4 months out of the water and 2 major hurricanes later…..

10/22/24

It took a lot of thought and planning to leave our beautiful Happy Wife out on the hard in the middle of the state for this length of time. We’d never done it in our eight years of living on board. The forecasts called for the worst storm season ever for our coast and boy, they weren’t wrong with the worst flooding in 103 years!

We went for months with nothing major happening and we wondered if it was all worthwhile. Happy wife was out of the water, safe in the middle of the state, through two locks, on the Okeechobee river and we took this time to travel. We had an amazing time visiting San Jose, Cabo, Cancun and our annual trip to Europe which included the Spanish Riviera, Ibiza and Gibraltar

On our return flight home we watched as huge hurricane Helene was set to hit the panhandle. Our girls, back home, prepped and prepared our beachfront properties as best they could, but we had catastrophic damage to two units on Treasure Island and salvageable damage to four of our others at St Pete beach. This thing only passed us by but caused flooding to my shoulder height and more in other locations as it picked up at high tide and left devastation in its wake.

It was quite something to return home to, but we hugged and felt grateful that Happy Wife and all of our friends and family remained safe and sound. We got stuck in and worked 10 hour days for days to gut and clear debris, appliances etc only to prepare for Milton to come on by as an almost direct hit. Our entire family had evacuated to a hotel in Orlando and we watched as it turned just before making landfall, saving us to the north of the eye, but obliterating those to the south. Its sobering to feel relieved on one hand and heartbroken for others simultaneously. I am of the belief that everything happens for a reason and that the outcome will be even better for us in the end.

We made our way down to our boat once the dust had settled, did some bottom paint on Happy Wife and so on. I like to think she’s just at the spa lol

Our first night would be on land and the following lunchtime we were splashed. Just like that we were floating again and Happy Wife (along with me) had our souls back.

We spent the night tied to the dock, getting ready for the locks, checking engines, batteries, Generator and so on.

We travelled through the two locks with ease and made the 9 hour trip up to Cayo Costa

We spent 10 days at the anchorage waiting for a gap to bring Happy Wife home to Tampa. It was incredibly windy with daily small craft advisories. We didn’t mind though because we love it here and so does Cali.

We had lunches, dinners and cocktails at the beach, on board up on the helm and grilled out on the bow which makes each day different. I love setting the table and making each moment count when we are out on the water

Three days before leaving the impeller on the dinghy went so we got a tow in with Sea Tow to Bokeelia nearby to replace that at the Yamaha dealership there. We had lunch at the Lazy Pelican there too and had some extra food devoured to us there.

We also supported Cabbage Key by buying our lunch there on e day and enjoying that oceanside.

Finally, we could make our way up the intracoastal to Anna Maria where we spent the night before heading home to Tampa making our way under our beautiful Sunshine Skyway Bridge to welcome us home once more.

Its been a long and exciting four months of moving and traveling, staying in our own airbnb’s and visiting other countries.

We are ready to tie up the lines and settle into our slip at home…for now… but always ready for anything good and exciting that comes our way.

A ship in a harbor is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for!