young cruisers, Indiantown

Young Blood

Sunday July 5, 2015

cookout at Indiantown Marina

 If there has been on saving grace so far this past month while we’ve been working on and living on Daze Off while we begin to tear everything apart in order to rebuild, it’s that we’ve had friends to not only cheer us up, but to also share in our misery.  Think we’re the only couple in the marina living in a stripped down boat or even the only ones without a galley at the moment?  Think again.  And the best part is, these other people that can split in un-finished boat blues with us or pass over a glass of Prosecco at the end of a long day are young bloods, just like us.

One couple I may have mentioned a few times but haven’t yet gone into much of an explanation on are Mark and Hanna.  They’ve been here with us at the marina since late April after having purchased a Morgan Out Island 33 in the yard that they’re working on to get seaworthy before sailing it to Guatemala for hurricane season and finishing renovations there. Both new to sailing, Mark just left the airline industry, and German born and raised Hanna has spent the past few years traveling solo around Europe and working at a little bed & breakfast in Costa Rica.

It’s been so nice not only having another young couple in the yard to have a few dinners and drinks with, but now that we’re on Daze Off and living, literally, in a state of chaos, we know we’re not the only ones.  We get to trade stories with Mark and Hanna about what it’s like to live in a space that has all the walls and sometimes the floor torn out.  Or what it’s like also living out of your vehicle and having to unpack and repack about 15 different bags just trying to find a clean pair of underwear.  Misery loves company, and having someone around on the exact same page as us has made this experience much more tolerable so far.

The other young bloods in the marina with us at the moment are a German couple, of course they are, Meike and Sebastian.  I swear this little spot of Florida is experiencing a German invasion, but so far we’ve been loving all of them.  There was even one more young German couple (Johannes and Cati) that we thought were going to be here at the marina to do some repairs, but they were able to get away with minor fix up at anchor in Lake Worth.  Maybe next time…

Anyway, back to Meike and Sebastian.  They live on a big 42 ft steel boat called Meise.  They’ve been here for about a week and a half now but are unfortunately leaving just as soon as they’ve come.  Putting Meise into storage for hurricane season, they’ll soon be on their way back to Germany via air to work for a few months and get a little money back in their kitty before returning in December to resume cruising again.

The funny thing with Meike and Sebastian is we were so close to meeting them last year.  They just left Germany in August and once they hit Maderia they were on the same path as us, always just a few weeks ahead. To think, all that time we were alone in the Canaries and I was desperately searching for some young cruisers to buddy with, and these two were there. This is what happens when you don’t have a blog, Meike!  Then we can’t connect because we don’t know about each other!

I’m not sure if we would have made it happen though anyway since these two were participating in the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers, leaving out of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in late November, and we wanted to stay far away from that congestion until it was long gone.  I can’t even imagine what the anchorage and marina would have been like with 300 boats all getting ready to depart at the same time.  So we took our own time and hung back in the other islands until Thanksgiving.

Sigh, I’m getting off topic again.  The point is, we have all found each other here and now and it has been wonderful.  Even though we’re all hard at work on our three different boats, we all find time to connect and unwind.  Sometimes it’s just a passing hello in the kitchen as we’re on crazy schedules depending what work we’re doing that day, where one group might wander in to eat their dinner at 6:30 (most likely us) and another group doesn’t show up until 9:00 after trying to eek out as much work as they can for the day while there is still light in the sky.

On a few occasions we have managed to plan a dinner between all of us where we’ll each bring our own entree to cook and sides to pass.  Hanna will make one of her fantastic bread dips and Meike keeps me topped off with Prosecco.  A quickly growing favorite of mine. I like to think I also contribute something to these dinners, but it’s usually just corn on the cob or potatoes.  So hopefully these photos capturing our memories will ensure my spot of being useful in this group.

We’ve all had some great times together, and our nights out on the patio are sometimes what keeps me going through the brutally hot and arduous work days. With Meike and Sebastian flying out later this week and Mark and Hanna sailing off to Guatemala at the same time, we’ll soon be left alone here at the marina with only ourselves and Daze Off.  Slaving away and waiting for the next group of young bloods to come along and keep us company.

(This isn’t to say you have to be young for us to enjoy your company, it’s just surprisingly all that’s been coming through here lately.)

getting ready for dinner

grilling out

Hanna and Meike

Sebastian and Meike

young cruisers, Indiantown

P.S. Check out this amazing gift Mark and Hanna made us to remember Serendipity by.  It looks just like her!

etching of Serendipity

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