I know everyone’s waiting for us to actually leave the dock and go somewhere, so let me explain what all is happening here at Sunset Bay Marina.
We wrote several times about moving aboard from our storage locker. This involved some serious weeding out of clothing, household items, tools, parts, lumber, etc. etc. We got through that, but of course, there’s still too much on board and we really don’t know yet what we need and what can get pitched.
Yesterday we made what will probably be our final road trip in the car when we drove across the state to Naples to meet our friend Frank who had two big boxes, a boat bag filled with hiking boots and shoes and two folding lawn chairs that we bought for watching the launch at Cape Canaveral. When we drove up north the last time we knew we needed to reduce the volume of stuff in the car to make room for Izzy so Frank graciously let us park this stuff in his garage.
Before we opened the boxes yesterday we couldn’t even remember what was in them. This morning we unpacked more clothing, winter jackets, sweaters, more shoes, toiletries, and — sit down — the remaining ashes of our parents. We each kept a little of our parents’ ashes to take with us on our journey but we saved them from another car trip north and they had a short vacation in Fort Myers. I don’t think they minded and they’re back with us now.
So again we have to sort through a pile of stuff, dispose of what we know we don’t want and pack away what we think we’ll need. That means reorganizing and rethinking what we already have. Most people have their boats for months or years before they head out, so it was a little unreasonable for us to think we could move from a house to a boat and take off right away. Do we have too much stuff? Absolutely. But we aren’t experienced enough to know what can go and what can stay. And we just can’t sail away until everything is shipshape.
Our final tie to land life is our car. We kicked around the possibility of keeping it for a few months but we can’t figure out how to shuttle it forward as we move along the coast, not to mention where to park it. So today Jack emptied it out and got a good washing and vacuum and after some last-minute errands that will be easier with a car we’ll post it on Craigslist and put a sign in the window.
While all of this is happening today, I also cranked up our clothes washer for the first time and it works! We had to clean out the gross filter that looks like it hadn’t been touched for a while, but after that it’s been running like a charm. Life is good.
