Enjoyed a stop-by visit from Diane Burton and Peggy Saylor Saturday the 18th. On their way to Diane’s family in south Florida for Thanksgiving, they stopped by to say hi! Great to visit with them for part of the day. We went to the Pelican Café, a funky little café in Stuart on the St Lucie River. We ate a late lunch after giving them the tour of our new Villa.
A short update. We are in the Condo/Villa in Port St. Lucie, FL but still have some boxes to unpack and a bookcase to paint, but we are getting there at our retired pace. The final work is being done on Apolonia and she should be “sold” on the 27th of this month; there was a delay of new risers due to several issues, but mainly hurricane Irma. We have found a “new to us” boat we want as an Apolonia replacement. We surveyed her last week and are working to close on that boat, a 37′ express cruiser Maxum, by the end of the month. Paget went in for a timing belt replacement but it turned our the old 4 cylinder Volvo passed away. We are having a new 4.3 litter V-6 Volvo-Pinta (Chevy block) put in her and we’re hopeful she will be running soon. All is well here and we should be settled soon with the home and boats all in order. It has been an experience moving to Florida as a hurricane passed through, but we had no damage from the hurricane … just a slow down in activity we wanted to complete. Now most is back on track and we’re still smiling.
We wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!
No pictures, but we are getting close to finalizing our move to Florida. Furniture from Virginia arrived at our new condo (also called a Villa) today … closed last week on the place. We’ve cleaned and painted and Carey is excited about making the Condo our home. And she will. We’ll probably stay at our friend Bonnie Scanlin’s home for a few more days until we’re set then move into our new home. We can’t thank Bonnie enough for giving us use of her condo in PGA Village to help with our move. Our major effort for the next couple of weeks is to get the Villa settled for our living.
Apolonia appears on track for a sale at the end of the month. Carey and I agreed to make a few repairs and sell her for full price. She’ll move to a boatyard mid October for those repairs. The Buyers have become friends and we’re on an adventure to get Apolonia sold to her new owners. We think every thing is in order.
We’re looking seriously at an express cruiser in the mid 30 foot range to replace Apolonia for us to enjoy in our last few years of boating. Paget, our run about is “in the shop” for a timing belt replacement. So for now we are almost boat-less. We’ll survive but just barely … anxious to get Paget underway for a lunch cruise.
We finally closed on the Condo/Villa in Port St. Lucie after the re-inspection required because of Hurricane IRMA. We’ll clean and paint next week and then move in the furniture. It won’t be long now till we’re settled. The inside is completely empty now as we do the preparation for the furniture. Once Carey gets a chance to decorate we’ll show the insides of this 2 bedroom + study and 2 bath villa. I love the “no yard work” feature. Finally at 71 I don’t have to start a lawn mower again!
IRMA is gone, but … it delayed our condo purchase because a re-inspect of the condo is required … hurt us getting estimates for some minor repair issues from the survey on Apolonia required to settle her sale … so we are pushing forward with these two issues as we accept the gracious use of our friend Bonnie Scanlin’s condo in PGA Village. Nice place with cool AC. We’ll live through it. I think in two weeks we’ll have it all done and will plan our “move-to-Florida” celebration.
Apolonia and Paget came through the IRMA event unscathed. Apolonia was on the hard at Indiantown Marina. Paget was sheltered in Sebring, FL where we spend the hurricane’s passage in our friends George and Polly’s condo.
We brought Paget back from Sebring yesterday and parked her at Nettles Island Marina parking lot on her trailer. We visited with many of the live a boards, our friends, at the marina Tiki Hut for drinks. The marina walkways were destroyed and it will take a while to repair the marina for use, but luckily most boaters made it ok … Bruce in his 55′ Sport Fish Hatteras rode on the anchor in the ICW and after bouncing around was the first to tie up back at Nettles in one of the two available spaces … many others safely rafted in the north or south fork of the St Lucie River … several found slips or were hauled out as we were. Unfortunately a couple of the boats at anchor blew into the mangroves and the extent of the damage is unknown. However, we did drink to the fact that all people came through without issue.
Here is a look at the marina. Notice the missing walkways to get to the slips.
