2007 - May to June - Oh...the agony of preparation - ABACO, Bahamas

Where to begin? For those of you who read our first two “adventure series”, you might remember the ‘gods’ and to never forget Murphy’s Law, which I believe is double true for boaters.  
A plan began to develop in the fall of 2006 when I got notice of the next Case Management conference in June being held in Denver.  We thought it would be neat to take about a month off after the conference, rent a small motor home, gather Molly & Scupper and see the west.  I’ve never been. Research revealed the cost of the motor home and aggravation and cost of getting the dogs out west via airline would be more than we wanted to deal with.
To make a long story shorter, Joanne, my friend, the nurse who works with me, was making her own plans- to spend April in VA making repairs on her home.  She & David also had plans to go out west for several months in July.  Hmmm… calculating the time in between her trips gave us a 6-week opening.  Forget the conference this year – we’re going cruising!  My last day at work would be 5/25 returning 7/9. Joanne would return 5/29, her last day 7/6.
I enlisted help from my friend, Joanie, and former co-worker, agreed to take a LOA from her job in Gainesville so she could work for me. Great friend!! She was due to arrive on 5/20, stay at the cottage and we’d have a week of re-orientation together. Perfect plan you say?? Or so we thought.
In March, I injured my back in the course of moving the contents of my office back into the newly remodeled space.  I just finished with therapy for poor ole aching back & feeling pretty good when this happened.  Exacerbated old symptoms while creating some new ones.  The MRI was not a pretty picture. It’s hell getting old!!

Building the Hard Top

At the same time, Wayne had been researching what it would take to replace our canvas Bimini with a hard top that would allow us to install solar panels and a satellite antenna. He researched online, he went to the boat show, he talked to several companies and finally

Guess who's under the TV dome

decided to have the top done by a young guy at Driftwood Marina in Marathon and the solar installed by Solar Jorge in Big Pine. We moved our stuff into the cottage while the boat was in the yard. If the work had started as planned on 5/7, we would have been packed

Completed Solar & Satellite Antennae

and ready to go by 5/25.  But that would have been too easy. The job was pushed back a week but we had enough ‘wiggle room’ in the plan to allow for this delay and still leave as planned.  The job was going well but then here’s what happened… Steady, gusty winds about 10-25 knots started around the 18th and they never quit for over 2 weeks!  Very, very unusual for this time of year. (the gods) Work on the new top was seriously delayed - welding can’t be done nor can a 9’ X 7’ solid piece of fiberglass be mounted on top of a 20’ tall boat with that much wind.  I was not a happy camper – the clock was ticking… I tried to stay focused; stocked up on our Piasano wine (wine is expensive in the Bahamas but vodka & rum is cheaper than milk), got my nails done, hair cut and started taking Chantix to quit smoking. Joan & Richard arrived as planned on 5/20 but she had to stay at the Sugarloaf Lodge.
My last day (5/25) came and went.  I decided to work instead of pacing around, stressed and frustrated at home. I worked Memorial Day (5/28) and the next 2 days; I got sick on Thursday & Friday from the new medication I was taking for back pain. The boat finally splashed on Friday, 6/1, which meant we could move aboard & Joan could move in to the cottage.  Just a few loose ends to clean up & we can go… We putted around Marathon from 6/2 to 6/7; went shopping; went to the beach; out for dinner, basically pretending we were actually on vacation when in fact, we were still at a dock in a dusty, dirty boat yard.  On 6/5, work comp finally gave the OK for the epidural injection and Dr. Fulcher squeezed me in for the next day. Rained like hell most of the day making the 100-mile round trip even more stressful. I was pretty much out of it for the rest of that day.