I last left you all in June. We had been on the boat but the heat was just too intense for us to do anything.
The rest of the 2024 season was similar to that. But first, full disclosure - I was laid off in late June. Please don't worry for me. I was planning to retire in December... they paid me into August and I left with severance enough to cover until March, so I'm quite happy with my "early retirement".
With the heat being so intense this summer and Seas The Day up for sale, this year we allowed ourselves to imagine doing other things than boating. The first might be counter-intuitive, but we headed back down to The Villages in Florida. I wanted to experience the place at the height of Florida's heat and humidity (and that we did). You'll see that most photos are from early morning or evening.
The visit did not rule out the possibility of moving there.
Of course, we visited Levi, my grandson frequently.
I continued to go down to Seas The Day at least every other week.
I spent a lot of time cleaning her. I did some lounging. I even took her out a few times. But in all honesty, once the decision to sell was made, boating lacked appeal. I even spent four days on her in mid-August, expecting to go visit a few ports for the last time... but I never left the dock (except for trips to "Pompout Cove").
One interesting trip was in mid-August... I took her over to Gratitude Marina to have a "Short Haul" completed. This is just pulling her out of the water and power washing the marine growth off her bottom, and checking things like the zincs. In the past this was always done on a weekday and I opted not to waste a vacation day. This time, with my newly retired status, I could take her there myself and watch.
Here's a bunch of videos from the process...
I know that's a lot of detail, but I have some young readers who are really into big machines and would want to see the entire process.
With Gratitude Marina in the rear view, I headed back to Osprey Point.
The rest of the season, I made it a point to go down every week or two to check on her. I even lived on board for four days (intended to be a week of going out to visit some old ports). But I never left the dock... the desire to go out sailing had flown once we decided to sell her. So I basically just enjoyed Osprey Point Marina for a few days.
Clearly something else other than sailing had captured my interest!
Finally, this past weekend, we had the whole family over as I celebrated my 60th trip around the Sun!!
Stay tuned for an important update on the boat selling process!!!
