Guess What Followed Us Home?

 

Sunshine Key Rv Resort, Florida  (high 78, 66)

 

Do you remember the last time I had a blog with a similar title?

 

Here is a reminder.

(awww….look how cute Baxter was.

 

So, what is it that followed us home this time?

Can you guess?

 

No, it’s not a kitten.

No, it’s not a dog.

 

and it’s actually not home with us yet.

 

Here it is.

 

We have been arguing for years about getting another boat.  He kept checking Craig’s List and I kept finding something I didn’t like about the boats he found.

Yes, Al finally whined enough and got his way, wore me down, and we bought a boat!  We have always had out boats, but when we sold our house and became full timers, I thought our boat ownership days were over.  Al agreed reluctantly, but I think he had his fingers crossed because he’s been talking boats ever since we got back to Florida.

Since we spend a lot of time in Florida and in the Keys, I guess it’s not such a bad idea.   The Keys is such a wonderful place to have a boat.

We thought about renting a boat, but they cost at least $150 a day, and you have to return them by 4:00 pm. 

This boat didn’t cost too much, and we’ll be able to use it whenever we like.   It’s cheap to insure and we found a place to store it when we’re not here, for only $35 a month. We don’t intend to take it back to Tampa.  For right now, it will stay here in the Keys, but of course we could always come and get it if we changed out mind.

If you read the blog from a few days ago, this was the same boat we went for a ride on.   I didn’t mention that is was a test drive because we hadn’t finished checking out the motor, and hadn’t made the deal yet. 

Our “new” boat is a 17 foot Proline with a 90  horsepower Evinrude motor.  It has a nice deep V hull and it handles the ocean waves very nicely. It tops out at about 42 miles per hour, so it’s got plenty of power.   It’s quite a bit smaller than we’re used to, but with this great hull, we’re comfortable going the 8-9 miles out to the reefs. 

We already joined SEA TOW, which is a water rescue service.  If you get stranded offshore they will come and tow you in.  We always had them for our previous boats, and won’t go out without them.   The Coast Guard won’t tow you in unless it’s a life threatening situation (been there, done that).

We have room on our camp site here at Sunshine Key to store the boat, or we could keep it in the water at the marina, while we’re here.   I believe they charge $400 a month to keep your boat in the water, so we probably won’t be doing that!

We will pick the boat up today and then hopefully the winds will die down enough to get out in the water, but we may just wait until after the Easter week-end since there are a lot of boats on the water.

We spent yesterday picking up a few things for the boat.  Things we had, and practically gave away at our garage sales.

Boat electronics have sure changed since we last had a boat.  The boat has a color depth recorder/fish finder, and a color GPS plotter.  I didn’t even know what a plotter was!   We’ll have to learn to use all these fancy electronics, but they look to be pretty user friendly and the GPS is a Garmin, so we’re familiar with them.

The boat also has a VHF radio.  We believe in redundancy, so we always carried a spare hand held radio…just in case.   That’s one thing we didn’t sell.   I just asked Al if he knew where it was and he said he brought it with us…..just in case he were to get a boat.   :)

I guess he won!

 

Sunshine Key from the fishing bridge.

 

Hey….if you don’t hear from us for a few days, please call the Coast Guard!