The sea called my soul so we answered with all our hearts

5/16/2024

As always, before leaving the dock, theres a flurry of activity. Getting ready to go out for a length of time requires planning, fixing little things that need fixing, stocking up on supplies and making sure we have spares of a multitude of things that could give in when under way on our little island

This time was no different and we went through everything meticulously. We repainted decks, even painted both engine rooms and engines and made sure varnish was all re coated and that the dinghy was in good shape to go too. It’s our “car” while we are out and we rely on it of course to take Cali to potty a few times a day too

Justine came to let our ropes go when we left our dock and we excitedly made the short 2.5 hour trip over to Gulfport to start our time away. We anchored and had lunch before heading to shore for a coffee and walk around the village. We love it here. Its a bright and vibrant artsy community filled with welcoming, seemingly happy people eager to greet you.

The next evening our friends came over for sun-downers onboard and we had dinner at our favorite little dive joint after a lovely day at the beach with Cali.

It was about then, that we noticed that our house batteries were not keeping their charge as they should. They run all our water pumps, bilge pumps, toilets and so on. We decided it was time to change them out before we go any further. There are eight, 6v golf cart batteries and they are not light. Shaun got them out and we loaded them one by one onto the dinghy. We have a great friend who lives nearby and he helped Shaun to get the new ones we needed. Seven hours (and many, many more curse words later :-), we were up and running again. Phew!

We definitely do not spend much time sitting still when were are out on Happy Wife so our days are always filled with visiting all the cute places we can, eating out or working out or just getting a coffee or a cocktail in along the way and of course a lot of beach visits too. On our last night we had a fantastic meal at Pia’s

We spent 5 days in Gulfport before making our way to Boca Grande