We left Palm Coast today!!  We said a sad goodbye the day before to Dottie, Rich and Aubrey.  We are really glad we had the opportunity to meet them and they will be a model for us in the future as we learn to travel lighter and enjoy life more.

Don stopped by and took some pictures of us on our boat.  We were bundled up. It will be interesting to see these in about 6 months and see how much we changed.  We had a cold but uneventful trip down the intercoastal and anchored out that night.  The anchorage was tight, between an island and behind some condominiums.  We were up the whole night worrying about the anchor dragging but it held.

We are close to moving on.  Just a few last minute details.  Dottie and Ritchie have been a great help to us.  They recently sold their boat and are moving to a motor home they will live in until they head back up to Maine for the summer. It took them only about 3 hours to move everything off their boat. We are in awe of them. It would take us more time than that to set fire to everything on our boat. They left their car at the marina for us to use in case we needed it, which of course we did.  They also took Tristan and Tessa with them to their daughter Aubrey’s bookstore in Flagler Beach.  That gave Dan and I some time to ourselves to finish last minute things and head to Mezzaluna’s for pizza.  Don, on Overindulgence, also offered to help us out if we needed to run some errands.  As anxious as we are to leave here to head to the Bahamas, we will miss this community here.

Palm Coast Marina is becoming our “Hotel California”, You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.  We are finishing up mounting the solar panels.  We went to Jacksonville and sold our Expedition and we sold our jeep to Tim the wildlife officer, or “The Nature Guy” as the kids call him.   We are carless now which our daughter cannot understand.  “We don’t have a car anymore?  That is so stupid.” 

We almost hit a major trip canceller the other day.  In casual conversation in the West Marine store, Dan just happened to mention that he wanted to get a small back up inverter in case something happened to the one we had on the boat.  When we were trying to decide which one to get based on the wattage, I realized that it wouldn’t work for my hairdryer.  At this point in the trip he decides to inform me that I can’t use my hair dryer on our CURRENT inverter.  Since we’ve been on shore power and since I take a shower and dry my hair at the marina shower, the lack of my ability to use a blow dryer on our boat has never come up.  I know we’ve had this discussion before and I know I made it clear that I never intended to go two years without drying my hair and why are we having this conversation now in the West Marine after I have quit my job and sold my house and car? 

He replies, “I thought you knew.” No I didn’t know and I don’t intend to know that.  I am not a high maintenance person but I am simply not living two years of my life with wet hair.  No way.  I am not the air dry, hair dry person.  That is a whole nother persona.  It’s like when the vaccination records were lost for my daughter Tessa, the state of North Carolina was trying to make her get vaccinated again. When I said no, the option was given to me that I could “refuse on the grounds of religious reasons.” I’m like, are you crazy?  I am not a religious protester!  I would have to take on a whole new persona.  I would have to stop shaving my legs and start wearing long skirts and Birkenstocks and probably NOT USE A HAIR DRYER!!! 

In light of the current consequences we spent the next hour scouring the city until we found an 800 watt hair dryer.  The trip was back on.