April 3, 2021
WOW!
I am shocked when I look at the last time that I posted on my blog. It is now late into the fall and time to set the clocks back and so much as changed personally and globally. I can’t talk about one without the other.
The world, United States and friends lives are changed forever.
Through our time this 2019-2020 year we have been processing our plans for the future and what we want to do about keeping the boat. We quickly moved to selling the boat at the end of the 2020 boating season. We prepared to keep it at Safe Cove in Port Charlotte, Florida instead of taking it back up the East Coast to South Carolina. We knew we would miss seeing Val and Rick and the people at Osprey Marina. The people there starting feeling like family. We planned to stop on our drive north.
We slowly worked toward getting things spiffed up to put Linda Jean on the market, Rob mostly did the work. We had the mast hinged about the end of March and it turns out that was none too early to end the boating season. The mast came back looking great and now that it is hinged it will be another asset for selling it. People that do the Great Loop need to have a certain height of their boat to get under some of the bridges, ours was too high to get under the bridge in Chicago.
We planned on storing the boat at Safe Cove (SC) in the first week of April so we could get home by May 1st. We wanted to stop and see the Vincents, friends in Tennessee, and friends in Myrtle Beach as well as stop and see my nephew in Alexandria, VA.
All of that changed very quickly. The world, literally the world, started shutting down and with a feeling that we were in Twilight Zone we prepared for a straight through drive to Maine. A pandemic that would last indefinitely hit the world stage.
First we heard about people getting really sick from a virus that was identified in China- Wuhan. China shut down the entire city, they wouldn’t let people in or out. The virus identified as COVID-19 was killing people. People started dying in hospitals and the most publicized place in the US was NYC. The hospitals were over crowded and people were dying faster than they could dispose of the bodies. Governor Cuomo and Mayor ——- did a really good job trying to get it under control but it took months. Fear was everywhere. National medical experts started being recognized quicker than celebrities, or the medical experts became the superstars until President Trump got involved.
For me and probably for Rob we felt like we were on unsteady ground both with a president that discriminated and couldn’t take care of his people to a virus.
We did what Rob calls a surgical strike, it just dawned on me that the phrase is mostly from the military, da. We put up the mast on the boat so we could have an anchor light and headed north on a two day trip to Safe Cove. We stopped for the last time at one of our favorite anchorages at Cayo Costa. The next day we traveled to the boat yard.
We intended on being at the dock there for two or three days getting the boat ready for storage but when we were approached by the boat yard with a hauling time a day earlier than we had planned we jumped at the chance to head home early.
With the canvas still wet and the boat in disarray we tried to find someone that could take the canvas down when it dried out from the down pour we had the night before. We found April a God send! She would do anything we asked and a good job at it.
We left for Maine on April 6th and arrived home April 7th around 10 PM. It was a long drive straight through. We didn’t stop at friends or family. An eerie feeling traveled with us up the East Coast. The roads we absent of traffic. No heavy traffic anywhere and Washington D.C looked like no one lived or traveled there. NYC was a cinch to drive through. We usually take route 84 through Wilkes-Barre, PA and stop in Newburgh, NY but this time because everything was closed down we thought it would be a breeze driving straight up 95.
It was a huge relief to get back home and feel cocooned at home. Neighbors left some food to keep us a few days until we could get groceries. At that time and even now we have to be quarantined for two weeks if we travel out of state. We ordered our groceries to be picked up at Hannaford and Walmart. It was hard to get a time to pick up groceries because everyone was using that service for fear of the virus. We did this for the first two weeks and then dropped the Hannaford service because Rob could go into the store with a mask. We still mostly get what we need at Walmart with the Pick-Up service. There are times when we go into the store. For instance I needed new glasses and rather than pay the $485.00 for the glasses at my local eye doctor I ventured into Wal-Mart where they billed my insurance and paid out of pocket $98.00. I wish I could have given my eye doctor the business but not at that price point.
Why am I wandering off on the tangent about my glasses, I guess that was happening at the time I was writing that part of my blog.
The summer was so great here. Rob worked hard and I kept busy as well. Knowing that we were not going back to the boat in the fall left me feel a great deal of relief that I didn't have to do everything I like at my house before October. Rob repaired the breeze way doors to the gazebo, took care of the yard and gardens. I will let him tell you the rest. We spent our week at SH but it was different this year without Wally and Darcy visiting and other local friends. We had one local people come to the cottage and that was very nice.
Did I mention that we have an angel. Her name is April and she will do anything that we ask. She unloaded all of our stuff off the boat. Joe, her husband, replaced Zincs and impellers to name a few things. They took the initiative to strip some of the teak that we did not get to and varnish it making it look so nice.
We started out with one broker from Maine and ended up with a broker in Florida from Pier One. A fine man to deal with, David Plank. The boat was listed for the first time in July and on this day, November 16, 2020 it sold. But wait there was some things that happened before the sale. We went to Florida in the middle of a pandemic.
November 5th we flew to Florida and all though we had round trip airfare we rented a car and drove back with all of our stuff. That was a very good choice. So many niggling things happened. Initially I thought we would have lots of time but it turned out that we barely had time to do what we did.
Without going into detail I will just say that several annoying things happened to the boat that we had to fix before the sea trial. The first date of the sea trial was postponed due to high winds. I can't remember all the annoying things that happened but that is just as well. It suffices to say that we had to replace parts, and take hours to figure out one of the problems. It was hot there and raining, mostly rainy and windy. It took us a significant amount of time to go through all of our stuff in the storage unit. Such a good thing that we rented a car there were so many things that we wanted to bring home. We through a lot of stuff away, gave a lot to April and Joe and put some in the "dining" building for people to just take. I think that I put the blog for 2016-2017 there because I haven't been able to find it. I redid the one from this site and will have it printed along with this one.
We just couldn't wait to sign on the dotted line and not have the responsibility of the boat. As they say it is a lot of work. I was bored the last year and looked forward to being in my house for the winter season.
Today is January 7, 2021 and the pandemic has not gotten any better what is good news is that about two weeks ago people started to receive the vaccine. There are tiers that are being administered. Health care works, compromised people over 85, nursing home people and so on.
It will be a very long time before I will feel safe going anywhere period and when I do go I won't be without my mask. I actually have no desire to go anywhere.
Of course 2020 was the year of a presidential election and it was pretty awful.
Well now it is March 15, 2021 and I still haven’t put this blog to bed. Now we have a new President and it is pretty wonderful. He is taking care of us and making us feel safe. Everyday is filled with the normal amount of drama from the news and we don’t wake up everyday wondering what the past administration has done to upset someone.
I have taken a vow to finish this stage of our life up and put this book into print.
It was been so nice to be able to think of others and what they might like to hear from us and what to see that we have seen on our adventure. Thank all of you for being their in my mind as I tell my story.
Here it is March 21, 2021 and I am sitting down yet again to finish this story. We have both had our shots and have had over our two weeks since the last one happened.
Pictures please?
The dates are not necessarily in order a glitch in the blog format.
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| Bandit visits February 27, 2020 |
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| We all visit Kent and Jan's RV February 27, 2020 |
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| Eating out for one of the last times before we knew about COVID-February 27, 2020 |
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| Contemplating life before the pandemic |
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| Sea gulls at attention |
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| March 3, 2020 Greg Harrington |
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| March 26, 2020 Ft. Myers Beach |
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| March 13, 2020 St. Pete |
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| St. Pete Beach March 14, 2020 |
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| Sunken Garden's St. Pete March 11, 2020 |
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| St. Pete and St. Pete Beach March 14, 2020 |
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| Compilation- the trip to the Sunken Gardens and the bridge from our anchorage in Sarasota on our way to St. Pete. |
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| St. Pete hotel March 14, 2020 |
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| Tamp Bay March 10, 2020 |
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| Ft. Myer Beach patrolling the beach to keep people off do to the pandemic. March 26, 2020 |
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| First mask April 2, 2020 |
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| Aft cabin |
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| April 5, 2020 |
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| April 5, 2020 |
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| We drove straight through from Florida to Maine. It took 29 hours. There wasn't any traffic anywhere. We usually drive I81 home but drove through D.C. and NYC without any traffic. It was like Twilight Zone. |
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| We didn't stop for any tolls. Stopped to get fuel and to use the rest stops. We packed food and drinks. |
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| We arrived home on April 7, 2020 not long after we lost electricity and had snowfall. |
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| Home was such a welcoming sight. No place like home during a pandemic. |
