Off to the Keys - and more!

On Wednesday, March 24th, we pulled away from the dock at Bonita Bill’s at 8:00 a.m., fueled up at Ballard Oil and were on our way out of Estero Bay by 9:00 a.m. We had a mellow 4-1/2 hour ride to Capri Pass at Marco Island, then another couple of hours to Panther Key in the 10,000 Islands where we were anchored by 4:00 p.m.

Thursday Todd fished from about 8 to 11:00 a.m. but didn’t catch any good eating fish, just some ladyfish and a Jack of some kind that another fisherman told him was not good eating. After lunch we went out in the dinghy and spent the afternoon on a couple of different sandy beaches before gathering wood for an after-dinner fire on the beach at Panther, which was very nice!

Friday we awakened to rain and fog. The wind had also switched to the west so we hauled anchor and “felt” our way around the corner in the fog to get away from the swells rolling in from the Gulf of Mexico. After the bulk of the rain finally passed through, Todd tried his hand at fishing but was still not having any luck.

Saturday was a cool, sunny morning that warmed up nicely. Todd went fishing again around 8:30. When he returned a few hours later and checked the weather forecast, he decided we should probably start heading toward the Keys to beat a cold front that was supposed to move through on Monday. So we left shortly after 11:00 a.m. with Middle Cape as our targeted anchorage for the evening.

The seas started out a little choppy/rolly but settled down nicely as the day progressed, until about 4:30 p.m. when the wind, which had been coming out of the east, clocked around to the south. At that point we decided to change course and anchor just outside Little Shark River for the evening since Middle Cape would be too exposed to a south wind.

Sunday morning we took off about 8:30 and were in some pretty ugly water by the time we reached Northwest Cape, less than an hour south. The wind was supposed to be 10-15 mph out of the southeast but it was more like a sustained 20-30 mph! At any rate, we had a bumpy ride for the next three hours or so but the seas finally calmed as we got closer to Marathon.

We arrived at the Boot Key Harbor mooring field about 2:30 and picked up a ball at the back of the field near Dockside Marina where Bob & Stephanie on “September Song” are staying while they wait for a weather window to cross to the Bahamas.

That evening Bob & Stephanie invited us over for dinner where we met Bob’s brother, Ron, and his wife Rena who were enjoying their final evening aboard “September Song.” The four of them just returned from a five-day boat trip to Key West where they met up with Doug & Tammy on “Gypsies in the Palace.” A great deal of fun was apparently had by all! We also learned that Ron & Rena’s daughter, Rhonda, is a faithful follower of our blog, as well as those of “September Song”and “Gypsies in the Palace.” Thanks for your interest, Rhonda, we appreciate it!

Monday started off cloudy and windy with a high probability for rain. A narrow band of storms finally moved through early afternoon which helped rinse some of the saltwater off “Life’s2Short,” but that was it for the rain. The remainder of the day was cloudy and very windy and we stayed hunkered down on the boat.

The Captain dinghied over to the marina Tuesday morning to do a couple of loads of laundry. He then went to run some errands with Joe on “Sea Pearl,” a friend of Bob & Stephanie’s who we officially met a few days ago. Joe has a rental car and offered to take Todd to pick up a few things around town.

At 4:00 p.m. we headed over to “September Song” to review charts of North Carolina and the Chesapeake since Bob & Stephanie spent a good part of last summer and fall in that area. We then walked over to the Dockside Bar & Grill for a burger before returning to “Life’s2Short” for the evening.

Late Wednesday morning we again dinghied over to “September Song” and went to the Stuffed Pig for breakfast with Bob and Joe. When we returned Todd borrowed Bob’s hooka to dive the boat and check the zincs that he put on this past fall in Demopolis and ended up replacing both the shaft and rudder zincs.

About the time Todd was finishing up the underwater boat projects a couple came by “Life’s2Short” in a dinghy and started asking us all sorts of questions about her. Seems they were in the area looking at trawlers that were for sale and we invited them on board to look at our sundeck-style trawler. After we got through talking and showing them “Life’s2Short” they asked; “So what would you take for her?” We told them we still had at least one more year of cruising and weren’t really interested is selling her. Todd even went on to say; “We wouldn’t take less than $150,000 for her even if we were to think about selling her.” Well this couple went on their way and we thought that was the end of that, little did we know!

About three hours later the couple came back, officially introduced themselves and told us that they had discussed our $150,000 comment and that if we were willing to sell her, they would like to become the new owners! Can you say WOW!!! We told Tom & April that we would think about it over dinner that evening and we would have an answer for them before we went to bed. After much discussion and emotion we came to the decision that we couldn’t pass up the offer, especially in this economy. That, and we would be receiving the same amount of money we paid for “Life’s2Short” four years ago this month.

We called Tom & April last night and told them they had a deal IF they could have a cashier’s check by this morning; we wanted to make sure they were serious . They assured us they would work to get that done and they would be calling us to set up a time to meet. Well, earlier this morning Tom & April called and informed us they had the check and they would like to take us by the bank and then to breakfast to talk about paperwork and finalizing the deal.

Since the cashier’s check was from a local bank, Tom & April took us there to meet the Vice President who assured us that all was on the up and up. We then went to a popular local joint called the Stuffed Pig where we finalized the sale over lobster omelets and lobster Benedict. Meet Tom & April Phoulinski, the new owners of “Life’s2Short",” or whatever they choose to name her next.

Our plans are to take the boat north to the Ft. Lauderdale area in the next two weeks where we will spend about a week with Tom & April at their home dock educating them about "Life’s2Short" and all her systems and quirks. It is a bittersweet day, what are we going to do now??