We've officially moved out of New York. Today Gary took us to Green Cove Springs, where our mail forwarding service is. We picked up our mail and they gave us paperwork and instructions on becoming Florida residents and getting Florida driver's licenses. The only problem was, you must present proof of citizenship and a social security card to get a Florida driver's license. I had put together all the documents I thought we'd need, but hadn't included my social security card (Bud had his in his wallet). So we had to drive all the way back to the boat (almost 30 miles) and then all the way back to Green Cove Springs. We filled out a proof of domicile form and had it recorded at the Clay County Courthouse. We then went and got Florida driver's licenses, registration for the dingy, and a Florida saltwater fishing license for Bud. We had to pay non-resident rates for the fishing license because we haven't been residents for 6 months.

By the way, we checked the regulations and we need to register the dinghy even though the boat is documented with the Coast Guard and not registered. We don't have to register the boat in Florida unless we are in Florida waters for 90 consecutive days or 183 days per year in total. So we chose not to register Earendil, only her dinghy. That whole process took until 1:30 PM. We treated Gary to lunch after that. He more than earned it!

We went to see Gary's house and he gave Bud tips on fishing here. Gary is an avid fisherman. He saved us a lot of money by letting us know that you really only need live bait to be successful fishing in these waters. Bud is anxious to try fishing. I'm anxious to try eating the fish.

Tomorrow we are going to put the registration numbers on the dinghy and figure out how to launch and retrieve it from the boat and how to get our new outboard engine on and off it. Then I think Gary and Bud might try some fishing from the dink. I'd like to get to see this town a bit. It's the oldest European city in the U.S. and the marina is right on the edge of the old town. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get to walk around and take some pictures, the DMV was not very photogenic.