Now that we are free of Mr Caddie, we have a few hours before The Nissan owner arrives so we are heading to Indiantown to drop in on Peter and Thai and get our first look at their trawler. Its a busy marina and we can't believe its sooooo far inland on the canal. But safe from bad surf for sure.It's a beauty little trawler and we are still working on getting them to ship it to the BVI's where you can jump off the back of the boat into turquoise water with no worries about aligators.
Now for the shopping and off to Sailorman Ltd., that wonderful consignment store that all cheap sailors love, where we find one of the elusive rollers for our sail track that we needed. Better than none at all, and we’ll keep looking for the 2nd one. Then we grab ourselves some “Keen” walking sandals and on to the computer stores to get a Netbook, as the new Tablet we just bought does have the USB port to plug in our Magic Jack Internet Phone, but no support to run it. Damn.
Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle as we repack every bag to it’s maximum, 3 duffels, a large box with our omni-directional 24” TV antenna and 2 wheeled carry-ons stuffed with our boat electronics.
Not one ounce to spare in any bag. So, No More Shopping.
We’re very proud of ourselves and patting each other on the back regarding our wonderful packing job as we head to the airport on the next leg of our adventure.
I’m dropped, along with all the luggage, at the Ft. Lauderdale Airport Departures and Gord heads to return the rental car.
Spirit Air personnel take one look at the box and go “no, no, no, we don’t take boxes in December”. What! I checked the website and have pre-paid the box. What now? We’re a long way from home and no one to leave a big box with.Yikes! They suggest buying a big suitcase to put it in, or jumping in a cab and finding a Fed Ex office, where Fed Ex will probably send it back to load on our flight. I plead a little and explain to the nice young Spirit clerk that their web site says no boxes on International flights only. Ft. Lauderdale, US to St. Thomas, US is domestic. He finally agrees, and because it was prepaid he lets me check it through. Problem solved before Gord is even back from the rental agency. (American Airlines would have cost us over $400.00 more for the same flight!)
St. Thomas here we come!
The flight was great except for the big, loud, gabby guy, sitting next to Gord, that was a chef on the Bounty, 3-masted Schooner, and we landed after 2-1/2 hours to 82 degrees and sunshine. A taxi driver wants $38 to drive us from the Airport, literally around the corner, to our Hotel! Gord tells him that he thought all the Pirates died over 200 years ago here! So Gord carries and drags all 5 bags and the 45 lb box, to find out that we are on the second floor – with no elevator – of course!
Our next trek is over to Tickles Dockside Restaurant about 2 miles away, where we hook up with our old friend/mechanic Joe, and his new girl Jennifer, for dinner. It’s so great to be back.
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