Sep 19 - a boring drive

Driving in Florida is boring. It's flat and mostly featureless countryside or endless houses -- take your pick. The only exception is driving the Keys.

Yesterday was mostly about driving. Four hours there and four hours back and 2 hours at the boat show, of which one hour was lunch. Was it worthwhile ? Here's where we could get really deep -- is life worthwhile ? The show was interesting, lunch was ok, the drive was an experience.

First off -- the drive -- we took the shortest route there, south on I95, across the toll road towards Orlando, I4 and then various roads down to Punta Gorda after 20 miles on I4. On the way back we took I75, I4, then the toll road across the state and I95 north. The Interstate route is fully 30 miles further but slightly shorter in time. The non-interstate route was as interesting as driving in Florida gets.

The boat show consisted of one parking lot full of small boats -- or should I say trailerable boats, not all small and definitely not all cheap ! There were a couple that had a small cabin -- a head and a covered space -- but these were day-boats and fishing boats. They also had a few large pontoon boats. There were a couple that were in an interesting price range for me that would suffice if we decided to stop trailering a boat down -- but I would probably buy used at this point because the deals are so good and the supply is so large.

The in-water section of the boat show was larger boats. I think that we concluded that 30'-34' would be ok for a week trip or something like that but definitely not live-aboard. 40' and up you could live on, should we ever decide to sell the house and live on the water for our time in Florida. Many boats this size don't move very often, instead they are parked at a Marina with full services, like the marina that was hosting the boat show -- multiple piers, a small shopping mall, 5 restaurants, all basic services. It would almost be like condo life. The question is, would you be better off buying a small condo with docking facilities and a boat -- I think perhaps yes.

There are huge differences in prices even in boats the same size. Obviously you get what you pay for, just like buying RV's, where the top end units can cost almost ten times that of the basic. It is partly about size with boats, where you obviously have more room to play than with RV's (no width or length restrictions with boats !). In addition to size, the quality of the fittings and mechanicals as well as the basic construction of the boat all play into the price. My observation, for instance, is that the Doral boats were two to three times the price of the Rinker boats, at the same size.

To me, if we went for a big boat we would have to use it -- just like George uses his RV, living on it a substantial part of the time and selling the house. A short-trip-boat, for want of a better name, would be a lot more expensive than a trailerable boat, with dock fees and maintenance, but I don't really know the prices. I'm always going to want a boat down here -- it would actually be good to keep a small, eg. tiller-outboard boat, boat down here full time for fishing in the lagoon. We could use a small boat like that to take Abby over to the island but that is a two-person boat. Our Whaler is something in-between, but mostly a two-person boat. If we kept something like that down here full time I'd want to put a bimini top on for shelter from the sun.

So ... we're not really doing anything along these lines. I suspect that we'll drag a boat back and forth for at least a couple more seasons before we do anything more permanent. It's always interesting to shop and dream. Boats, like houses, are in oversupply right now, but money, with the stock market gyrations, is in short supply ... pity. If you knew exactly how long you were going to live, it would be easier to plan ... but then I'm not sure that I want to know exactly how long we are going to live. Ignorance is bliss ... almost.

What we might do some year is plan a "vacation" down here where we rent a boat for a week to a month and travel. That would be interesting.

We got back to the fish store right at 6pm. They had actually turned off the lights at the fish counter. Their daily schedule has them selling retail until 6pm and running the restaurant part until 7pm. The tables were packed ... but we bought our tuna. Tuna, along with zucchini on the barbie and white rice constituted dinner. The tuna was excellent, as usual. What can I say. I like our diet down here. In 10 days we'll be back to the occasional meal of pickerel and every type of salmon/trout under the sun and stars. Ok, I cannot complain. We eat well.

Today -- I'll go for a bike ride, hopefully longer than 9 miles. Other than that, nothing planned. I suspect that Sandy may take Abby to the dog beach.

Onward ...