We are at anchor! At the moment it is a nice peaceful cool morning. In a few hours, our anchorage will be much busier, as we saw yesterday afternoon. Jimmy and I are soaking up a morning with little on the schedule after a very busy week. Since this is our first week of “retirement” we thought we would provide a snapshot of the week. (For those who want more photos, head here).
Leave Tallahassee – Monday Morning
We got up too early Monday morning, the first “workday” we did not go into the office. But our time was spent working on packing up the last items in the apartment and turning in the keys when the rental office opened at 9:00 a.m. Once that was settled, it was time for us to visit our niece, nephew and my sister, which definitely tugged at our heartstrings. It took a while to not feel guilty about heading off onto our next adventure, something we have been working on for so many years. Later on, it occurred to us that all of our belongings not on the boat were stuffed into our Jeep; it was another realization that we had pulled this five-year plan off.
Arrive at Marina in St. Petersburg – Monday Afternoon
Baxter was scared as the apartment emptied out, but when we arrived at Utopia’s finger pier, Baxter knew he was home. Jimmy opened the cat carrier, and Baxter ran down the pier, onto the boat and into the cockpit to wait for us to let him below. He really showed his normal self as soon as I started to put sheets onto the bed as if making a boat bed wasn’t hard enough…
It took us an hour to unload the Jeep’s contents onto Utopia and it appears that her waterline dropped about two inches. Hopefully over time this will rise as we use up duplicates of items and get rid of things we really do not need. The unpacking of items continued until we were too tired to think, and we went to bed earlier than normal.
First Shakedown Trip – Tuesday Afternoon to Thursday Afternoon
Tuesday morning’s focus was getting the boat ready to leave the dock. This means making sure all the unpacked items are stowed away so that they do not fly around the cabin while underway. This includes the cat’s house. I admit that on one trip, we forgot to secure his house and he experienced a rollover with some grace.
With the boat tidy and a trip to Publix complete, we left the dock at noon, less than 24 hours after arriving at the marina. It was a beautiful sail east across Tampa Bay and a calm motor-sail as we pointed north towards downtown Tampa, where we set anchor by 4:00 p.m. The anchoring went smoothly, and the anchorage calm. Before cooking burgers for dinner, Jimmy had his first beer in 18 years. He has been waiting for this moment for several years and picked out a really nice St. Peterburg beer for the event.
Wednesday morning was spent continuing to unpack our stuff. Around lunchtime we lowered the dinghy and headed into downtown Tampa where we ate vegetables for lunch, something we were lacking in the final days of our apartment living. Lunch was followed by a long walk before heading back to the boat and more unpacking.
Jacksonville & Baxter’s First Night Alone on Utopia – Thursday Night & Friday Morning
Since we had to drive to Jacksonville Thursday afternoon, we pulled up anchor early Thursday morning and headed back to the marina. The weather predicted light to no winds, so we were pleasantly surprised to be able to sail for part of the four-hour trip. Two hours after a docking event that required help from a nearby boater, the boat was tidied up and we were back in the Jeep for a four-hour drive.
Baxter had to stay behind for this trip, and we were a little nervous about leaving him alone overnight on the boat. He’s been alone during the day many times, but never overnight. In the apartment he handled being alone for two-night just fine, so we thought he might be okay. Luckily Jimmy’s appointment was over around 8:00 a.m. and we were back at the marina 24 hours after leaving. Baxter was alive and well. For about 30 minutes he was extra sweet, then resumed his normal aloof self.
Install New Galley Faucet – Friday Afternoon
Back on Monday, shortly after arriving from Tallahassee, I discovered that drawers next to the sink had water sitting in them. Jimmy chased down the leak and thought that the solution required a replacement of the faucet. Not a big surprise since it had been slowly falling apart. We decided that we would use caution during the first shakedown trip, then make the repair before setting off on the longer shakedown trip.
While in Jacksonville, we purchased a household kitchen sink, which is less expensive than the marine sink version. It will be an experiment to see how long it lasts. It turned out to also be an experiment in installation…
As soon as we knew Baxter was fine, we got to work on the faucet project. Like many boat projects, they take longer than expected. This one involved getting out a saw and an extra trip to a hardware store. It turns out that the boat’s water fittings would not easily connect to the household faucet fittings. Luckily, the gentleman at Home Depot took the time to figure out the puzzle for us and after six hours we had a functioning faucet!
Shakedown Trip Number 2 Begins – Saturday Morning
With the success of the galley faucet, Jimmy made a provisioning run to Publix for a weeklong trip while I readied the boat, and we left the slip at 11:00 a.m. Our first stop was the fuel dock at the municipal marina. Fortune was in our favor since there were no boats at the fuel dock during our stop. During the fill up, I realized that it has been two years since visited a fuel dock. The fuel tanks on Utopia total 212 gallons. While in Shell Point, Jimmy has added fuel from jerry cans a few times; mostly just to get rid of the fuel. We purchased a whopping 45 gallons and began our second shakedown trip.
Once again, the forecasted winds were in our favor allowing us to sail south from the fuel dock until we had to make a turn to the west and directly into the wind. As we made our way west towards Gulfport the boat traffic really picked up and we noticed that we were not in Shell Point anymore, wondering where all the money for these fancy boats came from. Anyway, it was entertaining to watch them all.
The anchor was set on the west side of Boca Ciega Bay by 3:00 p.m. and we spent an afternoon and evening in calm conditions. Baxter has been really cute this morning wandering the boat inside and out from top to bottom. He seems to be taking to his confinement quite well.
P.S. We are still figuring out our Garmin Tracker and missed recording the sail to Gulfport...
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