November 24 - November 30, 2024
This week marked my return to Florida for another season of cruising. I drove through Louisiana and across the southern parts of both Mississippi and Alabama before arriving on the far eastern side of Florida. From there, I headed east, then south, and south some more, ending up on the northern part of the Florida Keys.
#ReturnToBoatLife
Sunday, November 24th
I left the Slidell Rest Area just before 6:00 a.m. this morning, stopping once when I crossed states lines in Mississippi, then again at the Welcome Center in Grand Bay, AL for photos.
My next stop was a long and welcome break in Destin, FL, where I had a chance to visit and reconnect with my friend, Sabina.
Sabina and I met just over a year ago in Denver when we both attended Core Training to learn about Splankna. We’ve kept in touch intermittently and it was so great to see her and give her a big hug.
Sabina is a busy, BUSY lady, so in order to be able to visit with her, I stopped in at the Farmer’s Market that she (and another friend of hers) organized in the Dick’s Sporting Goods Parking Lot in Destin.
It’s not their peak tourist & visitor season right now, so the number of booths has been reduced by more than half, but it was still a fun few hours checking out the booths and visiting with her.
Once the Farmer’s Market had closed up for the day, I follow her back to her house for a quick introduction to her husband and one of her sons.
Then I hopped back on the road to log a few more hours, stopping for the night at the Monticello I-10 Eastbound Rest Area.
Monday, November 25th
An early bedtime meant I was able to get an early start this morning, and I found myself on the road before 5:00 a.m.
I arrived in Orlando around 8:00 a.m., stopping athlete Downtown Orlando YMCA Family Center to get in my morning swim.
As usual, the staff was super friendly and got me sorted out for my morning swim. It was a very nice facility – bright, well lit, and enormous!
I think my highlight of the morning was the sign on the pool deck. It was near the shallow end, which had been sectioned off for baby swim lessons and it said, “I’m sorry for the tears. I’m learning to survive.” (Seriously, I’m thinking about putting that on a t-shirt.. for adults!)
The entire time I was doing my laps, a baby was crying in the water (I observed two different sets of one-on-one baby swim lessons while I was in the water).
Rather than being annoyed by a crying baby in the lane next to me, I was proud of the moms who were investing the time and money to ensure their littles learned to swim, and impressed by those little babies who were crying, but also swimming and surviving…
After my swim and shower and all that jazz, I wanted to go to the library for some work time and the downtown Orlando library was only a few minutes away. However, after driving around the area, the parking situation that morning was less than desirable, so I drove about 15 minutes to get to the Orange Blossom Center, where I tried to work in the South Trail Branch library.
This is one of this occasions where I fear etiquette might be dead. The library was crowded (which is a good thing, right!?), however the sheer number of people who were listening to videos and having conversations on their phone at ridiculous volumes without headphones made it hard to focus and get any work done. As an alternative, I could have put on headphones, but since the only open seating left me with my back to the room (something I try to avoid at all costs!), I wasn’t comfortable compromising myself further. I gave up after about a half an hour, deciding that I’ll have to make up the lost work time later in the day/week.
I jumped back on the road and put the pedal to the metal. I made a quick stop to say hello to the folks at the Ft. Pierce City Marina and let them know we’d be driving back up in the coming weeks to drop off my vehicle, then made the push to Ft. Luaderdale to pick up a couple boat part for Paul before the business closed (early) for the day. From there, it was a couple more hours on the road to Islamorada, where I met up with Paul, grabbed a late dinner at Lorelei’s, loaded about half my gear onto the boat, and settled back into ‘boat life’. 🎉
Tuesday, November 26th
We hopped in the dinghy and motored over to Lorelei’s for lunch, then ran to Publix for some groceries. I have NO IDEA why we went grocery shopping when the boat is stocked full of groceries (and don’t even get me started on the lazarette under my berth, which is full… mostly of alcohol 🤷🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️).
The weather is warm, the skies are clear and the breeze is cool.
Wednesday, November 27th
I had a good coaching call with Jon, and he is helping me strategize for how to keep up on my protein/fiber/exercise objectives while dealing with the limitations of boat life.
If you are contemplating making serious changes to how you manager your health, I highly recommend Jon – his plan for me was personal and customized to my needs and abilities, and he makes changes based on my feedback and challenges (e.g. we realized I have *no* core strength, so he’s modified my exercise plan to help me slowly build up core strength and reduce the strain I keep putting on my lower back/spine). Are you serious about making an investment in your health? Check him out!
After my call, Paul & dropped the dinghy and made a series of runs to different boat supply stores for some things Paul needed.
Our goal is to avoid land and people as much as possible for the next several days– neither of us has any interest in the craziness of the impending Christmas season.
Thursday, November 28th
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
It was a quiet day on the boat- I worked on my laptop most of the day, then spent some time rebuilding my confidence on the SUP. I paddled back to the boat after about 30 minutes because too many boaters kept zipping nearby, causing waves and wakes and other things that made it hard for me to remain balanced standing up on the SUP.
I really like SUP’ing, so ‘ll keep building my time and skill a little more each time.
AND…. I didn’t fall in!
Paul threw a couple steaks on the grill that we enjoyed for dinner, then wrapped up the evening with a little TV time (we’re bingeing ‘The Resident’) before we each retired to our respective cabins for the night.
Friday, November 29th
Today was a quiet day- I spent most of it working on uploading photos and writing (long-overdue) blog posts.
I knocked out 25 minutes of paddle boarding, but was upright standing for less than 5 minutes since the waves and wind were a bit robust for my novice self. (And the jet skis and speedboats and their wakes didn’t help at all). I came win, rewarded myself with a cocktail, and went back to writing for a couple hours.
Later in the afternoon, we dropped the dinghy and Pul had me practice my dinghy driving skills by motoring us to shore. (Spoiler alert: we survived, ad I didn’t do half bad!). We used our time shore to stop into the boat store looking for more parts (that’s the part of boat life nobody likes to talk about…), and I checked on my vehicle, then we made our way back to the boat.
I worked for a bit, then put in another 25 minutes on the SUP (mostly standing), I’ll try to build my time and strength a little each day (waves, wind and weather permitting).
Saturday, November 30th
It was quite windy when I woke this morning– Paul said it was running at 20 knots this morning, which is 23 MPH (1 knot is approximately 1.15 MPH), making it a stay on the boat day, and definitely NOT a SUP day.
I spent the day working, and busted out the Ole Smokey Tennessee Hunch Punch Moonshine as an afternoon beverage after lunch.
Good decision or bad decision? 🤷🏽♀️
I’m not sure, but I do know that Paul and I were both pretty lit after one drink, which definitely confirmed our intentions to stay on the boat and alternate between listening to music, watching TV (and for me, working).
Write. 👩🏽💻
Eat hot dogs. 🌭
Drink (some water?) 🍹
Soak up the sun. 😎
