Trip Prep

The untold stories. I posted pictures with brief follow-along captions on Instagram/Facebook as we traveled, however on Instagram the posts are limited to only 10 photos and captioning is best kept brief. If you follow along with the website blog I intend to relay all the good juicy bits here, the bits left untold, until now. Enjoy!

After making the purchase of C-Cat (Wind Dragon II) official, we drove home with a leisurely plan in mind. The current marina slip lease was paid for through the next 2 months and initially we felt that would  afford us plenty of time to plan and prepare for the long journey to move our new boat to her new home, but within 48 hours it quickly became apparent to us that we would need to begin our trip within days instead of weeks.

There are many factors to consider when traveling on the water; target destination, routes, trip length and duration, direction of travel, weather, winds, currents, and tides. Oh, and hurricane season (which currently runs officially from June 1 to November 30). That’s a big one. As most of you know, we’re well experienced with hurricanes and the trouble they bring so we stick to the recommended safety guidelines and we don’t like to take unnecessary chances. Moving her home ASAP was priority but we also had to make sure we traveled during good weather windows, and that could (and would) impact our travel times.

Although it was May currently, we knew this trip could take quite a while to complete. The route would take us from Palmetto, South down the ICW gulf side to Cape Coral where we would cut across the heart of Florida utilizing a system of channels and locks, through Lake Okeechobee, exiting the Saint Lucie Canal on the East coast and then continuing North up the Atlantic side through Florida and Georgia to South Carolina and our new home marina in Georgetown. William was betting we’d be able to sail on the outside up the coast on the Atlantic side so he argued that it would be a short, quick trip, and we would have her home in two weeks, easy. I was sure that all things considered, it would take us no less than 3 weeks at best, 4-5 in all probability. We were both wrong.

Without pin-pointing an actual departure date we began feverishly preparing. Everything had to be done now, and the quicker the better. We needed to make work and travel arrangements, plan for supplies and provisions, and figure out where and how to leave and retrieve vehicles. We also would need to go through the still as-yet untouched boxes of items salvaged from the original Wind Dragon, and begin purchasing any other necessities for the long live-aboard trip. Somehow we made miracles happen and just 11 short days from when we last laid eyes on her, we would be back in Florida moving aboard with the intentions of leaving the dock just 3 days later.

We were expecting a fairly emptied boat, so along with our luggage we packed everything necessary for life aboard that had come from our previous boat as well as anything else we knew we may need. In addition to that, we had also purchased several items we felt were crucial that we could receive delivery of in time for the trip (ice maker, dock cart, wi-fi radio headsets), plus there were a few items which were purchased and planned to be picked up along the way (folding bikes from Camping World in Kissimmee, refrigerator/freezer and portable table from REI in Tampa).

 

Our fenders from Wind Dragon being tied on top

(think aquatic version of the Beverly Hillbillies without the money)

 

Harley

 

Teddie

 

Floor to ceiling, front to back, FULL

 

Adding the stow-away bikes on top in Kissimmee

 

When we arrived in Palmetto on May 14th we were overwhelmed to find that our new catamaran came fully furnished – with pretty much everything left aboard sans only the personal items of Jim & Janet and their dogs it seemed. Dishes, utensils, mattresses, cushions; a full house set-up was left behind, down to the throw pillows. Janet had finished the lovely navy blue curtains that blocked the sun and kept the interior cool, and Jim promised us more items from their storage unit which included a new bolt of vinyl upholstery for the cockpit, new bolts of headliner, carpet, and a bimini with frame for the dinghy.

We stored as much as we could do without in the van so that we wouldn’t be traveling too heavy and Jim and Janet followed William to Tampa where he parked it in a secure spot until we could return to pick it up at a later date, and then they picked up our brand new pre-purchased refrigerator/freezer and portable table before heading back to Palmetto. 

When the refrigerator/freezer was unboxed and plugged in later that same evening, it continued to throw error codes and wouldn’t clear to operate. A call to the 1-800# for service yielded the advise to return the defective unit for a full refund, but that meant another trip to Tampa, and we were now without a vehicle. Another problem was the fact that this unit had been the last unit available in the area when we purchased it, so we knew we were also now without a refrigerator for the trip and there was little to no hope of finding one.

Jim & Janet to the rescue! An unfortunate turn of events for Jim and Janet delayed their planned departure from Palmetto, so they were again kind enough to offer us transportation back to Tampa to return our defective unit, and in a stroke of luck they were also able to help us resolve our refrigeration issue by offering to sell us their own (now extra) gently used refrigerator/freezer (which was only a few months old), at a discount. Deal! Despite the small delay, we left the dock only one day later than planned, on May 18, 2021.