Home again…no, back on board….. well, that is home! It was nice to have some time with family over the holidays. The drive home was, well, a 16 hour drive on I-95. We backtracked our trip south, retracing our steps past familiar places along the way… St. Mary’s, Savannah, Hilton Head, Charleston,and the “low country”. It was notable that our trip back north progressed at a pace that in one hour covered the distance we cruised in one day aboard Maerin. The same proportion did not apply to the “fun factor”. We arrived home Sunday night shortly before midnight. Our girls arrived home Christmas Eve, and Grandma was thrilled to have the whole family in attendance at Christmas Eve services. Andrea’s boyfriend David was treated to the sound of “the Wirecloth”… the years-old York, PA tradition of the New York Wire Cloth Co. steam whistle concert on Christmas Eve. Probably the eeriest Christmas Carols you’ll ever hear, the steam whistle can be heard up to 10 miles away. No where else! We had our traditional family Christmas dinner at home, although the typical groaning board was a bit limited by the fact that we came home to a kitchen with no provisions- everything was moved on board in October! Still, we had turkey and most of the trimmings! The most important ingredient was there in family!
The holidays were a blur of activity, catching up on family news, visits from family and friends, catching up on mail, paperwork, and bills. We returned a few things from Maerin we weren’t using, and came back with some things we thought we might need, along with some provisioning that we weren’t sure we could find back in sunny Florida. Oh, then there was the main sewer line backup at home. It seems that in our absence, some roots had invaded the main line. Since all the drain cleaning equipment was sold at sale, the plumber had to, of all things, call a plumber! That experience was only topped by my intercepting a flu bug on Friday night that threatened to delay our departure. Fortunately, the bug relented, and we departed Sunday morning more or less on schedule, just before 9AM. Traffic on I-95 south was very heavy, alternating between stretches at 80 MPH and times where it was stopped. Just lovely. In addition, every RV or motor coach that was ever manufactured was on I-95, southbound. All the retired folks decided en masse that they’d spend Christmas at home with the kids, fuel up the RV with new-found cheap fuel, and head to Florida as soon as the leftovers were put away. We arrived at 2 AM, tired, but glad to be back in Florida. I thought I might need tools to get my ass separated from the leather upholstery in the Buick!
The days following our arrival back in Florida were spent re-provisioning, picking up supplies, and doing some sightseeing while we had the advantage of having wheels. The radio I had sent back to Horizon for repairs was re-installed, along with the new one that was waiting at home. A significant improvement in the VHF radio layout and function on board, now both radios are located in the pilothouse, where they belong. RAM mic’s provide radio function for both radios on the flybridge, and a 3rd RAM mic provides VHF radio for the saloon plus hailer function from all 3 locations. Now we can be confident that we’re being heard!
We took some time to revisit the Kennedy Space Center, and visited some local islands via dinghy where we strolled the beach and left the dogs romp in the water (and sand!)
