NautiNell

NautiNell
NautiNell in all her glory

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

The Grand Finale!!

Standing guard
We're going to miss this
You can't tell but Santa is in an outhouse
He kept sticking his head out to get paper!
Can you see the moon and Venus?
It was the day after Thanksgiving, November 25 when we received a call from our broker.  Finally we had a contract!  The closing would be on or before December 9.  That’s only two weeks!  We now needed to get started. SO we went on a dinghy ride!  We ate Thanksgiving leftovers and we had docktails with some of the Loopers.  Priorities came in – we had met them last year in Marathon.  The boating world is such a small one!  Anyway, we had plenty to do, but we didn’t need to start today!  Signing the contract was enough!!

Saturday, I made a few phone calls – one being to our friend who is currently leasing our house back in Joplin.  She took the news well.  After all she’s known this day was coming.  After checking Craigslist, we found some free moving boxes.  You gotta love Craigslist!  After lunch at Dunedin Brewery we were back on the boat where we reminisced about the past six years.  And we discussed the logistics of just how we were going to pull off this change in our lives.  And we tried to remain calm, not counting our chickens!
Sunday, we rented a storage unit at U Haul.  The plan is to start moving everything off the boat.  We will have to load boxes in the carts, load them in the car and then take them to the storage unit and unload them.  We should have two weeks so we’ll take our time.   After we finally get everything off the boat we will then load everything into a U Haul truck.  We’ll drive the truck and tow the car back to Missouri.  Yep, this will work.  Sunday night is prime rib night at Cricketer’s so we enjoyed a great dinner and drinks toasting the end of a great adventure –  again at the same time we were trying to remain calm, not counting our chickens!  Until the closing, things can always change!
On Monday we sold the Whaler!  We had not included it with NautiNell but the buyer wanted to buy it too.  Perfect!  However, selling the Whaler definitely pulled at Mike’s heartstrings.  He loves that little boat!
We’ve been busy packing all week!  We stop for lunch and then pack some more!  Today we went to the Thirsty Marlin for lunch.  It’s been a place we’ve been wanting to check out. 
On Wednesday, November 30 we received the documents for the sale. These had to be notarized, etc.  So off to UPS!  After all that and picking up more free boxes, we decided to stop in at the Draught Haus.  We’re trying to enjoy each day and not get caught up in just packing, etc. We are about to bring our lives to a major change of direction.  It feels really strange but exciting!
On Friday after more trips to the storage, we hit a few garage sales.  Just what we need to do!  More to pack!  Later that evening we were supposed to go to a Christmas Party.  The trouble was - we couldn’t find it!  So after driving around a while, we ended up at Molly Goodhead’s for dinner. 
Saturday the marina had a cookout for everyone!  It was the day of the Christmas Boat Parade!  What fun!  For the last few years we’ve been in Marathon for the boat parade.  This is the first one where we’ve been at the staging area.  The parade started here at Marker 1 Marina and then ended at Dunedin Municipal Marina.  It was pretty cool seeing all the boats get in line and ready to go.  There were lots of them and all decorated big time!  We took the dinghy out in the harbor so we could see them all.
Monday morning, we were out getting more boxes when Mike got the call.  The closing was happening today!  We got the documents to e-sign and bingo bango! –  the wire transfer was made!  Money in the bank!  Which also means NautiNell is no longer ours.  This is really surreal.
So now here’s the plan – we’re finishing the moving.  After we have everything off the boat and into the storage unit we’re taking a road trip to Venice to see Jeff. We’ll spend a couple of days there.  Then we’ll be back here sometime Saturday.  We’ll load the truck on Sunday and head north on Monday.  We should be back in Joplin by Wednesday!  What a whirlwind! 
A tidbit of info – When we purchased NautiNell we closed on December 7, 2010.  Now when we sold her we closed December 5, 2016.  Just two days short of six years! 
Now here’s where the story becomes a little bittersweet. This will be my last blog post on NautiNell’s Adventure.  It’s been six years and around 200 posts.  I started this blog mostly for me as a journal and so my friends back home could keep up with what we were doing.  In the beginning, we thought it would only be for a year.  Well one year turned into another and so on.  We’ve had the most blessed life aboard NautiNell.  We’ve traveled thousands of miles.  We’ve seen things that we never imagined.  We’ve met good people that have become good friends.  Hopefully our paths will cross again.  We can’t start another new adventure until we finish the one we’re on.  So here’s to getting ourselves home safely and spending time with our family and friends in Missouri.  And here’s to Mike finding us a great RV.  We’ll be seeing you all again just not on the waterway. And as Admiral “C” always says................
Stay tuned!
Till next time!
Admiral “C”

 

Friday, November 25, 2016

Dunedin - Here we go again!

This never gets old!
They always want to play!
Still playing
Getting ready for a feast!

Happy Halloween feast!
What a great costume!
Enjoying some Home Cookin'
Mama and baby
Unique crowd for
Home Cookin'
Beautiful sky
Collecting sunsets
Peaceful evening
Dinghy ride to the beach
What a nice day!
Supermoon over the harbor
Here we go again!
Giving her a once over
We came dressed as "boaters" for Halloween!
The marina put on a spread for Halloween
Listening to our fav band!
Different type of venue! But fun!
They call him FLIPPER!
Well the last time I posted, I mentioned we might get another offer.  AND yes, we did!  Here we go again!  I’m not sure if it’s a rollercoaster ride or a merry go round that never ends!  LOL!  Anyway, we’re trying not to get too excited.  Acceptance is to be by November 11 and closing day is set at November 25 if all goes well.  That seems to always be a big “IF”!  AND of course, those dates can be amended.  We still have a couple of things to iron out.

Here’s what we’ve been doing while we wait……    We voted!  Whoopee! 
There was a Halloween Party here at the marina.  It was pretty low key – not many people here who actually stay on their boats.  However, it was still fun!  The marina furnished chili which was really good!  There were some kids in their costumes and course, some pets.  We weren’t up to doing costumes this time.  We passed on our pirates get-up and came dressed at “transients”!  That worked!
Later we went to Captain Bill’s again to hear our favorite band, Home Cookin’.  It’s always a great escape from the boat issues.  It’s nice to relax and kick back.  They’re a great bunch of guys.  I think we’ve become groupies!  They know our names now!  HA!  I wish they could get together with some local musicians from back home – now that would be a show!
We really need to get back in our actual slip instead of being tied next to it.  Plus, we really want to take her out one more time – this could be our last time (by ourselves, anyway). Trying to think positive!  The winds just won’t let up though!   Finally, later on this afternoon (10/30/16) it settled down along with the tide.  We took her out to Three Rookers Island (sandbar).  It’s a nice anchorage close by. It’s a local hangout on the weekends but since it’s a late Sunday afternoon we should be all by ourselves.  Along the way a line came loose that was helping hold the whaler in its cradle.  We almost drowned the thing before we realized it.  We had to shut things down and fix that before we could go on.  AND we really were wanting to see a great sunset – nope, the clouds moved in.  We’ve been told there are sharks that hang out around the island but we didn’t get a chance to see them either.  And by the time we were all settled in we realized it was a new moon which means “no moon”.  It was as dark as coalie’s hole!  We grilled some turkey tenderloins – enjoyed the night – even though we rolled a lot.  It was nice to be out of the marina. 
Happy Halloween!  We were up early so we could hopefully get back in our slip before the winds picked up again.  After almost 6 years of being on this boat we’ve only had one other place that we couldn’t get in a slip. ONE!  In other words, this doesn’t happen to us!  We came in and things looked good but looks can be deceiving.  We tried several times and still couldn’t get in.  SO we tied up alongside again.  That was ok, right? That’s where we had been yesterday!   We had no longer tied up and the office informs us that it was a good thing we didn’t go into the slip because it was no longer ours!  Did that happen overnight!!!  Oh no, someone was supposed to tell us that they have someone coming in there in a few days.  But we could stay out alongside.  Only three days ago we were told that we couldn’t stay alongside and needed to get back into our slip and that we had that slip through December!  Everyone here is really nice, but their line of communication sucks!  SO there we were on the outside and very close to the slip that we can’t get into.  Now what if the next guy has the same problem??  Mike decided to talk to the “marina director” to see just what options we might have.  Low and behold, she came up with another place.  Just south across the fairway from where we are now but the dock is quite a bit longer so we won’t be sticking out and we won’t be close to the slip that seems to cause everyone a problem. 
So this morning we untied from our spot alongside C Dock and “drifted over” to a spot alongside B Dock.  This is much better.  Hopefully, they won’t change their minds again and want us somewhere else!  I’m not sure there are any other places we’d fit!  The place is filling up fast due to Loopers crossing the Gulf.
Also, for the last couple of days, Mike has been helping a guy who is here in the marina.  He has a fabricating shop in Clearwater and has built a 10’ x 30’ barge inside his shop and needs to get it out and over to its new owner.  Now that’s a first for Mike and I think for Eric, too!  They got the job done.  However, I’ve been told it wasn’t easy!!  It weighed over 8000 pounds and they had to move it only inches at a time!  So needless to say, he was tired when he got back to the boat.  We hung out and watched the 7th game of the World Series – watching the Cubs end their long streak of being losers.  Darn!
We just got a call for our agent – Greg.  We’re scheduled for a sea trial and survey on November 11.  We will be going to Pitman again in Tarpon Springs for the haul out.  Only this time we are going up the night before so “everyone” won’t be tagging along with us for the trip there.  This way it should be a lot shorter “timewise” for the sea trial and survey than the last one!  Get them on, get them off – per Greg.  We’ll see.  We’ve reserved a slip at Turtle Cove in Tarpon for Thursday night.  Hopefully this will work out better.  Again, we’re excited but not counting our chickens!
Patty and Bill (Conched Out Too) will be heading this way in a couple of days.  They couldn’t get in here so they’re staying at the Dunedin Municipal Marina.  It will be really good to see them!  We haven’t had a chance to visit since they left Ft Myers Beach back in the spring!  We have lots of catching up to do!
Friday (Nov 4) morning was the first Farmer’s Market of the season.  They are always interesting.  We’ve been to several in several different areas, you never know what you’re going to see.  After that we stopped at the Elks for lunch.  Later on it was Happy Hour time with Bill and Patty!  We spent the evening visiting on the back of Conched Out Too.  Like ol’ times!   There was even some entertainment.  We spotted a 30’ boat floundering out beside Conched Out.  Turns out someone was in his slip and he wasn’t happy.  But that wasn’t all!  One of his motors was down and he had no power steering.  Oh yeah, and he was drunk as a skunk.  Mike and Bill tried to get him over to the dock but he had no lines. What he had was at his slip, he repeatedly told us.   It just goes on and on…..!  Finally he got close enough that they were able to grab his boat using boat hooks. After they got him tied up using extra lines of Bill’s and he then fell in the water!  Luckily he didn’t hurt himself and he came up sputtering.  He then went toward the restaurant, I assume to find out who was in his slip.  Later on, we heard “Ahoy Mates”!  He was back in his boat and needed help from us to untie.  The boat had moved and he was going to go to his slip after all.  Bless his heart!!  J
Saturday Bill and Mike went over to the huge marine salvage yard that is here.  After that Mike and I went to a couple of yard sales and then had lunch at the Sandbar.  Later on William and Judy decided to drive up from Bradenton to visit with us!  So we met them along with Bill and Patty at the Hog Island Fish Camp for Happy Hour!  Then we took them all to hear our favorite local band.  This time they weren’t playing in a bar.  They were playing at a type of flea market called Antiques ‘N Uniques!  It was definitely unique!  We all had a great time!  I’m going back to that place next week.  There were definitely some “unique” things I want to check out.  After all, I will be decorating my home in Joplin again one of these days!
Sunday we met Bill and Patty at the 53rd Annual Art Fest.  There were lots of vendors with lots of things to see.  We hung out there for a while but soon we decided to go to the American Legion.  After all there we could visit with $1.00 drafts instead of $5.00 ones!  We had a great time visiting – lots of laughter!
Monday morning I went back to Antiques ‘N Uniques like I promised.  There is so much to see!  No purchases yet, but I’ll be back!  We had an engine guy here to check out our diesels.  We needed to get them checked out after the first surveyor’s report.  All is good – pretty much what we expected!  Now we’re ready for the next one.  Although it’s been put off another week till Friday, November 18!  Oh well…….  We “celebrated” the good news about the motors by going out to dinner at Cricketers.  Hopefully things just may be turning around in our favor.  We’ll see!
Tuesday, of course, was Election Day.  I’m so glad this will finally be over.  So tired of this stress and negativity.  No matter how it comes out – it will be done!  (or so we thought)
Wednesday turned out to be a little cool so I put on a pot of chili and dug out a long sleeve shirt!  We have definitely become Floridians these past years.  I even went to Beall’s to find me a pair of shoes that aren’t flip flops!  My toes are cold!  LOL!
Mike has spent most of his time these past few days fixing the little stuff and spiffing her up for her next inspection.   We’re now just waiting till next week to see what happens!
Happy Veteran’s Day!  Today we decided to replace the inverter batteries since they were testing marginal. We want everything on NautiNell to be ready for the “new buyers”. (Keeping our fingers crossed).  So after having lunch at Chili’s (a free lunch for Mike!), we headed to the nearest Sam’s Club which is in Clearwater.  New batteries may not sound like such a big job – but those suckers are heavy!  Especially when you have to lift the four old ones out of the engine room, haul them to the car in a cart, take them in to Sam’s and then do the reversal with the new ones.  It wasn’t bad for me but Mike had to do all the lifting!  Anyway we got that taken care of so we were off on another road trip to Land O Lakes – about an hour drive.  Hurricane Hermine swept away our life ring sometime during the height of the storm.  We didn’t notice it for a few days.  A life ring is a pretty important part of our safety equipment.  Mike found a new one on Craigslist for half the price of ones in the stores so off we go.  Now the best part is the place was a gated community so we had to check in at the gate.  We called the guy when we got close for better directions.  No big deal – but during his directions he just happened to mention “now this is a clothing optional resort, so you’re possibly going to see naked people once you’re in the gate”!  How do we get into these things!  As it turns out we did see a few topless women but that was about it.  We bought our life ring and headed out.  Of course, Mike wanted to keep driving around a bit but I made him head towards the gate – away from the “Clubhouse/Pool!  LOL!
Sunday, November 13 we decided to take a dinghy ride out to Caladesi and Honeymoon Islands. The beaches are so pretty and it was a beautiful day.  The water has definitely become colder but it was still an enjoyable ride. 
We spent the next couple of days with Mike still spiffing her up.  There is always something to do... Oh and of course we made it to the Elks Lodge again for Taco Monday!  It’s really been cold here!  Well, compared to the Keys anyway.  We’re usually on our way south by now!
On Thursday, November 17 we headed up to Turtle Cove Marina in Tarpon Springs.  It’s only for one night but it’s nice to have a change of scenery.  Our agent thought it would be easier for us to be there rather than the surveyors come to us.  SO we got to the marina about 3:00.  We took a short break and then it was off to the Sponge Docks again.  We decided to splurge for some authentic Greek food at Hellas Café.  Mike had lamb and I had Moussaka.  We weren’t disappointed!  Oh and we shared the best Baklava!  We should have had some Ouzo but we passed.  Opa!  We walked around a little but got back to the boat pretty early.  After all it’s going to be a busy day tomorrow.
Friday, November 18   Big Day!  Again!  We were up at 6:30.  Everyone was here by 8:00 a.m. or before.  We had the future “buyer”, three surveyors, the agent on board.  That’s a total of seven!  It wasn’t all that bad this time.  They did what they needed to do, then we were off to the haul out by 10:30.  That took about an hour so we were off to the sea trial which can be very stressful but it didn’t seem as bad as last time.  We even had a visit by several dolphins!  They played in our wake for quite some time!
We dropped off everyone back at Turtle Cove Marina and then headed back to our home slip in Dunedin.  What a nice quiet ride back with just the two of us.  Who knows if this is our last ride in NautiNell!  Maybe – or maybe not!  We’ll see.  We made it back in time for Happy Hour.  We were so tired when we got back we pretty much just collapsed!  Now it’s just a matter of waiting.  The buyer will want to review the findings.  Those results won’t be ready till sometime the first of the week. 
We both felt better Saturday morning after a good night’s sleep.  We’ve done all we can so the pressure is pretty much off.  There was a huge Arts and Crafts Festival here in Dunedin so I dragged Mike to check it out. We had lunch at Flanagan’s.  He did pretty good walking around with me but I finally told him to go have a cold beer at Skip’s and I’d see the rest by myself.  He had no problem with that!
We spent the next few days killing time and trying to stay warm!  A cold front came through here and it was pretty chilly on the boat!  We spent Sunday holed up with our electric heater watching the Nascar Championship Race.  Monday we found the Mall where Mike could get his sunglasses fixed.  I talked him into eating at the Food Court.  Ha!  That is definitely not his thing.  We’re getting to know some of the Loopers that have come in.   We’re having a potluck on Thanksgiving. It looks like there will be about a dozen of us.  It’s a little smaller than the ones we’ve been to in Marathon but it should be fun!  We’re still waiting on the decision from the “buyer”.  Nothing like just waiting -  and trying to figure out what you’re going to do next!   Oh and the dates have been amended again to December 9.  Sheeh!
Thanksgiving went as planned!  We had ten people and way too much food.  At least we all took home leftovers!  It’s days like this that we all reflect on just how thankful we should be.  Mike and I are so thankful for our family and our friends.  These past six years on NautiNell have been wonderful.  We’ve met so many new friends.  Friends that we now consider part of our family.  We love the life we’re living. 
Stay tuned! 
Admiral “C”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, October 27, 2016

Still in Dunedin! Wondering and waiting,,,,,!

Beautiful sky!
Cool car show we stumbled on!
I liked this one!
Enjoying our visit with
our Missouri friends!
This is our Airbnb condo!
Nice galley too!
Is this not funny!
Captain Jacks - great
Happy hour place!
Our home for a week!
Sponges coming in at Tarpon Springs
Nice day for a Arts & Crafts festival!
Outside a music store
Inside Paul's Shrimp and Beer
Everything here is about sponges!
View down the Anclote River
Yep, more sponges!
Taking care of things one way or another!

Since my last post, we have had a full few weeks.  We spent the first few days killing time until we would take NautiNell to the boatyard. Mike worked on what he could - checking things off the list.  We pretty much hung close to the boat – watching our budget!  On Friday night, we went to Cricketers for dinner and then stopped at the local dive bar, The Inn, which is just across from the marina.  $6 pitchers and our favorite blues band was playing!  It was jam night and several musicians sat in with them.  It was great – and just what we needed to get our minds off the upcoming week.   The next day, we got up early to get the boat staged for another showing only to find out a couple of hours before the scheduled time that they had changed their mind.  Woohoo!  There’s that rollercoaster again!  Oh well, we had lunch at the Draught Haus and enjoyed ourselves.  Why not! 

We couldn’t stay on the boat while it was on the hard so we looked for a reasonable (aka cheap) place to stay.  We tried Airbnb for the first time.  Airbnb is a network of people that have places they rent out.  These can range from a bedroom in their home to a totally private condo, etc.  We chose a great little private condo in Holiday, FL which was just about three miles from the boatyard.  We had never done this before so we figured it would be another adventure!  It turned out to be great!  We rented a 2 bed, 1 1/2 bath condo for a week for only $271!  It was in a 55+ complex, duh, that wasn’t a problem.  The Airbnb app is really user friendly.  Based on our experience, we would highly recommend it.

So Sunday, we got the keys to the condo.  After checking it out, we knew that it was going to work out fine.  We also got a call from Larry and Vicki Plumlee, friends from back home.   They were going to be in Clearwater for a few days.  We made plans for them to take a boat ride with us over to the boatyard in Tarpon Springs on Monday.  We planned to leave around noon.  They were thrilled about riding on the boat. 
Monday morning brought us a CHANGE OF PLANS!  The boatyard called us about 8:00.  They wanted us there by 11:00!  So we had to dash around and leave by 9:00!  So I guess you’d say that the Plumlees literally missed the boat!  They met us at the boatyard so they at least got to see her even though she was out of the water.  We all went to lunch at Hog Island Fish Camp.  M’Liss was working and she took really good care of us!  We had a great visit and they dropped us off to get our car at the marina.  We then had to make a grocery/liquor stop and unpack at the condo.  We were pretty much done after that.
On Tuesday Mike was off to the boatyard early, of course.  Oh, he also had left his phone in the Plumlees’ car the day before.  So he had to drive to Clearwater and meet with Larry to get it.  I hung back and enjoyed our little home on land.  Of course, since Mike didn’t have his phone, I had to play secretary.  We were also told that we needed to check in at the office so I walked over there only to be told that we couldn’t stay there!  They only allowed three month minimum stays!  Well crap, nothing just goes smooth anymore.  However after a phone call to the owners of the condo, we were told not to worry about it.  SO we didn’t.  And there were no goons showing up at our door kicking us out!  I think they have since got everything worked out.  We did happy hour at Captain Jacks and checked out the local Elks Lodge.  All is good.
On Wednesday, while Mike worked on the boat and supervised what he could, I did a little sightseeing of Tarpon Springs.  We met Vicki and Larry for dinner at Casa Tina in Dunedin.  We had a really good visit with them.  That place really makes great margaritas!  We love seeing people from back home and catching up with everything.  They were heading back tomorrow so we said our goodbyes.

Mike met with a surveyor on Thursday for our Insurance Renewal.  Our insurance company was requiring an out of the water survey before our January renewal.  They do that every so often.  We took advantage of having it out and scheduled it to be done.  This one went a lot smoother than that one a couple of weeks ago.  He gave us a clean bill of health!  Later that evening we were sitting out on the patio relaxing, feeling pretty good, because things were starting to get done and the costs were a lot less than we had anticipated.  Like I said we were relaxing – right?  Well, Mike got up to fix him another drink and tried to open the front door.  Guess what – we were locked out!  Somehow the door locked itself……!  We called the owner, who is in Mexico by the way, to see if there was a spare key hidden somewhere.  Of course there wasn’t.  We checked all the windows.  Both sets of keys were on the table inside with both sets of our car keys.  We couldn’t even get to any tools.  A neighbor loaned us a screwdriver.  Mike was planning to take the frame off but that wasn’t working either.  Finally he was able to somehow pop the door open with the screwdriver.  Now do I feel safe??  Anyway we were finally in.  I notified the owners who were happy to hear that.  At least we didn’t have to call a locksmith.  Oh wait my phone was going dead also!  LOL!  We had our leftover Mexican food from the night before and called it a night!  NautiNell should be back in the water tomorrow.

Friday morning Mike headed out early to finish up a few things and to check on NautiNell’s schedule. There was a clamp that had broken and the boatyard didn’t have one to replace it.  The closest place to get one was about an hour away.  Mike came and picked me up - road trip to Riverview!  Of course when we got to the place – they didn’t have one after all (even though they had said they did). They sent us to another place who then sent us to another place!  Finally we got what we needed and headed back to the boatyard.  What should have taken two hours took four!  When we got to the boatyard NautiNell was in the straps waiting for us looking so pretty with her new bottom paint!  They put on the clamp and then splashed her.  Finally about 3:45 Friday afternoon we were on our way back to Marker 1 Marina in Dunedin!  We made it there close to 6:00.  We tried to get in our slip 6 times – bow in and stern in!  We just couldn’t do it because of the wind and the current!  So we ended up tying up on the outside alongside the dock.  That would be fine until the winds die down.  We took UBER (another first) back to the boatyard and picked up our car.  We stopped at Johnny’s Tap House for dinner.  We had planned to spend the night in the condo but we felt better if we stayed in the boat since we really weren’t too crazy about how it was moored. 
Saturday morning was still way too windy to try for the slip.  We talked to the marina and was told we could leave it there until the winds die down.  We cleaned her up a bit and then headed to the condo.  After all, that is where all our stuff is!  We chilled in our land home.  A trip to the local Elks Lodge then dinner in.
Sunday we went to the Arts and Crafts Show on the Sponge Docks.  Really interesting – not just your average crafts.  We had lunch at Paul’s Shrimp and Beer.  It was a beautiful day!  Dinner at Tarpon Bar and Grill.  It was karaoke night!  It turned out to be pretty good.  Most could actually sing!  There was one guy there “Larry”.  Larry used to sing with Elvis!  That’s pretty cool!

Monday we checked out of the condo and went back to the boat.  The wind was still blowing pretty hard although the forecast was for it to be calm.  We were told by the marina that they were moving us anyway.  And that we would have to leave by the end of the month!  We had told them we wanted to stay another month or so but they had failed to make note.  We started checking on marinas.  We had made a reservation at Fisherman’s Wharf in Venice for November 1 anyway as a backup.  However, when we called to confirm we were told yes, they have us down but the rate that they quoted us in September was no longer valid.  The marina had sold again!  The monthly rate for us went from $750 to $1100!  That ain’t gonna work!  So we called several other marinas in the area but most were booked.  They are showing the boat again on Wednesday.  The Dockmaster here will be back then too.  SO we decided we’d just see what happens.  We went to the Elks for $1.00 tacos.  Priorities!
Tuesday Mike changed the oil and filters.  We also fluffed up the boat for another showing tomorrow.  Wondering just how this is all going to work out…..

Today (Wednesday) we talked to the marina here again.  After talking to the Dockmaster, we were told that he could jockey boats around and we could stay a couple of more months in our slip if we wanted.  Hooray!  Now if the winds would just lay so we could get back in our slip!
We also showed the boat to a gentleman that had already seen it in Marathon last spring.  A returnee!  He also drove five hours one way to see it again!  That all sounds promising.  Our broker seems to believe we’ll get an offer.  He also has two other couples that are interested.  One saw it right after the first contract was signed – the other one came to see it while she was on the hard.  Both want to see it again.  We’ll see!  Not counting our chickens!   Show me the money!
Stay tuned!

Till next time!

Admiral “C”