That was one of the most exhausting weekends I’ve ever had. The kind where you come to the horrifying realization that it’s Sunday night and you never actually had any time to relax. I haven’t seen the boat in daylight for ten days. We go to work in the dark, after work we go to the house, packing and cleaning and loading the car until the last rays of daylight are disappearing, then drive out to the boat and take cartload after cartload of stuff to the boat. For as much downsizing as we’ve done, we still have too much stuff. But I’m getting ahead of myself, let’s talk about this week.

We got a check in the mail this week – the security deposit on the dock in Ft Lauderdale, where the boat spent approximately 8 days under our ownership. I thought we’d have a hard time getting that back. On the downside, we had paid for an extra week of dockage and then didn’t need it, no refund on that. This means at some point last week we were simultaneously paying rent on three different locations – Ft Lauderdale dock, Skull Creek Marina, and our house in Goose Creek. Plus we technically own our home. Quadruple whammy.

After spending so much time on a boat during delivery, plus sleeping on a boat now, I can’t stop the gentle rocking feeling. It’s like my equilibrium just won’t balance. The feeling ranges from slightly drunk to slightly hungover, and it’s the worst right away in the morning when I sit down at my work computer. Kyle felt it too but it’s abating much faster for him. (Update: this feeling lasted about two weeks, improving every day. I still feel it when I’m in enclosed spaces like bathroom stalls or the shower.)

We finally tackled the garage, it was every bit as painful as I expected. We took two loads to the dump and one to the ReStore. Then we sold the last few remaining pieces of furniture, the house and garage are nearly empty and we’ve already begun cleaning. As Kyle says, this is the least gratuitous form of cleaning because we don’t get to enjoy our hard work, and the landlord won’t appreciate how much effort we’re putting into it.

Strangely, it’s been a huge challenge to keep track of all the stuff we need – do we have the boat key? Do we have the car key? Do I have my purse, my cell phone, my credit card? Do we need to bring food to the house for lunch? Do we have stuff to take a shower at the house? Did you bring a jacket, did I bring work clothes? Yesterday it finally happened: Kyle lost his wallet. It wasn’t at the house or in the car, those were easy to search because they’re both nearly empty. When we made it back to the boat… there is STUFF EVERYWHERE. Kyle started turning the place upside down, we finally found his wallet in the pocket of the pants he was wearing the day before. We’re usually very organized, so this chaos is really throwing me out of sorts.

It was 36°F last night. Neither of us realized how cold it was supposed to be (it’s only October!), so the heaters were only running on low and we woke up to a VERY cold boat. The cold morning air really didn’t help the “camping” vibe we’ve been feeling – we’ve literally been eating meals in our camp chairs at the house, packing clothing and toiletries everywhere we go, filling up water jugs because we don’t trust the boat water, etc. It’s a brisk half mile walk to the car at 36°, but luckily Kyle kept track of where the hats and gloves were.

The goal for tonight is to do some major cleaning. Tomorrow we can drop the last yard implements off at the ReStore, shampoo the carpets, and turn in the house keys. We’ll stop by one last time in a few days for the walk through with our landlord.

We’re almost there!