Our new home on the water....November 16, 09

Saturday, November 15th we awoke early Saturday morning and Friendly Cab picked Emma, Ed and I up to head to Key West airport so Miss Em could head back to reality. Ed and I then had a bite of breakfast while we waited for the rental car company to open.

Lucas and Stacey were making preparations to take off later in the day.

Our journey north began. We had a goal; find a marina and slip for Great Mates II for the winter. We stopped at Marathon Marina and check on rates and availability and then walked the docks to look at the available slips. We measured, checked approach and view and walked back to tell the dockmaster, Bonnie, "we'd think about it". But then, Ed stopped to talk to a couple on their boat and that's when we met Judy.

Judy is a petite blond woman full of energy and enthusiasm (my kind of person). She proceeded to sell us on the virtues of this marina as they had been here for a few years. As we continued to learn, we discovered that this little woman had been a construction manager in Philadelphia, managing 120 union construction workers as they built a 34 story building. Then we met "Jackson" their dog (a Jack Russell Terrior) and then we met Dennis her mate. What a neat couple. But here's a really cool part of their story and their boat.

They had purchased this old ChrisCraft boat on Craigs List. It had a fresh water leak that damaged the engines and so they owners pulled her out, redid it and put it up for sale. A second person purchased her and kept it for a short while and Judy and Dennis purchased her then. They choose this Marina, that particular slip, not knowing her history. Judy proceeded to tell us that when they pulled in, the other boatowners looked as if they had seen a ghost. She asked, "What????, am I doing something wrong?" And she began to learn that this vessel had been in that same slip for the last 25 years. How bizarr. And, then.....

We shared with them that we had been enjoying the boat races in Key West and they said, yep, they had been there too, but couldn't find a seat so they watched from the sea wall at Mallory Sq. We said, "us too". We continued to talk and they Dennis said, I think we were standing right behind you guys. We said, "oh my gosh, you were, we remember!" Dennis said, "matter of fact, Ed, you are on my Facebook, because I was videoing the races and you are in it". Coincidence?>????
Personal note, in a Christians life, there isn't an coincidence; it's all in an Omnipotent plan beyond our imagination.

So, here we are.

Sunday, we awoke early and nervously headed out of our slip in KW. Two rows of slips with really expensive boats....as well as a few REALLY expensive boats docked paralel to the dock across from us. We had a very short time window to pull straight out before we could turn starboard because the dinghy would catch the dock post port stern. Ed out on the decks, Lisa at the wheel. We had a head sets on in order to communicate. Ed was my eyes for the back end of the boat. I just had to trust his orders.

"port, bump it forward" "Starboard, bump it back" "now, hard starboard, bump it forward" "now, hard port, back".."shit Lisa, we're not gonna make it!" "Go, straight forward",, "I can't Ed, there's a big ass boat there, I'll run into it". (so I reversed). "Lisa, don't go back!!!" "I have to, Ed!" "We're screwed, go back in". A few fellows came out to catch our lines, but we didn't have to go all the way back into the slip....they helped guide us with ropes until we got the bow pointed starboard enought and we could head on out. Whew! When Ed came back into the pilot house, I said, "I told you we'd make it!" (Oh, to our friend Barry.....crewman up the rivers...."Seaman Yanmar" survived once again.

So we began our cruise out of the KW harbor, through the same channel we'd cruised through. We departed the slip at 8:00 a.m. while the daily tradition of our National Anthem played from the military bases. I wish that happened everywhere. Maybe over the speaker systems in all the towns could play it. You know the emergency speaker systems that have been installed for tornados and stuff? Anyway, I digress.

It was a beautiful day on Sunday, November 15th. Dolphins who came by to serve as our Sunday morning greeters (hey, we were at church....) Flying fish, seagulls, calm seas (thank God), beautiful breeze, and a humbeling reminder of our place on this earth. I texted the kids, family and friends wishing them a day of Grace. Then, I got a text back from my sister announcing that they too had a great blessing at 5:30 a.m. Their son, Sam Perkins in Oswego IL and his wife Emily had received into the world their new baby boy, Owen Benjamin Perkins. A healthy, 8 lb, 8 oz gift from God. What joy!

We made it to our new home at Marathon Marina about 3:30 p.m. as our new neighbors watched from the docks and grabbed our lines to help guide us in. Oh, while Ed was providing directions to me as he was out on the back deck throwing off lines, his radio went in the drink. I didn't know that of course, I just kept saying, "Ed, I can't hear you, talk to me". I opened the port side pilot house door only to see my new neighbor tieing off a line and I said, "hello, I'm Lisa, I can't hear my husband to which he responded, ugh....his radio went overboard to which I responded, Oh, to which he responded, oh well, now you don't have to listen to him anymore." I said, "I like your style". We laughed and I removed my headset.

Ed shut down the engines, connected us to shore power, I reset the AC's, Ed started tidying up the decks, and then I heard, "Lisa, I need a cold beer!"

We met some more of our dockmates and connected the coax to prepare to watch the Colts vs. Patriots game. We discovered that we were surrounded by Patriots fans though. Boo!

At 10:30 p.m., the power went out on all docks. So, I pulled up the game on my Pre and we watched the last bit while laying in the master berth. Ed was hoping he wouldn't have to fire up a generator and....he didn't. Power came back on in just a bit.

Monday morning, Nov. 16th. We had our coffees out on the bow cushions while we watched the day come alive, sea gulls, some kind of weird ducks, and our dockmate told us that the Manatees will come by if they note that there is any fresh water coming off our boats. Cool! We'll look out for them.

Before we left, we purchased diving gear and our dockmates, Dennis and Judy have provided lots of information about some of the reefs around to enjoy.

More learning, more adventures and I am learning more and more about myself and the person that God created me to be.

Note....Ed has become a wonderful navigator, reading charts, checking longitudes, latitudes, "Offshore Navigator" software program and guiding us to our destinations.

What a gift he is to me.

Peace to all, Blessings and love, Lisa

(p.s., sorry for misspelled words, I haven't figured out how to do spell check yet. oh, and I still haven't figured out how to add pictures but I will)