Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

My last blog (sent from my phone) turned out to be presumtuous.  As we made our way to the end of the runway the weather deteriorated.  The flight corridor which we were supposed to fly down began to have a problem so instead of roaring off down the runway we had to taxi off to a lot where we parked while they figured out what to do.  We eventually got back in line to take off only to find when we neared takeoff the winds had changed direction so much they had altered runways so we had to follow a bunch of planes around the tarmac to a new runway.  A few planes made it off, including the one in front of us.  The winds changed again so we had to make a fourth attempt to take off from yet another starting point.  This time we made it.  Two hours late.

The Floridian’s think it’s cold down here today but compared to the misery we left, the blue skies and high 60s are very pleasant.  Despite landing late we shot for and succeeded in covering all the chores we had aimed to accomplish in both days.  We now have our Florida licenses, our mail (including flight tickets to BVIs), our new headsail and enough generator spares for 1,000 hours of use.  I guess we are going to have to take some time to learn to slow down.

While doing this we’ve come close to sorting out our insurance for the next year.  The post-charter boat survey came in yesterday and we sent it off to the agent.  There are a few items that need to be remediated in 30 days but we are good to go for our trip to St Martin where we can take our time to address these issues.

Now we’re at a loose end.  Nothing to fix or do.  There is some paperwork to look at and some repacking to do to fit the spare parts in but we’ve agreed to leave that to tomorrow.  I think this prevarication is forgivable.  For now, we’ve decided to treat ourselves to a meal out before we collapse with tiredness.

Finally – we’re beginning to feel the vestiges of some excitement.  It certainly doesn’t feel like we’re going on vacation.  More a change of life.  A lot to sink in.

Ben and Sam came round this morning to help out with a lot of the smaller items.  They switched out all the downstairs wall sockets and helped install the blinds plus a number of other tasks.  We have a manageable list for tomorrow – our last day here in NJ.

At the end of the day we all went out for a farewell dinner.  Chatting about the usual stuff, college, a little politics, what they’re thinking of doing.  Seems so normal but the hanging spectre over all of us was that this really is the end of a phase of our lives.  It’s very hard to write how I feel as right now it’s a bit dark.  Questions about whether ending our family life worth the pursuit of our dreams countered with the realism things will move on anyway.  Is it right to cling to the past while less and less is available to hang onto?

I don’t think I’ve ever loved my family more than I do now.

Ben and Sam will both grow from this experience as will Helen and I.  We haven’t come this far without the realization that life, to remain vital, must move on.  This involves painful moments.  This is one of them.

Looking forward.  Today we hired a car from Newark airport which we’ll drop off at FJK on Tuesday morning when we fly down to Fort Lauderdale.  It will also help when we sell our Dodge Caravan tomorrow which has served us well the last eight and a half years.  I have a couple of local dealers lined up who will take it off our hands for a small sum of cash.  Ads on Craigslist only turned up scammers over the weekend.

Helen has repacked all our travel gear.  Tomorrow it will come down to getting the last few things done that we can and then compiling lists of things that we can’t do for the handymen to do in our absence – hopefully a short list.

Our property agent has been a dream and a great comfort to us.  She has been very supportive and reassuring and has already made sevaral trips to show the property.  We’re close to getting our first set of tenants signed up which is very good news.

Once we get to Fort Lauderdale we have a number of things to do.  We need to get Florida driving licenses as this will become our official state of residence.  We need to pick up some generator spares and we need to pick up our new headsail which is now ready.  Thursday we fly to the BVIs and will probably get onto the boat around 10pm.  While we are on a tight budget we’ve decided we can go to the bar for painkillers that evening.  Friday will be groceries and boat checkout.  If all checks out we could be sailing to St Martin next weekend where we then have to get all our gear onto the boat.  Maybe we’ll then get a chance to take a day or two to do nothing.  Who knows.

Can it really be next week that we’ll be aboard Dignity and starting the next phase of our lives?  Here we are still toiling over our property.  We’ve made very good progress but our time between now and Saturday will be filled.  We’ve planned to meet with the boys on Friday for a goodbye meal and sometime on Saturday we’re hoping to leave and head south.  It’s turned quite a bit colder here in NJ in the last few days which makes the thoughts of the Caribbean harder to imagine.