cruising to the 4th

Richie Coldcuts and I decided to extend the 4th of July holiday by taking some vacation days and boating down to Longboat Key to meet up with other boating friends.  Sounded like a plan, right?  Well, getting there was a little more difficult than we had envisioned. Original plan:  Richie and guy friends Matt and Tim would motor south on Thursday and I would collect them via car, return to the ‘burg to finish out the work week, then go back to the boat Friday to spend the next 7 days boating.  Floating.  But you know what they say about the best laid plans!?  Well, the first glitch occurred when the men were about 40 minutes into the trip.  A hose clamp failed, sending an engine into alarm, and the guys had to turn around and return on one engine.  Thankfully, Marine Max was johnny-on-the-spot on Friday and had us all fixed and ready to go (for Saturday now).

Since we had already lost a day, Richie announced plans for an early rise on Saturday. And since sleeping in is my favorite thing in the whole world, this was no easy sell. However, I was anxious to get our vacation started so I agreed to pop out of bed at 6:30 a.m. (oh gawd) and get the boat provisioned.  Our boat is basically a block from the house, so usually we wheel a cart over with the items we’ll need on the boat (clothes, towels, food and drink).  But to load up for a seven day trip, we knew we’d need to drive everything over in the car.  On Richie’s first trip to the car, a lone bottle of beer ‘attached’ itself to the webbing on our hamper then jumped to its death on the curb outside the car.  Richie was a looking a little deflated as he buzzed back in, past our doorman to retrieve me and the last load for the car.  We bid the doorman farewell and a happy 4th, and made the quick trip around the block to the boat.

Things were going pretty smoothly as we were getting everything stowed in the boat.  I was unpacking our laptops.  But where oh where was our wifi hotspot?  Although most marinas offer free wifi, we never depend on it.  Service can be anywhere from zippy quick to non-existent and Mr. Coldcuts had to log into work on Monday.  Yep — in our haste (and our sorrow over spilled beer!), we had left the wifi at home.  Well, hey, it’s only a block.  I’d just zip back and get it.  Our doorman smiled a wry grin as I ran past him to ‘get one last thing we forgot’!  Back at the boat, final packing was about done when I noticed we didn’t have our ‘hanging clothes’.  Hanging clothes for the boat means the ‘nice’ clothes we take in case we need to have something dressier than shorts, T-shirts and flip flops.  Sheesh.  We were a hot mess.  What ELSE did we forget?  Richie volunteered to rush back, and endure the doorman’s disdain smile to retrieve our boating ‘Sunday best’.  Finally, at 8:30 a.m. we were underway.  After a very inauspicious beginning, we had a beautiful cruise down to Longboat and arrived just after 10:a.m. last Saturday.  We’re happily settled in and getting ready for fireworks.  Happy 4th to those in the U.S.!!