The Life of Brad: November 2025 - Is this really sailing?? Checked out St Pete, Miami, Goodland and some Scams!

In November I basically realised that I am now in a relationship I can't get out of until one of us breaks...Start of the month the boat got off the blocks at Pittman Yacht Services, stranded us at Anclote island and buried in issues and surprises. Plus a road trip to Miami to get away from the boat for a week.

Sad Side Story: about mid month driving down the very accident heavy Hwy 19 a motorbike ripped by me going 75 mph in a 50 mph zone. The highway has lights all along it and usually are set with green lights going both ways then the one direction with less cars gets a red so the busier direction can turn left a few cars to help the back log on the next light. Unfortunately the shorts and tshirt with full face helmet motorbike guy decided to go through the red and a mini van lady turned on the now green signal. I was looking left when out of the corner of my eye I saw a clump of metal blast in to the air. In slow motion the guy landed on his back like a thanksgiving turkey, helmet still on. As I went by I could see blood all over his face through the open visor. He never moved again and even 4 hours later they still had the scene closed off with the 6 foot dent in the side of the mini van and a heap of smooshed motorbike about 20 meters past. Apparently there is one motorbike accident a week on good old Highway 19.

Sad Side Story Scene

For the first week of the month we went back and forth to Pitman to play around on the boat, figure things out and inventory what was there. A total mess, now my total mess!

found a few Bahama dollars

New AC panel, Dave paid!

Gonna need new batteries
Dave paid!

Big Golden Coral feed

That took a lot to get off

Bottom paint, only $450/gallon

All looks good

Gluten free oreos!

Name change coming

Time to paint the last spots

Shall we put those on the
sailboat? My god!

Here we go...

Oh, wait, maybe you guys
should paint the bottom of the
keels???

Once Dave got his money, he was gone and it was my turn to drive the boat for the first time ever... Dropped right in to the deep end! It was awesome for 20 minutes until port engine died, then we decided to anchor at Anclote Island as we wouldn't make it back to Dave's place in Hudson. As we anchored we lost the starboard engine. Well, what ya going do...sniff around and find a bottle of Wild Turkey 101 (50%!).

i'm crapping myself Dale!

Alright so that might get one engine going

Maybe we'll use the dinghy to
tow the boat back

Great find

Take it easy Dale!

This is awesome or that's the Turkey talking

Ok these blue hoes are f'ed

yeah you drive a bit buddy, i'm done

a few miles of channel back

Super shallow here

Maybe this boat is more a stay at home boat

Side Story: one of the Winn Dixies near by was going out of business and it was so cheap that I went back in and worked hard to spend $160usd! Check out the haul at the end.

take em all!

getting thin

I would never buy $9 chips!
But for less than $3 i'm in

All good until probiotic cans
started blowing up!

Bought 50 of these at $.40/ea

Took Dale to the airport then picked up a few market place items and checked out St Pete and Clearwater.

love those blue highway logos

Bridge over to St Pete's

check out phone number "poop"

St. Pete's is pretty chill

route 666, really?

Clearwater looks a like more hoity toity

Dive bars don't have to have
shit service do they? 15 min...
Monkey bar in Clearwater

Now just me solo messing with the boat

going through manuals

Guy before Dave was organised
Mr. Bartholet

Lots of finds on boat for sure

Quick tour

Dave organised, haha

A video addressing a few things to do

Do I have these?

First thing, cut carpet!

A few things to stack in the boat

Just doesn't look great

Did a major clean up

a little AC/DC learning

At least I had their dock to
use to get sorted

The panel to no where...

Old Port Richey town centre

great name

Kills the Covid 19 Virus!

Good to have in 1960's
Asbestos -Garbage-

When Dave put a "bed in a box" in the captain's quarters it almost put him through the wall. Will likely never be removed.

Using main halyard to clean under bed

get up you sexy SOB!

Dinghy inspiration -
a floating door with motor

repaired binnacle

Neighbours

Name gone...

Let's check it out

Not bad to move around

A positive for the boat

This part is really only for me. Issues with shower sump set up...boring and annoying.

cleaned and re-siliconed pan

old hose and tight tolerance

Where does it all even come and go. Shower sump drains in to bilge than pumps out so always water in starboard which is unacceptable to me.

Added isolation between bilge and shower
(apparently I'm not the only one to do it)

Then pump sump working intermittently

New bikes! Why not save on rental cars for a week..

Twins Ernie and Gerry ($100)

Pretty smooth Boardwalk folding bike with coaster brake.

Turkey $0.98/lbs!

Why not a good steak

Boom!

No idea how I got these fibers

Well this needs to be redone

A little live entertainment at Fisherman's Shack

Dave and Mel finally had renters for the AirBnB and asked that I not stay at night on the boat. I decided to head to Miami for a few nights even though after I met the guests they actually asked me to stay on the boat at night. Lovely couple Anthony and Nancy from NY.

So I rode my bike first to a hotel that night then to the rental car the next day only to find out...

Scammy Side Story: Through a sequence of events I was told by Hertz they may not have a car for me so I called what I thought was their main office who booked me another car at what they claimed was a sister agency Avis. Rode all the way down there 12km total to be told the money I prepaid went to Orbit Tickets and I owed more than quoted to Avis. It was refunded and I realised that this happens often in the USA. I luckily kept my first cheaper price reservation and they did get me a car the day I wanted it. Why did they even panic me to start...Fear mongering USA?

Still see the odd rebel dixie in the South

Scammy Side Story 2: At Days Inn after returning to front desk for the third time to get my room key reset I pulled on the other lobby door which was broken to which they tried to charge me $100 in the morning to fix it. Luckily the receptionist in the morning told me that was BS as it was already broken for some weeks. Brutal. And you wonder why so many US hotels have 3 out of 5 ratings.

Good exercise if nothing else

Not a full tank i'd say

Second hotel night before going South

Motel 6 for $40!
Can rent monthly for $20/nt

Packed up and good night.

Hit the trail and went to visit Sandra in Coral Gables beside Miami and then Goodland to catch up with Dennis and Inga investigating how their spot was for bringing my boat in to his ramp to play around. Fun little road trip and even brought one of the folding bikes.