2022 Wrap Up (Part 2)

 Ready to press on? Me too.

So we returned to Ft. Myers and Legacy Harbour in early April and contemplated the next move for Chasing 80. We had begun to form a plan for 2023 but nothing solid yet. 

Meanwhile there were still house projects awaiting. Happy with the way the palms turned out we began to focus on the larger area. This would require much more time. All the rocks had to be removed by hand, bucket by bucket before the old cloth could be removed and replaced with new.

Next the stumps from the old trees were ground out and we started designing the new layout. The installation would wait until fall when the weather begins to cool.

Boat plans began to come together too. Since we plan on cruising the Chesapeake (and beyond) next year we decide to move Chasing 80 from Ft. Myers to a spot on the east coast where we'd have a better start for next spring (more Dumb Luck). Finding a warm weather spot for winter is a problem if you wait too long and we had. Jill kept calling marinas further and further north until she was able to secure a spot in Hilton Head for the season. 

We left Ft Myers in late June and started east toward Lake Okeechobee and the east coast. Many people don't realize how rural Florida is once you get 20 or 30 miles from the coasts. As you travel the Caloosahatchee River toward the lake it is mostly farms and ranches. In fact, this trip we passed an honest to goodness cattle drive along the river complete with cowboys (crackers?). Thanks to Paul on Firefly for adding music to the below clip for your enjoyment. Bonus points if you can name the songs roots.

 We spent the next few weeks slowly moving up the east coast of Florida taking our time and stopping at a few new spots. This would likely be our last trip in this area on Chasing 80. Of course our frequent passenger, Kathy, was along for part of the trip. Along the way we happened to run into some boaters we didn't know. As we discussed our respective travels they stated that they had just canceled a winter reservation at Lambs Yacht Center in Jacksonville. This was a marina that we had been trying to get into. Jill was on the phone the next morning and secured us a nice covered slip for the winter. Lambs is more of a working yard without many amenities but is perfect for us. It's a much closer drive for our visits also. We have some projects planned (as always) and intend to visit at least monthly to get some work done and explore the area.

One adjustment we had to make on Chasing 80 was to shorten her. The marina owners were worried that we were too close to the roof (about 5') in case there would happen to be surge from any tropical activity this year!?! These docks had just been rebuilt after Irma took them out in 2017. Our worry was that the roof would hold the boat down if the water got too high and flood her from the thru hull fittings above the normal waterline. So we adjusted to low profile mode...last seen passing through downtown Chicago in 2016.

The next project was an update of the forward head. After we replaced the aft head a couple of years ago with a Marine Elegance I've known that this was in my future. It's so much better and more house like than the typical marine head. Flooring update was part of the project also.

Old head and vinyl removed

New head and flooring.

It turned out very nice, too nice in fact. We had enough flooring to replace the old vinyl in the aft head. Another time...

We were home around early August and kept busy staying cool in the pool.

Hurricane(s)

Things were going pretty smoothly as far a hurricane season went. After the early PTC Alex that I joked about a couple of posts back things had been more quite than the experts had predicted. That didn't last. About mid September I began to see a few people eyeing a low pressure system way out in the Atlantic. The amateur forecasters seemed more concerned than the pros...this got my attention. There was certainly no talk about anything brewing on the local news. As I watched this area move west to an area prime for development we began to make plans to head to the boat. I'm not worried about our house from flooding but sure didn't want to be here if the power was out for a week or two.

The 5 day forecast sealed our plans and we started putting up the hurricane shutters and packing the car on Friday...5 days before arrival. Neighbors looked at me like I was crazy. There was still not much talk on the news. People have complained lately that there wasn't enough warning to evacuate. I present the 5 day forecast...

Many folks don't seem to be willing to learn about the weather and make their own plans based on research. This is crazy to me if you plan on living in Florida or anywhere along threatened areas. Just wait till the local government orders evacuation? Not good planning. We were back on the boat 4 days before Ian hit the Ft. Myers area. Now...maybe this wasn't the best plan since the storm followed us but it was a much weaker storm. We had wind and rain but not as much surge as feared. OK, I'm off the self reliance soapbox.

You all know how destructive Ian was to SW Florida so I won't go into that. Dumb Luck that we moved. 

Our friend Bryan on Kismet was in Punta Gorda to check on their boat before the storm and ended up in a shelter for the storm. Thankfully their boat was OK and he stayed at our house for a few days which put us at ease. The amazing thing is our house never lost power. 

Thanks Bryan!

The house had plenty of wind damage but nothing structural. Remember that new roof and screens I mentioned in the last post? Yeah...we'll be doing that again.

Needless to say it's a long slow process cleaning up after a storm like this. We took our time only working a few hours a day due to the heat. We got home 3 days after the storm and things like gas stations and grocery stores were already open. Most businesses not effected by flooding were reopening as soon as power was restored and they could restock. It feels like things came back quicker than after Irma 5 years prior.

Thankfully we had the house pretty much back to normal before our next trip to the boat in early November...for Nichole. This was a much weaker storm but had more impact on the boat. During the height of the storms winds and rain I began to smell smoke, fiberglass smoke! This smell is a boaters worst nightmare. A fire on a boat burns hot and spreads quickly. In a covered slip it can spread from boat to boat driven by the wind. Once we determined it wasn't us burning I began walking the dock looking for the source. Luckily the heavy rain lifted for a moment and I could see it was a boat anchored far enough away to not concern us. I still feel bad for those affected.

We were again lucky that the surge wasn't as bad as it could have been. We came nowhere near the roof although we did get our feet wet.

We took advantage of our time stuck on the boat and replaced the flooring in the aft head. Came out very nice.

Back home it had cooled off enough to resume the landscape project. We decided on 3 triple Christmas palms and our neighbors jumped in to help get them out of our truck and dig the holes! 

Again, the rocks went back bucket by bucket to insure proper placement. A long project but we are very happy with the results.

So there you have our year in review over 2 posts. It really was a pretty eventful year! The "plan" is to begin heading up the east coast around April 1 and be in the Chesapeake by early May. Hopefully I'll have much more interesting things to blog about next year. But not too interesting...boring boating!  I still need to update our map (to the right) which doesn't yet have our 2021 stops! Baby steps.