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| This is the way we like to see the inlet! |
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| Beautiful evening |
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| These guys come by here regularly! |
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| Love this beach! |
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| Quite a crowd at Molly Goodheads! |
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| Happy's Bayou Bites |
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| Great little place - used to be a food truck |
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| "Home Cookin" |
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| Things a brewing |
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| Pet parrot at Joe's Kitchen |
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| Taken in St Augustine - nice fish netting |
This past month in Dunedin has been a roller coaster ride to
say the least. It’s even been hard for
me to sit down and write about it.
However, we’ve worked our way through it and this is how it’s been.
On September 12 we got an offer on NautiNell from a couple
who hadn’t even seen her! We countered,
they countered and we accepted. Then the
hurry up and wait started. Even while we
were waiting on the sea trial and survey schedule we showed her two more
times! If everything went well we would
be closing and moving off our home by October 15. I said if everything goes well - remember that. We found ourselves reminiscing about all the
fun days we’ve had these past years. We
got excited about what we would do next in the future. Sometimes we would just have to get off the
boat just to relax a little. We put our
bicycles on Craigslist and sold one of them the first day! Get this!
A gentlemen bought the old rusty one of Mike’s for his son to ride around college. Mike helped put the old thing in the trunk of
his Maserati, no less! Oh well! Next we put the scooters on Craigslist too. We’ve sold mine. Sad…..!
We also spent a lot of time fixing up the little things here and there –
just hoping to make the survey go smoother.
Ha - was that a joke!
Finally the day of reckoning came. Three surveyors, the buyers and a stand-in
for our broker. Eight people on
NautiNell! We had to take her to Tarpon
Springs for the haul out which is only about 14 miles – 1 1/2 hour ride. We figured they would find a few issues –
after all, she’s almost 30 years old!
The buyers were a very nice couple from Colorado. We felt good about everything. We all enjoyed
the ride. Then upon our return we heard the news……. A couple of issues that were entirely
unexpected. A list of things wrong that,
of course, we couldn’t see. The surveyors
work for the buyers not the sellers.
When all was said and done, the buyers walked. I guess they just didn’t feel so good about
NautiNell after all. We begged and
pleaded to get a list of the issues.
Finally our broker was able to get a list of some of the things. Most of them can easily be fixed by
Mike. And he has been diligently going
down the list. We have scheduled to
have her hauled out for a bottom paint and to get a couple of things done that
Mike just doesn’t want to tackle. He’s
capable but just can’t do it all. So on
October 17, we’re heading back up to Tarpon Springs to have her hauled out
where she’ll be on the hard a few days. We were as surprised as anyone about the
problems they found. It really sent us
down a spiral for a while but we know she’s a great boat and has served us well
for almost six years. When she gets put
back in the water she should be all ready for a new owner or maybe we’ll even
reconsider. Who knows!
Now along with all this on our minds – we have to deal with
Hurricane Matthew! We just had Hermine
last month! This time it was heading for
the east coast (they said). The problem
was they kept saying they really weren’t sure just how far west it might
go. This meant that the best for us
could be maybe tropical winds or the worst it could come on to land and who
knows what would happen then. I’ve had
quite a crash course on hurricanes these last few weeks. I stayed glued to the weather channel, etc.
probably a little too much. However we
did know that the east coast of Florida would definitely be affected and also
Georgia and the Carolinas. We have good
friends from the Keys to North Carolina up and down the coast. We pretty much knew (?) we’d be okay but we
didn’t know how it would be for the others.
As it turns out for us, we had some wind conditions for a couple of
days. We didn’t have to worry about the
storm surge like we did during Hermine.
We really were fine. But it just
broke our hearts seeing Daytona and St Augustine getting hit hard. And as I’m writing this we have friends in
the Carolinas taking the hit. I’m just
praying that they are okay and the damage is minimal.
So now between the boat sale on/off and the hurricane we’ve
had to find a way from going crazy! Just
kidding – we knew we’d be fine – duh, at least we think so! J But our best way to cope was to go find a few
Happy Hours! (Not during the storm,
don’t worry we’re not that crazy).
Anyway we did check out a few places. We checked out Molly Goodheads when
they were celebrating their 31st Anniversary.
This is a very cool raw bar. But
it was way too crowded so we ended up at Captain Bill's. We made note that Captain Bill’s was having a
blues band playing on Saturday – we would definitely be back for that. Between the boat sale and the storm, Terese
came by for a visit. Good timing! Thanks
for the smiles! It was really good to see her.
It’s always good to see our Marathon friends! Terese and Rick used to live here in Dunedin
so she filled us in on places we needed to try.
We’ll try to do you proud Terese and make them all.
We tried Happy’s Bayou Bites for lunch – the best Gumbo I’ve
had in a very long time! Finally
Saturday got here and we had dinner at Molly’s and made it to Captain Bill’s
for the blues band. They were fantastic
and I think I was a little overserved!
We’ve made it to the Elks Lodge a couple more times – they have Taco Monday
and dollar drafts. Can’t miss that! We went to Ozona Blue on Terese’s suggestion
and really enjoyed it. We’ve taken a
couple of dinghy rides and enjoyed the sunsets.
That always helps. Today we went over to Joe’s Kitchen. It’s a little “hotdog” stand that has really
good sandwiches, etc. All outside,
nothing fancy. It was quite interesting. Joe is a long time transplant from Chicago
with lots of stories. There was another
man there that was a retired Jersey cop.
The combination was quite interesting entertainment while we had our
lunch. The same band is playing tonight
so we’re heading back to Captain Bill’s.
I will not get overserved this time!?
We are getting back into the swing of things. When we get NautiNell back in the water we’ll
decide what we’re doing next. We may
stay here a little longer. We may decide
to head on down south. We just don’t
know yet. Hey, we may get another offer
on her and start this ride all over again!
Stay tuned.
Till next time!
Admiral “C”
Update: As of today’s
post - It seems all of our friends on the east coast made it through Hurricane
Matthew safely! Some have minor damage
to their boats but still consider themselves lucky. It’s so sad to see all the pictures of the
damage up and down the coast. Some
boaters are still searching for their boat days after the storm. Our prayers are with those that were so greatly
affected by the storm.
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