Day 22- By Vicki

We slept in our own bed last night.  I kept thinking how big the house feels, almost too big.   I think the cat could care less about being home, but it puts me at ease to have her back and safe.

Early this morning we headed towards the Tampa airport; Aaron left in the rental car, and I followed him in my car.  I'm a terrible driver and driving to the airport terrified me, but it had to be done.

Tampa Airport Interchanges
Who Designed This Clusterfuck?  It's terrifying.  

From there, we took my car back to the boat.  With no electric, the boat's batteries were dead, so it needed a jump.   Aaron lucked out and found a guy to do it for twenty bucks.  As soon as it was started, Aaron headed towards Clearwater Beach.

Aaron Safety Left The Vinoy Marina

I didn't go with Aaron on this leg of the trip, because we decided it would be best to have a car in case anything goes wrong.  I followed him by land. 

Since it's much faster to travel by car than by boat, I had some time to kill.  

I stopped and had lunch in Treasure Island.  I was talking to Natalie, my waitress, about my current adventure with the boat, and can you believe she had a story to top mine?  I almost didn't believe her, but she had the pictures on her phone to prove it. Her husband paid $16,000 for a 32 foot boat, and on their maiden voyage this past February, which included their three teenage children, they hit a mile marker sign that was underwater because someone had knocked it over the day before, and it put a huge hole in the bottom of their boat.  They were quickly sinking so her husband beached the boat on a sandbar.  He refused to abandon the boat, and it took two weeks before they could get it out of the water, so they lived on it with no power, beached on a sandbar for two weeks.  They went back and forth to land on their dingy to get food, water, and supplies every day.  It cost them over $10,000 to get her out and have the bottom fixed.  All that water damage caused a bunch of other problems, but they now have everything fixed except the AC.  Her story topped mine, so I left her a ten dollar tip on a ten dollar tab.   

Aaron made it safety back to Clearwater Beach just before the torrential downpour which we enjoyed on the car ride home.  Tomorrow morning we will continue our journey to get the boat home.  

Aaron Safely Coming Into Clearwater Beach Marina