2017 Life Logs, Day 37: Boston to Fort Lauderdale
Date: Monday, February 6, 2017
Weather: Partly Cloudy; 80 degrees F
Location: Airport in Fort Lauderdale, FL
The first half of my trip to Puerto Rico has gone smoothly. Dealing with the multiple bags was not the issue I thought it would be. I drove up to the bus stop at the Park & Ride, took out the luggage and found a nice woman who said she would watch it while I went to park the car. At the airport, the carts you can rent curbside at the airport solved the problem on that end. I had a bit of trouble getting through security. I travel TSA with prior approval, but today I was the person that had to completely empty my carry-on bag and my backpack and be patted down front to back, head to toe in Boston. That didn’t happen in Fort Lauderdale, and I’m not sure why I was the chosen one. Interesting experience that I hope I don’t have to go through again, but if having these kinds of checks makes us safer, I’ll not complain. Now I just have to wait until 11:55 pm for take-off from Fort Lauderdale to Aguadilla, Puerto Rico to complete the trip. I made the decision to fly to Aguadilla instead of San Juan because Aguadilla is close to where Justin lives. But it is a small airport and is only open from 3 am to 7 am. Thus, the late flight leaving Fort Lauderdale. Not sure I’d do this again as it is a very long wait, but I have had a good day despite the wait. When I arrived in Fort Lauderdale at 2:30, my sister-in-law Sue and her husband Brad picked me up at the airport and we headed to area of town where Windbird is docked. I had offered to take Dawn, Windbird’s current Admiral, out to dinner with us and she invited us down to see Windbird. It was such a special moment for me to see Windbird for the first time since we sold her.
I thought I would feel a bit sad, but I didn’t at all.
Sam and Dawn have made so many improvements to the boat and it makes me feel nothing but joy to see that Windbird has new owners who are learning to love her as much as Mark and I did. They are living aboard and preparing to sail her to the Bahamas soon and that is so exciting. In a previous log, I mentioned a future trip but didn’t provide the details. Dawn and Sam have invited me to fly to the Exumas in the Bahamas in mid-April to sail with them on Windbird for a couple of weeks. It was a very generous offer, but I asked them to think about it again before making the final commitment. Today Dawn said that they discussed it again and that they really do want to put up with me for a couple of weeks. So I’m Bahamas bound on April 17th. Woo hoo!!!
But now back to this afternoon and a story with a bit of drama. After sitting and chatting in Windbird’s cockpit,
we walked next door to Coconuts to have dinner. As we were finishing up, Brad excused himself to walk about on the deck. In a few minutes, a young woman came to find out if we were with the man out on the deck. She said he was having trouble speaking clearly. Sue immediately went out and I asked Dawn to sit and watch our things at the table while I went to see what was going on. It appeared at first glance that Brad was having a TIA, but almost immediately he recovered and seemed fine. Various people who were waiting on the deck for seating were so very helpful and the restaurant staff had called an ambulance. When the ambulance arrived, Brad told the EMTs he was fine, but they looked to Sue and she asked if they might just check out his vitals before leaving. Brad has been having vertigo issues and he felt this was just a vertigo episode. I sure hope so, but it was obviously time to get him home. I wanted them to head home immediately and said I would take the bus back to the airport. But since they had to drive back to the airport area to get on the interstate, Sue suggested I drive them to the airport and then she would drive home from there. I talked to her a bit ago and found that they got home just fine and that Brad insists there is nothing wrong. Let’s all hope he is right.
