unfortunately our bags did not make the journey with us
and there was no sign of them on the luggage carousel it when we got to Florida.
They did arrive a couple of days later and were delivered, slightly tattered,
right to our doorway at the Airbnb.
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| Itemizing and boxing up our boat parts |
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| Very patient young woman that helped us at UPS |
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| Our partial baggage that arrived in Florida. 6 parcels missing. |
We stayed in a cute little Airbnb in
Hollywood Florida which was about 5 miles from where our boat was docked. The
next day after arriving in Florida we went straight to our boat to see her. We
were happy to finally see her since our purchase a couple of months prior. But
we did feel a little overwhelmed with all of the work and TLC that she needed
before we could even think about leaving for our sailing adventure to the
Bahamas.
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| Just one day's clearing out. We had piles like this daily to get rid of. |
We immediately went to work, clearing out all of the items we did not
want or need. Threw out a lot of garbage and junk and gave a large donation to
the Goodwill. Next we started cleaning the entire boat inside and out. Mostly
using vinegar and water on the inside to eliminate the sight and smell of mold.
Rick who suffers with asthma came down with a horrible cough later in the
day…which we thought was from the mold and thought maybe using a stronger mask
like a respirator would solve that issue from here on out. Well that night
and the next few days we realized this was not solely from the mold…it was the
flu! We both tested for Covid and were both negative. So our conclusion was that
it was the flu. A brutal flu at that! I hadn’t been stricken with the flu yet
and was feeling good enough to get some things done while he was in the Airbnb
resting and coughing up a storm. I did a lot of food provisioning, purchased
home goods such as towels, bedding, pillows, pots and pans, and other
miscelaneous kitchen gadgets… to make our boat feel comfortable and to make
it ‘ours’. Sadly I did not escape this flu. It was then my turn to be
sequestered to the room nursing a bad cough, headache, sore throat, dizziness,
lightheadedness, bouts of nausea, vomiting and throbbing achy muscles. Rick went
back to the boat to work even though he wasn’t feeling great. He would have
rested longer but we had so much work to do by the end of the month. He was able
to get so much done which was super impressive considering. He worked each day, all
day. I was down for about a week but I still felt horrible for a week or two
more but got back to work on the boat. Rick and I both agreed this flu was a lot
worse than when we had Covid in January ’22!
Some other things we had done on
the boat, were having the windows tinted (which helps with heat and gives us a
bit of privacy), had the boat hulls washed and waxed, had the upholstery cleaned
in the salon, owner’s quarters and all of three mattresses. We had a new
mainsail made by Mack Sails who are based here in Florida. We are thrilled with
how they turned out! But..now the stack pack (which holds the sail neatly in
place) is too small for our new sail. We now have one on order though and it
should be ready for installation at the end of this month. We also felt that a
hard top Bimini would be sturdier and safer than the canvas one we currently
have (for when we have to maneuver the mainsail into it’s place). It will give
us better footing which will be nice when we are underway. And that should be
ready around the same time as the stack pack. We added one more important item
which is also on order and that is Starlink (RV version). This will be great for
using the internet to get weather reports and to have a way to communicate in
case of emergency. It will also be great to stay in touch with our family! I
also will have no excuse not to keep up with our blog. In the Bahamas, Internet
and cell service are sketchy and uncommon next to impossible to find. One
especially cannot get any type of service off shore whatsoever, but with
Starlink we will be able to. Another plus, we will be able to take the dish back
home with us to Idaho and use it there too.
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| These Stanley Steamers guys first time cleaning a boat |
We had to leave our dock space on
the 31st of December, which was docked in back of a private property owned by a
very nice man, Mr. George. He leases dock space to boaters for a much more
reasonable price than the marinas around here. You can hook up to power and
water also. Only downside is that you cannot sleep on board. That is why we had
to stay in an Airbnb. Right before our time was up, the owner of the trimaran
docked in the space in front of us told us he was heading out to the Bahamas for
a few days and if we wanted to, we could stay in his space until he returned on the
4th of January. He said he’d keep us posted on the time of arrival but he didn’t
see it being any earlier than 9:00a.m. We were so grateful because we weren’t
really ready to leave. We had a bit more to take care of on the boat. So once he
left we scooted our boat up into his space. We still had the dilemma of where to
sleep at night. We had already checked out of our Airbnb so that wasn’t an
option. We decided to ask Mr. George if we could possibly sleep on the boat for
the next few nights fearing that he’d say no. But him being his kind self, said
it would be ok. Such a relief! Things were falling into place.
For those few
extra days, we were able to get a lot more done. Many trips to West Marine,
Hardware Stores, Grocery Stores and the laundromat. We were up late getting
everything put away for our travel the next day to search for a nearby
anchorage. We made it to sleep around 10:00 feeling so exhausted. We were out
when our heads hit the pillow. While in this deep sleep we heard a knocking on
the hatch over our bed. It took us a while to figure out what was going on. Was
this real or was it a dream? I sat up to see if I could figure out where the
knocking was coming from. Then I nudged Rick and blurted, Robert (the owner of
the trimaran) is here! Rick comes-to and says, WHAT?! We heard Robert’s voice
telling us we needed to move the boat while at the same time apologizing for not
warning us sooner. I told Rick we have to move the boat… now! He said, no we
don’t….it’s 12:30 in the morning. Come to find out we absolutely did have to
move the boat. Robert apparently had some crew members that needed to get off
the boat. We throw on our clothes, jump up to the side of the boat where Robert
was standing. We talked with him a bit while starting the engines and untying dock
lines...trying to make heads and tails of the instruments in the dark. This was
our maiden voyage. We had no rhythm or routine of how things work. But by some
miracle, we motored the boat in the dark, down a narrow channel and found a
nearby anchorage. We pulled in not having a clear focus on the other boats in
the anchorage. It was hard to tell how far away they were and how close we were
getting to them. We managed to find a safe spot, dropped and set the anchor.
After all was said and done, Rick said I could go back to bed if I wanted and he
would stay up just to make sure the anchor did not drag. I took him up on the
offer and tried to sleep. I was pretty wound up so I didn’t get much sleep. In the
light of day, Rick gave sleep a try but he too could only sleep a few minutes.
We stayed here all day on the boat except for a dinghy ride to land so we could
get to a store to buy more water and to fill two jerry cans full of diesel.
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| Sam's Club |
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| West Marine Fort Lauderdale...one of the largest! |
Our
plan now is to head out tomorrow morning and make our way out of the Inner
Waterways to the ocean where we can do a little sailing. We need to go under
maybe 5 bridges to get there. Which means we have to call ahead and plan our
timing just right. This makes me a little nervous just thinking about it. After
we come back from our sail, we plan to move to another anchorage not too far
from here. We will be looking at nice homes instead of big high rise apartments
and
condominiums.
Hope to be on our way to the Bahamas first part of February!
Stay tuned.
Happy New Year to all!
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