last fun day with friends :/

The snowbird season is quickly winding down for many folks here, including ourselves.  Thursday was really the last opportunity for us to all be together.  Ken and Lucille are leaving for Long Island on Saturday morning.  Mamaw and Paps are leaving for home on Sunday.  Nancy and Ron leave for Jersey on Monday, and Chuckie and Ron also leave on Monday to Norfolk, VA, and Hatteras, NC, respectively.  All that will remain will be Kenny and Fran, and us.  Bryan and Polly, who are next door neighbors to Donnie's sister, Diane and her husband Dave, have all been full time residents here for years.  We have recognized recently that we do far more socializing, and have really developed some closer friendships with folks here, more so than the people we have known for years back home.  It's sad, but Donnie and I work like crazy for eight months to have the privilege of living aboard Marquesa for four months.  Frankly, that doesn't leave much room for cultivating friendships.  We are lucky to get together with our 'couple' friends two or three times over the course of those eight months at home.  We seem to all live crazy busy lives.  Eventually our life in Indiana has to slow down some, right?

This is why we so appreciate the respite here in the Florida Keys; in the sunshine, with our friends, and with Marquesa gently rocking us to sleep (most nights!). Next year (in China) will be a HUGE adjustment to Cap'n and I in so many ways.  We will both miss (terribly) our snowbird season on the boat.  I actually get teary eyed thinking about missing Kenny & Fran, Ken & Lucille, Nancy & Ron, Dan & Penny, Martina & Rupert, Bryan and Polly, Larry, Len, Big Ron, and Chuckie baby....and this doesn't even cover all of our marina friends here at Banana Bay...y'all know who you are!  Through the band, some new faces at the marina, Dock master Larry's famous BBQ's and such, we are going to especially miss our time and the circle of friends we have developed here in the marina, too.  After four years of spending our winters at Banana Bay, the friendships have really grown.  I hope there is still a place for us, slip 33 on the wall, when we return in November 2015. Ok....now I'm straight up getting myself all depressed here....bleh.

Getting back to fun day Thursday, and happier times...

We had spent Wednesday evening calling around to at least 15-20 marinas and boatyards looking for affordable storage for Marquesa for 18-19 months.  At one point, we even considered trucking her back home to Indiana and putting her back in the pole barn.  I sat with the cruiser's guide, looking at places all along our sailing routes both on the ICW/Atlantic side, and further up north on the mainland on the Gulf side.  I would call out phone numbers, and Cap'n did the dialing and talking.   We were getting price quotes anywhere from $4.50-12.00/ft./month.  He also left about half a dozen messages with places that were already closed for the day.  Through this process, we quickly realized that generally speaking, the further north we went the storage rates continued to go down.  This is why we had been looking at Green Cove Marina between St. Augustine and Jacksonville, FL. 

Waking up to the phone ringing off the hook, by Thursday mid-morning, we finally had the issue settled, with the best deal of all.  We will be heading up the Gulf coast, retracing some of our steps from our Gulf cruise last spring.  We will sail to Marco Island, then Naples, then Ft. Myers.  From there, we will travel up river along the Caloosahatchee River and into the Okeechobee Waterway.  We will go through two locks, and then to The Glades, where we are scheduled to haul out on Monday morning, April 21st.  In fact, we will want to get there on Sunday, to begin taking the sails down, and off loading all of our gear that we want to take with us in to a rental car.  We can only stay with the boat in the boatyard until 4:00pm on the 21st.  The good news is since we are first time customers, we got a deal for only $3.60/ft/month.  With tax, it will be around $130/month to safely store Marquesa.  It's going to be a quick turn around that day and a half we will have at The Glades.  Fortunately, we've pretty well got a system down of all that needs to be done to tear down the boat. Cap'n has his jobs, and I have mine, and there are several jobs that require all hands on deck. We are not as speedy quick as the days of setting up and tearing down our camper, but tearing down a boat is a tad more involved!

We will then return to Marathon to return the rental car, pick up our car, and deliver Willis to Kenny and Fran.  The band has their last gig at the Marathon Yacht Club on April 25th, and we fly out to Germany on April 26th.  It's going to be a whirlwind the last week of April, but with this decision  of where to store Marquesa finally settled, and a plan now set in motion, we were ready to spend the rest of the day poolside with all of our friends.

Minus the remaining band members, here's most of the gang:
Big Ron, Polly, and me
Paps, Mamaw, Lucille, Chuckie baby and Fran
Bryan, Kenny, Ken and Donnie.

We spent the afternoon sunning, swimming, laughing, and playing
a cut throat game of dominoes.  It looked like Adolph was going back
to Hatteras Island, North Carolina...

Until Paps swooped in the final round and stole the
bird from Fran by only FIVE POINTS!
Time for Adolph to get packed for Anderson, Indiana.

Thursday evening we all gathered for the last time for
Friday night Pizza Night (though it was Thursday!) Ron
& Nancy, Martina & Rupert, and their friend, Hans who
is visiting from Denmark, joined us in putting away six
large pizzas, popcorn, and all of the theatre candy our bellies
could hold!  The last movie of the season was The Internship
which had some great laughs in it.  It nice way to finish the season.
Frannie has been our social director and recreation
coordinator all season, so she was presented with a wipe off
calendar board to keep us all organized for next season.
(except we won't be here, wahhhh!) 



Join us in saying a prayer for travelling mercies
for all of our friends  and family (and Adolph!)
as they make their trek back north in the
coming days.  Thank-you all, for some
wonderful memories again this year :)