We were in Florida, in the Hollywood marina when COVID hit…and we could not leave spring of 2020 as planned. I have a then-95 year old mom, who lives alone in our condo, in Miami Beach. The net result was that Larry was isolating on the boat (71, at the time) and mom at the condo. I had everything delivered to the marina or to the condo. I took over mom’s caretaker’s role (but continued to pay her). Mom was way more self sufficient than she is now so the woman’s role was not as involved as it is now and we are blessed to have her. So…..back to COVID: We were totally isolating except for our 4 times a week 4 mile walks which would begin prior to sun up. This was to avoid bumping into people and to avoid the heat. The a/c on the boat was on from April to November 2020, without being turned off, except for our walks. I cooked more than in my previous almost 40 years of marriage. Poor Larry didn’t have a real pizza for over 15 months. My grilled flatbreads just didn’t cut it. And, our marriage survived isolating on a 36 foot boat for almost a year and a half.

Back to the present. June, 2021. We are fully vaccinated. Mom is set up with her caretaker. On June 2nd, we departed the marina. Always tough getting in and out of the marina slips-very narrow- not much room to maneuver. As usual, Larry aced it!. Setting out from mile marker

(mm) 1070. Beautiful day. Felt good to move the boat. Larry saw the first skate jump, around Pompano. We anchored at Lake Worth/West Palm (mm1015). Of course…. The strut that facilitated opening and closing of the hatch up to pilothouse deck broke. That is going to make the trip home hard on my shoulders. It is a heavy hatch.

Then, the electrical/battery issues began too. The joys of boating….

Next day, Thursday, we traveled to Vero. Breezy with threatening skies. We stayed at Vero Loggerhead Marina (mm 949), one of our favorites. Settled in for the evening. It rained harder than we had heard in years.

Friday, Ubered to buy a strut for the hatch. Found one, not as good and it cost way less than the Uber ride. Later, we walked to Davila’s for Italian take out, and to Publix. First visit to an actual supermarket in 14 months. (We had used Instacart while in Hollywood.) Felt surreal to enter the produce department. I finally got to select my own veggies and fruits. We, of course, got carried away shopping and poor Larry was loaded down for the mile plus walk back. Once inside the gated community, a golf cart offered us a ride back to the boat, cutting the return trip in half. Larry took him up on his offer. I decided to walk. It’s a very nice walk. Really enjoyed our Italian lunch that afternoon. First time we ate in a restaurant in over a year.

Saturday, we fueled up when the marina opened and headed out. We turned onto the ICW at 8:52. Not bad, considering that the marina opened at 8am and there was one boat before us. Nice folks at this marina. Beautiful morning; however, hot and sticky. Doesn’t even feel as if I showered. Once we were on the ICW, a little blue and yellow plane started flying around us, sometimes very low. What a treat. Then we were surrounded by a jet ski club. Larry counted at least 41. We are headed for Cape Canaveral area. There is a rocket launch tonight. Made it to the Titusville Marina, mm 8780. I set the alarm for 12:25am and got up. Larry had been stationed at Patrick AFB, just up the street, so a rocket launch was nothing special. I got up and enjoyed it….orangish rocket and white boosters….clouds actually added to the launch. The noise and the rumble were almost better than the visual…..it was a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, sending up a Sirius satellite.

So ends our week.