It's hard to believe we left Beaufort about two months ago. And we'll probably get back about April 8. So that means we're about halfway through our winter.
It has certainly gone by fast.
We have a streak for fantastic weather. It started on February 1 and every day the temperatures have been in the70's and occasionally low 80's. And nights are pleasantly cool.
Our site, 439, is a great location right on the water. Basically, we've been on the water or within a few feet since we arrived Dec 27. Eventually, we'll get moved to a less desirable site, but they're all good.
Our routines have settled into a nice routine - most days I'm out in the water in the kayak and then to the pool for swimming, and an early dinner out.
However, the past couple of days have changed the routine big time.
On Tuesday (Feb 6), Butch and I got our boats in the water and set out on what was going to a nice, long sail to some nearby islands. Butch is doing a fantastic job of mastering the sailing of his kayak and he is really enjoying it - until today.
We were about a half mile off shore when Butch casually came up beside me and said: "I need to go the emergency room". He said it so casually that I asked: "What happened, did somebody have an accident?" "No, my doctor said I should go".
I had heard him on his phone talking to someone, but I hadn't paid any attention. He had been having chest pains for the past 3 or 4 days and never said anything to me about it. But now the pain was intense enough that it worried him, so he called his doctor back at home and the doctor had told him to get to the emergency room "NOW!"
We got back to shore as quickly as possible (about 20 minutes). Linda met him and they were' off to the hospital.
He stayed overnight and on Wednesday, he was flown by helicopter to Miami.
We all assumed he had a heart attack or was going to have one.
Clara, Candy Ullrich and Linda drove up to Miami Wednesday afternoon, but the helicopter got there several hours before them. As soon a the chopper landed, they had Butch in surgery doing a heart catheterization.
They found no signs of a heart attack, but have identified some issues. And today (Thursday) he was released and as I write this, he and the ladies are headed back here.
It was quite a scare for all of us.
Clara and I are signed up for a CPR course next week!
Tuesday, Feb 13
A full day. And it seems that they all are. It is my goal to catch up on blog, to get 2018 blog book done, to get the last two years photo albums done, to complete my 2018 taxes, and bunches of other tasks completed.
However, I can't seem to get much of anything done. The days go by too fast. By the time I've read the WSJ while eating breakfast, there are always priorities that need to be done. Then I like to try and go sailing for a while, And I've gotten in the habit of swimming in the early afternoon. Then I get back to the coach and early dinner/happy hours plans are made, and then it's bedtime. And none of my projects get done.
Today was a little busier. Steve and Linda Destatio have come down from their winter haven in Lakeland Florida to visit a few days. They brought with them some new friends from Lakeland, Beth Anne and Drew Smith.
This morning Jim took them out on his Kayak (he can take up to four people). We had agreed to meet up and sail together (knowing that my kayak could not keep up with his. We got together and had some great "close formation" sailing while going downwind, then I pulled up close to his boat and he towed me back upwind (my boat doesn't do well upwind). We sailed like this for an hour or so.
Then off to swim, and then this evening, a rather large group went out on the Appledore Star for a cocktail/dinner cruise. When that was over, we stopped by a key line restaurant to top off the dinner aboard with pie.
A great day.
I've just about decided that I want to upgrade my kayak to one like Jim's. Clara found one for sale near Miami and I'm in contact with the owner to see it.
Wednesday, Feb 13
The weather changed - again.
This morning is overcast and a cold front is approaching. By 11 am, the wind is howling and then the rain.
I had "battened down the hatches" last night. And this morning, I'm working to save the slide toppers on the four slide outs. The wind gets into the toppers and really makes a noise and it really looks like the canvas is going to split.
All of sudden the wind jumps to 30 mph. And the slide topper we fixed last week is beginning to look like it's a sail.
Jim dropped by in the middle of all this and we finally get control over the topper and he goes back to his site and brings over a long aluminum bar about 16 feet long.
We bring the driver side slide in the living room about 2/3 the way in, but the spring-loaded slide topper retraction drum doesn't keep up with the rapidly increasing wind. We can't bring the slide in any further but the topper seems that it will fly away. We take Jim's aluminum bar and we stabilize the topper.
In the meantime, I've pulled all the other slides in. I'm really getting tired of all these slide topper problems,
This evening, 10 of us met the girls (who had been shopping Duval Street all day) at a restaurant, had dinner and splashed.
Just not enough time in a day.
February 23
The big news is that last Saturday, I bought a new-to-me Hobie Tandem Island Sailing Kayak. I made a deal with the previous owner, who lives North of Miami that I'd pay full asking price if he brought it down here - and he agreed. So Jim and I met in a parking lot near here Saturday afternoon.
Jim has owned a tandem island like this one for years, and I wanted him to check this one out before finalizing the purchase. He gave it an A+ for the condition - almost like new. It's a 2014 model.
So now I again own a sailboat on which I can go places.
Later that afternoon, we took it to the boat ramp here on base and christened it. It's a little complicated to get in the water until I figure out all the parts. But soon, we were moving smoothly through the water.
It is fast, especially compared to the Hobie Revolution that we currently have.
Initially, I had thought I would sell the revolution, but after Clara and I took both of our older Hobie's out without sails, we've decided that we'll keep it. It's great for pedaling around the marshes.
This has been another whirlwind of activities. We've found a new favorite restaurant just outside the base, the VFW post has a great restaurant and serves great food. Not much atmosphere, but it has become very popular with a lot of us here on base. I think we've been 5 nights this week.
Friday, Jim took a friend out on his Hobie and Butch and I took mine out. After sailing around a little, Jim asked if we wanted to sail out to the islands on the horizon. "Sure". So off we go to a mangrove island about 4 miles offshore. The boat is great for this type of cruise, and it was fun pedaling through the deepwater channels in the island.
This week I have completed my 120 miles swimming in the community college pool. This is a major personal milestone for me. I've never had a distance challenge for swimming. I'd just do my mile or so, enjoy it and come back and do another mile. But having a goal has made it fun - and I get a t-shirt. It's amazing what having a simple thing like a t-shirt can do. I started last year.
Now, I'll start on getting another t-shirt.
We've moved again. We have been in "dry" camp for about 4 weeks. We are completely set up for dry camp (no hookups) and other than not having air conditioning (electrical power) all the time, we enjoy the experience - it's sorta like survival where you're always considering the impact of what you do on the amount of water you have, the availability for waste, whether an appliance uses too much electricity, where's the nearest dump, when are we going to need to get more water, etc. Everything requires a little thinking and planning.
Over the years coming here, we've learned from others how to "survive". The first year or so, when the water was running low or the black and grey tanks were full, we'd have to pack everything up, bring in the slides, bring up the jacks and move the coach to the "dump" station where we could relieve the coach of all its waste products and then go to the water station and fill up.
Now, we don't have to move at all.
We have a small auxiliary generator (Honda 2200) which will keep the batteries charged without having to run the 10,000-watt onboard generator. I've also bought a small solar panel to help the generator, although it doesn't really do much and it's a constantly requiring me to change the angle to the sun so it is working a maximum efficiency, which is only putting out about 8 amps of dc voltage.
We've also got a portable tank with which we can dump the black and gray tanks and hook it up behind the car and take the waste to the dump station. I usually have to make 4 or 5 trips to get all the waste transferred, and I do that about once a week.
And I've got a 40-gallon water bladder which I've rigged up in the back of the car so I can go to the water supply, fill and bring back to the coach. Last year, Butch helped me fix my onboard water pump so it will pump the water out of the bladder into the onboard tank. I usually have to make a couple runs a week to keep the tank filled.
I do all of these survival chores at one time, so in a couple of hours a week, we're "refreshed".
Like I said, we've figured it out.
Anyway, this week, it was our turn to move back to full hook up.
This is our fourth move since arriving in December. Our first site was great. It was a large site very close to the water access point at Sigsbee and we really liked it.
Our second move was to a front-row site in "Hollywood" with a big site.
Our third move was to a front-row site back at Sigsbee.
And our fourth move is to a front-row site back in Hollywood.
That makes 3 (and almost 4) stays in the most desirable sites of the 400+ sites here. That's an almost impossible record - 6 weeks of waking each morning with a beautiful view of the Gulf of Mexico out our front window.
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