Saturday 12/9/2017

It is now 1/16/2018 so this short entry will be from my bad memory.  This was the day of departure from Vero Beach.  Fred had suggested we leave a day earlier than we had planned. It was a good idea for several reasons (driving through DC on the weekend, for example).  I had lots to do to leave True Blue "safe" for a month.  The primary items were to go to my mooring and to bring the dinghy on deck, deflate, and store it.  I was assigned to mooring 20 at the Vero Beach City Marina.  The mooring had a 41' Hunter tied to it and a CS 38 rafted to his port side.  I would be on his starboard side.  Getting tied up went pretty well.  For those of you who would question leaving your boat rafted off another boat for a month, believe me, I had questioned it many times too.  Numerous people on the ICW assured me that it would be all right.  The VBCM mooring field is very protected.  In retrospect, everything was fine.  The second task didn't go so well - the dinghy.  Steve Schroeder came over to give me a hand getting it on board.  What I wasn't ready for was all the yucky slime that had grown on the bottom.  It made a mess of the deck.  But what was worse was getting the floor boards out.  It took the two of us over an hour.  THANK YOU to Steve for his help - I don't think I could have done it alone.  That may be the last time I ever deflate and store it. 

So, at 4pm, Steve gave me a ride to shore in his dinghy.  Fred had been there since about 2pm and was raring to get on the road.  So we did!  We both traded turns driving and drove all night.  Neither of us got much sleep - we had lots to talk about - we both have the same favorite topic - BOATS.  Fred has a Brewer 44 - Wild Oats that he keeps on the Magothy River.

I got home on 12/10 and returned to True Blue on 1/9/2018.  My blog will resume on 1/9.