Final Days

Day 32: March 31, 2013

Where was I?  Things have happened rapidly and busily over the last several days.  Sunday morning and Easter as well.  We awoke after a really bumpy night.  The wind blew in from the east and there was no protection so the boat rocked.  We had been invited to join Scott, Claire and her brother, Christian, and his wife, Renita, for breakfast and mass.  We contacted the marina for a ride on their shuttle but were informed that the shuttle was down for maintenance and that they were only transporting folks who didn’t have a dinghy or had dinghy problems.  I explained that our Dink was unstable in these rough waters and that the electric motor was not particularly effective so they agreed to pick us up with the Pump Out Boat.  It was an interesting ride. 

Scott came by and picked us up and we enjoyed a wonderful breakfast prepared by Claire.  We bowed out of the invitation to Mass since I feel that wearing shorts and a tee shirt would be inappropriate dress for Easter Mass.  We opted instead to take care of our two special grandsons.  We had a great time playing jump on the air mattress and Thomas.  A new most important interest is cars and the Cars video!.  Wyatt was truly great fun.  He really loves to play with an energetic grandma!

After church we spent time interacting with our family and Claire’s brother and his wife.  She then prepared another great meal.  We have realized that we have been overeating during this whole trip, however, neither of us turn down good food.

Janine borrowed Scott’s car to return to the marina so that we could catch the 4:00 shuttle ride back to the boat.  We have contracted for the use of a slip for the night.  We have had enough of the bouncing sleep times and we needed to start taking the boat apart in preparation for pulling the boat out of the water.  We pulled the sails off of the boat while on the mooring ball then headed for the dock.  The wind made sure that my landing was much less than perfect.  I finally ended up backing into the spot.  A gentleman on the dock offered to catch our stern line and help us secure the boat.  When finished, the guy on the dock offered a Samuel Adams but I insisted that we dip into our supply of Black and Tan.  We talked for a while then went back to preparing the mast to be lowered.  We really weren’t hungry so our dinner consisted of some dried fruit, cupcakes, “Bunny Bread,” and homemade cookies from Claire.   We went to bed at around 9:00, anticipating an early morning start in Scott’s car heading for Fort Myers. 

I almost forgot to make note that this marina, Dinner Key Marina, was originally built back, I believe in the 30’s, as an airport for Pan American Airway’s clipper fleet, those huge flying boats, that flew around the world.  They had numerous models and pictures around the lobby showing how it was back then.  The building  was an interesting structure.

Day 33: April 1, 2013

We awoke at about 5:00 and were on the road by 5:45.  The early morning drive was great with little traffic on the usually jammed US 1 and I-95.  Our planned route was to take I-75 across Alligator Alley and on to Fort Myers but the Alley was closed due to smoke and poor visibility.  We picked another route that took us to the south side of Lake Okeechobee.  It was an interesting drive through the Everglades and the saw grass regions of southern Florida.  We saw a lot of sugar cane being grown and harvested.

Once we got to Fort Myers, the truck was where we left it and started on the first attempt.  We traveled to the storage area where we had parked our trailer and I pulled all of the grease caps off of all of the wheels to be sure that the grease had no water in it.  All appeared to be dry.  Just in case, I stopped at an auto parts store and bought a cheap grease gun and a tube of synthetic grease that was labeled as water proof.  I don’t know for sure that it will improve my chances of not having another bearing failure, but it is worth a shot.  I have spring loaded Bearing Buddies and I added enough grease to move the plungers about half way out.  My thought is that the pressure on the back seal will help prevent water from entering the hub.  We shall see. 

Janine got to drive Scott’s really neat “hotrod” Audi  She started the engine, slipped it into gear and drove a away with a completely smooth start.  Her first car was a VW beetle and she has not lost her touch.  We started our trip back to Miami.  It took about 2 ½ hours to travel back.  When we finally got onto I-95, we met bumper to bumper traffic traveling about 65 to 70 mph.  We were amazed by the way people dive into any tiny spot in front of you.  We read somewhere that the drivers in Miami are the rudest in the country and are proud of it.  I think we both agree with it.

To make matters more interesting, it began to rain really hard.  The traffic slowed down to 10 to 15 mph.  When we got back to the marina, the parking lot was a lake about a foot to foot and a half deep.  We sat in the car/truck until the rain let up.  We finally got into the boat, it continued to rain heavily.  Our goal was to pull the boat out, drop the mast and spend the night on the boat in the parking lot.  We were concerned that if we didn’t get started by 5:00, we would not get the boat packaged before dark.  It did, however, stop raining at 4:45 so we headed for the ramp and pulled the boat out of the water.  We had a bit of trouble getting the boat pulled all the way up on the trailer; however, the rest of the mast dropping process went without a hitch.  We got the boat ready to move by about 7:30.  We felt really relieved that we had gotten back to our old timeline for mast dropping.  Claire called and offered that we could come over and spend the night with them.  She ordered in Chinese food for us.  We were tired enough that our after dinner conversation was quite short and we were soon sleeping.

Day 34: April 2, 2013

Scott took us to the boat at around 7:00 and we were on the road by about 8:00.  We had a few odds and ends that we needed to clean up before we left.  The traffic was much heavier on our trip as we headed back up I-95.  Again today, the Alligator Alley was closed so we followed our yesterday’s tract to Fort Myers and headed north on I-75.  We had a good trip for about 8 hours and decided that we were tired enough that it would be wise to pull off for the night when we got to Gainesville where we found a Baymont Inn motel.   The gal in charge suggested an Italian restaurant and we enjoyed a wonderful meal of shrimp and scallops linguini which we shared.  A glass of chardonnay added a great touch and the peanut butter pie topped it off.. We then called it a night. 

Day 35: April 3, 2013

We got on the road at around 7:00 and had a routine driving day.  Our original plan was to make it to Cincinnati.  I called our son Trevor and confirmed that they were willing to take us in but as the day wore on, I realized that a 12/13 hour day was not going to cut it.  We found a Fairfield Inn in Berea, Ky.  We have been eating at fast foods along the way,  except for last night.  I swam in a nice pool and walked on an elliptical machine to burn off a few calories. And then bed!

Day 36: April 4, 2013

We have yet to leave Berea but we assume that we will be home in about 6 hours after we get on the road.  This has been an interesting, great trip.  My friend, John Carr, asked where this trip fits with all of those taken in the past.  He noted that we had spent a number of weather delay days in port, but my reply is that this is what we do.  This trip, except for the Dry Tortugas run, we had no particular goals other than to enjoy what there was to see and do and that is how it all came down.  It was a bit different than what I expected.  I assumed that we would be swimming off of sandy beaches snorkeling on reefs enjoying beautiful fish and coral.  Well, the area isn’t really built that way. The beaches are there, but we would have to travel over a half to a whole mile of very shallow water to get there and also, the temperatures were not all that conducive to swimming so we did only a little bit of that.

In the final analysis, we were able to sail a lot, see a lot of neat scenery and meet a many great interesting folks along the way.  We also enjoyed getting to spend time with our son and his family. So it was a good one!