Poof- back in NH!

We got back to our land home last night after two days of driving and one night in a hotel. The temperature today is in the low 70s and I am wearing jeans and a light long sleeve shirt and not dripping sweat sitting still. I’m so happy! Being on the Atlantic side of the Keys was lovely, but being in the ICW and marina was almost unbearable. I will not miss the inhospitable late summer weather of southern Florida.

You will recall from my last post that our starboard battery bank and generator had both shut down and the port throttle was intermittently cutting out the port motor. Well, the port throttle finally failed entirely on Sunday morning and could not be revived. So we made the final sprint to Fort Pierce with just the starboard motor being driven by the port generator (just once in the morning until the batteries were fully charged), the port batteries and both solar arrays. Again, thank goodness for the redundancy Dave built into our system! We arrived just at slack tide, and with a couple of dock hands to assist, Dave parked her in our slip easily despite having only one motor. It would have been a lot more challenging if we’d missed slack tide. We took the rest of the afternoon off.

We spent Monday and Tuesday closing up Lady, which left us extremely sweaty and exhausted by each afternoon when we broke around 4pm for drinks. Monday evening I drove to Jupiter to meet my cousin and her daughter for a lovely outdoor dinner along the Indian River. We all needed some girl time and it was great! I left Dave in the hammock with a drink and music; I think he also napped for a bit. We’d met a couple of new friends at the marina in July and were able to spend a few hours with them Tuesday afternoon having socially distanced fruity rum drinks on the docks followed by dinner up the road, again at an outside venue where the tables were more than adequately spaced and the staff all wore their masks (properly, not on their chins). It was a good way to end our time at the marina.

Every time I come back from an extended stay on Indigo Lady, I am struck by the colors and textures of the interior of my house. It feels so foreign for the first few hours. Indigo Lady is predominantly white inside and out. She has a dull medium blue/black mottled laminate floor and countertops, dark blue pleather salon cushions and nondescript gray cockpit cushions. I’ve added colored bed sheets and some brown baskets but other than that she’s pretty much bright white fiberglass. I don’t mind all that bright whiteness when I’m on her; she complements the bright skies and waters. I would find that much white disconcerting in my land home in NH; it would not be the least bit relaxing. Here on land I like my cozy, earthy greens, yellow and garnet with the hardwood floors and cherry cabinets.

Late this morning we took a ride out to the Kittery Trading Post for their annual tent sale and stopped at an “honor system” farm stand on the way home. Now I have fresh eggs, heirloom tomatoes for canning salsa, plus some fresh veggies to go with dinner the next few nights. We brought some food back from the boat and we’d left our pantry here pretty well stocked, so I can put off going to the market until Monday.  

A tour of our yard today revealed that the rodents have left us two apples and about 1/3 cup of Jacob’s cattle beans, just enough to plant next year. It looks like they also may have eaten the heads off of whatever black-eyed Susans managed to bloom. The drought was not kind to my perennial beds. I hope they revive next year! My hardier herbs- sage, rosemary, thyme and oregano- survived nicely and some small green parsley shoots are hanging on. Still, the air is crisp and the area sugar maples are starting to turn color. Although technically still summer, fall is in the air- my favorite time of year! 

Now that we’re home I will take time to reflect on the trip and share my thoughts with you here over the next few posts. I’ll try to keep it balanced between the “ooh, ahh, look at this” stuff from our diving excursions and the realities of my continued efforts to learn to love living aboard.

Until then, stay safe and take care of each other!