09 Feb Back to the Boat!

When we left the boat in Indiantown Marina on the hard, I was thinking we will be back in a couple of months and still have time to make it home this summer. (2020) Worse case scenario, we come back next winter and carry on arriving home in 2021…  Wrong again!

Well here it is February of 2022 and we finally have all of our Ducks in a row, we hope!

The border is open, but because of Omicron there is a travel advisory to the United States, we can still go but it is not recommended. We managed to find health insurance that will cover covid and figured we were just as likely to get sick here as there, off we went. 

Because of the border advisory finding a rental car was a challenge. Also they have gone up in price substantially.  We ended up renting a Uhaul Truck to make the trip.

I knew it was time to head south when we woke up to 4″ of new snow.

We only used a small portion of the truck, but it was the smallest one we could rent and it was cheaper than a Toyota Camry.

The only real drawback was no cruise control so I had to stay awake while at the wheel.

One last look at Lake Huron. Next time we see it hopefully it will  be from the bridge of the Nautoncall.

US customs was a breeze, a few questions, a wave and Nautoncall, “here we come”, finally.

The drive went smoothly, we had a good weather window, we drove out of the new snow before we got to the border. An ice storm hit Kentucky and Tennessee the day before, but the roads were all clear and it made for some pretty scenery with the sunshine lighting up the ice.

Two nights on the road, the third morning saw us entering the Great State of Florida!

The last hour of driving, I could feel my anxiety level rising, fearing what we might find. I found myself repeating to myself “Don’t freak out, don’t freak out, It’s all fixable”

I had outside pictures from a few different people over the 2 years that she has been sitting unattended, friends visiting Florida and Loopers I found on Nebo.  Bill and Marilyn arrived weeks ago and sent us the most recent pics in the boat yard so I knew it looked rough. But I was still not prepared for the reality of all the work that was ahead of us…