First Week

A week ago Tuesday, Chrissy and I started out on this journey to pick up our sailboat, Hoot Mon, not knowing exactly what lay ahead.  What we left home with was Faith, Hope and Love. And wow, what an amazing week it has been.  Every day filled with new mysteries, new learning, new challenges, new accomplishments. On a boat, it seems that the simplest of things can give you joy and happiness.

Leaving home at 4 am to catch our flights we were so excited to get going.  Delta was good to us and not only got us ON our flights we hoped to be on, but also put us in First Class on both legs of our flights.  Woo hoo! Things were starting off really good.

We quickly made our way from Key West to Marathon, about an hour, had a late lunch and headed to the boat yard to get the Hoot, as she's become affectionately referred to pending name change (possibly around the same time Ms Agnew changes her name as well).  The boat yard wasn't quite ready to "splash" her, so off we went to pick up some basics to start equipping her with the necessities of living aboard for a month or so.  Back at the boat yard, we waited for a while longer and finally around 17:30 the time comes to get in the water.  

By the time she was in the water, it was ….you guessed it….Happy Hour.  And while we weren’t fully equipped, we had picked up beer and wine and had a wonderfully amazing time as the sun set and the skeeters and no-see-ums sized us up.  

The next day our boxes arrived that we've had shipped from home. Chrissy was excited to have her favorite salsa.

As I mentioned earlier, the no-see-ums are having their way with one of us.  Evidently Chrissy is too sweet for them to bother. Me on the other hand, must be a delicacy for them because they can’t seem to get enough.  Each day we have learned additional remedies to deal with keeping the no-see-ums away.  We’ve used everything from mosquito spray, mosquito spray with deet, OFF coils, Avon Skin-So-Soft believe it or not, and yesterday, we came up with the Therma-Cell.   Dealing with the itch after they viciously attack you is challenging as well.  So far, the skin-so-soft is helping but the best seems to be Benedryl Allergy.  Any ideas, please send them along.  

Our main focus  this past week  has been getting the boat into cruising shape.  While there have been some ups and down as we settled into the boat, being on the water has been a great feeling.  We started going through all the storage spaces on the boat to see what all was left on board, what junk needed to go away, and what might be useful.  We’re almost done with that.  And along with daily trips to get more supplies, she is almost set up inside.  West Marine (previously chronicled in Chrissy’s Boat Units blog post), Home Depot, Publix, a local package store, Napa and Advance Auto Parts have become our “go-to” places.  Along with Mickey D's for the free wifi.

Each day we get  more stuff working and sorted out.  The stove and the on deck grill were biggies since they gave us our first hot meals aboard. It took a day for us to get the dinghy all put back together and inflated and the engine on it, but it was great to be able to leave the dock and be on the water…at least a little.  And we had a good sunset as well.  Followed that up with our first meal on the grill—chicken—and Chrissy made some mac and cheese on the stove.  Simple pleasures.   

The Coast Guard is your friend with all the timely information they give you for on-water alerts and also for weather alerts. 

We have had a couple of storms since we got here.  The first one was the first night, and the boat rocked and creaked and was continually pushed into the dock and boat pillows.   By the time we rode out our second storm, we had better VHF radios to be able to hear the Coast Guard alerts.  In some ways that made it seem more intense with the continual CG alerts, but then again, we learned that when they say a storm is coming, take cover. 

We met a nice Canadian couple, Mike and Wendy.  They were pulling their boat out of the water to return home for a while.  In a few days, we learned so much from them.  They are very seasoned cruisers and really good people.  They had been on their boat for almost a year straight.  Chrissy and I asked a lot of questions and they were a wealth of information.  Boaters all share info and help so readily. And we really appreciated the bon voyage gift.  Hope we get to use it soon.

Yesterday afternoon, the riggers came by to do some much needed repairs, and add some safety lights.  We had a diesel mechanic here as well so we'll have a better idea how things work.  An electrician will come tomorrow and then hopefully we’ll be able to take her off the dock. 

As we move into our second week here,  the excitement is building for that first trip away from the dock in The Hoot, much like the excitement we had building up to the trip.  We have what we began with, Faith in our goal, Hope that we will soon be at sea, and Love for each other.