Is our boat ok?

Some of you may remember, in the spring of 2021 we towed our sailboat to Florida and sailed in the Florida Keys for several days.

When our vacation was over, we pulled the boat out of the water.

We left it on the Florida Keys in dry dock – on its trailer in a storage lot. The idea was that we’d fly back reasonably often to sail in the Keys (there not being good sailing in either Albuquerque or Tucson).

The problem with that idea is that I haven’t flown anywhere since our mad dash to Boston to get my cancer surgery done in February of 2020. John has flown once or twice for work, but it has not been a pleasant experience. We haven’t been back to Florida since we left our boat out there.

And yep, now it’s hurricane season. Along came hurricane Ian, which made landfall a few days ago. John was tracking it obsessively, but there was just no way to know. Of all the technology available, real-time google street view is not up and running yet. The staff at the storage yard had evacuated, so they didn’t know any more than we did.

John wants you to see this video. I almost never post a picture or video that we didn’t take ourselves, but here is a video of the hurricane he got off the internet. It’s less boring than my own videos, I admit that.

If you enjoyed that, you can thank John.

We spent all weekend assuming our boat was a goner, but yesterday John was able to confirm – it had survived! The storm was very localized – it was hit or miss. Ft. Myers suffered, but Big Pine Key, where our boat is, got high winds but did not sustain water damage.

So here’s our plan. In December we’re going to drive down to San Carlos, a touristy suburb of Guaymas, Mexico, on a small bay on the east side of the Gulf of California. It’s only a 5-6 hour drive due south from Tucson (compared to 5 days to drive to Florida). We’re going to check it out and look into the marinas down there.

If the San Carlos and Guaymas area looks good, then in February we’re going to drive out to Florida, retrieve our boat, and take it down to Mexico. It’s been a real challenge for us to figure out where to leave our boat so we’ll use it!

That’s what we get for insisting on having a sailboat while living in the desert.

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.

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