THE YEAR IN REVIEW

We Said:

Some of the most frequently asked questions we’ve been asked over the past year are:

 

What was your favorite place?

 

That’s really hard.  We traveled to 72 cities (not counting remote anchorages) and there was something to like about all of them.  We sat down with the list of 72 cities and each of us picked out our top 15.  Below are the 13 cities that made both of our lists - in chronological order.  (There were no criteria for a “favorite.”)  

• Scituate, MA – Our first destination after leaving Boston.  We were on our own and on the ball.  Everything was within an easy walk.
• Martha’s Vineyard, MA – The island had so much to offer – sightseeing, shopping, dining, scenery, beaches. 
• Block Island, RI - A big, fun campground!  The anchorage was a fair distance from the town and provisioning, but a great relaxing destination.
• Annapolis, MD – We stayed here for a month and could have stayed longer.  Lots of stuff within walking distance and good bus service.
• St. Michaels, MD – Our first destination after sitting still for a month.  The quintessential Chesapeake town.  
• Charleston, SC – It’s Charleston – do I need to say more?  We came for one week and stayed for one month.  Great marina location.
• Beaufort, SC - We actually anchored here.  The town was so cute and the people so friendly. 
• St. Augustine, FL – There’s so much history here!  The town is really cute and convenient.
• Vero Beach, FL – Our first “tropical” destination.  Everything is convenient, easy to get around, nice beach – it’s got it all.
• Marathon, FL – It’s all about relaxation and laid-back living.  An easy dinghy ride to the beach, pool and bars.  Stayed here 7 weeks!
• Key West, FL – A great vacation destination – food, fun, party!
• Naples, FL – I’m sure family and friends factored into this choice.  Easy walk to restaurants, shopping, bars and beach.
• St. Petersburg, FL – This place has it all – concerts, festivals, theatre, baseball, shopping, restaurants, and on and on and on . . .  

What was your favorite part of the trip? 

• For Pat it was the trip itself - everything we learned, all the people we met, working as a team, stepping outside our comfort zone and experiencing new places.  The single event would be after a year on the water, finally having a dolphin swim and jump in our wake.
• For Jack it was the marina life – meeting and talking to boat people, dingying to waterfront tiki bars, the beaches and dolphins.  

What was your worst experience?

• For Jack keeping the boat running was a challenge – maintenance issues, docking the boat (especially in the wind), and weather.
• For Pat the biggest issues were weather related – studying weather, planning trips around the weather, getting stuck in a Provincetown storm, and the horrific night in a Charleston storm.   There’s also a whole “lack-of-contribution” thing that’s hard to explain. 

Did you stay on budget? 

Overall, yes.  It’s amazing how well we did based on our lack of experience.  We did a lot of reading and talked with a lot of people and it really paid off.

• Fuel:  We planned on 3000 miles, 1.5 MPH, and $4.50 per gallon.  We traveled 2895 miles, averaged just under 2 MPH, and spent around $4.00 per gallon.  Overall, we were 25-30% under budget.
• Marinas: We were less than 5% over budget.  We stayed on-the-ball/anchored approximately 100 nights, in transient marina slips approximately 100 nights and in monthly slips approximately 150 nights.  Monthly rates and ball/anchoring is the key to managing the budget.  Transient marina stays, although a necessity, are a definite budget buster.
• Repairs/Maintenance:  We were about 10% over budget – not bad, considering we weren’t able to do much of our own work.      

Would you do it again? 

Without a doubt.  We’ve signed up for another year!

 

We’re enjoying life on land.  We visited MTB yesterday and she’s surviving just fine without us (cooler and dryer inside than we expected). 

 

Hope to see you all soon!

 

Pat & Jack

 

 

MOORE HAVEN - GOING "ON THE HARD"

He Said:  Not exactly a TGIF.  I ended my last blog with us hanging Thursday nite the 29^th of May at the RV Park next to Glades Boat Yard.  Due to the location of where we were located we spent the nite having a few drinks and dinner on the boat.  I mentioned that there is absolutely nothing anywhere near the boat yard.

The following morning we moved the boat to Glades for our pull out appointment at about 11AM on the 30^th.  The cruise was maybe 10 minutes to the dock where we easily pulled the boat along side of a long pier for our final few minutes on MTB.  Our job now is pretty much over, with the dockdudes taking over from here.  They pulled the boat along side of the dock and turned the corner into the fairly tight slip.  We both kind of helped while they lined MTB up to yank her out of the water. With our water, fuel, and stuff I am guessing we weighed near 32,000 lbs.  I know we are 28,000 when empty, so I am really taking a stab at it.

MTB in her home for the next 5 months.  Everything below the gold line is typically underwater

By now it is early afternoon and we had a 3PM pick up time to leave the yard and get to Ft. Myers Airport to pick up our rental car. This left us 2-3 hours to get our STUFF off of the boat and get MTB closed up for the following 5 months.  Once you are out of the water with no power, the boat heats up like a mother.  By the time we closed everything up, got our stuff off the boat, and everything else done we were pushing our 3PM pick up.

The boat yard promised us 50 Amp and it was not available - not good.  We bought a dehumidifier and it was very important in the rainy, damp, humid Florida weather that we try to keep the inside somewhat dried out.  At the end of the day, they found us a long extension cord so at least we could run our dehumidifier.

Unloading the boat takes on a whole new ballgame, not only about 150 degrees inside but we had to get a large ladder to get in and out of the boat.  The heavy suitcases and climbing up and down long ladders in big heat was no flipping fun.  We did make it and had almost enough time to dry ourselves off.  Of course, with no electric and no water, it was no good!

Our trip to the rental car went ok.  Our driver dude was about my age and a know-it-all.  As soon as we entered his ride he asked where we were from.  When I said Phoenix, he said, “what a hell hole that is.”  I said, “so 3 or 4 million people are all crazy I guess.”  Not a big deal.  We started our 30 mile drive to Naples.  Of course, after arriving in Naples at about 6 that evening we headed over to the local pub for cold drinks and food.  How about this for an excuse?  We had no food or drinks in the condo, and it was the right thing to do.  There you go.

We will spend the first 2 weeks of June at my brother Jim’s condo and the next 2 weeks at Pat’s good friends’ condo in the north side of Naples.  After that we will be flying to Columbus for 8 days to visit my family then on July 9 heading for our European cruise with Pat’s family.  Then in late July, believe it or not, we will be heading to Phoenix for a few months.  In November, we will head back to Florida.  Our plans are to spend time on the gulf side of Florida, the Keys, and the Bahamas then probably call it a day.  This would bring us to about our 2 year anniversary of boat life.  Probably time to get back to normal, whatever that is!!  We have 1 more blog to send out kind of wrapping up our 1 year and 1 week adventure - oh what a ride.

Take care, and we will keep you posted.  Jack

 

She Said:   The day has finally come for us to pull MTB out of the water.  It’s been such a fun, adventure filled year I hate to see it come to an end.  BUT, I’m really looking forward to some time on land.   

The dock master met us at 10:30am and held our lines as the wind literally blew out of the slip.  We took a short 10 minute ride down the river to The Glades Boat Storage Yard, pulled up to the dock and waited for our time to be pulled out of the water.  I went up to register and when I came back MTB was already lined up with the sling and slowly being lifted out of the water.  My phone and camera were on the boat so I couldn’t get a picture.  Basically, there were 4 straps attached to the hoist/lift.  The hoist/lift  (picture below - the blue machine) straddled a boat slip (sort of like a car driving over an oil changing pit) with the straps underwater.  MTB was on top of those straps and the hoist/lift slowly lifted the boat out of the water.   

This is the first time since April that MTB has been out of the water.  We had divers look at her bottom 3 times and every time we were told it looked good (not a lot of slimy growth or barnacles) so we were really curious to see what it looked like.  We were surprised at how good it looked – it’s amazing that she was in the water that long and had so little growth.  They power washed the bottom for about a half hour and got just about everything off.  There were a few places where the bottom paint had worn thin and that was where some barnacles attached.  All and all – the bottom is in excellent shape.  We will repaint the bottom this fall before we put MTB back into the water. 

The guys drove MTB to her parking place in this huge boat yard.  This is when the day took an ugly turn.  We reserved a spot with 50-amp power so we could run a small fridge and a dehumidifier while we were gone.  The spot they put us in had power, but not 50-amp.  I spent the next two hours looking for a way to adapt/convert our 50-amp plug down to 110 outlet.  We had so many ideas – all of which would work – but we didn’t have the right parts to make it work.  In the end, we settled on running just the dehumidifier using an extension cord direct to the 110 outlet.  Not exactly what we hoped for, but certainly a viable solution. 

By now, we had only 1.5 hours to finish closing down MTB.  Everything was packed (except for the stuff in the fridge), but we had to disconnect the batteries, close off all the thru hulls (the spots along the gold line), bring everything we could from the outside to the inside, and cover up everything that was left outside.  The storage yard didn’t have a pump-out facility, so we pumped out before leaving Ft. Myers (this meant we’ve been without a toilet for two days).  We were doing all of this without A/C in 90 degree, 90% humidity and no windows.  It was absolutely awful. 

Now we had to get our stuff off the boat.  We were basically on the second floor of a building with only a ladder to get up and down.  And our “stuff” was more than a couple of suitcases.  We are going to be away from MTB for 5 months, so we had a lot.  AND we had all the food stuff that we couldn’t leave on the boat.  Since we would be spending the next month in Naples we knew we would be cooking so we didn’t worry about using everything up before getting off the boat.  We had more than we thought we had.   

By the time the car service picked us up we were hot, sweaty and exhausted.  We hadn’t had anything to eat since dinner the night before.  We had about an hour drive to our car rental and then another 45 minutes to our condo.  I got nauseous riding in the back seat of the car.  I can’t remember the last time I was in a car going 60+ MPH with other cars rushing by - for the last year I’d been traveling 9 MPH often with no other vehicle around.  It was a long, hot, awful day – definitely in the top 5 of the past year. 

For the next several months while we are off the boat, we occasionally post some updates.  Within the next few days, we will post our top 10 destinations and some facts about our year on the boat.  We will also post pictures and adventures from our two week European cruise later this summer.  Thanks for everyone who has read and commented on our blog.  We really appreciate it and look forward to seeing our friends and family this summer.

 

GULFPORT, FT MYERS, MOORE HAVEN

He Said:  Heading towards the final 2 weeks.  What a journey!  We have about 50 weeks behind us and only a couple ahead of us.  Our plans are to pull out either late May or the first few days of June.  We will keep you posted.

We spent the weekend of May 17 and 18 hanging in Clearwater Beach.  We kind of kicked back and watched a few sunsets.  We also enjoyed the beautiful beaches of CW Beach.  CW Beach has the only 2 story Walgreen’s in the country - hard to believe that’s kind of a big deal.  What is going on with our lives??

Sunset on Clearwater Beach

After a couple days in CW it was time to head to Gulfport.  We had a great trip to Gulfport.  Our good buddies, the Camps, made the trip with us.  It was about a 4 hour day on the boat.  We anchored out in the waterway and did a great little lunch then finished our cruise in the early afternoon.  The 4 of us arrived in mid PM at the marina in Gulfport.  It only took a few minutes to throw down a few cold ones with our company.  The Camps took us to O’Matty’s Pub - very cool.  We had a few cold ones and a few appetizers and away we went.  The Camps had dinner plans that eve and a dog that needed relieved so they escaped the bar a little sooner than us.  They also left a 2^nd car for the boat trip and had to get it picked up. 

The following morning we left for Sarasota.  We arrived there in mid afternoon on Tuesday the 20^th.  We spent time here with the McDonalds and very much enjoyed it.  We spent the nite on a mooring ball which we very close to the marina.  We dinghyed in to pay the rent and went to a cute little tiki bar that we went to on our last trip.  We only had cocktails and decided to eat on the boat that evening.  

Jack at O'Leary's Tiki Bar in Sarasota - a short dinghy ride from the mooring field

By this point in our trip we are traveling a lot of days and spending very few days in a row in any kind of a marina.  Having said that, the following morning we headed out to Cape Haze.  We had also been here when we came thru last time.  This is kind of a laundry, hang out, 1 nite type of stop, and that is what we did.  We took a dingy ride to a bar called Rum Bay - very cool.  It was about a 30 minute ride with Mr. Dingy.  Thank heaven the water was pretty flat and we got back to the marina before dark.

On Thursday morning we prepared ourselves for our trip to Ft. Myers.  Earlier in our trip we had been to Ft. Myers Beach - these are 2 very different places.  Our trip was about 4 ½ hours and pretty uneventful other than the dolphins putting on a show for us.  They have been about the coolest thing to witness the entire year.  We never can see enough dolphins.  If they only knew the excitement they bring.

Two dolphins swimming alongside MTB

We spent the next 7 days in Ft. Myers at the city marina.  What a great location, about a 5 minute walk to the middle of town.  We ate in about half the time, found some fun happy hours, a great little Mexican joint, and some other fun places.  On Saturday they had a car show in downtown with lots of cool old cars.  After a little while looking at the old beautiful cars I ended up at the Mexican place - what a surprise!  Pat joined me for a few cold ones.  Our other big ordeal was we rented a car for the day to run some errands - we needed to get some stuff to prepare for our boat departure.

Car Show in downtown Ft Myers - check out the brick paver streets

One of the fun cars at the car show in Ft Myers

We had some large heat over the holiday weekend, I believe a 95 then 94 degree day - the 95 was a record.  Along with some humidity (80%ish), I don’t need to tell you about the sweat index.  For the people down here who think the dry heat is a joke they are fooling themselves.  I tell them I detail cars, work in the yard, take my walks, play golf, all of this in the summer and they think I am jiving them, oh well.

Ft Myers sunset from our marina

Also while we were here one of us celebrated number 57 - born in ‘57 and turned 57 - how about that!!  We celebrated with our friends, Mike and Lori.  They were heading back the following day to Ill. for the summer.  We had a blast, and they are great people to hang with.

The sun sets as our year on MTB comes to an end

On Thursday the 29^th we left Ft. Myers and arrived at the RV Park & Marina which is about 1 mile from Glades Boat Storage where we will pull out the boat.  Other than a nice golf course the RV Park was nearly a joke.  The price was good and location to the boat storage lot was also good, but other than that it had no game.  We did HH and dinner on the boat.

We had an appt. to pull the boat out on Friday the 30^th.  This place is 14 miles away from ANYTHING.  We will keep you posted on how that went.  We do know that Meant To Be has earned a 5 month or so rest and maybe so do we.  We will keep you posted, Jack

She Said:   We spent our final day in Clearwater Beach at the beach.  It was a beautiful day and the beach was wonderful.  We walked the beach and stopped at a beach bar for happy hour before heading back to MTB for dinner. 

It was finally time to leave Clearwater Beach.  Our friends, Janet and Mark Camp, met us in Clearwater Beach and traveled with us 25 miles to Gulfport.  We had a really fun day.  Mark and Janet packed a picnic lunch so we dropped the anchor and had lunch along the way.  Mark and Janet live in Treasure Island and they knew the area we were cruising through.  It was fun for us to get a local narration of the area and it was fun for them to see familiar sights from the water side.  Once we got to Gulfport, we decided to grab a bite to eat at McMaddie’s.  We had a really nice time and hated the day to end, but Mark and Janet had to pick-up their dog, Gracie. 

We left Gulfport the next day and traveled 38 miles to Sarasota.  This is the first time we returned to a city we had previously visited.  It took a lot of the stress out of the arrival when we knew exactly what to expect.  In this case, it was a mooring ball.  We pulled right in, grabbed the ball and dropped the dinghy.  After registering, we walked into town and grabbed some groceries (we knew right where the grocery store was).  We took the dinghy to happy hour at O’Leary’s before having dinner on MTB.

 

The sun is almost gone - from the mooring field at Marina Jack, Sarasota

It was a short trip back to Cape Haze (another repeat marina).  We liked this marina because it had great fuel prices and a pool.  We didn’t, however, like the location of the fuel pump.  So needless to say, Jack was worrying about docking at the fuel pump for most of the day.  As we arrived at the marina, we knew enough to ask if there was room for us at the fuel pump – and good thing we did, because there wasn’t!  Instead, we had to pull into our slip and wait until the pump became available.  We eventually got our fuel and Jack did a great job navigating the difficult approach and more challenging departure.  After settling in we took the dinghy to happy hour at Rumbay on Palm Island – a small, private island across the ICW from our marina.  We were back on MTB for dinner and an early evening. 

We were up and on our way early the next morning because we had a 55 mile trip to Ft. Myers.  As you know, we’ve been intrigued with dolphins and get excited whenever we see them.  And although we’ve seen tons of dolphins up close and personal, we’ve never had dolphins swim with us alongside MTB.  On this day that changed.  We were told that when we see dolphins we should speed up and head right into them, so we did.  On two separate occasions this day we had dolphins swim alongside with us.  They got in our wake and were jumping out of the water.  Sometimes they would make graceful leaps and other times they would do big belly/slide flops.  It’s as if they were playing with us!  We were traveling at about 12 MPH and they would swim just under the surface of the water and poke their heads up.  It was the most amazing thing to experience.

The dolphins playing in our wake

Watching the dolphins jump our wakes was the best birthday present!

After a difficult arrival in Ft. Myers (I missed grabbing the most important pylon) we finally docked.  Then we got a text from friends who have a condo in Ft. Myers saying they think they saw us cruise past their condo (how crazy is that?).  So needless to say we got together with them that night.  It was really nice because they knew their way around town and took us to all of their favorite places.  Did I mention that it was my birthday?  What an exceptional day!  It’s a birthday I’ll never forget.

Happy birthday to me - at Firestone's rooftop bar

Downtown Ft. Myers is very cute and compact.  Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone all spent time here.  A lot of the downtown area is dedicated to them.  You can visit their homes, but we didn’t get around to that - maybe next year.  There are shops and lots of restaurants within a very easy walk.  The only problem was that it was really, really hot.  Record setting hot – 95 temp and humidity.  We had the A/C running constantly.   The marina didn’t have a pool and there were no beaches nearby - it was miserable.  We rented a car our first day in town – we had lots of errands to run before taking the boat out of the water.  While in Ft. Myers we celebrated our one year anniversary on the boat, walked around a classic car show, and attended a Memorial Day ceremony.  Our original plan was to stay here for 10 days, but we decided to leave after 7 days. 

Ford, Firestone and Edison statue

Memorial Day Observation - as a wreath was set afloat there was a helicopter fly over

Our final travel day was 45 miles up the Caloosahatchee River toward Lake Okeechobee to the town of Moore Haven.  Along the river, it didn’t feel like we were in Florida anymore.  No more palm trees and sand, instead lots of cattle and open spaces.  We had two locks to transit – the first one was only a 3 foot change, but the second one was about a 15 foot change.  The real challenge was docking in Moore Haven.  There was only one spot available.  It was a 45 foot spot along a face dock, between two boats.  That meant we were going to have to “parallel park” MTB’s 42 feet in a 45 foot spot AND we had to do it in the wind.  The dockmaster was there to catch our lines and we made it on our second try – pretty impressive.  The marina was part of an RV Resort, but there was very little that was “resort-ish” about this place.  We had no choice but to eat on MTB.  This would be our last night on MTB for five months!

This was the first plane we encountered on our trip.

Toto - I don't think we're in FL anymore.  The landscape along the Caloosahatchee River was very different

MTB in the second of 2 locks.  The water is entering the lock and raising us almost 15 feet