Nebraska to Florida 2017

It’s been a rough start to the season for us, which could very well explain my lack of writing.

Jimi finished the roof of our church/home property. He did the entire roof by himself: 100 bundles of shingles and it took him about two months. He also began removing the flooring in the main space. We made one final trip to Denver and back for my Doctor’s appointment and then hit the road for Florida.

 You can see the old shingles (lighter) and the new ones (darker).

We left Nebraska on October 27^th and arrived in Crestview, Florida the next evening. My girlfriend, Melody and her husband Darrell, live there. We stayed overnight, however, at breakfast the next morning Melody and I presented the idea that I stay with her while Jimi headed for Sanibel. This would give him time to get her from dry dock to water without worrying about accommodations for me. It was an excellent idea that he immediately agreed with. So I stayed with Darrell and Melody for the week and Jimi prepared Sanibel for my arrival. We met to exchange me on the following Saturday in Tallahasee.

Home Sweet Home on S/V Sanibel. I had much to do: laundry from deep storage, provisioning, organizing and much, much more.

Sunken sailboat in the mooring field.

The first major setback for us this season was our poor, old dinghy and outboard. Our dinghy has been patched more times than we can count and it was still having problems holding air. We decided to make the plunge and replace it. Jimi found a used one, only about six months old worth the asking price. The dinghy itself is a bit smaller and the outboard is much smaller; going from a 15 hp to a 5 hp. We made the plunge and purchased the ‘new to us’ set. Our old outboard is stored in the van. We’ll take it back to Nebraska and Jimi can rebuild it there this coming summer. Then the old dinghy mysteriously began holding air and we kept it for a while, but after getting tired of towing it behind Sanibel, we gave it away.

We stayed in Green Cove Springs for about a month. We liked it there, especially the park, except there are NO grocery stores within walking distance and that quickly became a problem. We found ourselves buying processed foods from Walgreens – yuck! We quickly realized that even though the van was already in storage we may as well use it to get to the grocery store, etc. When we went to get it, it wouldn’t start. This was a major problem for us. With virtually nowhere to work on it and no transportation to get parts, we felt stuck. We felt we couldn’t leave the area by boat until it was fixed or we would be forced to bring Sanibel back to Green Cove Springs when the sailing season was over. Jimi worked on it for a few days and figured out that the ignition coil wire was bad. So as it is now we only have bad wheel bearings, which we hope will make it back to Nebraska in May. The van is still in storage at Green Cove Springs Boatyard.

 Coffe and a bagel sandwhich from the coffee shop.

 Giant burrito from the Mexican resturaunt.

 Natural hot springs.

While we were in the area we took some time to explore several boat wrecks more than likely results from hurricane Irma and Jimi exercised his new drone with video footage.

We had a nice Thanksgiving meal on Sanibel in Green Cove Springs before we left the area.