Sailing South on Solitude

John, Penni & Timmy 2024

Surprise!

We don’t plan much in advance on this trip, as you may have gathered. For one, the forecast is most accurate the day before. We pretty much know if we are staying of going the following day. If we are going somewhere we may have booked a marina or at least have an idea where we should get to. Now we have been doing this for a month, it usually goes according to plan (wish I had not said that- keep your fingers crossed). Last night, we pretty much knew we would be staying here. Then the crew from Gone Away said they were going to nip across the bay to an anchorage in the keys. Sounded tempting. However, next we received a text from our good friends from Atlanta, Kelly and Tom- ‘We just got off a cruise boat in Miami- where are you?’. Turns out we were just a twenty minute Uber ride away. The only question then was - ‘Do you want to come here, or shall we come to you?’. The joy of being able to plan last minute. Two hours later, we were sitting at the Boater’s Grill enjoying the company of friends we have missed since moving to Hilton Head. We then took them to the Lighthouse we had been able to tour on Saturday. We knew we were too late for the tour but as luck would have it, the tour guide was just leaving as we got there. She invited Tom and Kelly to go up the lighthouse and then hid so no one else would ask. Not sure Tom and Kelly were entirely grateful as they could hardly walk afterwards. Great excuse to go to the cafe for a pitcher of sangria. We then walked back to the boaters grill for a beer while they waited for an Uber. After a week on a cruise ship with unlimited adult beverages, this was their first day of sobering up slowly. The plan for tomorrow is to head towards Key Largo. We are hoping we get into Gilbert’s marina, but it is a first come, first served basis. We will at least have to drop by there as we have a boat part on the way there. Anyway, I will be taking a Mercalm tomorrow morning as it may be choppy across the Biscayne Bay. I am hoping it won’t be as bad as when we came out of Lake Worth, but I survived that so I can do this.


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