May 14-May 23 Fort Myers, Florida
We arrived in Fort Myers, Florida and spent our first night on our beautiful new boat. We were delighted to find the boat clean, inside and out, with the lights and a/c on, and a chilled bottle of champagne in the refrigerator. Our flight from DFW was delayed, we were re-routed to Tampa, and our luggage failed to come with us. We made a hurried trip to Target and were outfitted in new shorts, shirts, and shoes. The luggage, packed with clothing and numerous articles for the boat, arrived two days later.
The previous owners generously had left many items that made our transition easier. We knew some changes in the interior were necessary to make the boat “ours.” Although expensively decorated, the salon and staterooms were “in the wrong colors (gold and pink}” for us. We gave or packed away numerous items that were deemed unsuitable. Bags and bags were sent to the dumpster, The Salvation Army, or Goodwill Industries.
The week was spent learning about the boat and meeting with workmen to have the salon valances changed from cloth to teak, the new name applied, the carpet cleaned, the plastic curtains made for the bimini top, and complete all the work left unfinished from the survey report. We spent considerable time and money at Macy’s and Jo Ann’s Fabrics. We planned to remake the new bedspreads to fit the customized beds on the boat and to cover the valances and headboards in the staterooms. New curtain fabric for the master stateroom was selected and my new sewing machine was soon humming away.
To gain extra knowledge about the boat, a captain was hired to work with us for a day. Unfortunately, we did more socializing than actual instruction. We realized later we should have utilized his time more effectively. Remarkably, the workers completed all scheduled work on time. With great excitement and considerable fear and trembling, we were ready to start our ICW journey.
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