Friday, October 24, 2014

We Already Got In Trouble!

Me...about to be handcuffed....just kidden' !!

Well, it doesn't take long to get into trouble in Florida. Those of you who follow us know 2 years ago I got put in the back of a police car while I was walking down the side of the road to a gas station cuz our car broke down on our way home from church. Horrifying...he was so mean to me!! Then, the very same weekend Scott got "entered" into the system (whatever that means) because we didn't have a leash on Jib on a completely empty beach. We were also boarded last year by the Sheriff's dept. so they could inspect our toilet...yep...they do that here. They are checking to make sure your tank is locked & not dumping into the water, which is a good thing. Ours was locked & they were on & off our boat within a few minutes. Anyway, today we had our 4th encounter with Florida law enforcement when we were coming home from an afternoon at our little private island. They said we were going too fast. Gimme' a break! We're in a dinghy! Anyway, then we got in trouble cuz we didn't have our dinghy registration with us (although our dinghy registration sticker was there!?! ) & we didn't have a sound device (like a whistle or fog horn). I'm happy to say they just gave us a warning and not a ticket for those things cuz apparently, it would have been a couple hundred dollars. They were pretty nice & actually posed for a photo with me.

Jib having some fun on the island

We've just been plugging along with boat projects getting Malaika ready to go!!! Luckily this year...we don't have that many projects...for once!!! Our biggest thing we're doing is building a swim platform for the stern (back) of the boat. It will be so great!! We can unload our groceries, dive gear, clean fish & lobster there, instead of handing things to each other while hanging from the ladder & dinghy. I will post pics as soon as I have some. Scott is at some guys shop working on it now. He ordered some beautiful teak from Canada & has spent MANY hours figuring out the best way to do it. It requires drilling some pretty big holes into our stern so it's awesome he's done so much research.

Scott having some fun on the island before we got "busted".

As usual, I've been working on the inside. We have new bedding (yay!!!) and I already have the boat mostly provisioned. I had my annual 3 hour trip to Walmart & spent $600 in one swoop. That said....we have enough food to last us for months.

This is only half of it....

So each day we get a little closer to leaving St Augustine. We're headed to the Bahamas again and are so excited. Scott has already done some shopping to "provision" his dive gear.

His new fins are GINORMOUS, but with those he can go deeper, faster... Thankfully, he also built a little place to store them

Our herb garden is in full bloom & ready...

This is just half of it...

 

Oops...I broke a piece off the toilet while cleaning it.....here comes another project!

Jib and I took a little walk to town today so we could get his 3rd annual pumpkin patch picture.....here it is....

He is damn cute!

So, we're having fun & are working towards our departure. We've done other projects & I have more fun stories to tell you so stay tuned!

Home

Love....Michelle, Scott & Jib

 

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Good thing about the warning!!!! I'd really like to see how the swim platform turns out as we have a similar transom. There's a website that has pictures of swim platforms for island packets, I'll post it below in case you haven't seen it.

Mike

http://ipphotos.com/view_ad.asp?Ad_ID=854

Scott , Michelle Jesse, & Jib said...

Thanks Mike! We'll be sure to check it out! I will post pics of the platform as the progress continues....
Michelle