Adaptation.

I’ll say one thing for our funny family; we’re adaptable. We’d listened to Lily’s brand new list of fears over the past couple of weeks, which unfolded into silliness when prodded for their birth stories (every motorcycle passing or plane flying overhead was an obscure reason for flinching, e.g.), and then I witnessed Violet’s shifted eating habits as Days 1 & 2 on board came to be, taking the whole package in as something to keep an eye on, but not to overwhelm myself with. Most of the day was natural behavior to be sure, but there would be flashings of the seismic shift we had just locked them into, clearly expressed in different ways, all new to us. Day whatever-this-is and poof, it’s like we’ve lived on this boat for three eternities. Appetites are normal, shirking of requested duties is on track (although some new boat tasks are still novel enough to seem exciting, which is assistance we are pleased with but aren’t taking for granted), and the girls have hit their stride in every which way possible. (Lily’s back to being her wild, semi-reckless self, and we haven’t heard about her ‘list’ since- my gauge of the girls really not having any idea of what we were about to do (despite my explanation) was true. Turns out the reality is far tamer than their imaginations of it!)

It’s amazing to think about the emotional twists and turns that Andy and I have taken together in the past three days trying to suss out our approach to the shaft issues, and I suppose it’s a testament to either our parental shielding capabilities, or our kids’ incredible force of adaptability and forward motion that has kept them from absorbing our angst. A STRONG lean toward the latter, if I had to take a stab. I’m proud of ourselves for keeping things in perspective when it’s come to priorities for our decisions: 1. make things as safe as possible on board (a straight shaft helps!), 2. keep the kids stimulated and having fun, and most importantly, our antsiness to get the heck out of this boat yard was pushed further on down the list. (This inland marina is great and all, but we’re ready for ocean breezes, lovely sails and anchorages with space to swing.) To speak to number 2 however, and to make the point that taking more time to ready the boat as best we can is a good decision, the girls are happier than ever playing with their piles of coconuts under the boat, exercising the plentiful boatyard (live aboard) dogs that are always out and about, taking daily adventures together in the area, seeing friends, making new friends, riding in the yard carts, and busying themselves on board. They are happy. And that makes everything easier, so we’re working on remembering that to chill ourselves the heck out.

That said, one big stress release is that today we officially ordered a new shaft to be fabricated. One decision that we were toying with was to put the two-piece (an interesting set up), slightly bent shaft back on and assume that it would carry on as it has for another thousand miles, but in the end Andy made the good choice to make it right before we begin this journey, and so here we sit until it’s ready. Hopefully Tuesday we’ll have it in place, with a launch Wednesday. The good news is that we aren’t missing any weather windows to cross to the Bahamas in that time frame, and the best  news is that we’ve made a decision that we feel is the right thing to do. Funny how long that took, and how tormenting it seemed!

We’ll take our ‘free’ time to get the name decals onto the boat, throw some more sticks for Millie (German Shephard mix across the way), and pump up our stores for the rest of the trip. We’re also planning on a two-day sojourn to visit sister Vanessa in Naples, where we’ll catch some beachfront sunsets. As an added bonus to being there this weekend, we will watch the Superbowl even without the beloved Patriots. (Sports-savvy writer/watcher that I am, I just wrote Red Sox before correcting, yikes. Go Papi!)

For today, we played here for the morning before going to the Florida Oceanographic Society where we walked the nature trail through the mangroves, watched nurse sharks being fed and pet some awesomely slimy stingrays.

A trip to the beach for chilly shell-hunting (apparently after a week we’ve turned into Floridians- 70 degrees with a stiff breeze equates to ‘frickin’ freezing’), and then home for our usual Friday night picnic dinner and movie night. We watched Flipper, which was completely adorable if you forgave the acting, the plot, and Elijah Wood.