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”