It’s official, the boat has a name and knows where its people are from; we got the decals on today.
It came out well, and it’s definitely fun to round the corner in the yard and see our old girl identified.
We are lucky to have friends who keep their boat here at the same marina for purposes of a similar annual family plan. (It was a great coincidence to learn about shortly before we left; it’s a tiny place in the middle of nowhere!) They thoughtfully keep bikes down here for their kids to use while they gear up each year, and they offered them to the girls to use while we’re here waiting. Boatyard mobility has raised the fun bar even higher, and they spent the afternoon zooming this way and that while we worked in and around the boat.
On one of our spins around the docks, we came upon our first gator of the trip, lurking in the mud at the edge of the inlet. It was a little one, maybe 3 or 4 feet in length, but big enough to not want to stick around and see if it came much closer. (Truthfully, I think that the effects of what that water could do to bare skin may rank up there with the damage that little alligator could inflict- blech.)
Tomorrow we’re keeping our fingers crossed that our shaft will be ready for pick up (it’s hard to make that sentence sound clean- seriously), and we’ll do our final prepping, shopping, stowing. The ‘can we fit it?’ game continues. As I was reading to V tonight and Andy was tearing up the girls’ mini settee to get into his tool storage, she said “Guys, this is a little boat, and we have a LOT of stuff.”. You nailed it, kid.